Journal Article

Collaborating with Urban Youth to Address Gaps in Teacher Education

Rodriguez, Louie F., Brown, Tara M.

2017

Overview

Introduction Research shows that many of the predominantly White and middle-class teachers are unprepared to teach an urban public school population increasingly comprised of low-income children of color. Lack of cultural competencies, low expectations of and lack of caring for students, and racial/ethnic, linguistic, and class biases are all cited as barriers to the success of teachers in urban schools (Bollin, 2007; Brown & Rodríguez, 2009; Howard & Milner, 2014; Rodríguez, 2012; Williams, 2013), and as this and other studies suggest, these barriers are not limited to White teachers (Conchas, 2001; Lynn, Bacon, Totten, Bridges, & Jennings, 2010; Whitney, 2009). [...]teacher education programs have been charged with helping pre-service teachers to develop the competencies they need to effectively teach, particularly, low-income children from urban communities-a difficult task for which many teacher education programs have neither adequate commitment nor expertise (Brown, Clark, & Bridges, 2012; Gorski, 2012; Paulson & Marchant, 2012; Raible & Irizarry, 2010). Adding to these difficulties is the relative isolation of teacher education programs from the urban communities that many oftheir pre-service teachers will one day serve. Rather than developing such complex and vital understandings, many teacher education programs focus almost exclusively on technical skill-building (i.e., lesson planning, instructional methods, and behavioral management) (Bartolomé, 2002; Gorski, 2012; Rodríguez, 2013). Specifically, we examine how, within these projects, negative perceptions about low-income Black and Latino youth among some pre-service teachers were revealed through their direct engagement with these young people and how this helped us, as teacher educators, to better...

• Publisher: Caddo Gap Press
• Subject: Achievement tests / Action Research / African American Students / At Risk Students / Attitude Change / Barriers / Beginning Teachers / Brazilian literature / Caring / Children / Children & youth / Collaboration / College Students / Consciousness Raising / Cultural Awareness / Education / Educational Quality / Educational Research / Ethnicity / Freire, Paulo (1921-1997) / High School Students / Hispanic American Students / Intervention / Interviews / Knowledge / Language Usage / Low Income Groups / Methods / Middle class / Minority Group Students / Multiculturalism & pluralism / Nontraditional Education / Participatory Research / Pedagogy / Preservice Teachers / Qualitative research / Quality of education / Race / Racial Bias / Research Methodology / Researchers / School discipline / Secondary school students / Secondary schools / Segregation / Social Bias / Standardized Tests / Student Attitudes / Student Diversity / Student teachers / Teacher Competencies / Teacher education / Teacher Education Programs / Teacher Educators / Teacher Effectiveness / Teacher Expectations of Students / Teacher-student relations / Teaching methods / Urban Areas / Urban schools / Urban youth / Whites