Engaging Community: Privileging Local Wisdom, Expertise, and Cultural Wealth in the Development of Teachers

• In Event: 79.040 - Making Things Happen: Interdisciplinary Research That Builds Strategic Connections With Community

Abstract

Objectives
Neoliberal efforts to standardize children’s educational experiences (Howard, 2014; Milner, 2013; Sleeter, 2012) ignore the important question of “whose knowledge counts” in the education of children (Apple, 2012; Zeichner, Payne & Brayko, 2015). This presentation seeks to address the related, persistent and pervasive inequity in access to culturally responsive teaching that plagues the experience of an increasingly diverse population of learners in our nation’s schools. We present a community-engaged model of teacher preparation rooted in local wisdom and expertise, an approach critical to the development of teachers and a decisive strategy through which to advance educational equity.

Perspectives
This context-specific work, privileging traditionally marginalized voices of families and communities in the education of their children, is framed within the constructs of “community cultural wealth” (Yosso, 2005) and “funds of knowledge” (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1987). Additionally, the model is influenced by Murrell’s (1991) community teacher framework, emphasizing the imperative of contextualized knowledge of the culture, community, and identity of children and families as necessary for effective teaching in diverse settings.

Methods
This presentation will focus on the nine-year history of a program of community-engaged educator preparation, highlighting the process of authentic community engagement and lessons learned in the development of a university/school/community collaboration grounded in principles of respect and reciprocity. Specific means through which such authentic engagement has emerged will be offered as concrete examples contributing to candidate, community, and P-5 student learning outcomes.


Data
Data sources include: transcripts from community member focus groups; excerpts from preservice teacher candidate weekly reflective journals and courageous conversations; documents of structured events between candidates, faculty, and community members; evidence of collaborative university/community mobilization/revitalization; curricula co-constructed by candidates and members of the community; and documented evidence of growth in P-5 student learning.

Results & Significance
A limited, but growing body of research (Authors, 2016; Kretchmar & Zeichner, 2016; Lee, Showalter & Eckrich, 2014; Lees, 2016; Zeichner, Bowman, Guillen, & Napolitan, 2016) supports authentic community engagement in educator preparation as a means through which to develop teachers who are more culturally responsive, asset-oriented, and equity-focused in their teaching. As a counter paradigm to the standardization promoted through neoliberal policy and discourse, community-engaged teacher preparation promotes a relational, contextually-specific means through which candidates work to connect content they teach to children’s lived experience, making it more relevant, engaging, and culturally responsive. Additionally, the development of dispositions for social justice, and the efficacy and agency required for their fulfillment, further characterize teachers prepared in this fashion (Authors, 2016). With additional research connecting this approach to increases in student learning (Powell, Cantrell, Malo-Juvera, Correll, 2016; Reese & Gallimore, 2000; Reese, Goldenberg, Loucky & Gallimore, 1995), we suggest that community-engaged teacher preparation is a compelling and justifiable direction for the field in addressing the persistent and pervasive achievement gap between children of color and their white, more advantaged peers. In addition to data presented to support both candidate and P-5 student learning, this session will provide complementary evidence of this paradigm as advantageous in furthering community goals for mobilization and revitalization.

Authors

• Eva M. Zygmunt, Ball State University

• Kristin Cipollone, Ball State University

• Susan Tancock, Ball State University

• Patricia Clark, Ball State University