Interrogating Teach For America to Make All Teacher Preparation Programs More Culturally Relevant

• In Event: Ways of Knowing, Ways of Being

Abstract

The events of 2020 revealed there is much that can be done to better prepare teachers to teach culturally diverse students. Teach for America (TFA) is an organization seeking to train teachers to teach students who are minoritized and culturally disadvantaged. This study interviews fifteen teachers trained by TFA in order to learn what lessons all teacher preparation programs can learn to best prepare teachers for more culturally relevant teaching. Additionally, this study interrogates the changes TFA made to its training protocol over the past decade to respond to critiques of cultural insensitivity.

Author

• Spencer J Smith, Ohio University