Affirming Diversity: The Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education

This paper describes an urban teacher residency program, the Newark Montclair Urban Teacher Residency, a collaborative endeavor between the Newark, New Jersey Public Schools and Montclair State University, built on a decades-long partnership. The authors see the conceptual work of developing this program as creating a “third space” in teacher education. We detail the ways in which we conceptualize epistemology and clinical practice in teacher education, and changes in the roles of the community, and P-12 teachers that occur in a third space. Providing an account of our messy and nonlinear process demonstrates the struggles of creating new spaces for teacher education. We believe the theory that informs our work, the challenges we face, and the strategies for meeting those challenges illustrate the tenuous and ever-evolving nature of doing work in the “third space.”

Finding a third space in teacher education: Creating an urban teacher residency

The purpose of this study was to examine how preservice teachers, from a funds of knowledge perspective, in a community-based early childhood teacher preparation programme learned about the language and (bi)literacy development of young English emergent bilinguals. Through a series of in-depth home observations their early childhood education (ECE) coursework preservice teachers reflected on young children's literacy learning and family literacy practices. We followed case studies of six participating preservice teachers who were placed with families with children enrolled in preschool programmes as part of their field experience. A research team composed of two university professors and two graduate students gathered a variety of data during one academic year. Data sources include field notes, video and audio recordings and children's emergent literacy samples from six family home interactions by the preservice teachers with their assigned case study families. During these family home visits, preservice ...

Building Relationships with diverse students and families: A funds of Knowledge Perspective

Despite the tremendous growth in teacher education programs offered by non-university providers, most teachers still enter teaching in the U.S. through some type of college or university program. We argue in this paper that university teacher education needs to make a fundamental shift in whose knowledge and expertise counts in the education of new teachers. Using tools afforded by cultural historical activity theory (CHAT), we argue that by recasting who is considered an expert and rethinking how university faculty cross institutional boundaries to collaborate with communities and schools, college and university teacher education programs can better interrogate their challenges and invent new solutions to prepare the teachers our students need. Drawing on examples from joint-work among universities, schools, and communities, we highlight possibilities and complexities in pursuing more democratic work in university teacher education.

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Democratizing Knowledge in University Teacher Education Through Practice-Based Methods Teaching and Mediated Field Experience in Schools and Communities 1

In this review of the literature, the authors examined studies investigating course delivery methods for preparing special education teachers. Ultimately, 17 studies were reviewed using a constant ...

Course Delivery: Keystones of Effective Special Education Teacher Preparation.

It has been recognized for many years that preparing teachers for high-need urban schools is a challenge requiring a reexamination of teacher education program structures and content. Robert Farls, for example, writing in 1969, made a number of suggestions that sound remarkably contemporary. Among them are recommendations to increase fieldwork in the schools, require coursework in comparative culture, offer coursework on-site in schools, and study human relations, psychology, and the history of the civil rights movement (p. 411). His central concern is developing teachers' capacities to work effectively with poor children of color. Though his language is different, many of Farls' recommendations have found expression in current urban teacher preparation initiatives. Deepening and enriching the knowledge of urban teaching candidates for working with a diverse student body has become a central tenet of preparation programs (Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005). Coursework that attempts to develop new teachers' perspectives on diversity and multiculturalism as assets rather than deficits has been woven into teacher preparation curricula (Banks, 1994; Banks, & Banks, 2004; Banks & Banks, 2010; Grant & Sleeter, 2007; Ladsen-Billings, 1995; Nieto, 2007), while the application of multicultural insights and affirming attitudes towards diversity can be found in the study of culturally responsive teaching practices (Banks, et al, 2001; Gay, 2000; Irvine, 2003; Ladsen-Billings, 2001; Villegas & Lucas, 2002). Taken together, such coursework offers opportunities for preservice teachers to generate new knowledge about and appreciation of diverse cultures and communities and support deep examination of their own beliefs and assumptions. At the same time, it provides them with frameworks for developing pedagogy and curriculum for educational equity and cross cultural competency, a commitment both emotional and intellectual, to appreciate difference while recognizing the fundamental unity of all humans (McAllister & Jordan-Irvine, 2000). Recognizing that academic course work alone, no matter how transformative its intentions, may be insufficient to educate teachers of diverse students, courses of study for urban teacher preparation have made knowledge of family, home, and community integral to teaching and learning. A "funds of knowledge" approach (Gonzalez, Moll & Amanti, 2005; Moll & Gonzalez, 2004), for example, adds a critical element to developing cross cultural competence by making explicit how the knowledge and skills of families and communities can be brought to bear in teaching learners from underrepresented groups. Such an approach helps teachers establish ties between home and school that can greatly enrich student achievement. A more robust form of community-based learning combines service learning and diversity education to create multicultural service learning through which preservice teachers not only learn about the assets of students' home communities but also about community-defined needs (Boyle-Baise, 2002; Boyle-Baise & Grant, 2000; Boyle-Baise & Sleeter, 2000; Carter-Andrews, 2009; Grineski, 2003). Combined with ethnographic inquiry and action research, these kinds of field experiences can help teachers to interrogate and modify their beliefs and assumptions and even to understand their work as part of an explicit social justice agenda that privileges access to knowledge and equitable education over individual, meritocratic success (Hyland & Nofke, 2005; Tiezzi & Cross, 1997). Each of these efforts can contribute to educating the "community teacher" (Murrell, 2001), one who can "draw on a richly contextualized knowledge of culture, community, and identity" (p. 4). Despite progress in urban teacher preparation over the past forty years, concerns still remain about transforming programs and practices in order to affect teachers' capacities to work with culturally diverse communities. …

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Cynthia Onore

Papers

Preparing Urban Teachers as Public Professionals through a University-Community Partnership.

through a University-Community Partnership