Pre-service Teachers’ Practical Experiences in Teaching Language Arts at a Homeless Language Shelter

• In Event: Roundtable Session 3
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: Teacher education: Experiences from the field

Proposal

Purpose of the Study

Teacher education institutions in the USA have a long history of providing children a variety of field experiences designed to help neophyte educators hone their practices in typical classroom situations. While these experiences often include practicum in both public/private facilities and urban/suburban environments, few provide field experiences in community-based shelters housing homeless children.

This case study explores how teacher educators can collaborate with homeless shelters in increasing understanding of the needs of homeless children. We believe these experiences will assist teachers in developing more productive dispositions to better educate students of diverse cultural, linguistic, and economic backgrounds.

Research Design
This study is conducted using a case study research approach involving an in-depth qualitative analysis of pre-service teachers’ perceptions of teaching language arts lessons to homeless children. The participants are sixteen White, female pre-service teachers enrolled in an early childhood method course.
Data is collected from pre-and-post survey which include open-ended questions, field observation notes, an end of project reflection paper, and semi-structured interviews with the participating pre-service teachers. The surveys include demographic information and 10 questions on knowledge of homelessness, personal experiences at a homeless shelter, and confidence in teaching homeless children. The post survey is administered after the practicum experience to analyze any changes in perceptions. Some examples of the interview questions are: Describe what you learned about homeless children and their parents. Describe the changes in your knowledge about homeless children and their caregiver(s). Do you feel you are more confident teaching the economically at-risk children at the shelter?

Findings

The teachers participating in the study are initially against the idea of practicum experience at a homeless shelter and raise questions such as, “Why do we have to talk about homeless children in a teacher preparation course?” Perhaps these views from pre-service teachers impede teacher-training programs from providing prospective teachers with first-hand teaching experiences with homeless children and their caregivers.

As the teachers spent more time interacting with the children and their families at the homeless shelter, they shared comments that demonstrated much more interest in and empathy for these homeless children. Through working with children at a homeless shelter, the preservice teachers appear to gain teaching confidence and learn to understand more, and judge less, when it comes to homeless children and their families.

Discussion
This study suggests that pre-service teachers can increase their sensitivity, patience, and caring toward learners of diverse cultural backgrounds by being engaged in service learning practices. These practices are beneficial for preparing future teachers to better understand all types of diverse children they may encounter in their teaching careers. All children deserve the best the world has to offer. Teacher education programs therefore need to play a major role in reaching this goal by considering the neglect and trauma experienced by some children and finding ways to allow our pre-service teachers to experience and address the challenges of these children first-hand.

Author

• Guang-Lea Lee, Old Dominion Univsersity