Jumping Into the Deep End: Developing Culturally Responsive Urban Teachers Through Community-Immersive Partnerships

Abstract

Preparing special educators for the highest-need schools remains an ongoing challenge in urban districts across the United States. One university’s collaborative community-based immersive partnership model, with emphasis on service learning, has demonstrated promising levels of impact on candidates’ preparation as preservice teachers learning how to celebrate the rich cultural histories of the communities where they are immersed. Both quantitative and qualitative results on the impact of one specific example of this work are provided.

Key words:

• community immersion
• culturally responsive teaching
• service learning
• teacher education
• teacher preparation
• urban education