Preferred Name
Kayla Schroeder
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Date of Graduation
5-7-2020
Semester of Graduation
Spring
Degree Name
Master of Education (MEd)
Department
Department of Educational Foundations and Exceptionalities
Second Advisor
Ruth Bosch
Third Advisor
Katya Koubek
Fourth Advisor
Ashley Taylor Jaffee
Abstract
Each year, elementary classrooms in the United States become increasingly culturally diverse, yet teachers of these classroom remain primarily White and female. While most teacher education programs require pre-service teachers to enroll in at least one course related to diversity education, many of these future educators do not feel adequately prepared to teach students who hold different identities or life experiences. In a qualitative analysis of class observations, participant submitted coursework, and individualized interviews, this case study sought to explore how four White cisgender female pre-service elementary teachers applied knowledge from one undergraduate diversity course to topics of identity, power, and privilege—both in relation to the self and in relation to the (future) student. Primarily through self-reflective practices, participants of this study were able to determine that identity development is a continual process; identity markers can contribute to “single story” stereotypes and different life experiences found at intersections of multiple identities; history plays a role in identity, power, and privilege; privilege and power can be complex and difficult to navigate within personal and professional identities; and there are additional factors within student identity that play a role in classrooms such as parental influence, background knowledge, and various external influences. Ultimately, this study contributes insight on the instruction of culturally responsive teaching and pedagogy in undergraduate diversity courses as well as adds to White teacher identity studies, which calls for a more complex understanding of who an individual is in terms of both self and the teacher.
Included in
Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons, Elementary Education and Teaching Commons
