Simulating Authenticity: Designs for Case-Based Parent Teacher Conferences

• In Event: 41.045 - Educator Activism to Challenge Inequality and Construct Just Schools

Abstract

Teachers must learn to enact practice based on asset-based perspectives of students, families, and communities of color. Asset-based framing must not remain a conceptual notion alone; rather, asset-based frames must have a place in the actual practice of teaching. We report on the design of a teacher education learning activity where interns enact teaching practices that rest upon an asset-based orientation to a family of color. In this activity, interns participate in a case-based simulation of a parent-teacher conference – a case designed with attention to the possibilities for interns to enact deficit – or asset-based perspectives. Significantly, this learning activity enables teacher educators to teach and assess asset-based practices for the formation of partnerships between teachers and families.

Authors

• Simona Goldin, University of Michigan

• Debi Khasnabis, University of Michigan

• Carla D. O'Connor, University of Michigan

• Kendra Hearn, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor