Publication Date
3-2018
Abstract
Culturally relevant text selection and pedagogy support students’ motivation, engagement, literacy outcomes, and positive identity formation. Nevertheless, there is limited research on teacher preparation that fosters these outcomes. We explore 17 preservice teachers’ challenges and successes with culturally relevant text selection and pedagogy for their students’ literacy instruction. Data sources include reader responses, lesson plans, and reflections. Emergent coding and constant comparative analysis yielded four categories of challenges (resistance, limited view of culture, lack of knowledge about students’ cultures and identities, and lack of opportunities for students to develop critical consciousness) and three criteria for successes (knowledge about the students’ culture and identity, attention to multiple dimensions of text selection, and use of culturally relevant text selection and pedagogy in combination). Professional development should focus on supporting teachers’ learning about their students’ cultures and identities, applying this knowledge to text selection and pedagogy, and explicitly guiding this development over time.
Recommended Citation
Christ, T., & Sharma, S. A. (2018). Searching for Mirrors: Preservice Teachers’ Journey Toward More Culturally Relevant Pedagogy. Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts, 57 (1). Retrieved from https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizons/vol57/iss1/5
Included in
Language and Literacy Education Commons, Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons
