“We Just Don’t Know Where to Begin”: Cultural Responsiveness in Rural Teacher Education

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 12:40 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Culturally Responsive Teaching Across Educational Contexts (Table 12)

Abstract

Through the lens of transformative learning theory, this qualitative study examines how pre-service teachers in a teacher education program in rural Appalachia attempted to become culturally responsive. Further, it examines how their lived experiences and their teacher education program impacted their approaches to addressing specific diverse needs of their future students. The results of this case study illustrate the unique way the pre-service teachers [re]imagined their program to better equip future PSTs for diverse classrooms. I argue for a programmatic approach to developing a culturally responsive teaching corps and challenge the shortsighted notion that students in rural Appalachia are “not ready” to face the realities of diverse classrooms.

Authors

• Todd McCardle, Eastern Kentucky University

• Zachary Tyler Milford, University of Kentucky