Teachers resisting structural inequality Educators navigating the challenges of social justice-oriented teacher education

This dissertation examines how teacher education can challenge the role of schooling in reproducing structural inequality, focusing on social justice-oriented teacher education (SJTE). It is guided by the central research question: What challenges do teacher educators encounter when working with SJTE?
The dissertation combines a scoping review of 60 international studies with two empirical studies in the Dutch context to better understand how SJTE is enacted and experienced in practice. Across the literature, SJTE practices are characterised by shared principles, such as disrupting dominant norms, amplifying marginalised perspectives, and responding thoughtfully to tensions and unexpected situations. At the same time, engaging in SJTE often evokes discomfort and resistance, and even justice-oriented approaches risk reproducing inequities when power relations or dominant norms remain unaddressed.
Findings from the Dutch context give more insight into the challenges faced by student teachers and teacher educators in the Netherlands. A study into student teachers’ reasoning about inequality shows how they tend to struggle to view inequality through a structural lense and identify their own role in fighting injustice. A practitioner research study with teacher educators, working in an inquiry community, highlights the insights and dilemmas that arise when developing SJTE practices in specific contexts.
Overall, while many student teachers and teacher educators express strong commitments to equality, their reasoning and practices may still unintentionally reinforce deficit views or overlook structural dimensions of injustice. The dissertation demonstrates that these challenges are not individual failures, but inherent to SJTE, and reflect broader societal discourses and institutional constraints.