Inside Urban Teaching: Teachers’ Inquiries About Their Work

• In Event: Conditions Count: Teaching in Challenging Situations

Abstract

This paper shares understandings of urban schooling gained from urban teachers’ research and reflections on their work. We do this through cases that present the research of urban teachers, many of whom come from the same diverse backgrounds and communities as their students and thus are deeply familiar with and knowledgeable about the children and communities in which they teach. Often driven by the disparities between their experiential knowledge of urban schooling and what is written about it in the research, the cases in this presentation examine pressing issues of urban teachers’ classrooms and schools: being responsive to cultural and linguistic diversity, establishing effective home/school partnerships, differentiating instruction, and tackling the constraints of current policies and mandates.

Authors

• Beverly Falk, City College of New York - CUNY

• Megan Blumenreich, City College of New York - CUNY