Challenges of Public Scholarship With Teacher Candidates

• In Event: Taking Up the Challenges and Opportunities of Public Scholarship: Literacy Scholars Engaging With Communities

Abstract

Objectives. In this presentation I analyze the challenges and affordances of two projects that aim to work with the community in the preparation of teacher candidates (TCs) at a Southeastern university. In the first project I incorporated a Community Inquiry Project (CIP) into TCs’ required coursework. In the second project I co-taught a lesson on leading challenging discussions with secondary students using President Obama’s (2008) famous “race speech.” I provide a brief overview of each project and discuss the challenges associated with sharing the knowledge gained with local publics.

Theoretical Framework. Critical multiculturalism (May & Sleeter, 2010) and contact theory (Allport, 1958) inform the methodology and pedagogy associated with both projects. Critical multiculturalism encourages TCs to name and challenge hegemonic narratives in society and in schools. Contact theory holds that increased interaction between ingroup and outgroup members may reduce prejudice. Together, critical multiculturalism and contact theory may move TCs to a more critical and practice-oriented understanding of multicultural teaching.

Methods. To consider the possibility of the CIP to encourage TCs to analyze their expectations of and assumptions about future students, I analyzed the individual reflections TCs completed during the project.

In the second project, TCs listened to Obama’s speech. The TCs then discussed their responses to the speech and potential of using the speech in the secondary English classroom. Then, the TCs read a 2009 transcript of an English class’ discussion of the speech where the facilitator, a TC like them, struggled to guide the discussion.

Data Sources. Data analysis in both projects was on-going. Preliminary coding of the reflections and transcripts followed Miles and Huberman’s (1994) process of tagging statements. I then used a hermeneutic circle approach (Josselson, 2011) to pull apart participants’ stories to identify categories of talk and experience and consider how these separate categories might be integrated within individual reflections/transcripts. After coding all of the reflections and transcripts, I compared across data to identify common themes.

Results. In the first project as the TCs spent more time in the community they drew less from personal experiences with familiar people/places. TCs began to challenge newly gained knowledge about the community in terms of their understanding of the larger society. In the second project, TCs used strategies to create a safe space in the classroom where potentially offensive remarks could be kept at bay. Because none of the data collected and analyzed inquired into the TCs’ application of knowledge, the potential for these projects to influence TCs’ future teaching and community engagement is unknown.

Significance. Both projects aimed to encourage TCs to engage with community members as they enter the field as novice teachers. However, TCs were not required to present their findings to community members or to make direct changes to their teaching based on new knowledge, diminishing the potential for public engagement. This study acknowledges the challenges associated with community engaged work and inquire into possibilities for TCs to learn from/about the community while simultaneously interacting with them to present findings and hone instruction.

Author

• Meghan E. Barnes, University of Georgia - Athens