Mining Gems, Nurturing Relationships, Building Teacher Practice

• In Event: Teaching Active Practice in Family Engagement to Teacher Candidates: Resource-Sensitive Models

Abstract

Objectives
Teachers must provide equitable instruction for children with diverse backgrounds. However, the U.S. teaching force has limited diversity (Kober & Usher, 2012). Further, many white teachers have limited experiences with children and families from diverse backgrounds because U.S. communities are highly segregated (Ayscue & Orfield, 2016).

We prepare teachers to serve diverse children and families by emphasizing the actual practices that inform family/teacher partnerships. Teaching the enactment of practice is central to our work and is distinct from modal ways in which these concepts have been taught. We report on the needed resources to design case-based, simulated parent-teacher conferences (PTC) to provide TCs with opportunities to learn to enact productive partnerships with families. We argue that the resources required for the design of such opportunities are critical and sensitive.

Theoretical Framework
We build on practice-based scholarship that reimagines pedagogies for teaching practice, including “pedagogies of enactment” that create opportunities to rehearse and receive feedback on teaching (Grossman, Compton, Igra, Ronfeldt, Shahan & Williamson, 2009; Grossman & McDonald, 2008). We also draw upon culturally responsive teaching (CRT) pedagogy (Gay, 2002; Ladson-Billings, 1994, 1995a, 1995b; Lee, 2007) by emphasizing strategies that allow TCs to enact CRT. CRT stresses the importance of personal connections with students and families (Epstein, 2001; Heath, 1983; Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992) to allow teachers to leverage cultural and home-based resources in their classrooms. Our work is situated at this intersectional space: the preparation of TCs to work in settings with families of diverse students with a clear emphasis on practice.

Methods and Data
We use critical case methodology to design simulated PTCs that highlight the school experiences of non-majority groups. One case features a Mexican-American student, Marco, and his mother, Lupe. To create the case, we drew upon school-based observations to describe Marco’s academic and social experiences. To authenticate the case, we interviewed informants whose backgrounds matched that of Lupe or whose professional experience aligned with the teaching scenario. Informants contributed to and critiqued the cases during iterative rounds of revisions. This feedback and role-playing helped us to design an authentic PTC simulation.

Results
Each case includes information gleaned from the perspective: 1) of a teacher who observes the student in her class; and 2) of a family member who knows the child holistically. This information is used by a TC (playing the role of the teacher) and a research team member (playing the role of Lupe) during a 10-minute simulation of a PTC. We designed cases where a child’s academic knowledge is related to his home-based experiences to emphasize that such experiences can support academic learning. For example Marco exhibits scientific knowledge about the plant cycle based on his familial experience of gardening.

Contribution
We describe a simulation that guides teacher educators who support beginning teachers’ learning to partner with families. This represents significant progress towards developing teacher education pedagogies that integrate CRT in practice-focused ways. Our attention to the development of successful and exemplary practices illuminates an innovative design and its enactment.

Authors

• Debi Khasnabis, University of Michigan

• Simona Goldin, University of Michigan

• Susan Atkins, Ann Arbor Public Schools