Learning How to See and Engage Community: Context-Specific Teaching in Action

• In Event: Context-Specific Teaching Practice: Collaborating With Children's Families, Communities, and Community-Based Organizations to Support Equitable Teaching

Abstract

Program X engages candidates in a context–specific approach to teacher preparation, with a particular emphasis on the local geographical particulars of a Midwestern-city (Author and Colleague, 2014; Feiman-Nemser, Tamir & Hammerness, 2014). The goal of this study is to articulate the “context-specific practices” the program uses to help candidates’ substantively interact with and learn from the local community.

We ask:

1. What does program staff believe teacher candidates need to know and be able to do to in order to successfully work with various members of a school’s community? Towards what ends?
2. What opportunities do teacher candidates have to learn about and with members of a school’s community in Program X? With what results?

Two theoretical perspectives undergird this study. First is the research on “high-leverage” or “core” practices as a way to strengthen the bridge between theory and classroom realities (e.g. Grossman et al., 2011; Ball & Forzani, 2009). Although filled with promise about the potential techniques that teacher candidates can acquire as a result of more practiced-based approach to preparation, the majority of these efforts tend to be rooted in specific subject matter such as mathematics or ELA. Questions are also being raised about the relationship between “core” practices and students’ context and culture. Another body of work revolves around scholars who argue for community-based field experiences to help aspiring teachers develop their commitment, understanding, and ability to teach in settings with diverse student populations (Boyle-Baise & Sleeter, 2000; Buck & Skilton-Sylvester, 2005; McDonald et al., 2011; Zeichner & Melnick,1996). Collectively, these perspectives pave the way for a consideration of practices that help teacher candidates systematically draw from the resources and content that is embedded in the local school community.

Key data sources include transcripts from semi-structured interviews with faculty, program syllabi and assignments, and student survey results. During faculty interviews, I posed questions about definitions of community; the goals and descriptions of designed experiences, and what students were learning. I analyzed transcripts and program documents using a grounded theory approach (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). The student survey was administered at the end of the program, and included Likert-scale questions about various opportunities to learn about community, as well as open-ended questions about their most powerful learning experiences in the program. Data from all sources were triangulated in an effort to articulate the program’s community-related context-specific practices.

Preliminary findings suggest that Program X engages candidates in particular practices that help them interact with children’s families, community elders and leaders, and community organizations. These experiences share a strength-based, collaborative approach to working with and learning from a school’s local community and are designed to help candidates initiate, engage, and reciprocate with various stakeholders. These practices are designed to broaden residents’ ability to “see” and live into issues of race, class, and power, and thereby strengthen their relationships with students and families. As importantly, these community-based practices are used to inform instruction in salient ways---therefore contributing to our knowledge base about effective teaching in urban schools.

Author

• Kavita Kapadia Matsko, University of Chicago