Developing Pre-Service Teachers: A Social Justice Approach for Educating Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students

Abstract

In this article, we describe a dissertation in practice (DiP) conducted by the first author. The DiP focused on a social justice issue—providing pre-service teachers with highly effective preparation for working with culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students. As part of the article, interludes have been inserted prior to each major section of the article. These interludes have been used to discuss the thinking and research processes that were considered as the DiP unfolded in a program that employed an action research approach. The intervention was multi-faceted including teaching about orientations toward CLD students, providing pre-service teachers with pedagogical knowledge and skills, and employing a Community of Practice-based, service-learning approach. Quantitative and qualitative results from the study indicated pre-service teachers increased their knowledge, self-efficacy, and projected use of culturally responsive pedagogy. Discussion focused on connecting results to the literature, implications for practice and research, and extensions to current work.