Framing and Reframing Clinical Simulations to Develop Emergent Cultural Responsiveness

• In Event: 41.044 - Developing Practices to Recognize and Address the Political and Ideological Aspects of Educators' Everyday Work

Abstract

Objective: Clinical simulations are a form of enactment in which pre-service teachers (PSTs) interact with actors who play the part of a student, parent, or coworker. This form of simulation is new to teacher education and seeks to immerse novice teachers in commonly occurring experiences (Boerst, Shaughnessy, & Ball, 2013; Dotger, 2011). However, the current use of simulations in teacher education has not deeply addressed issues of race and culture. I explore the potential for clinical simulations to be used formatively to support PSTs in developing cultural responsiveness (Gay, 2010). I provide an illustrative case of one PST’s development of emergent cultural responsiveness and how the PST learned to recognize and address racial ideologies in everyday practices of classroom management.

Conceptual framework: Teachers’ frames are directly related to what they notice, which differs along with their ideological commitments (Schön, 1983). “Noticing” is what teachers attend to and use to make sense of events in an instructional setting (Sherin, Jacobs, & Philipp, 2011).

Data/Methods: In my analysis, I looked at data sources from one white PST’s simulation cycle for how she framed “the problem” in the simulation based on what she attended to and how she reframed it responsively through interaction. These data included written responses before and after the simulation, video of the simulation, and audio and video of the individual and group debriefs. I used turns-at-talk within the simulation and individual responses outside of the simulation as units of analysis for cataloging frames.

Findings: In the simulation experience, a PST, Lauren, interacted with an actor who played the role of a black student, Darius. The simulation focused on a classroom management issue. Lauren iteratively reframed the problem in terms of both its focus (ie. Darius’ talking, maintaining a “respectful” classroom environment) and locus (ie. in Darius, in other teachers). Lauren repeatedly denied the frame Darius offered that his behavior was a direct reaction to feeling racially targeted by her and other educators in the school. Following the simulation, Lauren focused on race as central to her framing of the problem, but her proposed next steps continued to locate the locus outside of herself and her classroom. By the end of the semester, however, Lauren framed the encounter in a manner where her own role was more central. She recognized the need to locate the problem within her locus of control in order to be responsive to the student’s concerns. Her empathetic stance toward Darius emerged in conjunction with a deeper understanding of racial ideologies and her own racial positioning.

Conclusions and Scholarly significance: Clinical simulations provide PSTs with an opportunity to enact culturally responsive practices in an authentic setting that is safe and supportive for teachers. These simulations better prepare novice teachers for situations in which they must interrogate their racial positioning. As a result, pre-service teachers can develop practices that are both specific to a context but connected to a broader empathetic stance that contends with racial ideologies prior to actual classroom experience.

Authors

• Ilana S. Horn, Vanderbilt University

• Elizabeth Anne Self, Vanderbilt University