Ethnic Studies Pedagogy Development: Understanding How Beginning ES Teachers Apply Their Theoretical and Political Commitments

• In Event: Pedagogies for Ethnic Studies Teacher Education

Abstract

Objective
Effective teaching has been defined in many ways- summatively, it entails knowledge of curriculum/content, instructional and assessment strategies, approaches for developing positive relationships with and among students, and an understanding of the larger community and socio-political context of schooling (Maruli, 2014). Effective teaching pedagogy involves the multiple decisions teachers make for how, when, and why to enact these practices (McKeon and Harrison, 2010). Scholarship on how these definitions of good teaching apply to K-12 Ethnic Studies and the implications for teacher preparation is still emerging (Tintiangco-Cubales, et al, 2014). Our study adds to this body of research by examining how new teachers understood and implemented the pedagogical and curricular approaches they learned through their participation in an Ethnic Studies Teaching Pathway.

Theoretical Framework
Building on Tintiangco Cubales, et al’s (2014) conceptual framework which offers sketches of what good Ethnic Studies teachers do, and suggest[s] differences between effective and ineffective Ethnic Studies Teachers, this study seeks to elucidate how beginning Ethnic Studies Teachers apply their theoretical and political commitments in their teaching of K-12 Ethnic Studies while also refining their curriculum, teaching practices, and ideological commitments.. Through the application of Reyes McGovern & Lachica Buenavista’s (2016) Ethnic Studies Pedagogy framework, faculty and field supervisors engaged in practices that shifted towards a focus on community grounded praxis and the centering of marginalized identities and epistemologies in university coursework and the field work components of the program.

Methods & Data Sources
Participants in this study took two courses designed to support the development of their Ethnic Studies pedagogies and curriculum. Final papers and projects from these two courses from the first four cohorts of the program’s implementation were analyzed to identify how beginning (pre-service and first year) teachers articulate their understandings of the purposes of Ethnic Studies, the rationale for pedagogical approaches they implemented in their K-12 classrooms, and their identified curricular outcomes. Through a participatory action research approach to grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006), the initial coding and analysis of these papers were further analyzed, with findings articulated and refined through debriefing conversations around classroom observations with teacher candidates and guiding (cooperating) teachers.

Results
Initial findings indicate that these beginning teachers understood their pedagogies as representing the following commitments: 1) Development of knowledge and critiques of systems of oppressions and narratives/counternarratives of people from oppressed identity groups ; 2) Increasingly critical self reflection toward an understanding of the power dynamics involved in the teacher/student relationship, 3) Development of critical literacies to name and discuss experiences of oppression and marginalization; and 4) Increasing desire, commitment, and opportunity to take action to resist a system of oppression and/or dominant narrative. Factors such as teacher identities, backgrounds/prior experiences in ethnic studies coursework, guiding teacher perspectives, and administrative support were fundamental to the implementation of ethnic studies by new teachers.

Significance
Offering a conceptual framework for developing student teachers’ Ethnic Studies Pedagogy, this study has implications for other programs also desiring to prepare K-12 Ethnic Studies teachers.

Authors

• Darlene Lee, University of California - Los Angeles

• Mariana E. Ramirez, University of California - Los Angeles

• Sara Jasmin Diaz-Montejano, University of California - Los Angeles

• Eduardo F. Lopez, University of California - Los Angeles