The Ethnoracial Experience Gap: The Challenge of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in Teacher Education

• In Event: Supporting Preservice Teachers of Color

Abstract

This study explores factors that influence the successful development of preservice teachers into culturally relevant pedagogues, and how teacher educators can more effectively address the pedagogical needs of students from traditionally marginalized backgrounds. Given the steady decline of students of color in teacher education programs and consequently, the overall teaching force, this project interrogates the experiences of preservice teachers of color when university recruitment is fruitful. Through the employment of critical ethnographic methods, the study aims to measure the use of CRP in courses designed for transformation, as well as, the effectiveness of such practices with targeted populations. Findings providing insight into the student experience explicate systematic inequities that could greatly inform the construction and operations of teacher education programs.

Author

• Chelda Smith, Georgia Southern University