Exploring Elementary Teachers’ Preparedness for Teaching in Diverse Classrooms
ABSTRACT
Preparing teachers to educate students of diverse cultures is one of the most persistent and multifaceted challenges facing schools of education today (Futrell, Gomez & Bedden, 2003). While many teacher education programs do include a course or two on diversity topics, more information is needed to learn how to well prepare inter-culturally competent teachers (Zeichner, 2003). This purpose of this study is to understand in-service teachers’ perspectives on how well prepared they were for teaching the heterogeneous population of public school students. Qualitative methods will be used to collect data through focus groups, supplemented with individual interviews. This research will be a small-scale study that will be evaluated and modified to inform the design of a larger research project investigating how teacher preparation program designs might better prepare elementary educators to teach diverse student populations.
“In the event that this proposal results in an award, I hereby authorize the State University of New York College at Cortland to release this abstract for college publicity and/or educational purposes.”
Signed ____________________________________________ Date _____________
Exploring Elementary Teachers’ Preparedness for Teaching in Diverse Classrooms
Preparing teachers to educate students of diverse cultures is one of the most persistent and multifaceted challenges facing schools of education today (Futrell, Gomez & Bedden, 2003). While many teacher education programs do include a course or two on diversity topics, more information is needed to learn how to well prepare inter-culturally competent teachers (Zeichner, 2003). The specific research question for this study – What are in-service teachers’ perspectives on how well prepared they were to teach the heterogeneous population of today’s classrooms? – will provide insight into what is needed to better prepare preservice teachers for educating today’s diverse student body while offering direction for defining future research in this area.
Recent research has called for future well designed and articulate studies to better understand how teacher preparation programs are preparing teacher candidates to teach in diverse classrooms (Collier, 2002; Futrell, Gomez & Bedden, 2003; Lane, Lacefield-Parachini, & Isken, 2003) and much information is still needed to learn how teacher candidates acquire skills and knowledge needed to accomplish this task (Capella-Santana, 2003). Finding from this study will benefit teacher educators, preservice teacher, educational policy and elementary students.
Teacher Educators: Findings about how preservice teachers perceive diversity can inform educators’ course preparation, planning and programming. Study outcomes can provide insight for teacher educators to better understand the increasingly diverse populations found in elementary classrooms and the urgent need to teach preservice teachers how to accommodate those differences to maximize elementary students’ knowledge gains.
Elementary Educators: Elementary educators can gain insight into their own predispositions about difference. Prior research has shown that nearly 90% of teachers in the United States identify themselves as white and middle-class (Johnson, 2002), yet their classroom populations of elementary students are much more culturally diverse. This study may offer recommendations for ways elementary educators can become more inter-culturally knowledgeable so they are better prepared to teach all students.
Elementary Students: Of all who may benefit from this study's
findings, schoolchildren may indeed have the opportunity to benefit the most.
There is an urgent need to be cognizant of increasingly diverse classrooms
populations in our nation’s schools (Allen & Porter, 2002). Many scholars
have advocated for the need to have teachers educate their students about the
importance of appreciating and celebrating diversity and being culturally
responsive to the needs of all students (Ladson-Billings, 1995; Villegas,
1991). Prior studies conclude that teachers’ and students’ appreciation and
celebration of diversity increases student learning, and such outcomes are the
critical objective of my proposed study.
Recent research has stressed the importance of understanding the
widening demographic divide between teachers and the students they educate (Gay
& Howard, 2001). Throughout the past decade, researchers have studied
various facets of the cultural differences that exist between teachers and
students and how to prepare prospective teachers to attend to this issue.
Specifically, when reviewing the literature, two main areas of research emerge
on these topics including: (a) the historical progression of the
cultural and demographic gap that has become prevalent between teachers and
their students; and (b) the theoretical beliefs and pedagogical practices that
have emerged as scholars have worked to prepare prospective teachers to teach
all students.
The historical progression of understanding the gap between teachers
and students has often been rooted in the conceptual paradigm of
constructivism. Constructivism suggests that people understand the world by
interpreting it through their own life experiences; beliefs, values, attitudes
and opinions are often formulated based on the particular experiences people
have had (Allen & Porter, 2002; Anderson, Reder, & Simon, 1998). If we
have not had similar experiences, our understanding of how others view the
world may be limited. With the United States currently
encountering its "largest in-flux of immigrants, along with an increasing
number of U.S. born ethnic minorities" (Howard, 2003, pg. 195) and more
than 90% of teachers throughout the United States identifying as white and
middle-class (Johnson, 2002), constructivists have focused on the likelihood
that teachers likely had experiences different than their students which
suggests that they may have different ways of interpreting the world and of
learning. The level of concern has heightened as researchers have suggested
that preservice and in-service teachers may be unaware of this difference,
identifying a potentially detrimental invisible barrier to minority students'
achievement (Capella-Santana, 2003).
Educational literature has identified theoretical beliefs and
pedagogical practices that are being used to prepare prospective teachers to
educate a diverse population of students. Teaching practices central to
multicultural education (Capella-Santana, 2003), culturally responsive
classrooms (Ladson-Billings, 1994) and culturally relevant pedagogy (Gay &
Kirkland, 2003; Howard, 2003; Shade, Kelly & Oberg, 1997) have all added to
the knowledge base of preparing teachers to educate a diverse student body.
Findings from Capella-Santana (1998), Diaz, Moll & Mehan (1992) and Heath
(1983) have suggested that minority students' academic success can improve when
teachers are conscious about students' diversity and use multicultural
pedagogical practices. Similarly, Jordan-Irvine (1992), Ladson-Billings (1994)
and Villegas & Lucas (2002) have identified teachers' practices that seem
to effectively meet the needs of diverse students. Paralleling this work,
Howard (2003) has studied ways that teachers can implement "culturally
relevant" pedagogy into their teaching practice to effectively meet the
needs of all students they educate (Howard, 2003).
This study has been designed to increase the scope of a current research project titled, “Understanding Preservice Teachers’ Perspectives About Diversity”, which is being supported through the Faculty Research Program this year because preliminary findings suggest that preservice teachers may be completing teacher preparation programs with little knowledge about how to teach students different than themselves in their host classrooms. These findings point to an urgent need to address potential teacher preparation program inadequacies when educating future teachers. Current public school demographics reveal that nearly 38% of public school students are from an ethnic/minority group; while close to 90% of their teachers are not (U.S. Department of Education, 2001). Certainly, current teacher population demographics do not mirror their diverse student population. Therefore, this proposed study aims at identifying in-service teachers’ perspectives about how well prepared they were to teach heterogeneous classrooms of today. Findings from this study can inform teacher educators on ways to design comprehensive teacher preparation programs to best meet educational needs of their teacher candidates and their future elementary students. Ultimately, findings from this study can inform teacher educators on rationale, content and methodology of preparing future teachers for justly educating all students.
This proposed study’s inquiry focuses on gathering data that may lead to (a) understanding and evaluating particular aspects of teacher preparation programs and (b) exploring participants’ individual awareness of diversity; therefore, two distinct methods of data collection will be used as part of the research design. First, focus group interviews will initially be used to collect data. Focus group interviews are one of the most widely used research designs used to gather data to assess particular characteristics of educational programs because they provide a way to gather descriptive information from participants who shared a common set of experiences specific to the topic being studied (Rikard, Knight & Beacham, 1996). The purpose of using focus group interviews as the first component of the research design is to create an interactive environment for participants to reflect on their teacher preparation programs with others who may stimulate further memories and experiences.
I plan to identify participants using the following criteria: (a) Participants will be graduates of an undergraduate Childhood or Elementary Education program and (b) currently teaching in elementary (gr. K-6) classrooms. I plan to send letters of interest to elementary teachers residing in 6 different elementary schools; Two schools will be chosen from a rural community, two in an urban community and 2 in a suburban community in Central New York. I will then send invitational letters to the teachers of grades 1-6 to participate in this study. From participants’ responses, I intend to identify salient participant characteristics central to the goals of this study to establish a purposive sampling of participants for each focus group (Lederman, 1990). Specifically, this study seeks to better understand teachers’ perceptions on how well prepared they were to teach students demographically different than themselves. Therefore, it may be likely that participants who differ regarding race, gender and geographic teaching location (urban, suburban, and rural) (a) have had different experiences during their teacher preparation program and (b) understand concepts of diversity differently. Prior research had indicated that when social and/or demographic constructs are “deemed important in evaluating particular aspects of a program, participants from each sub-category will be needed for each focus group” Rikard, Knight & Beacham, 1996, pg. 250). Accordingly, after an initial meeting with all prospective participants, three salient participants’ characteristics, race, gender and geographic teaching location, will be used to purposefully select participants from each sub-category for participation in four to six member focus groups. I will facilitate focus group interviews using three different phases of data collection because previous research by Krueger and Casey (2000) points to the importance of (a) initially meeting participants to inform them of the proposed study (b) purposefully selecting participants for individual focus groups and (c) meeting for several sessions to identify trends and patterns within and between participants’ responses.
To collect focus group interview data, I will audiotape and transcribe all interviews. During transcriptions, I will begin initial data analysis to find patterns in experiences and perspectives between and within participants’ narratives and identify overarching themes that identify such experiences. I will continue to collect and analyze data until it shows repetition for each specific individual’s experiences and then I will conclude data collection.
The second component of the research design is to conduct individual interviews once focused interviews cease (Bodgan & Biklen, 2002). Prior research on effective ways to conduct educational studies indicates that, when analyzed, focus group interview data can inform pre-planned questions for individual interview sessions (Bogdan & Biklen, 2002). Following focus group interviews, individual exit interviews will be conducted to provide time for participants to (a) confidentially disclose any information that was not revealed during focus groups and (b) use the member-check system to check for data validity (Bogdan & Biklen, 2002).
I will utilize three steps to validate the accuracy of my analysis. First, I will audiotape and transcribe all focus group and individual interviews verbatim. Second, during the final focus group session, I will provide participants with an opportunity to review the preliminary findings to validate results of the study. Using this “member check” strategy will help to ensure that the findings were congruent with participant perspectives, beliefs and opinions (Bogdan & Biklen, 2002). Third, and perhaps most essential to this research design, I will provide each participant with an individual interview after focus group sessions have ceased to collect additional information that participants may not have felt comfortable or able to share during focus group interviews. This is an necessary element to the research design because prior research has found that one of the limitations to focus groups is that some group compositions may “influence the responses of some participants who, for example, may be reluctant to express themselves honestly in the presence of others” (Rikard, Knight &Beacham, 1996, pg. 55). Therefore, this proposed research has been designed to minimize this potential limitation.
The evaluation of the project will be ongoing. Throughout the initial stages of data collection, I will continually assess the effectiveness of the focus group interview questions and modify them if needed. The semi-structured interview questions have been developed by utilizing questions that previous researchers have identified (see Figure 1). However, it will be necessary to determine if the questions are sufficient and effective for the data collection of this proposed study. I will know that the goals and objectives of this study will be met when the participants validate my findings about their perspectives on their preparedness to teach a diverse population of students in their classrooms.
I plan to use the findings to build on the knowledge base of
research on teachers’ preparation to understand how to teach a diverse
population of students. Previous
research in this area has recently been published in peer-reviewed journals
including The Journal of Educational Research (Capella-Santana, 2003), Theory
into Practice (Gay and Kirkland, 2003), Urban Education (Dee & Henkin,
2002), and Urban Review (Middleton, 2002). Therefore, these journals have been
initially targeted as potential places for publication. In addition, there are
some professional organizations that provide conferences that are frequented by
presenters specializing in the areas of diversity awareness and social justice
education. Zeichner (2003) has identified the Association of Teacher Educators
(ATE) and the National Association of Multicultural Education (NAME) as places
where researchers have discussed the work of preparing teachers for culturally
diverse students. For that reason, I have targeted these two organizations as
potential places to present findings from this study.
I would like to seek outside funding
to continue to widen the scope of this study while simultaneously creating a
teaching and learning center to continue to research and disseminate findings
on ways to effectively prepare preservice and in-service teachers to teach the
heterogeneous population of students in today’s classrooms. Ultimately, I would
like to create a Social Justice Teaching, Research and Service Center at SUNY
Cortland and will need outside funding for such a large project. My Faculty
Research Program project, funded this year, was the first step in reaching this
complex goal; this proposed Summer Research Fellowship study is second step
needed to accomplish that objective. I have targeted the National Science
Foundations’ Early Faculty Career Development Program (CAREER) – area of social
sciences. Submissions for this grant are due in the Summer 2007.
References
Allen, J., &
Porter, O. (2002). Teaching about diversity issues. Kappa Delta Pi Record,
38(3), 128-33.
Anderson, J., Reder,
H., & Simon, A. (1998). Radical constructivism and cognitive psychology. In
Brookings papers on education policy: 1998, ed. D. Ravitch, 227-55. Washington,
DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Bogdan, R., &
Biklen, S. (1998). Qualitative research for education: An introduction to
theory and methods (3rd ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Capella-Santana, N.
(2003). Voices of teacher candidates: Positive changes in multicultural
attitudes and knowledge. The Journal of Educational Research, 96(3),
182-90.
Dee, J., &
Henken, A. (2002). Assessing dispositions toward cultural diversity among
preservice teachers. Urban Education, 37(1), 22-40.
Diaz, S., Mole, L.,
& Mehan, H. (1992). Sociocultural resources in instruction: A
contex-specific approach. In California State Department of Education (Ed.),
Beyond language: Social and cultural factors in schooling language minority
students (pp. 187-230). CA: Evaluation, Dissemination and Assessment Center.
Gay, G. &
Howard, T. (2001). Multicultural education for the 21st century. The
Teacher Educator, 36(1), 1-16.
Gay, G., &
Kirkland, K. (2003). Developing cultural critical consciousness and
self-reflection in preservice teacher education. Theory into Practice, 42(3),
181-7.
Heath, S. (1983). Ways
with words: Language, life and work in communities and classrooms. New
York: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge.
Howard, T. (2003).
Culturally relevant pedagogy: Ingredients for critical teacher reflection. Theory
into Practice, 42(3), 195-202.
Johnson, L. 2002).
"My eyes have been opened": White teachers and racial awareness. Journal of Teacher Education, 53 ( 2), 153-167.
Jordan-Irvine, J.
(1992). Making teacher education culturally responsive. In M. Dilworth (Ed.), Diversity
in teacher education: New expectations (pp. 79-92) San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
Krueger, R. & Casey, M. (2000). Focus groups: A practical guide for applied research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Ladson-Billings, G.
(1994). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African American children..
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Ladson-Billings, G.
(1995). Multicultural teacher education: Research, practice and policy. In J.
A. Banks & C. A. McGee Banks (Eds.), Handbook of research on
multicultural education (pp. 747-759). New York: Macmillan.
Lewis, J. (2001).
Social justice, social studies, and social foundations. The Social Studies,
92(5), 189-92.
Middleton, V.
(2002). Increasing preservice teachers' diversity beliefs and commitment. Urban
Review, 34(4), 343-61.
Shade, B., Kelly,
C., & Oberg, M. (1997). Creating
culturally responsive classrooms. Washington, DC: American Psychological
Association.
Shultz, E., Neyhart,
T., Reck, M., & Easter, L. (1996). Uphill all the way: An investigation of
attitudinal predispositions of preservice teachers toward diversity in urban
classrooms. The Teacher Educator, 32, 22-36.
Sleeter, C., &
Grant, C. (1999). Making choices for multicultural education: Five
approaches to race, class and gender (3rd ed.). New York: John
Wiley & Sons.
Villegas, A. (1991).
Culturally responsive pedagogy for the 1990s and beyond. Princeton, NJ:
Educational Testing Services.
Villegas, A. &
Lucas, T. (2002). Educating culturally responsive teachers: A coherent
approach. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Zeichner, K. (2003).
The adequacies and inadequacies of three current strategies to recruit,
prepare, and retain the best teachers for all students. Teachers College
Record, 105(3), 490-519.
Zeichner, K. (1997).
Educating teachers for cultural diversity. In K. Zeichner, S. Melnick, & M.
L. Gomez (Eds.), Currents of reform in preservice teacher education. New
York: Teachers College Press.
Zollers, N., Albert,
L., & Cochran-Smith, M. (2000). In pursuit of social justice: collaborative
research and practice in teacher education. Action in Teacher Education,
22(2), 1-14.