Beyond Cultural Awareness: Prospective Teachers' Visions of Culturally Responsive Literacy Teaching

Abstract

Preparing prospective teachers to work effectively with culturally diverse students remains an ongoing challenge for literacy teacher educators. Current teacher education practices help prospective literacy teachers to enhance their cultural awareness and sensitivity, but they do not necessarily enable teachers to translate their cultural understandings into culturally responsive literacy instruction. This article explores the concept of vision as a reflective tool for helping prospective teachers articulate their ideals about culturally responsive literacy teaching. Analyses of 20 prospective teachers' visions statements revealed five themes of culturally responsive literacy teaching: Elementary classrooms should serve as literacy communities; literacy teachers should serve as orchestrators within these communities; students should be active community members; learner-centered curriculum is the key to literacy development; and promoting ownership of literacy for diverse students is an essential societal goal. However, analyses also identified two blind spots, which represented conflict and controversy within the preservice teachers' vision statements: Classroom management and parental involvement. Findings from the study suggest that visioning may hold important benefits for preservice literacy teachers and literacy teacher educators who are concerned with providing culturally responsive teaching in elementary classrooms.