Working with Practicing Teachers in a High-Stakes Teaching Context to Rethink their Pedagogical Practices with Children of Diverse Backgrounds

ABSTRACT

The public education system in the United States continues to struggle in educating children of diverse backgrounds. Many have addressed this issue by documenting how certain practices teach children particular types of knowledge and skills. This developmental focus on what should be happening to children of diverse backgrounds tends to ignore the complexities of the communities in which they live, and by doing so, it can perpetuate the status quo. To address this issue, this article examined a professional development course within a large urban school district for preKindergarten and Kindergarten teachers. In the course, the teachers were asked to reconceptualize their pedagogical practices with their students and engage in learning activities in their classrooms that attended to the children’s sociocultural worlds. Analyzing the experiences of a sample of participants who participated in this course provides insight into how teacher educators can assist practicing and preservice teachers address the opportunities and challenges that exist when teaching children of diverse backgrounds through culturally relevant practices that prepare them for success in their high-stakes schooling environments and local communities.

KEYWORDS:

• Culturally relevant pedagogy
• high-stakes
• pedagogical practices
• professional development
• qualitative research

Funding

The authors would like to thank the National Association for Early Childhood Teacher Educators Foundation for their support of the project that led to this article.

Notes

1. The state identifies almost 15% of this district’s K-12 students as being African American, more than 50% Hispanic, and 30% White. More than 55% of the students are identified as economically disadvantaged, and 21% of the students are identified as bilingual or as an English as second language learner. In the Pre-K program, 90% of the students are from low-income families, 55% are English language learners, and more than 50% meet income and language requirements.

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to thank the National Association for Early Childhood Teacher Educators Foundation for their support of the project that led to this article.

Notes on contributors

Christopher P. Brown

Christopher P. Brown is a Professor of Early Childhood Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Texas at Austin and a Fellow in the Priscilla Pond Flawn Regents Professorship in Early Childhood Education. His research interests center on on examining how early childhood education stakeholders across a range of political and educational contexts respond to policymakers’ high-stakes standards-based accountability reforms.

Natalie Babiak Weber

Natalie Babiak Weber is a doctoral student in Educational Leadership, P-12 at the University of Mary Hardin Baylor. She serves as the Director of Federal Programs at Taylor ISD in Taylor, Texas. Research interests include professional development and job embedded learning for teachers and administrators.