Supporting Preservice Teachers of Color in Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

While learning how to become culturally and critically conscious educators and advocates for their PK-12 students, racially minoritized preservice teachers often feel isolated. More research is needed to learn how teacher preparation programs could consistently empower rather than isolate preservice teachers of color as they engage in coursework involving culturally relevant pedagogy. This study focused on the experiences of preservice teachers of color engaging in culturally relevant pedagogy coursework in a K-12 teacher preparation program at a predominately White institution. In partnership with this teacher preparation program, one current preservice teachers of color, five former alumni of color, and three faculty members of this program were recruited to share their experiences and curricular artifacts connected with curriculum related to culturally relevant pedagogy. A phenomenological case study approach with elements of Community-Based Research methods was used to collect data and analyze these interviews and artifacts. The findings of this study support the need not only for a more robust but also a differentiated integration of culturally relevant pedagogy into the coursework. Preservice teachers of color also seem to desire more supports in connecting with other educators of color. Teacher preparation programs serving preservice teachers of color at predominantly White institutions might consider ways to more consistently integrate differentiated culturally relevant pedagogy while providing community support and addressing potential threats for preservice teachers of color. These findings and recommendations are shared with the goal of not only co-developing next steps for this teacher preparation program but also supporting other programs striving to provide more equitable culturally relevant instruction for their preservice teachers of color.