Look Both Ways Before You Cross: Prioritizing Community Wisdom in the Preparation of Teachers

• In Event: 63.044 - Levers to Prepare Teacher Candidates for Communities of Color: Dismantling Deficit Thinking and Racism

Abstract

Objectives
This paper describes a university-community-school partnership model whose mission is grounded in social justice and works to cultivate and sustain innovative, resilient, and effective educators for urban schools and their communities. One component of this model, the Urban Teacher Preparation (UTP) Course Development Grant (CDG), offers faculty an opportunity to redesign a course to better prepare teacher candidates (TCs) for high-need settings. This approach bridges the cultural divide between urban classrooms and the mostly-white TCs who are oft ill-equipped to address issues of race, class, and culture in the classroom and have limited first-hand knowledge of communities of color and their cultural wealth.

Theoretical frameworks
To prepare TCs to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population and the communities of color in which they will teach, it is critical for teacher preparation programs to create sustained engagements for TCs to connect to a community more deeply while creating a safe space to have their experiences and perspectives challenged. Few programs integrate immersive school and community-based programming where TCs are provided opportunities to confront and reflect on racial identity and structural inequality (Author, 2018; Waddell, 2011). Absent these opportunities, new teachers struggle to address these issues, especially with students of color (Milner & Laughter, 2014). However, through intentionally situated learning (Lave & Wenger, 1990) facilitated by community scholars, TCs can develop an extensive knowledge of urban cultures that differs from their own (Author, 2018). These opportunities provide ways for TCs to become acquainted with the cultural histories of their future students, and understand the context-specific wisdom that they possess. Such engagements also uncover personal insights for TCs so that they can authentically understand and honor an alternative cultural world (Murrell, 2007).

Methods
TCs in redesigned course sections complete pre-and post-course surveys that measure their Urban Teaching Intentions; Attitudes towards Diversity; and Teaching Efficacy as TCs. This paper is based on longitudinal data collected between AY 2013-2016 and represents a sample of 2,926 TCs in 103 courses who have taken at least one redesigned course.

Results
Paired-samples t-tests were employed to assess changes from the first to second survey administration for TCs in a redesigned course. Analyses demonstrated highly statistically significant increases in: Urban Teaching Intentions, t(2921) = -5.34, p = .00, Attitudes Towards Diversity , t(2890) = -15.27, p = .00, and Teaching Efficacy, t(2922) = -8.50, p = .00.

Contribution
The results of this research provide insight into a model for community immersive clinical experiences that maximize authentic and reciprocal student learning and community engagement. These methods of communication and transparency between faculty and community stakeholders serve as a bridge to leverage resources and provide TCs access to opportunities where they can confront and reflect on racial identity and structural inequality. It also provides TCs with a strong foundation from which to scaffold additional community-based experiences and how to respectfully become a part of the community.

Authors

• Robert E. Lee, University of Central Missouri

• Jennifer O'Malley, Illinois State University