Teacher education for social justice: Mapping identity spaces

•The relationship of identity and teacher education for social justice is considered.•Social justice teacher identity has both determinate and indeterminate aspects.•The concept of striated and smooth identity space is proposed.•A study of a group of social justice and beginning teachers in England.•The need for pedagogies of discomfort, inquiry, compassion and respect.

Teacher education requires an account of the complex ways that beginning teachers negotiate their relationships to social justice. A determinate view of identity successfully describes relationships to relatively stable social justice positions. This supports the adoption of pedagogies of discomfort and inquiry. However, socio-cultural accounts of identity emphasise indeterminate aspects of identity. The concept of striated and smooth identity space is proposed and illustrated by analysing the responses of four beginning mathematics teachers to the experience of a discomforting and inquiry based pedagogy. This challenges teacher educators to extend their pedagogies to embrace additional principles of respect and compassion.