Developing Cultural Competencies in Pre-Service Teachers Through Humanity Centered Design and Community-Based Learning

2021 ◽  
pp. 105678792110304
Author(s):  
Catherine M. Lawless Frank ◽  
Treavor Bogard

Teacher education programs advocating for culturally sustaining teaching practices are concerned with providing experiences that develop cultural competencies and dispositions for teaching in diverse environments. Gloria Ladson-Billings (1995), influential research in the area of culturally relevant pedagogy, found that effective educators understand the culture of their students and make “conscious decisions to be a part of the community from which their students come ( p 479).” This article examines the potential of empathetic immersion into students’ communities using Humanity-Centered Design (HCD) for cultivating cultural competencies in preservice teachers (PTs). The authors describe how two HCD projects, a literacy center library and HCD informed lesson planning activity, immersed PTs into experiences that disrupt previously held beliefs and fostered dispositions for culturally effective teaching practices.

2017 ◽  
Vol 119 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayana Allen ◽  
Stephen D. Hancock ◽  
Tehia Starker-Glass ◽  
Chance W. Lewis

Background/Context Teacher education programs are charged with the daunting task of preparing the next generation of teachers. However, the extant literature has documented that teacher education programs have struggled to effectively arm teacher candidates with effective pedagogies to meet the needs of our increasingly diverse student population. Culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) is a social justice framework posited to support academic achievement, cultural competence, and critical consciousness for all learners. To this end, this article examines the integration of CRP into teacher education programs. Purpose In this article, we discuss CRP and interrogate teacher education programs in the critical areas of governance and accountability, policies and programs, curriculum and instruction, and teacher educators. Furthermore, this article presents a conceptual framework for the integration of CRP into teacher education programs. Research Design This article is a conceptual paper that builds upon the hallmarks of CRP, which are rooted in a critical race paradigm that centers on exposing and challenging racial policies that maintain the status quo in teacher education programs. We present a critical framework to support the mapping of CRP into teacher education programs through critical reflection, social justice action, and critical questioning. Conclusion/Recommendations A teacher preparation program that does not critically interrogate race, power, and privilege in the context of schools does not maintain a social justice mission and consequently does not meet the tenets of CRP. A critical examination of race and other sociocultural concepts that disenfranchise K–12 students in schools must be an integral and reflective practice for teacher candidates. Requiring teacher candidates to gain skills in critical reflection and critical consciousness in an effort to deconstruct the existing social order is imperative to support culturally relevant pedagogy in teacher education curriculum.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 368-384
Author(s):  
Lucinda Grace Heimer

Race is a marker hiding more complex narratives. Children identify the social cues that continue to segregate based on race, yet too often teachers fail to provide support for making sense of these worlds. Current critical scholarship highlights the importance of addressing issues of race, culture, and social justice with future teachers. The timing of this work is urgent as health, social and civil unrest due to systemic racism in the U.S. raise critiques and also open possibilities to reimagine early childhood education. Classroom teachers feel pressure to standardize pedagogy and outcomes yet meet myriad student needs and talents in complex settings. This study builds on the current literature as it uses one case study to explore institutional messages and student perceptions in a future teacher education program that centers race, culture, identity, and social justice. Teaching as a caring profession is explored to illuminate the impact authentic, aesthetic, and rhetorical care may have in classrooms. Using key tenets of Critical Race Theory as an analytical tool enhanced the case study process by focusing the inquiry on identity within a racist society. Four themes are highlighted related to institutional values, rigorous coursework, white privilege, and connecting individual racial and cultural understanding with classroom practice. With consideration of ethical relationality, teacher education programs begin to address the impact of racist histories. This work calls for individualized critical inquiry regarding future teacher understanding of “self” in new contexts as well as an investigation of how teacher education programs fit into larger institutional philosophies.


Author(s):  
Ngatman Ngatman

<em>This study aims to analyze the understanding the use of Javanese language "krama inggil" of preservice teachers in primary teacher education programs. This research is a descriptive study of 84 research subjects. The instruments used were description test sheets, questionnaire sheets, and interview sheets. The data analysis technique uses descriptive qualitative. The results of the analysis show that: 1) The average value of understanding the use of Javanese language "krama inggil" was 78; 2) students who are able to communicate using good manners and apply in daily life as much as 38.61%; 3) Some of the difficulties factors of students using Javanese language "krama inggil" include not being accustomed from childhood, parents do not teach Javanese language "krama inggil", preferring to use Indonesian, lacking the motivation to use Javanese language "krama inggil" because it is difficult to pronounce.</em>


2021 ◽  
pp. 357-376
Author(s):  
Rose Martin

This chapter explores the idea of transgressions within tertiary arts education, focusing on how transgressions might lead us toward understanding notions of difference, and contributing to understandings of culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP), inclusion, and diversity in education. These ideas are explored from my first-person perspective as a tertiary arts educator and researcher, with the research taking a qualitative auto-narrative approach. Through unpacking my auto-narratives this chapter identifies how transgressions within teaching might add to the teaching and learning context, and I ask: How might we, as educators, see these transgressions as opportunities, and as ways to encourage difference in our teaching and learning? Through critiquing my own pedagogical choices and practices, I reveal that when seeking to embark on an inclusive and dialogical approach towards education, transgressions can be made, and through these transgressions there are opportunities to develop teaching practices in arts education.


2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marla S. Sanders ◽  
Kathryn Haselden ◽  
Randi M. Moss

AbstractThe purpose of this article is to promote discussion of how teacher education programs can better prepare teacher candidates to teach for social justice in ethnically and culturally diverse schools. The authors suggest that teacher education programs must develop teacher candidates’ capacity to teach for social justice through preparation programs that encourage critical reflection and awareness of one’s beliefs, perceptions, and professional practice. The authors ask the following questions: How can teacher educators provide structures in professional preparation programs that will produce reflective practitioners? How might we prepare teacher candidates who are constantly thinking about how they perceive their students and their families and how those perceptions affect the way they relate to students? Through a discussion of five case scenarios, the authors discuss prior research on preparing teachers for culturally diverse schools and offer suggestions for improving professional education programs.


2018 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorena Guillen ◽  
Ken Zeichner

This article examines the experiences of a group of nine community-based mentors of teacher candidates who partnered for several years through a local, community-based organization with the graduate elementary and secondary teacher education programs at a research university in the Pacific Northwest. Following a brief discussion of the history of partnerships between teacher education programs and local communities, we report the findings of a study of the perspectives of these community mentors on their work with teacher candidates and university teacher educators.


Author(s):  
Anne S. Koch ◽  
Joseph C. Kush

In this chapter, student achievement, the differentiation of instruction, and 21st Century Skills are examined along with their relationship to the use of technology in an educational setting. Characteristics of highly qualified teachers are also examined from multiple standpoints within the educational system. Standards from INTASC, NCATE, NCTAF, and NCLB point to the importance of the university faculty and quality teacher education programs to support the needs of preservice teachers. In addition, the joining of business and education across the nation and the world to infuse technology into education has shown positive results. This merger between business and education exemplifies the need for the acquisition of 21st century skills needed for all students to be a literate part of the 21st century workforce.


Author(s):  
Valerie J. Robnolt ◽  
Joan A. Rhodes ◽  
Sheri Vasinda ◽  
Leslie Haas

The use of ePortfolios to document and assess preservice teacher learning continues to be a prevalent method for encouraging student reflection. This chapter outlines the definition and prevailing uses of ePortfolios and describes the variety of ways that ePortfolios are implemented in teacher education programs. The authors describe the issues that faculty and preservice teachers face when implementing ePortfolios, particularly when writing for different audiences, such as accreditation agencies and to meet program requirements. The importance of technology knowledge and skills for successful creation of ePortfolios is outlined. Through the presentation of two cases, this chapter focuses on the development of ePortfolio implementation projects. The chapter concludes with suggestions for faculty to support preservice teachers as they implement ePortfolios in their teacher education programs.


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