Understanding Teacher Candidates' Cultural Flexibility in an Urban Teacher Residency Program

• In Event: 33.080 - Poster Session 6
  In Poster Session: 33.080-1 - Innovative Approaches to Challenges in Teacher Education

Abstract

This paper presents findings from a qualitative study of cultural flexibility (Carter, 2010) and culturally responsive teaching (Gay, 2000) in an urban teacher residency program. This program purports to prepare teachers to work with culturally and linguistically diverse learners. Much research has been done to understand how teachers can serve CLD learners through conceptual frameworks such as culturally responsive teaching, but less is known about how teacher candidates’ attitudes about cultural identity and culturally responsive teaching practices operate in teacher training activities (e.g. Au & Blake, 2003; Graves, 2014). My research extends Carter’s conceptualization of cultural flexibility, applying it to individuals and to structural and institutional contexts, in order to illuminate implications for this disposition in teacher education and practice.

Author

• Susan Desha Stahl, University of Washington - Seattle