“Tuning the Ear” to Teacher Discourse About Students of Color and Their Families: Employing an Ethnographic Stance in Preparation for K-12 School Leadership

• In Event: Roundtable Session 32
  In Roundtable Session: Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Social Justice Issues in Higher Education and Leadership Preparation Programs

Abstract

This study reports on an instructional strategy designed to help pre-service K-12 principals better understand school culture by raising their awareness of a ubiquitous, socially-situated discursive phenomenon – namely, informal deficit-based “teacher talk” about students of color and their families. This strategy employs an ethnographic stance through targeted, critical listening and reflective journaling over an extended period of time. Based on the feedback received from the research participants, the value of this strategy for helping pre-service educational leaders learn about school culture became apparent; it appeared to sharpen the participants’ sensitivity to the deeper significance of deficit-based teacher discourse and its influence on teaching, learning, and school culture.

Author

• Terry M. Pollack, Mills College