A New Era in the Preparation of Teachers for Urban Schools

Abstract

Disconnects between the demographics of teacher candidates and the students attending today's public urban schools are well documented. At the same time, research points to the educational value of linking students' lived experiences to their classroom learning. This article presents the researchbased findings of faculty who implemented a field-based "pedagogy lab" in an urban-focused, collaborative teacher education program. The lab offered teacher candidates deliberate opportunities to interrogate their ethnicity, gender, and social class then use that knowledge to enhance various disciplinary-based instructional activities for PK-12 pupils. The findings suggest new ways of preparing teachers for the children attending urban schools.

Confronting the Marginalization of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy

“…Because the authors were working with the teachers on an ongoing basis, they were able to prompt the teachers to question and think beyond their assumptions. Most case studies of teachers learning culturally responsive pedagogy explore the impact of specific kinds of preservice and professional development programs, including school–university partnerships (e.g., Bales & Saffold, 2011), inquiry-based courses (Jennings & Smith, 2002), teacher networks (El-Haj, 2003), community-based learning (Fickel, 2005; Moll & González, 1994), and sustained workshops combined with classroom-based coaching (Zozakiewicz & Rodriguez, 2007).…”

Unprepared: A Qualitative Exploration of the Preparation Practices of SLPs Practicing in Urban Schools

“…Speech-language pathology preparation programs. While a multitude of research has been conducted on how to prepare teachers to work in the urban environment with students of color (Anderson & Stillman, 2013;Darling-Hammond, 2006;Weiner, 2000), there are limited resources on how to do so for SLPs. While at times it is appropriate to examine research from related fields, it is imperative that the field of speech-language pathology produces its own research on how to best prepare SLPs to work with CLD students.…”

Norming Suburban

“…While this can be the starting place and even a returning place for this work, it cannot be the only place. Teaching candidates must learn how conceptions of race, past discrimination, and structured racial inequality mediate all aspects of teaching and learning (Bales & Saffold, 2011).…”