The Urban Participatory Classroom: Creating Bidirectional Teaching and Learning Spaces for Preservice Teachers

• In Event: Changing Preservice Teachers' Perspectives of Diverse Learners

Abstract

Some traditional teacher preparation programs are working to bridge divides between university-centered education and the realities of urban schools. If teacher candidates are precluded opportunities to address issues of race and poverty in school classrooms, new teachers are often under prepared to work in low-income environments, especially with Black and Brown students (Laughter, 2011). This paper investigates the reform efforts of a program in which teacher candidates are granted opportunities to confront their own biases, learn, on-site, about the cultural wealth of students, and reflect on racial identity and structural inequality in urban public schools.

Authors

• Brent Showalter, Illinois State University

• Jennifer O'Malley, Illinois State University