Developing Teachers for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students Through Field-Based Interactional Learning

• In Event: Toward Culturally Sustaining and Social Justice–Oriented Teaching and Learning

Abstract

To meet the needs of a growing culturally and linguistically diverse student population, teacher educators must responsibly prepare teachers who are culturally responsive and critically conscious. This study examines how pre-service teachers (PSTs) who engaged in a field-based, interactional learning experience make sense of and develop humanizing critical sociocultural competence and the affordances and challenges they experienced (Brown, 2013). Our study contributes to this growing body of research by illuminating the process of developing humanizing critical sociocultural competence among PSTs and offering new insight from multiple stakeholders. Our findings reveal that participants expressed empathy, engaged in critical conversations, and used broader semiotic repertoire to co-construct meaning. We discuss implications for preparing teachers to work with culturally and linguistically diverse students.

Authors

• Amanda D Cataneo, University of Maryland - College Park

• Carmen Durham, University of Northern Iowa

• Melinda E. Martin-Beltran, University of Maryland - College Park