Ethnic Studies Pedagogy Development: Understanding How Beginning Teachers Apply Their Theoretical and Political Commitments

• In Event: Ethnic Studies in Teacher Preparation: Programmatic and Cultural Shifts Supporting Ethnic Studies Teacher Development

Abstract

Objective
Effective teaching has been defined in many ways- summatively, it entails knowledge of curriculum/content, instructional and assessment strategies, approaches for developing positive relationships with and among students, and an understanding of the larger community and socio-political context of schooling (Maruli, 2014). Effective teaching pedagogy involves the multiple decisions teachers make for how, when, and why to enact these practices (McKeon and Harrison, 2010). Scholarship on how these definitions of good teaching apply to K-12 Ethnic Studies and the implications for teacher preparation is limited at best (Tintiangco-Cubales, et al, 2014). When coupled with the growing demand for Ethnic Studies, the lack of research to support effective implementation, preparation, and teaching has emerged as a pressing need in Teacher Education. We seek to bridge these gaps by examining how new teachers understood and implemented the pedagogical and curricular approaches they learned through their participation in an Ethnic Studies Teaching Pathway.

Theoretical Framework
Building on Tintiangco Cubales, et al’s (2014) conceptual framework which offers “sketches of what good Ethnic Studies teachers do, and suggest[s] differences between effective and ineffective Ethnic Studies Teachers” (p. ) this study seeks to elucidate how beginning Ethnic Studies Teachers apply their theoretical commitments in their teaching of Ethnic Studies in K-12 classrooms and work toward developing and refining their curriculum, teaching practices, and ideological commitments while teaching Ethnic Studies. Through the application of Reyes McGovern & Lachica Buenavista’s (2016) Ethnic Studies Pedagogy framework, faculty and field supervisors engaged in practices that shifted towards a focus on community grounded praxis and the centering of marginalized identities and epistemologies in university coursework and the field work components of the program.

Methods
Participants in this study took two courses designed to support the development of their Ethnic Studies pedagogies and curriculum. Final papers and projects from these two courses from the first four cohorts of the program’s implementation were analyzed to identify how beginning (pre-service and first year) teachers articulate their understandings of the purposes of Ethnic Studies, the rationale for pedagogical approaches they implemented in their K-12 classrooms, and their identified curricular outcomes. Through a participatory action research approach to grounded theory, the initial coding and analysis of these papers were further analyzed, with findings articulated and refined through debriefing conversations around classroom observations with teacher candidates and guiding (cooperating) teachers.

Results
Initial findings indicate that these beginning teachers understood their pedagogies as representing the following commitments: 1) Development of knowledge and critiques of systems of oppressions and narratives/counternarratives of people from oppressed identity groups ; 2) Increasingly critical self reflection toward an understanding of the power dynamics involved in the teacher/student relationship, 3) Development of critical literacies to name and discuss experiences of oppression and marginalization; and 4) Increasing desire, commitment, and opportunity to take action to resist a system of oppression and/or dominant narrative.

Significance
Offering a conceptual framework for developing Ethnic Studies Pedagogy, this study has implications for other programs also desiring to prepare K-12 Ethnic Studies teachers.

Authors

• Darlene Lee, University of California - Los Angeles

• Mariana E. Ramirez

• Sara Jasmin Diaz-Montejano, University of California - Los Angeles

• Eduardo Lopez, University of California - Los Angeles