Preservice Teachers' Diverse Text Selections: Equitable Considerations for Teacher Education

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Seven
  In Roundtable Session: Diversity and Children's Literature in Teacher Education (Table 4)

Abstract

Coursework for pre-service teachers (PSTs) plays a crucial role in actualizing equity for historically marginalized students. Teacher education courses must direct preservice teachers’ attention to the what —curricular materials— and the how—the implications and consequences of instructional decisions. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the products of one Children’s Literature course grounded in diverse representations in texts. Through a curricular noticing framework, we examine which texts PSTs selected and how they described these texts using hashtags. Findings reveal that while PSTs frequently selected diverse texts, their hashtag descriptions lacked critical components, suggesting a gap in PSTs’ noticing. This calls for teacher educators to consider more explicit ways of supporting PSTs’ attention to equity-focused instruction.

Authors

• Sarah E. Jerasa, Clemson University
  Presenting Author

• Azizah Curry Iluore, University of Houston
  Presenting Author

• Anita Sundrani, Northwestern University
  Presenting Author

• Laveria Hutchison, University of Houston
  Presenting Author