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<p dir="ltr">American society’s increase in ethnic textures, interracial tension, immigrants, religion, gender, disability, ability, and students who speak languages other than English as their first language prolongs the pedagogical challenges teachers encounter in the classroom due to diversity. This study explored the experiences of secondary social studies teachers as curricular-instructional gatekeepers implementing culturally responsive pedagogy in times of socio-political tensions in the United States. The teacher as curricular-instructional gatekeeper framework guided this research. By adopting a qualitative multiple-case study, I utilized interviews with four teachers, two hundred hours of classroom observation, and document analysis as data sources. The findings revealed that the social studies gatekeepers’ culturally responsive practices amidst the present socio-political tensions included exposing diverse perspectives to diverse students, leveraging culturally diverse learners’ lived experiences, diversifying instructional methodologies for diverse learners, and confronting stereotypes in a culturally diverse classroom. Moreover, I discovered that present happenings influence culturally responsive practices by presenting difficulty in exposing specific topics to diverse learners, limiting classroom participation for responsive teaching, increasing workload in planning responsive lessons, and becoming a better teacher in a culturally diverse classroom. I recommend that further research should be conducted to explore the role of teacher education programs in preparing pre-service or in-service teachers to implement culturally responsive practices, how the multiple identities of in-service social studies teachers interplay to influence their implementation of culturally responsive practices, and how professional development training offered to in-service social studies teachers prepare them to implement culturally responsive practices amidst the growing legislation in the United States.</p>

School cultures, curriculum, and instruction are too often created through a monocultural lens, which excludes Black and Latino/a/x students both socially and academically, and perpetuates the false notion that these students are inherently less capable of achieving academic success when compared to their White counterparts. This is visible across all content areas, but especially in secondary science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) classes, which means that our Black and Latino/a/x students are continually denied preparation for the critical, high demand careers in the STEM field. Just as critical, with the dominance of White teachers in the classroom, out Black and Latino/a/x students often do not have access to teachers who share their lived experiences or who understand the nuances of their home cultures. However, teachers and school instructional leaders can change course by focusing their efforts to develop a rich cultural consciousness, and by focusing on the utilization of culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) and related instructional strategies with great intentionality in the classroom. This mixed method, single site, exploratory case study was conducted to examine Black and Latino/a/x students' perceptions of their culturally responsive STEM teachers' cultural consciousness, and culturally responsive STEM teachers' perceptions of culturally responsive practices and their Black and Latino/a/x academic abilities. The results provide a clear discrepancy between STEM teacher and Black and Latino/a/x student perspectives that emphasizes a tension between them. This tension must be further explored and highlights a critical need for STEM specific professional development that encompasses both culturally responsive practices and opportunities to develop a critical consciousness.

Ethical respect for others is central to culturally-responsive teaching. While a variety of research in higher education has examined the use of narratives to foster ethical respect for different cultural groups, there has been little research on using narratives to foster an ethical respect for people with disabilities. Two questions informed this study: (1) What kinds of disability narratives are available? and (2) What kinds of narratives are used in pre-professional education? Question 1 was addressed by drawing on an examination of the scholarship of other culturally adjacent categories and content analysis conducted on the descriptions of a small sample of seventeen disability-related narratives from across a wide range, for example graphic novels, and fiction such as kid-lit, young adult lit, and adult literature and so on. That analysis established that the historically dominant framing of disability is the pathography, a narrative that focuses on medical diagnoses, problematizes disability and focuses on reductive limitations. Two genres speak to the dominant pathologized framing: inclusion literature and illness narratives. Two counter-narratives embody what it is to experience the body/mind with this particular disability: somebody narratives which are written by individuals with disabilities, and caregiver narratives which discuss the proximate lived experience of an intimate, ally, or caregiver. Within these four classes of narratives, 16 discrete sub-genres were identified as a proposed disability-genre taxonomy. Question 2 was addressed by an employing the genre taxonomy to examine of a sample of nine syllabi and 98 narratives from courses designed for pre-professionals in the field of disability. Two additional subgenres were identified for a total of 17 discrete subgenres. Analysis revealed that narratives appear to be chosen on the basis of authors’ lived experience of disability. Of the seventeen possible genres from which to choose, 80% of the narratives were of one of four genres: endure accept or accommodate illness narratives, protest narratives, liberatory narratives, and self-revealing narratives. Understanding the range of disability-related genres that are available and used will allow researchers to do more nuanced analyses of how narratives are taken up by pre-professionals, will allow professors to make more informed decisions about their curricular choices, and presents new models by which professionals can encourage self-narrative texts written by individuals with disabilities. / Educational Leadership

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Margaret G. Shroyer / Complex social, racial, economic, and political issues involved in the practice of teaching today require beginning teachers to be informed, skilled, and culturally responsive when entering the classroom. Teacher educators must educate future teachers in ways that will help them teach all children regardless of language, cultural background, or prior knowledge. The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) novice teachers described and demonstrated culturally responsive teaching strategies using their students’ cultural and academic profiles to inform practice in science and mathematics instruction. This qualitative exploratory case study considered the culturally responsive teaching practices of 12, non-traditional, Latina/o students as they progressed through a distance-based collaborative teacher education program. Qualitative techniques used throughout this exploratory case study investigated cultural responsiveness of these student teachers as they demonstrated their abilities to: a) integrate content and construct knowledge; b) illustrate social justice and prejudice reduction; and c) develop students academically during science and mathematics instruction. In conclusion, student teachers participating in this study demonstrated their ability to integrate content by: (1) including content from other cultures, (2) building positive teacher-student relationships, and (3) holding high expectations for all students. They also demonstrated their ability to facilitate knowledge construction by building on what students knew. Since there is not sufficient data to support the student teachers’ abilities to assist students in learning to be critical, independent thinkers who are open to other ways of knowing, no conclusions regarding this subtheme could be drawn. Student teachers in this study illustrated prejudice reduction by: (1) using native language support to assist students in learning and understanding science and math content, (2) fostering positive student-student interactions, and (3) creating a safe learning environment. Results also indicated that these student teachers demonstrated their ability to develop students academically by creating opportunities for learning in the classroom through their knowledge of students and by the use of research-based instructional strategies. However, based on the data collected as part of this study, the student teachers’ abilities to illustrate or model social justice during science and math instruction were not demonstrated.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Secondary Education / Jacqueline D. Spears / Moses & Cobb (2001) argue that algebra is a “civil right” and assert that limited algebraic understanding has an unfavorable impact on African American students’ entry into post-secondary education. Gay (2000) outlines six pedagogical methods, known as culturally responsive teaching (CRT), which emphasize the importance of teachers creating learning environments that relate to the personal experiences and cultural perspectives of minority students. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) prescribes five process standards (communication, problem solving, connections, representation, and reasoning and proof) and the Equity Principle (includes setting high expectations, responding to the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students, and providing support) for effective mathematics instruction. CRT, the NCTM Process Standards, and the NCTM Equity Principle served as the conceptual framework for this mixed-method study. Thirty-four teachers from two elementary and two middle schools in one school district in the Midwest responded to The Powell Teaching Mathematics Index (PTMI), a five-option Likert survey that explored teachers’ current “use” and “desire” to use CRT methods, NCTM process standards, NCTM Equity Principle, and teachers’ personal efficacy in learning and teaching mathematics in general and in algebra. Results from the PTMI revealed that teachers had a “desire” to use CRT in mathematics with AA students (M=4.41, SD=0.70); and although there was more variance among respondents, teachers also reported a “desire” to use process standards in algebra with AA students (M=3.94, SD=1.03). One bivariate correlation revealed a relationship between “use” of process standards in general and “efficacy” (r =0.681, p[less than or equal to]0.01). Eight volunteer teachers participated in a professional development workshop on CRT and integrated one of the six pedagogical methods into their classrooms for one month. Teachers reported “strengths” from the implementation phase as: increased student engagement, transition from teacher-directed to student-directed learning and an increase in student confidence in mathematics. Implementation “strains” were reported as: a time consuming process, difficulty in providing individual attention and an increase in classroom noise level. Findings have implications for teacher education programs, local school district and teacher networks.

This report addresses the importance of multicultural education in early childhood classrooms as well as three essential practices for early childhood educators who value multicultural perspectives. The early childhood classroom is the first place in which children develop their identities and recognize cultural differences. Multicultural education can offer opportunities for children to value and understand cultural diversity as they have more experiences outside of their homes and neighborhoods. While there are many kinds of practices that support a multicultural perspective, this paper focuses on three multicultural practices that early childhood educators can incorporate in their classrooms in order to create authentic multicultural classrooms and to promote multiculturalism. The three practices are 1) integrating culturally relevant pedagogy/culturally responsive teaching, 2) understanding multicultural families, and 3) pursuing social justice. These practices can help early childhood educators better understand multicultural students and families and have more meaningful interactions and partnership opportunities with them. / text

This session will provide a framework for assisting culturally and linguistically diverse students with moderate-severe intellectual disability. Strategies for general curriculum access, academic instruction, meaningful collaboration with families and educators, as well as suggestions for enhancing postsecondary outcomes will be provided. . 1. Participants will identify components of the proposed culturally responsive framework (universal design for learning, self-determination, safe learning environments, technology, multiple opportunities to respond, primary language support, integration of culture in learning, and systematic/explicit instruction) to assist CLD students with moderate-severe ID in the preparation of postsecondary opportunities. 2. Participants will summarize strategies to increase parental involvement during academic and transition planning. 3. Participants will identify various postsecondary opportunities that exist nationwide for students with moderate-severe ID.