An exploration of learning: beginning teachers building knowledge about culture and literacy

The purpose of the study was to explore what and how teachers learn in a course that integrates topics about reading and writing methods for instruction with sociopolitical issues related to culturally responsive education (as advocated by Sleeter, 2001). Eight beginning teachers participated in this qualitative study in which the researcher acted as participant-observer in their teacher education course titled, “Literacy Methods for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students.” Research questions that guided the study inquired what and how do the teachers learn. In-class observations and field notes, class artifacts, out-of-class focus group transcripts, and individual interviews provided data for inductive and deductive analyses (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Strauss & Corbin, 1991). Conceptual modeling was used to represent the teachers’ cognitive processing of course related information (Britt, 1997). Two case studies offer individualized accounts of the learning process. Findings indicate that teachers’ learning began with dialogic echoing of course-related ideas and could proceed as teachers integrated those ideas within their own conceptions about culture, literacy, relational connections, and equitable educational opportunities, and conceptual mapping shows how this cognitive process took place. Study findings also suggest that learning takes place when sources for knowledge are acknowledged and accepted by learners and when those sources are the subject of response and cognitive tension and/or integration. Viewing learning as a developmental process as well as an on-going, reciprocal process of understanding aided in the examination and description of data. Further examination of courses integrating methods instruction and socio-political agendas is necessary