<em>Pre-service Teachers’ Perceptions of Culturally Responsive Teacher Preparation</em>

Abstract

Pre-service teachers begin their internship experiences with the intention of helping students advance through the public school system. Over the past few decades, public schools have become more culturally diverse, widening the cultural divide between pre-service teachers and students. Pre-service and new teachers are often unprepared to teach in a school where the students' life experiences are essentially different from their own. Ferguson (2003) argued that not only are the beliefs of teachers typically influenced by race, ethnicity, and social class, but perceptions, expectations, and behaviors probably do help to sustain, and perhaps even to expand, the Black-White test score (p. 495). In an effort to close this gap and serve the educational needs of all children, Banks (2006) supported the notion that every level of education should be substantially reformed and educators must acquire new knowledge and skills (p. xvii). However, pre-service teachers are frequently unclear about how to approach students from diverse backgrounds or they typically avoid discussions about culture and race with students of color (Adams, Bondy & Kuhel, 2005). This is especially evident when new teachers reflect on leading classroom discussions on racial issues, unsure of how to proceed during conversations about culture and other critical activities (Garmon, 2004). In spite of such dilemmas, researchers have shown that pre-service teachers value teaching students from diverse backgrounds and often learn much about themselves in the process (Baldwin, Buchanan & Rudisill, 2007; Villegas, 2008).A major trend in the literature on multicultural teacher educators has been the analysis of strategies for diminishing the cultural boundaries that are present between teachers and students in highly diverse urban environments (Ladson-Billings, 2000; McKenzie & Scheurich, 2004; Nieto, 2000; Sleeter, 2001; Valencia, 2010; Villegas & Lucas, 2002). Breaking down these boundaries, challenges a teacher to recognize the way that culture has informed their beliefs with regard to cultural diversity and their own histories. Ladson-Billings (2000) and Gay and Kirkland (2003) pointed out the importance of this recognition as they emphasize that culture creates and limits the lens through which people look at the world. They also contend that it is significant for teachers to acquire self-knowledge, and challenge their own assumptions and beliefs, in an attempt to gain an understanding of the context within which they teach. More specifically, Burnstein and Cabello, (1989) and McKenzie and Scheurich, (2004) argued that teachers who neglect to accept their constructed consciousness of ethnicity, race, and class will incorrectly characterize some students by their deficits rather than their strengths (Valencia, 2010). In an effort to challenge preexisting ideas that influence teachers' opinions and actions, previous research supports personal reflection and self-evaluation as methods to encourage sociocultural awareness (Burnstein & Cabello, 1989; Gay & Kirkland, 2003; Ladson-Billings, 2000; Villegas, 2008; Villegas & Davis, 2008).Given the reality that Caucasian teachers vastly outnumber teachers of color, candidates can expect that they will teach diverse students populations (Milner, 2006) Previous research has indicated that many pre-service teachers are unsatisfied with their preparation for teaching diverse students (Gay, 2002). The researchers in this study were interested in determining how their teacher candidates viewed culturally responsive teaching and what they believed they needed to help prepare them for teaching non-White, low-income students. Research on pre-service teachers' beliefs about the value of their preparation for teaching low-income, non-White students is limited. University faculty and teacher preparation programs assume that pre-service teachers, and ultimately students in public school classrooms, will demonstrate acceptance, and reflect on their own roles in perpetuating systems of power (Mirra & Morrell, 2011; Valencia, 2010). …