"Putting Myself in Other People's Shoes": Dialogue and Inquiry for Transformative Teacher Education

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Five
  In Roundtable Session: Researching With and Shared Narrative in Inquiry (Table 4)

Abstract

This paper documents how our students, pre and in-service teachers, responded to a guided learning experience we designed to support dialogue with immigrant parents about their experiences with U.S. schools. Often teachers are not prepared to create relationships with immigrant families and can hold deficit perspectives. We draw on the Freirian view that dialogue can be humanizing and bring conscientization. Additionally, we use teacher inquiry as crucial to teacher preparation and social justice. Our analysis shows that students had varying experiences with immigrant communities prior to the assignment and were anxious about the process; however, post assignment they showed a stronger awareness of the immigrant communities’ frustrations with schools and a potential to enact solutions.

Authors

• Kiyomi Sanchez-Suzuki Colegrove, Texas State University
  Presenting Author

• Christian E. Zuniga, University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley
  Presenting Author

• Devon Robertson, Pflugerville ISD
  Presenting Author