Pedagogy in Preparing Students to Work With Diverse Populations: Integrating Prejudice Reduction Across Undergraduate Education Coursework

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

Abstract

Through qualitative methods, specifically grounded theory (Creswell, 2009; Corbin & Straus, 2007), this study explores the effects of course content within an undergraduate Education Minor program. Averaging enrollment of more than 175 students each quarter, the focal course examines issues and implications of race, class, ethnicity, and gender within US public schools. Students report enrolling in this course for a number of reasons; they may be Education minors, others are interested in the course title and are in need of an elective, still others may take the course because of the popularity of the instructor of record.

Students deconstruct policy and practice and discuss their effects on minoritized student populations. Analyzing students’ weekly reflection papers and the comments made at the course’s end via a formalized evaluation process, the researcher evaluates the usefulness of a preparatory course that engages students in readings and discourse that address the marginalization and oppression of students due to white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, and heteronormativity. Content analysis of a randomly selected sample of students’ initial, mid-point, and end-of-semester reflective essays allowed for the construction of codes through an iterative process (Boyatzis, 1998; Lewis 1998). The units of analysis are the students’ essays and the unit of coding is “the entire response to each question {the prompt, in this case}, the paragraph, the phrase, or the sentence” (Boyatzis, 1998). From a constructivist approach, the participants’ views of the situation(s) being studied” (Creswell, 2009. p. 8), while not wholly generalizable, can provide insight into broader a community of undergraduate Education minor students in similar contexts.

The evaluation process allows students anonymity and the freedom to voice concerns, questions, and comments without fear of reprisal from the course instructors. Evaluations of the course content and delivery are provided to both the instructor and teaching assistants. For continuity, only the evaluations of the instructor over a span of four quarters are analyzed and coded to identify common themes through an iterative process. As evaluation data was examined, inductive analyses of recurring themes across groups materialized (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). Using a grounded theory approach to data analysis allowed for the construction of such themes useful for the development of curriculum and effective instructional methods for courses addressing issues related to diversity, equity, and access.

Education minor courses can bolster the challenges of teacher preparation programs to facilitate authentic dialogue and reflection for pre-service teachers around issues of race, class, gender, and cultural differences. The pipeline to these programs can serve as a conduit or a funnel—ushering in thoughtful candidates or narrowing the pool to only those ready to face their own biases, ferret out institutional oppression and suppression within educational systems, and act as change agents within their respective classrooms and schools. Examining the formative development of their weekly reflections and considering the feedback given by the participants regarding the course readings and delivery of instruction provides faculty loose guidelines for creating safe, constructive spaces for potential future educators to deconstruct systemic educational discrimination.

Author

• Rema Ella Reynolds, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign