Parents as Peers, Partners, Participants, or the Problem: Preservice Teachers' Beliefs About Families and Literacy

• In Event: New Avenues for Teacher Education

Abstract

School and family partnerships can be agentive makerspaces to promote equity. However, beliefs held by teachers can create division. This study sought to explore how preservice teachers’ (PSTs) positioning of families are divulged through a “Letter to Families” task in which text selection communication and activities for caregivers to enact are outlined. We employed iterative and progressive open coding of a representative sample of letters to discover the range in PST beliefs about the role of families and literacy. Analysis revealed PSTs positioned families as peers, partners, participants, and problems. Even as novices, PSTs paint their teacher knowledge as powerful resources and may relegate family’s ways of knowing as deficit without intentional teacher educator efforts.

Authors

• Ambyr Ruth Rios, Kansas State University
  Presenting Author

• Sharon D. Matthews, Texas A&M University
  Presenting Author

• Radhika Viruru, Texas A&M University
  Presenting Author

• Sydney F. Zentell, Texas A&M University
  Presenting Author