Syllabus as Story: Institutional Rhetoric and the Framing of Diversity in Foundational Coursework

• In Event: Multiple Perspectives on Preparing Teachers for Diverse Populations: National, Institutional, and Curricular Responses

Abstract

This paper examines the nature of preservice teachers’ opportunities to learn about racial, ethnic, and cultural difference in the context of foundational coursework at two large schools of education in the United States. Despite the ubiquity of Foundations courses in teacher education, little is known of their role in developing candidates’ knowledge and skills for work with diverse communities (Gollnick, 1992). From program-approved syllabi, course objectives, descriptions of in-class activities, required readings, written assignments, and fieldwork, serve as the basis for in-depth textual analysis and comparison of two foundational coursework models. Interviews with faculty provide essential context for the events, activities, and artifacts, offering a grounded perspective on institutional practices. Survey data from cohorts are analyzed to characterize preservice teachers’ multicultural beliefs.

Across multiple-cases (Chadderton & Torrance, 2011), we examine how teacher education programs (TEPs) respond to the challenges of preparing teachers for diverse schools, analyzing relationships between formal rhetoric and instructional practice to highlight affordances and constraints that impact candidates opportunities to learn. We ask: How are opportunities to learn about diversity situated in the formal structures of foundational coursework? How do teacher educators interpret and engage constructions of diversity in particular institutional settings?

Over four semesters, documents from eleven sections of foundational courses at two university-based TEPs were coded for references to demographic and cultural diversity, including race, ethnicity, and culture. Both institutions, located in major US cities, prepare preservice teachers to serve in inner-city schools and require foundational coursework. Following thematic coding of course documents, interviews were conducted with faculty to elicit their understandings of course instruction related to diversity, with consideration given to the meaning practitioners ascribe to particular topics, activities, and objectives. Comparisons were drawn to characterize differences in institutional rhetoric, to identify potential relationships between instructional practice and local contexts, and to extrapolate the affordances and limitations of these instantiations on opportunities to learn. Self-report surveys were administered with preservice teachers in participating courses during the first and final weeks of course enrollment. Data from EBMAS (Educational Beliefs and Multicultural Attitudes Survey, © CRTL, 2010) were analyzed to systematically characterize cohorts’ beliefs understandings of multicultural education and to describe group demographics.

Findings suggest that local constructions of diversity - communicated at the institutional and course level - unevenly privilege certain demographic and social categories including race, ethnicity, language, and socioeconomic status. The relative significance assigned to categories corresponds with the depth of instruction focused on nondominant social groups. Teacher educators’ sense of agency in determining course objectives and content predicted the integration of diversity across foundational topics. Interviews suggest the sequence of multicultural readings and activities may communicate implicit assumptions and values that inform preservice teachers’ understandings of race, ethnicity, and culture in schools. Specifically, some approaches appear to scaffold instruction along socially constructed “degrees of difference” from dominant social groupings. Despite similar references to multiculturalism, course documents reveal considerable variation in the extent to which theory and research are integrated across practice and candidate assessment in foundational courses.

Author

• Laura A. Davis, New York University