In this article, Robert Petrone and Nicholas Rink propose a repositioning pedagogy framework for teacher education. They maintain that a repositioning pedagogy disrupts power dynamics by bringing secondary-aged youth into teacher education courses as compensated consultants and experts to teach future teachers about learning, classroom management, teaching, and other issues pertinent to schooling and the development of pedagogical practices. A repositioning pedagogy responds to the absence of youth voices in teacher education by centering youth and their perspectives in preservice teacher education. In laying out this framework, Petrone and Rink report the findings of a qualitative study in which Native youth attending an alternative high school on a reservation were hired to teach future English teachers about ways to build relationships and curricula to engender success for Native youth in schools. This research explains both the experiences of the youth consultants, which proved to be “transformative,” as well as the structures of a repositioning pedagogy that facilitated this outcome. The article also addresses several areas for further research and consideration to ensure reciprocity and safeguard against undue harm to youth consultants, particularly those for whom schools have historically been unsafe places.
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Robert Petrone (
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7647-5833) is an associate professor of literacy/English education at the University of Missouri. His research focuses on the intersections of youth cultural practices, reconceptualizations of adolescence, and literacy (teacher) education. He is particularly interested in understanding and helping to improve the schooling experiences and life chances of young people from historically marginalized communities. Petrone’s work has been published in an array of journals, including
English Journal, Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, English Education, Teaching and Teacher Education, and
Journal of Literacy Research. He is coauthor of
Re-thinking the “Adolescent” in Adolescent Literacy with Sophia Sarigianides and Mark Lewis (National Council for Teachers of English, 2017) and
Teaching English in Rural Contexts (with Allison Wynhoff Olsen, Rowan & Littlefield, forthcoming).
Nicholas Rink is a teacher at an alternative high school on a Native American Reservation in what is colonially referred to as the “United States.” He teaches classes in English, Indigenous studies, media literacy, astronomy, physical education (which emphasizes traditional Native games), and art (which focuses on Native art). Rink centers Indigenous perspectives and pedagogies in his classroom and, in doing so, works to dismantle white supremacist structures within English education as well as other areas of traditional western education. He received a Geneva Smitherman Cultural Diversity Grant from the National Council of Teachers of English and has presented at state, national, and international conferences, including the World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education.
Charlie Speicher, a school counselor at an alternative high school on a Native American Reservation, focuses on creating a healing educational space where academic rigor and emotional/physical wellness are of equal importance. His journey has fortuitously connected him with other like-minded educators, and this team of empaths has forged critical ground at the intersection of education and reprocessing trauma. He has recently spearheaded efforts to bring to his school Indigenous-focused mindful meditation practices for faculty, staff, and students.