Using Multicultural Children's Literature to Address Sociocultural and Political Issues in Teacher Education

Abstract

Stories used for discussion and analysis in teacher education courses are known as teaching cases, and the pedagogical practice that employs teaching cases in teacher education is known as case method instruction. The use of story in teacher education has emerged as an effective strategy to help teachers understand the dimensions of their role in the classroom. This process of reading, listening, questioning, and responding to a story about instructional practice can create the foundation for initiating social action in a classroom setting. The primary objective of this study was to examine the viability of using multicultural children's literature as teaching cases with K-12 teachers to support their efforts to construct a knowledge base for working effectively with children from diverse cultural, linguistic, and/or socioeconomic backgrounds.