Improving Reading in Culturally Situated Contexts

Abstract

This article explores second year pre-service teachers’ ability to work with Indigenous students and their families during a small-scale project conducted in an Indigenous community. Supported field placements offered the pre-service teachers valuable opportunities to engage with the teaching of reading to Indigenous students ‘on their turf’. Given the high likelihood that pre-service teachers will be employed in schools with Indigenous populations, it is important that they develop an understanding of the reading process, the factors that impact on learning how to read, as well as cross-cultural aspects that affect the learning process. Pre-service teachers need to develop understanding of the factors that impact on the literacy development of students and how to engage them in culturally responsive pedagogical practices that focus on the positive aspects of the learner. Following the field placement, analysis of the data demonstrated that pre-service teachers were able to engage with the reading process through the use of running records, and develop field knowledge through understanding the impact of relationships on the learning environment. This information can be used by others to support field placements in Indigenous communities.

Being Prepared: Prospective Teachers' Expectations of Addressing Indigenous Students' Needs in a Critical Literacy Framework

“…This mixed-methods study focused on the expectations of over 200 teacher candidates prior to any practicum-related experiences in the classroom: specifically, the extent to which they expected the teacher education program to prepare them to address Indigenous students' learning. The study comes in response to the calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2015) that identified teacher education programs as needing prospective teachers to "engage in deep reflection about the perceptions they hold for Aboriginal students" (Whitley, 2014, p. 176), and especially, the perceptions they hold in light of the effectiveness of their pedagogy and practice with Indigenous learners (see Bennet & Lancaster, 2013). The study investigated prospective teachers' perceptions of the extent to which their professional teacher education program prepares them to address competently and successfully Indigenous students' learning styles and needs (as reflected in the 2007 policy Framework), while also examining their own biases and assumptions as teachers of bicultural students.…”

Practicing Teachers’ Reflections: Indigenous Australian Student Mobility and Implications for Teacher Education

“…Levels of mobility are higher in rural and remote locations, especially in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and South Australia. High rates of mobility, however, can also be found in large regional areas such as noted by Bennet and Lancaster (2012) who found a mobility turnover rate of approximately 60% that affected the consistency of the delivery of an after school reading program.…”

The Impact of Dialect Density on the Growth of Language and Reading in African American Children

“…The degree to which a child uses a dialectal or diglossic form of a major language has been identified as an important variable impacting language and reading skill development across languages, most notably Arabic (Aram et al, 2013;Saiegh-Haddad, 2005), Greek-Cypriot (Ioannidou, 2009;Triga & Kakopsitou, 2010), and Australian Aboriginal English (Bennet & Lancaster, 2013;Scull, 2016). Quantification of the degree of dialect use within a speaker's oral productions is referred to as "dialect density."…”