Use of Targeted Video for Facilitating Preservice English Teachers’ Understandings of Critical Pedagogy in Urban Classrooms

• In Event: Technology as a Course Innovation: Insights From Diverse, Urban Preservice Teacher Education Programs

Abstract

Objectives
Critical theorists (Giroux, 1997; Freire, 1970) and multiculturalists (Banks, 1993; Sleeter & Grant, 2007) have long advocated for teachers to adopt critical pedagogical stances in order to engage students in addressing power inequities through textual deconstruction. In this paper, two teacher educators present how they use video and digital tools to model teaching The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison from a critical perspective for pre-service teachers. We argue that exposing future teachers to critical stances necessitates multiple entry points for culturally responsive curriculum and instruction. Targeted video, teaching artifacts, and critical conversations of such pedagogy provide ways in which to make our methods courses rigorous, thoughtful, and comprehensive, particularly when preparing teachers for diverse urban populations.
Theoretical Framework
The New London Group (1996) pushes educators to immerse instruction with reading and writing practices tied to sociocultural and institutional forms of power and privilege. Therefore, academic modes of literacy are no longer defined as discrete skill sets, but practices embedded within discourses of social groups for particular purposes. This theoretical orientation is crucial when training pre-service urban English educators who work with diverse, marginalized students whom traditionally do not receive pedagogy that reflects their cultural/linguistic diversity (Duncan-Andrade & Morrell, 2005). Urban classroom research documents large cultural gaps between teachers and students (Sleeter, 2001); when teachers do not share the same backgrounds, linguistic codes, social protocols, and/or value systems, discord occurs, which can profoundly detract from students’ learning (Ladson-Billings, 1995).
Methods
Qualitative methods were employed to construct a rich case study (Stake, 1995) for understanding how video and use of artifacts impacted pre-service English teachers’ understandings of critical pedagogy. Participants included 25 pre-service teachers enrolled in a methods course taught by Author A. Participants viewed lessons of Author B teaching The Bluest Eye from a critical stance to diverse urban youth. Participants blogged responses to videos, course readings, and classroom artifacts. Data sources included students’ blog postings, transcripts from class sessions where videos were discussed, and student work samples that applied these understandings. Data were analyzed using a constant comparative method (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) to generate inductive and deductive codes, which were sorted and compiled to develop categories addressing students’ understanding of critical pedagogy.
Results
Findings indicate that pre-service teachers’ viewing of videos along with course readings, classroom artifacts, and discussions resulted in deepened understanding of critical pedagogy. These findings demonstrate that video allows pre-service teachers to view models of critical practices that are often difficult to locate in traditional fieldwork settings. The use of multiple tools created a rich context for participants to undertake a study of critical theory while simultaneously facilitating adolescents’ growth with academic literacies.
Significance
The results from this study indicate that video and use of classroom artifacts are valuable tools for future teacher educators in order to connect theory to practice. Such methods offer pre-service teachers opportunities to study authentic critical teaching and student learning within a shared, local context, that more accurately reflects the diverse populations they will teach in urban schools.

Authors

• Melissa Schieble, Hunter College - CUNY

• Jody Nicole Polleck, Hunter College - CUNY