Knowledge, Skills, Motivation, and Organizational Factors Teachers Need to Support Black Boys in Public Preschool

• In Event: 61.068 - MTCC Roundtable Session 23
  In Roundtable Session: 61.068-2 - From Pipelines to Pathways: Reconceptualizing Schooling for Black Males

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this study was to examine the degree to which teachers in PUSD’s early education programs are meeting the organizational goal of cultivating in children, at a very young age, socio-emotional skills that improve children’s resilience, confidence, and persistence to a task. Specifically, the study concentrates on the knowledge and skills, motivational and organizational issues that facilitate or hinder teachers’ ability to engage in effective teacher-child interaction. The project focused on teachers’ capabilities in utilizing the assessment tools’ Emotional Support Domain, which features three components: positive climate, negative climate, and regard for student perspective to better support and enhance the emotional competence.
The analysis focuses on identifying the knowledge, motivation and organizational issues
associated with the achievement of the organization and stakeholder goals that contribute to culturally-relevant pedagogy practices for all preschool children.

Methodological Framework
This study’s theoretical and methodological framework uses Clark and Estes’ (2008) gap
analysis, an analytical system to identify gaps between individuals’ performance goals and
current performance practices. According to Clark and Estes (2008), an organization can close performance gaps by increasing the knowledge, skills, and motivation needed by stakeholders to achieve the goal, and by removing any organizational barriers to their performance. There are three identified knowledge influencers, declarative (factual and conceptual), procedural and metacognitive.

According to Clark and Estes (2008), an organization can improve performance and close
performance gaps by increasing the knowledge, skills, and motivation of stakeholders.
Increasing knowledge by either gaining information, acquiring job aids, acquiring training, and enhancing education, people will know how to achieve their performance goals (Clark & Estes, 2008). Secondly, motivation keeps individuals progressing through an individual’s active choice, persistence, and mental effort. Lastly, included in the framework is a focus on organizational factors including policies and procedures that may impede the motivation of teachers to meet job performance goals.

Data and Participants
Ten Early Education Center Teachers were interviewed and participated in surveys.
Two Early Education Centers were observed to gather information on the school culture.
Documents were collected from teachers (assessments, pre-special education referrals, and anecdotal notes) to gain an understanding of how these teachers assessed the socio-emotional development of African American boys in their classrooms. Interviews, Observations, Surveys, and Document Analysis

Conclusions
The data revealed that:
1) The majority of teachers need a better understanding and need to gain knowledge of socio-emotional concepts and their role in early learners developing such competencies
2) The teachers’ inability to provide effective teaching strategies is an element that interferes with the cultivation of
socialization and emotional development in African American boys.
3) The third finding revealed a lack of professional development that hinders teachers from knowing the concepts and implementing strategies to develop socio-emotional development in preschool children and knowing culturally-relevant pedagogical practices to best develop skills in African American boys.

Author

• Ayanna Davis, Los Angeles Unified School District