Surfacing Equity in edTPA Through the Lens of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy

• In Event: Preparing Culturally Responsive Teachers for Equity-Oriented Classrooms: How Do We Evaluate Their Effectiveness and Our Own?

Abstract

Purpose
Efforts to diversify the teacher pipeline are challenged by many factors. As a result, many EPPs do not have teacher candidate populations that reflect the P-12 student populations in which they will work (Carver-Thomas, 2018); therefore, EPPs must be intentional in developing an equity orientation among teacher of equity as evidenced in their edTPA portfolios.
Perspectives
EdTPA, a summative teacher candidate performance assessment, is designed to assess beginning teacher candidate readiness. Now implemented in 41 states (edtpa.aacte.org), edTPA continues to face criticism for failing to fully address issues of diversity and equity (NAME, 2014). While edTPA maintains that portfolios provide candidates and EPPs latitude to address diversity and equity in ways that support each EPP’s mission, the lack of specific prompts or a rubric for assessing equity-infused classroom environments requires EPP practitioner-researchers to dig deeper.

Grounding our investigation in Ladson-Billings’s theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP; 1994, 1995), we sought to surface how teacher candidates demonstrate equity-oriented concepts in their edTPA narratives. CRP, developed as a theory of robust pedagogy for African American students, has served as a cornerstone in much equity-oriented scholarship and pedagogical practice (Paris, 2012). It is constituted by key tenets and theoretical underpinnings which outline educational aims for students and the philosophical and ideological commitments of teachers who seek to teach them in equity-oriented ways. CRP promotes students’ academic achievement alongside the development of cultural competence and critical consciousness. Furthermore, CRP describes culturally relevant teachers’ dispositions, how they structure classroom social relations, and how they think about knowledge. The tenets CRP provide a framework that undergirds the equity-oriented pedagogy we want our students to embody.
Method and Data Sources
Using official edTPA scores reports, we identified a sample of portfolios for further review based on edTPA’s rubric 6, Learning Environment (how does the candidates demonstrate a positive learning environment that supports students’ engagement in learning?). Findings indicate, of the 180 edTPA portfolios from three cohorts of MAT teacher candidates, the EPP’s mean rubric 6 score is 3.18. From this sample, we identified portfolios with the highest and lowest rating on rubric 6 for further review. Applying a priori codes developed from Ladson-Billings (1994) theory of CRP to our data, we examined where/if CRP practices appear in students’ responses. Initial coding analysis suggests that sample portfolios, regardless of score on rubric 6, lack depth in how they address issues of equity. Absent are robust examples of CRP in practice, even in portfolios of students who received 5’s. This finding reveals the surface nature of equity in edTPA prompts and rubrics.
Results and Significance
Results direct the MAT program—and other initial teacher preparation programs—to consider how to embed equity pedagogy more intentionally across the program. Results suggest the need to more explicitly frame and model CRP across all program elements, regardless of students’ edTPA outcomes. Further, results provide a call for edTPA to reconsider the role of equity in and across the tool.

Authors

• Diana B. Lys, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Jocelyn A. Glazier, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Kelly Johnson Barber-Lester, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Wenyang Sun, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Kristin Papoi, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill