Walking the Talk: Employing Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in Teacher Education

Abstract

Background: Teacher education programs (TEPs) have a mandate to prepare teachers qualified to educate culturally and linguistically diverse student populations. In addition, the demographic imperative compels TEPs to recruit preservice teachers from underrepresented communities; yet, just as youth of color are marginalized in schools, so too are teacher candidates of color (TCCs) marginalized in TEPs. Just as conventional TEP curriculums fail to decenter dominant social groups, so too do many teacher educators fail to enact asset-based pedagogy. A teacher quality gap and culturally rooted disenfranchisement persist. Purpose: I examine how TCCs are prepared to teach critically in demographically pluralistic schools and how one teacher educator of color attempts to close the teacher quality gap with a diverse preservice teacher cohort through the application of culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP). Although asset pedagogies are widely accepted as best practice in P–12 classrooms, there exists a dearth of research on their impact on postsecondary spaces. Moreover, multicultural education scholarship focused on the experiences of TCCs is limited. Research Design: Drawing from a larger critical ethnographic study of two diversity courses in an urban TEP, this article explicates one teacher educator’s application of CRP. I utilize the core tenets of CRP—academic achievement, cultural competence, and sociopolitical consciousness—to bridge the gap between theory and practice through illustrations of intentional critical pedagogy. Data were analyzed from field notes, interviews of students and faculty, course assignments, readings, syllabi, evaluations, and other relevant artifacts. Results: Findings indicate that modeling CRP is paramount to developing culturally relevant pedagogues and that making known the interdependence of CRP’s three fundamental pillars is central to transformative learning experiences for preservice teachers. Although challenging, CRP at the postsecondary level is an achievable endeavor that requires increased faculty innovation, reflexivity, and humility. Conclusion: The project offers practical applications of CRP that are adaptable to most teacher preparation courses. Recommendations include a call for more studies that examine the use of asset-based pedagogies in higher education, especially in TEPs.