Bridging the Cultural Gap: One Teacher Education Program's Response to Preparing Culturally Responsive Teachers

E very moment of every day, teachers’ personalities, preferences, judgments, values, and abilities are on display. Their classrooms are filled with children who possess unique personalities and capabilities, children who may be quite different from themselves in many ways. The teacher’s challenge in today’s current education dimate is “to see each student as a growing, dynamic, developing, stretching beingfellow human creature-with s+c needs and demands and hopes and desires and potentials” (Ayers, 1995, p. 2). Teachers must respond to each child M y and &Iy, seeing promises rather than deficits. They must establish classroom environments that challenge and nurture diverse groups of students. They must strive to create classrooms and schools that am fit fbr all children-places characterized not only by content knowledge and accountability, but also by peace and justice. “In the United States, the population of students of color reached 30% in 1990,34% in 1994,40% in 2002, and will continue to increase throughout the 21st century. At the same time, whites represent 90% of public school teachers, a figure that will remain high or possibly grow in the next few decades” (Howard, 2006, p. 4). At Georgia College & State University, the number of white teacher candidates who are enrolled in the early chiidhood education program has continued to increase, now having reached over 95%, while the Georgia elementary school population is represented by 45% white, 37% black, 11% Hispanic, and 6% other (Georgia Department of Education, 20 10). Teacher educators at this small public liberal arts university have been seeking ways to prepare teachers who will be comfortable and confident in acknowledging and confronting differences, rather than remaining silent in the fice of racism, discrimination, and social injustice. Through our research, we have found that it is imperative fbr teacher educators to acknowledge and understand the impact of the disparity in cultural connections between the growing number of white teachers and the diverse student population. As a rcsult of our effbrts, significant changes have been made within our early childhood education program. This article describes how the f i n e from our research have influenced not only how we approach the cultivation of cultural awareness and sensitivity through speufic strategies, such as the creation of dtural collages, the exploration of autobiographical mots, and the examination of multicultural chiidreds literature, but also how the concepts of narrative imagination and critical literacy are used to create an environment that encourages teacher candidates to take risks as they approach complicated issues s ~ roundmg the many facets of diversity. Building upon our university’s unique two-year, field-based program, we have developed and implemented experiences that focus on cultivating cultural awareness, being w i U i i to question and challenge stereotypes, exploring cultural mots, developing empathy and compassion for others, recognizing white power and privilege, finding opportunities to engage in meaningfd conversations about topics of diversity, and gaining the ability to view texts and social constructions with a critical eye. Because we recognize that each teacher candidate comes to us with a unique set of life experiences, values, and cultural norms, the sequence of these experiences is very purposeful and attempts to provide a structure within which each individual teacher candidate can progress in her own development of cultural responsiveness and sensitivity to diversity. Ultimately, our goal is to help teacher candidates provide students with multiple entry points for learning and a wide range of pathways for success. Education then becomes a n avenue for opening doors, challenging minds, and oaring possibilities to young children.