Autobiography and Individualism in Teacher Education for Diversity

• In Event: 30.080 - Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: 30.080-10 - Promoting Teacher Candidates' Cultural Awareness and Understanding of Diversity

Abstract

This paper examines the ways instructional design of an introductory course for preservice teachers addressed issues relevant to teachers’ work with diverse populations. The study draws from multiple qualitative data sources including classroom field observations and interviews collected over two years. Analysis reveals that preservice teachers’ opportunities to learn about diversity were shaped by instructional and social practices that privileged personal reflection as a means for constructing professional knowledge. Reflective inquiry proved inadequate as a lens for engaging issues of diversity. Due, ostensibly, to the unevenness of candidates’ prior intercultural experiences and their limited familiarity with the sociopolitical contexts of urban schools, instructional activities framed by personal reflection constrained candidates’ opportunities to examine broader social and structural conditions of schooling.

Author

• Laura A. Davis, New York University