Teaching in an Anti-Deficit Pedagogical Mindset

Anti-deficit pedagogy is an innovative and practical concept that aids in closing the cultural gap minority students face in education. Minority students often bare an undue burden in regards to accessing standard content under current pedagogical approaches. They are faced with unrealistic expectations of simultaneously learning content, the context of the content, and the skills and tools needed to access and unpack the content. Those expectations are in addition to minority students being discouraged and disconnected from a system of education that seemingly devalues them by either ignoring contributions made by individuals that they share commonalities with or that offers minimal acknowledgement of events with any significant relevancy. Anti-deficit pedagogy addresses many of the critical issues responsible for the expanding cultural gap between students and educators who are content knowledgeable, but lack cultural proficiency. This chapter highlights the development and implementation of a course for a group of African American male students.

“If Not Me, Then Who?”

Research has indicated that teachers typically do not view themselves as advocates for many reasons such as fear of personal and professional risk (Peters & Reid, 2009). Participants include both preservice teachers and graduates of an early childhood teacher education program. This chapter addresses how the program utilized intentional assignments and group and individual scaffolding as preservice teachers moved from experiencing service learning to pure advocacy. Through a mixed methods study, preservice teachers began to see themselves as agents of change with increased confidence and sense of power. These transformations continued as graduates of the program reported they were still engaging in advocacy.

School Bullying and Advocacy

In this chapter, the phenomenon of bullying is being approached. A phenomenon which is an internationally recognized problem, with multifactorial etiology. As this phenomenon manifests itself in various cruel forms, its functions are particularly aggravating and affect the mental health of children and adolescents during their school life. In order to address this phenomenon, the dire need of advocacy is proposed by the authors. Advocacy is an interdisciplinary field of many different acting individuals, aiming to influence social / educational systems and institutions. Their ultimate objective is to fight against discriminations, stigmatization and social exclusion of any vulnerable persons or groups, with the ultimate aim of promoting equality, social justice, inclusive education and the defending of human rights. In order for us to have an effective modern school and be able to alleviate any potential conflicts, all parties involved – teachers, students, parents and the wider community – ought to advocate safeguarding the rights of all students through a wider culture change.

Managing Bias in Teacher Preparation in Higher Education

Studies on teacher preparation for managing bias has established and created a domain within the global educational research enterprise. What is implicit is how researches on managing bias may be used to improve teacher development. Research on managing bias in teacher preparation has recognized a place for itself within the international educational research initiative. What is not so clear is how studies of teacher thinking may be used in improving the quality of teacher development programmes. ‘The notion of managing bias implies employing strategies that foster inclusivity and multicultural education. This chapter focuses on five areas of the importance on managing bias in teacher preparation. I endeavour to explore the following: the concept bias, bias in teacher preparation, creating an anti-bias learning environment, preparing teachers for multicultural classes, and citizenship education and anti-bias in teacher preparation.

Advocacy and Risk

This case is centered on the term advocacy, the act of speaking on behalf of someone else. In this particular case, the author has chosen to highlight how an advocate is chosen based on perceived characteristics. The author has chosen to unpack the term positionality, which is defined as “The creation of the opposites by an arbitrary point of view”. However, it is the author's goal in this unpacking of positionality to surface chards of what a preservice teacher and professor perceive themselves to be to each other in terms of needs and wants.

Advocacy for English Learners

There is a growing need for teachers to be advocates for their English learners (ELs). Teacher preparation programs often do not develop teacher candidates' advocacy skills effectively, and this chapter begins with an outline of the need for developing the advocacy skills of teacher candidates. Activities to promote the development of teacher candidates' skills to advocate for policy change for ELs are described both at scaffolded levels of preparation and within the context of an undergraduate teacher education program. These activities are organized in the program to reflect both the teacher candidates' developing abilities to analyze and synthesize information related to policy as well as, for some assignments, the political election cycle. As part of these activities, teacher candidates engage in self-reflection as well as in-class, whole group reflection, and these processes are described along with a presentation of themed student reflective responses in regard to the advocacy activities.

Advocacy and Teacher Mentoring

Undoubtedly, key parameters in reinforcing the role of the teacher are guidance and his empowerment at the early stages of his training as a teacher. This chapter discusses the interconnection of advocacy with teacher mentoring programs, so that teachers may develop the relevant advocacy skills in order to act as defenders of equality and social justice. Moreover, specific aspects which are developed are the investigation of the concept of advocacy and social justice, the need for teachers to develop advocacy skills, the role of the mentor and the presentation of basic counseling models. Also, participatory advocacy practices, recruitment of mentors and the conception of a development plan of a wider program of advocacy, as well as advocacy models and the involvement of pupils themselves in all human rights advocacy processes are presented. Finally, the necessity for individual University Departments of Teacher Training to integrate the subject of advocacy in their curricula and provide prospective teachers with practice in this field are highlighted.

Elementary Teacher Candidates' Perspectives on the Teaching and Learning of English Learners

Research suggests that K-12 teacher candidates are not prepared to meet the needs of English Learners (ELs) (O'Neal, Ringler, & Rodriguez, 2008), and that their belief systems about teaching impact their ability to learn best practices for instruction (Nosich, 2009). In order to be successful teachers of ELs, teacher candidates must be adequately prepared to meet the needs of diverse learners by making targeted changes to instruction. It is essential that teacher preparation programs include opportunities to develop knowledge and skills. The goal of this study was to evaluate one preparation program's effect on knowledge, beliefs and attitudes, and self-efficacy of teacher candidates in regard to teaching ELs. The study examined perceptions, experience and knowledge of ELs and the effectiveness of a teacher preparation program in changing teacher candidates' beliefs about ELs. This exploratory study builds on previous research from a four-phase elementary teacher preparation program at a research institution.

Value Statements in Web Pages of Turkish State Universities

Values are significant in terms of creating behavioral outcomes both at individual and organizational level. The value statements determined at the organizational level reveal the basic policies and principles that the organization would adopt and make visible for its stakeholders during its operations. Values have the quality of reflecting cultural context. Therefore, the analysis of values is suitable for making cultural elements visible. In the present study, values will be addressed in the context of higher education institutions operating in Turkey. Several studies were conducted that scrutinized the use of organizational studies and higher education institutions in conjunction. The scope of the present study included the values determined by 102 state universities in their respective strategic plans that were obtained from the Council of Higher Education (YOK) data. The objective of the present study is to identify the basic tendencies in the value statements of the universities and to investigate which expressions were frequently used, using the content analysis method.

Teacher Education Advocacy for Multiple Perspectives and Culturally Sensitive Teaching

With the increasing diversity in U.S. classrooms, the need for teachers who are culturally sensitive is critical (Marx & Moss, 2011). While elementary and early child-hood pre-service teachers have multiple opportunities throughout the teacher education program to work with diverse learners in schools and communities, they do not have much international experience. The Elementary Education and Early Childhood Education program at a southeastern university have undergraduate and graduate certification programs in which performance assessment is emphasized. The purpose of this chapter is to show how exposing teacher candidates, especially undergraduate pre-service teachers to self-reflection through observation and teaching in an international study abroad program, can enhance the knowledge base of preservice teachers' perceptions about another culture and thus show new ways of thinking, questioning and possibly changing their attitudes towards those with backgrounds that are different from their own.