Developing a Community of Learners From Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds With Social Justice and Inclusive Critical Literacy Practices

2021 ◽  
pp. 60-78
Author(s):  
Shadrack Gabriel Msengi
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Critical Literacy ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Culturally Responsive ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Community Of Learners ◽  
Children And Parents ◽  
Diverse Backgrounds

This case study is an investigation of cultural and linguistic diverse perspectives among parents, children, teachers, and teacher candidates. Survey and interview data were collected and analyzed to determine how these diverse perspectives affect teachers' application of culturally responsive literacy practices to develop a community of learners. Findings suggest that teachers and teacher candidates knew little about their students' diverse backgrounds. Their participation in the study and initial discussions among teachers, teacher candidates, children, and parents had a positive effect on experienced and novice teachers' knowledge of students. This knowledge included the ability to begin planning and managing instruction, as well as determining appropriate assessments and instructional strategies. Findings also suggest ways these teachers could engage students, families, and teachers in social justice practices.

Creating Spaces for Critical Literacy for Bilingual Learners

2018 ◽  
pp. 28-46
Author(s):  
So Jung Kim
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Critical Literacy ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Korean Language ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Video Recordings ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Audio Video

With heightened emphasis on critical literacy pedagogies, attention to critical literacy for young children (CLYC) has rapidly increased. Yet, there is a paucity of studies examining CLYC in bilingual settings, particularly in Pre-K contexts. Utilizing a qualitative case study design, the current study examined how early critical literacy can be implemented as a medium to help young bilinguals critique texts and develop critical perspectives about race and gender. The study was conducted in a kindergarten classroom at the Korean Language School in a Midwestern city in the US. The data were collected over a semester using multiple collection sources including audio/video recordings, observational field notes, interviews, and children's artifacts. Findings suggest the potential of early critical literacy practices in bilingual contexts to open critical conversations about race and gender with young children. The study also provides teachers with tips on how to create supportive literary environments for young bilingual children.

Creating Spaces for Critical Literacy for Bilingual Learners

2019 ◽  
pp. 1303-1321
Author(s):  
So Jung Kim
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Critical Literacy ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Korean Language ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Video Recordings ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Audio Video

With heightened emphasis on critical literacy pedagogies, attention to critical literacy for young children (CLYC) has rapidly increased. Yet, there is a paucity of studies examining CLYC in bilingual settings, particularly in Pre-K contexts. Utilizing a qualitative case study design, the current study examined how early critical literacy can be implemented as a medium to help young bilinguals critique texts and develop critical perspectives about race and gender. The study was conducted in a kindergarten classroom at the Korean Language School in a Midwestern city in the US. The data were collected over a semester using multiple collection sources including audio/video recordings, observational field notes, interviews, and children's artifacts. Findings suggest the potential of early critical literacy practices in bilingual contexts to open critical conversations about race and gender with young children. The study also provides teachers with tips on how to create supportive literary environments for young bilingual children.

Healing Alex's Wound

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Szu-Yu Chen
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Play Therapy ◽  
Culturally Responsive ◽  
Counseling Competencies ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
Behavioral Issues ◽  
Adverse Childhood ◽  
Diverse Backgrounds ◽  
Unique Approach ◽  
High Level

Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies (MSJCC) has emphasized the need to consider multicultural and social justice factors into all aspects of the counseling profession. Consistent with the MSJCC guideline, it is essential that counselors provide developmentally and culturally responsive interventions when working with children from diverse backgrounds. Adlerian play therapy is a unique approach in which counselors incorporate basic tenets of individual psychology and premise of play therapy to help children work through different types of emotional or behavioral issues. This chapter provides an overview of the effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on children's mental health, particularly the multitude of effects on Hispanic children. The author then illustrates the application of Adlerian play therapy from MSJCC's perspective to work with a Hispanic boy exposed to a high level of ACEs.

Evaluating the impact of distributed culturally responsive leadership in a disadvantaged rural primary school in Ireland

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 457-474 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Brown ◽  
Gerry McNamara ◽  
Joe O’Hara ◽  
Stafford Hood ◽  
Denise Burns ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Primary School ◽  
Distributed Leadership ◽  
Culturally Responsive ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Culturally Responsive Leadership ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Per Se ◽  
The Impact

This paper suggests that distributed leadership is a vital first step in making schools flexible enough to respond to new pressures. However, it is then argued that distributed leadership per se does not necessarily imply a commitment to a particular stance on issues of social justice, such as equality, but rather that this can only flow from leaders becoming culturally responsive to the diverse traditions and needs of the changing populations of their schools. We define this combination as ‘distributed culturally responsive leadership’. The second part of the paper attempts to illustrate this argument by closely examining the philosophy and actions of a particular principal who is regarded as an exemplar of good practice. The methodology used in the school case study is described and, finally, we provide a presentation and analysis of the data followed by a discussion of the research findings.

Hopeful Discourse: Elementary Children’s Activist Responses to Modern-Day Slavery Grounded in Systems Thinking

2019 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Sauceda Curwen ◽  
Amy Ardell ◽  
Laurie MacGillivray
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Critical Literacy ◽  
Literacy Instruction ◽  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
Fifth Graders ◽  
Classroom Observations ◽  
Modern Day Slavery ◽  
Insight Into

This qualitative case study examines how fifth graders and their teachers participated in critical literacy instruction grounded in systems thinking on the topic of slavery. Systems thinking seeks to discover relationships and patterns in diverse underlying systems; critical literacy examines everyday texts, focuses on social justice and change, and promotes transformative practices. Classroom observations, photographs, interviews, and student artifacts were collected and analyzed to provide insight into students’ understandings of patterns of slavery from American colonial times to modern-day trafficking. Through a range of texts and different modalities, students sought to understand different group perspectives and ultimately took action to disrupt an unjust system. Three aspects of students’ learning led them to an agentic role: (1) crossing boundaries across time and differences, (2) developing a holistic worldview, and (3) reimagining a different world and altering the existing discourse.

Revising a Teacher Education Program for Diversity and Social Justice through Culturally Responsive Coursework and Professional Collaboration

2016 ◽  
pp. 409-436
Author(s):  
Gayle Y. Thieman
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Education Program ◽  
Lesson Study ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Culturally Responsive ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Teacher Preparation Program ◽  
Graduate Teacher Education

A major revision in a graduate teacher education program (GTEP) at a mid-sized urban university provided an opportunity to rethink goals as teacher educators in order to address issues of diversity and social justice. This chapter suggests some answers to the question: What characteristics of a teacher preparation program prepare teacher candidates (TCs) to provide high quality education for all students, including those who have been historically underserved? This chapter reports a case study of the relevant research and implementation of substantially revised university coursework to better prepare teacher candidates for a diverse student population, and increased collaboration to promote program coherence. Revised coursework emphasizes culturally responsive teaching, content area literacy, and accountability for K-12 student learning. Collaboration is facilitated by clustered placements, co-teaching, and lesson study.

Considering Diversity in L2 Teacher Education

2021 ◽  
pp. 1041-1061
Author(s):  
Sheri K. Dion
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Culturally Responsive Teaching ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Culturally Responsive ◽  
Student Diversity ◽  
Responsive Teaching ◽  
Northeastern United States ◽  
Student Background ◽  
Diverse Backgrounds

This chapter presents a discussion of how teacher candidates can develop an awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and supports students of diverse backgrounds in second language (L2) teaching. Buoyed with a narrative inquiry involving 17 L2 teachers at one independent secondary school in the Northeastern United States, Geneva Gay's culturally responsive teaching is recast, integrating cultural, racial, and ethnic diversity in L2 curricula. Although many teacher participants reported incorporating student background as a resource in informal ways, few teachers (3 of 17) reported formally integrating activities into L2 curricula that supported students in this way. This finding suggests that knowledge of the relevance of student diversity as a resource may also be underrepresented in L2 practices, and implications for L2 teaching and teacher candidates are discussed. Following this examination, the chapter offers a guiding activity that teacher candidates can develop to explore diversity and inform teaching practices.

scholarly journals Literacy Geography and Pedagogy

2017 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Comber
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Young People ◽  
Critical Literacy ◽  
Culturally Diverse ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
Literacy Education ◽  
Wicked Problem ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Research Alliances

This article explores the possible relationships between geography, literacy, pedagogy, and poverty. It characterizes poverty as a wicked problem, which sees economic inequality escalating in a number of neoliberal democracies. Key insights from theorists of economic inequality are summarized. The enduring nature of poverty in particular places is noted, and the associated risks of “fickle literacies” are considered. A case study of one child growing up and attending school in a location with intergenerational unemployment is discussed as an example of the risks associated with literacy policy and pedagogy in an era of global educational reform. Drawing on the work of Foucault and Massey, it is argued that despite the discourses of standardization, teachers can continue to educate culturally diverse young people in ways that help them to negotiate and imagine positive and productive ways of learning together. The possibilities for working against deficit views of people in poverty are explored through three classroom examples of place-conscious pedagogies which position young people as critically literate cosmopolitan citizens. The article concludes by advocating the need for translocal research alliances to work explicitly for social justice through place-conscious pedagogies and critical literacy education.

Talking about culturally responsive approaches to education: teacher professional learning, Indigenous learners and the politics of schooling

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Michelle Bishop ◽  
Greg Vass
Keyword(s):  
Professional Learning ◽  
Culturally Responsive ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Teacher Professional Learning ◽  
Indigenous Students ◽  
Diverse Backgrounds ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Settler Society ◽  
Indigenous Learners

Abstract Culturally responsive approaches to schooling (CRS) aim to address pervasive inequities that exist in education. More specifically, CRS practices seek to improve the experiences and academic achievements of marginalised and minoritised learners, such as those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. In this paper, we consider the possibilities for CRS in the context of Australia where Indigenous students (along with their parents, peers and teachers) are consistently reminded, courtesy of the deficit government policies and ‘close the gap’ rhetoric, that they have the worst educational outcomes of any settler society. This paper does not seek to offer fixed solutions in response to this. Rather, based on shared experience researching and teaching together that draw on CRS, the paper foregrounds a collaborative culturally responsive dialogue between the authors. Together we discuss, deliberate and despair about the state of the education system for Indigenous students, we also remain tentatively hopeful about how CRS might become embedded in teaching and learning, through teacher professional learning, in ways that are relevant to the Australian context.

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