Courageous Conversations: A Self-Study in Cultural Competence

• In Event: Using Self-Study to Interrogate Diversity and Inequity

Abstract

This paper provides a brief background of the origins of self-study, as well as the nature and practice of self-study as rigorous research. Then, three educational researchers describe their yearlong self-study, examining cultural competence in teacher education classrooms. To that end, self-study is utilized as both a collaborative research endeavor and as continuous professional development among colleagues in a department of teacher education. The overarching goals of the study are: 1) to better understand our own cultural competence as teacher educators and, 2) to better understand our abilities in creating safe spaces in which teacher candidates develop deeper understandings of their cultural competencies.

Authors

• Corine Meredith Brown, Rowan University

• Brie Morettini, Rowan University

• Martha Graham Viator, Rowan University