ERIC Number: EJ726968
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2004
Pages: 12
Abstractor: Author
Reference Count: 0
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0022-4871
Cultural Construction Zones
Allen, JoBeth; Hermann-Wilmarth, Jill
Journal of Teacher Education, v55 n3 p214-226 2004
In working with preparatory teachers, we have tried to "place diversity front and center" to help students "see culture" as a prerequisite for culturally responsive teaching. The language arts methods-course students who, like the authors, are White women from middle-or upper-income families, participated in learning opportunities that included writing cultural memoirs, field experiences in diverse settings, and written reflection on the relation between their cultural constructions and those of the students they were teaching. In this article, we turn around the culture question we've pushed the students to consider to ourselves: What are we learning about our students as cultural beings that is helping us prepare them more effectively to be culturally responsive teachers? We identified three areas of growth: We reconstructed our understanding of students as complex cultural beings, of ourselves as privileged teachers of the privileged, and of the nature and relationship of resistance and risk.
Descriptors: Whites, Language Arts, Student Teacher Attitudes, Methods Courses, Preservice Teacher Education, Cultural Pluralism, Student Diversity, Field Experience Programs, Journal Writing, Consciousness Raising, Culturally Relevant Education
SAGE Publications, 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243 (Toll Free); Fax: 800-583-2665 (Toll Free).
Publication Type: Information Analyses; Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers: N/A

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