"Ready for Change": Preservice Teacher Approaches to Cultural Competence in Rural Appalachia

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: Unveiling Liberatory and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Practice

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.

Author

• Todd McCardle, Eastern Kentucky University