At the Intersection of Inquiry and Cultural Diversity: Modeling a Contextually Situated, Culturally Resonant Pedagogy

• In Event: 60.054 - Teaching Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in Teacher Education

Abstract

Faculty at the University of the Virgin Islands are collaborating to design a new secondary STEM teacher preparation program by adapting an existing, nationally recognized model. In developing this adaptation, we have found it necessary to consider the social and cultural context in which our future teachers will teach. We conducted interviews and follow-up observations of high school mathematics teachers to identify features of pedagogy associated with effective teaching. We identified among the findings a conflict that teachers experience between cultural mores of social control and classroom norms associated with inquiry-oriented mathematics learning. Fundamental to this conflict are confusions over the ways in which power and authority are understood, control is perceived, and knowledge is constructed.

Authors

• Steven Greenstein, Montclair State University

• Celil Ekici, University of Virgin Islands