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Preparing Urban Teachers as Public Professionals through a University-Community Partnership.

2010; Volume: 37; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

0737-5328

Cynthia Onore, Bonny L. Gildin,

Diverse Educational Innovations Studies

It has been recognized for many years that preparing teachers for high-need urban schools is a challenge requiring a reexamination of education program structures and content. Robert Farls, for example, writing in 1969, made a number of suggestions that sound remarkably contemporary. Among them are recommendations to increase fieldwork in the schools, require coursework in comparative culture, offer coursework on-site in schools, and study human relations, psychology, and the history of the civil rights movement (p. 411). His central concern is developing teachers' capacities to work effectively with poor children of color. Though his language is different, many of Farls' recommendations have found expression in current urban preparation initiatives. Deepening and enriching the of urban teaching candidates for working with a diverse student body has become a central tenet of preparation programs (Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005). Coursework that attempts to develop new teachers' perspectives on diversity and multiculturalism as assets rather than deficits has been woven into preparation curricula (Banks, 1994; Banks, & Banks, 2004; Banks & Banks, 2010; Grant & Sleeter, 2007; Ladsen-Billings, 1995; Nieto, 2007), while the application of multicultural insights and affirming attitudes towards diversity can be found in the study of culturally responsive teaching practices (Banks, et al, 2001; Gay, 2000; Irvine, 2003; Ladsen-Billings, 2001; Villegas & Lucas, 2002). Taken together, such coursework offers opportunities for preservice teachers to generate new about and appreciation of diverse cultures and communities and support deep examination of their own beliefs and assumptions. At the same time, it provides them with frameworks for developing pedagogy and curriculum for educational equity and cross cultural competency, a commitment both emotional and intellectual, to appreciate difference while recognizing the fundamental unity of all humans (McAllister & Jordan-Irvine, 2000). Recognizing that academic course work alone, no matter how transformative its intentions, may be insufficient to educate teachers of diverse students, courses of study for urban preparation have made of family, home, and integral to teaching and learning. A funds of knowledge approach (Gonzalez, Moll & Amanti, 2005; Moll & Gonzalez, 2004), for example, adds a critical element to developing cross cultural competence by making explicit how the and skills of families and communities can be brought to bear in teaching learners from underrepresented groups. Such an approach helps teachers establish ties between home and school that can greatly enrich student achievement. A more robust form of community-based learning combines service learning and diversity education to create multicultural service learning through which preservice teachers not only learn about the assets of students' home communities but also about community-defined needs (Boyle-Baise, 2002; Boyle-Baise & Grant, 2000; Boyle-Baise & Sleeter, 2000; Carter-Andrews, 2009; Grineski, 2003). Combined with ethnographic inquiry and action research, these kinds of field experiences can help teachers to interrogate and modify their beliefs and assumptions and even to understand their work as part of an explicit social justice agenda that privileges access to and equitable education over individual, meritocratic success (Hyland & Nofke, 2005; Tiezzi & Cross, 1997). Each of these efforts can contribute to educating the community teacher (Murrell, 2001), one who can draw on a richly contextualized of culture, community, and identity (p. 4). Despite progress in urban preparation over the past forty years, concerns still remain about transforming programs and practices in order to affect teachers' capacities to work with culturally diverse communities. …