Equity and Teachers’ Professional Development

Professional Development (PD) is crucial to ensuring that teachers are able to learn and refine the pedagogies and practices needed to meet the academic and social needs of a culturally diverse student population (Prenger et al., Teaching and Teacher Education 68:77–90, 2017). In the context of Pakistan, teachers attend to a diverse group of learners with disparate linguistic, cultural and social orientations. It is therefore imperative to develop critical consciousness about the same and enrich the teaching experience through the plethora of lived experiences students bring into classrooms. This chapter will unfold how the various pre and in-service programs, both degree and non-degree, designed for teacher preparation in Pakistan address the issues of equity and social justice. The chapter will also address the aspect of equity and social justice from the perspective of English as a dominant language of instruction and status in Pakistan. Moreover, it will also look at ways in which the contested aspects can be addressed through well-laid-out teacher preparation programs.