Uncovering and Informing Preservice Teachers’ Prior Knowledge About Poverty

Abstract

This study explored 30 preservice teachers' knowledge on issues related to poverty. In an openended questionnaire, preservice teachers' perceptions of poverty and how teachers should respond to students from poverty were explored. Results indicated that preservice teachers' knowledge was nonspecific and lacked focus on the relationship among poverty, schools, and students. These results indicate a need for us as teacher educators to provide preservice teachers with (a) specific details about realities of poverty, (b) opportunities to discuss and observe the relationship among poverty, teachers, and schools, and (c) examples of children and families from poverty who have positive attributes.

Comparison of Students’ Attitudes Towards Poverty Following an Interdisciplinary Poverty Simulation

“…Students bring their prior experience and knowledge from their own lives and educational background to their careers (Mundy & Leko, 2015). Their attitudes developed long before their university training began, so coming into the poverty simulation, some students may have had very strong beliefs about the lives of those in poverty.…”

Community partnerships: Leveraging service learning in small teacher preparation programs

“…These placements, even with reflective notetaking, lack the practice-based learning opportunities that Pre-service Teacher Candidates (PTCs) need to be prepared to teach students with diverse needs and understand the complexities of lesson delivery (Kent & Giles, 2016). Placed in unstructured observation experiences, preconceived, and often stereotypical, assumptions of diverse students including those with exceptionalities can become cemented in the PTCs' view of the classroom (Hilton & McCleary, 2019;Milner & Laughter, 2015;Mundy & Leko, 2015). Additionally, novice special education teachers struggle to communicate effectively and lack practice in communicating the academic and social progress of students with disabilities to families (Santamaria Graff et al, 2021).…”