Revealing the Deep Meaning of Culture in School Learning: Framing a New Paradigm for Teacher Preparation

Abstract

The author proposes a model that frames a new paradigm for teacher preparation that facilitates the deep meaning of culture in school learning. Preservice teachers move in cohorts through a six-part process of interrelated program components, employing strategies of introspection and reflective-interpretive-inquiry. During this process, a complex operational definition of culture is constructed that ultimately reveals aspects of the relationship among culture, cognition, and school learning. An operational definition of culture and the data collected by preservice teachers are used to formulate a theory explaining the relationship between culture and school learning. This theory guides reframing the curriculum, redesigning classroom instruction, and creating a more responsive social context for school learning for students from different cultural and experiential backgrounds.