Evolving out of ethnographic fieldwork, this text examines how ideas of social justice are articulated and communicated by pre-service teachers and graduate teaching assistants in the US. By positing the concept of "help" as a central tenet of social justice within teacher education, this volume offers a unique performative analysis of how the concept is communicatively constituted in teacher education and training. Using a social justice framework, the book examines the ways in which new teachers contend with their identities as educators, and demonstrates how these communicative performances influence pre-service and new teachers' perceptions of their role, as well as their responsibility to engage with social justice and critical approaches in the classroom. This text will benefit researchers, academics, and educators in higher education with an interest in teacher education, critical communication studies, and the sociology of education more broadly. Those specifically interested in teacher training, mentoring, and social justice in the classroom will also benefit from this book.

This book uses the metaphors of practice spaces and practice sessions to demonstrate the connection between creative and performance practices, and critical pedagogy. It offers a conceptual framework for using performance and creative practices as starting points for developing philosophies and practices of teaching that are grounded in aesthetic, creative, and critical approaches to education. The practice sessions for pedagogy presented include a range of creative endeavours, such as performance workshops, musical routines, crafting practices, and writing. By focusing on the critical function of creative practices, the book emphasizes the ways creativity can reveal the relationship between everyday acts, and social and cultural ideologies and structures. Creative practices also present the opportunity for imagining new, more socially just and inclusive, configurations of these relationships. This book is designed for teachers and students interested in critical pedagogy, performance, and creative educational practices.