Abstract
This paper reports on a qualitative research study that examined how 10 literacy teacher educators (LTEs) utilized children’s literature to invite teacher trainees to critically engage with social issues, challenge their assumptions about literacy, and begin to develop the knowledge and dispositions to work alongside diverse learners (e.g., culturally, linguistically, socio-economically). The LTEs recognized that teacher trainees often entered their literacy courses with restricted conceptions of literacy and deficit assumptions about children from economically marginalized and/or culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Within their courses, the LTEs positioned literacy as a multifaceted social practice, wherein access to a variety of representational resources facilitates the active construction of knowledge and identities. The LTEs modeled instructional strategies and designed assignments that encouraged teacher trainees to use children’s literature as a means to connect with issues relevant to the lives of young learners within contemporary classrooms. This research will be of interest to LTEs who endeavor to use children’s literature as a springboard to support teacher trainees to develop a self-reflective stance and a critical cultural consciousness.
Highlights
Persistent attention has been directed towards a growing cultural gap that exists as the representation of culturally and linguistically diverse learners in contemporary classrooms steadily increases, while the demographic profile of teacher trainees remains fairly homogenous; that is, predominately white, female, and English monolingual [1,2,3,4,5,6]
This paper reports on a qualitative research study, Pedagogy of literacy teacher education: Meeting the challenges of 21st century literacies, that examined the backgrounds, pedagogies, and practices of literacy teacher educators (LTEs) in four countries: Canada, the United States, England and Australia
Inquiring into the pedagogies and practices of LTEs can contribute to our understanding of the role literacy teacher education plays in the lives of beginning teachers
Summary
Persistent attention has been directed towards a growing cultural gap that exists as the representation of culturally and linguistically diverse learners in contemporary classrooms steadily increases, while the demographic profile of teacher trainees remains fairly homogenous; that is, predominately white, female, and English monolingual [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Teacher trainees often enter teacher education with restricted conceptions of literacy and deficit assumptions about students from economically marginalized and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds [10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18] These filters and beliefs can hinder their appreciation of literacy as a multifaceted and dynamic social practice. Cummins [19] notes that even when teachers are positively oriented to students’ diverse languages and cultures, “there are few guidelines or curriculum expectations that specify how they might mobilize [this] diversity to advance students’ overall academic development”
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