NCCRESt

part of the Education Reform Networks

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Teacher Characteristics

• But That's Just Good Teaching! The Case for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy
  Describes the centrality of culturally relevant pedagogy to academic success for minority students who are poorly served in public schools, discussing linkages between school and culture, examining the theoretical grounding of culturally relevant teaching in the context of a study of successful teachers of black students. Provides examples of culturally relevant teaching practices.
• Culturally Responsive Teaching for American Indian Learners
  Teachers in a multicultural society need to respect cultural differences, know the cultural resources their students bring to class, and be skilled at tapping into learners' cultural resources in the teaching-learning process. They must believe that all students are capable of learning, and they must implement an enriched curriculum for all students.
• Equity Pedagogy: An Essential Component of Multicultural Education
  Equity pedagogy involves teaching strategies and environments that help diverse students attain necessary knowledge, skills, and attitudes for functioning effectively within a just, democratic society. The article examines how equity pedagogy interacts with other dimensions of multicultural education (content integration, knowledge construction process, prejudice reduction, and social structure).
• Integrating the Arts: Renaissance and Reformation in Arts Education
  Asserts that the general educational curriculum tends to be fragmented and compartmentalized and that this situation would be improved by curriculum integration. Argues that an interdisciplinary arts approach would require new teacher attitudes and instructional strategies.
• Predictors of Success in Urban Teaching: Analyzing Two Paradoxical Cases
  Uses case-study methods to compare the urban field-teaching experience of two undergraduate teacher-education students. Identifies factors that contributed to one student teacher's success and the other's failure.
• Sharing the Responsibility: A Study of a Comprehensive Approach to Teacher Preparation for Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in Urban Middle Level Schools
  Examined effectiveness of a teacher education program emphasizing skills and knowledge needed in multicultural, multilingual urban middle school settings. Found that candidates were already culturally/linguistically sensitive, and became more so during the program; felt prepared to meet student needs; and still had difficulty envisioning the "practice" of these new teaching methods.
• Teachers of Gifted Students: Suggested Multicultural Characteristics and Competencies
  This article discusses desired characteristics and competencies in teachers of gifted students who are culturally, ethnically, or linguistically diverse. These include: culturally relevant pedagogy, equity pedagogy, a holistic teaching philosophy, a communal philosophy, respect for students' primary language, culturally congruent instructional practices, culturally sensitive assessment, student-family-teacher relationships, and teacher diversity.
• Telling Their Side of the Story: African-American Students' Perceptions of Culturally Relevant Teaching
  Examined African American elementary school students' interpretations of culturally relevant teachers within urban contexts. Student responses indicated that culturally relevant teaching strategies had a positive effect on student effort and engagement in class content.
• The Culturally Competent Art Educator
  Focuses on the importance of preparing teachers to be culturally competent art educators, addresses the qualities of a culturally competent teacher, delineates Mazrui's seven functions of culture, and explores how to comprehend multicultural practice. Discusses how teachers can acquire cultural knowledge through literature, films and videos, and museums and galleries.
• The Normal School and Some of Its Abnormalities: Community Influences on Anti-Racist Multicultural Education Developments
  Identifies external communities of interest, among other factors, affecting secondary-level anti-racist multicultural education, analyzing schools' representations of their cultural characteristics to different communities of interest for different purposes. Concludes that schools must adopt more principled, explicit, organizational learning strategies in order to gain support for anti-racist multicultural education school improvements from their communities of interest.