Preparing Teacher Candidates to Work With Micronesian Students: Culturally Responsive Teaching in a Hawai’i PDS

• In Event: Exploring Inquiry, Culturally Responsive Teaching Practices, and Discourse-Based Pedagogy in Professional Development Schools

Abstract

This research explores how a professional development school (PDS) mediated the understanding TCs have about culturally responsive teaching (CRT) for working with elementary Micronesian migrant youth in the state of Hawaiʻi. The presentation describes the steps taken to form the PDS, and the culturally responsive teaching (CRT) TCs used. Data include open-ended interviews, post-lesson, and online reflections. Initial findings reveal that the PDS supported TCs’ use of validating and empowering CRT attributes, but did not support TCs’ ability to enact transformative and emancipatory CRT skills. A discussion surrounding the use of CRT as a scaffolded skillset concludes the presentation to recommend that TPPs use Gay’s (2018) CRT attributes as a framework to build theory-practice connections across semesters in a PDS.

Authors

• Monica Gonzalez Smith, University of Hawaii - Manoa

• Nicole Schlaack, University of Hawaii - Manoa

• Jennifer F.M. Padua, University of Hawaii - Manoa

• Seanyelle Yagi, University of Hawaii - Manoa

• Crista K. Banks, University of North Texas