They Can't Teach What They Don't Know, They Can't Lead Where They Won't Go: Preparing Culturally Competent Teachers for Urban Schools

• In Event: Multiliteracies in the Lives of Teachers

Abstract

This study documents an assignment titled, The Photo-Cultural Ecological Self Study Paper (PCESSP), created to help teacher candidates locate their cultural selves and by extension, understand the culture of their students. This is just one of several assignments completed by students during an introductory graduate teacher education course. The course is designed to help teacher candidates develop an understanding of their cultural identities and cultural frames of reference as both situated and as situational practices and processes that influence learning, teaching and schooling. Findings reveal the benefits and usefulness of having teacher candidates critically examine their racial, socioeconomic, and cultural differences and how these factors can and do influence how they interpret, respond to, and interact with, diverse student populations.

Authors

• Brian L. Wright, The University of Memphis

• Shelly L Counsell, University of Memphis

• Felicity A. Crawford, Wheelock College

• Kirsten Letofsky, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign