Prelims

Half Title Page

SCHOOLING MULTICULTURAL TEACHERS

Title Page

SCHOOLING MULTICULTURAL TEACHERS

A Guide for Program Assessment and Professional Development

BY

MANYA C. WHITAKER

Colorado College, USA

KRISTINA M. VALTIERRA

Colorado College, USA

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2019

Copyright © 2019 Manya C. Whitaker and Kristina M. Valtierra. Published under an exclusive licence.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-78769-720-1 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-78769-717-1 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-78769-719-5 (Epub)

List of Figures and Tables

List of Acronyms

About the Authors

Dr. Manya Whitaker is an Associate Professor of Education at Colorado College. She is a developmental educational psychologist with expertise in social and political issues in education. Her research examines the stability of teachers’ diversity-related belief systems across time and settings, and how those beliefs can be intentionally disrupted and re-structured through teacher training. In addition to founding Blueprint Educational Strategies, an educational consulting business, she is also the author of Learning from the Inside-Out: Child Development and School Choice and co-editor of Counternarratives from Women of Color Academics : Bravery, Vulnerability, and Resistance.

Dr. Kristina Valtierra is an Assistant Professor of Education at Colorado College. A scholar-practitioner, she spent over 15 years as a classroom teacher, instructional coach, and educational consultant. Her expertise is in literacy, curriculum and instruction with an emphasis on inclusive studies. Her research examines urban teacher preparation with focus on promoting teacher reflection, teacher identity, and teacher thrival. She is the author of Teach and Thrive: Wisdom from an Urban Teachers Career Narrative and two-time recipient of the American Association for Teaching and Curriculum (AATC) distinguished article award for her scholarship on teacher identity formation.

About the Contributors

María L. Gabriel, Ph.D., has worked as a PK-12 bilingual multicultural educator in public education since 1997 focused on increasing access and opportunity for diverse students through culturally sustaining practices with students, families, and educators. Her research interests include Latinx student achievement, culturally responsive pedagogy, and educational equity.

Acelynn Perkins is a home-grown early career teacher from Denver, Colorado. Her professional passions center around dismantling educational inequities through critical pedagogy for students and teachers of color. Acelynn earned a BA in Education from Colorado College and is currently pursuing her MA in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Denver.

Foreword

I was born in South America and raised in Colorado in a conservative White community where I attended all White schools. By the time I reached junior high, I’d experienced racial microaggressions and outright bias, prejudice, and discrimination. These experiences continued throughout high school and into college where I was consistently asked to represent the “Latino perspective.” I wish that my teachers and professors had held the dispositions for social justice that are described in this text, so they could have addressed racial incidents when they occurred. I wanted them to demonstrate a disposition for community through which they would leverage my differences as assets rather than making me feel alienated for my cultural norms. If my White teachers would have had a disposition for praxis, including a willingness to critically examine their own identities, they may have recognized how they were prioritizing their cultural perspectives over mine. Such multicultural teachers were few and far between in my education, yet I persevered in hopes of creating a more equitable and just education for future generations of diverse youth.

I started my educational career in 1997 as a bilingual support secretary in a bilingual elementary school. I quickly grew to realize that while I could sit at a front desk and support families in navigating White spaces, I wanted to learn how to change the education system to be more culturally inclusive; to create more access and opportunity; for each child to experience culturally relevant curriculum and instructional practices that mirrored who they were and how they operated in the world.

I continued my career as a Hispanic Youth Advocate, an Equity and Diversity Coordinator, an Assistant Principal, and currently as a Director of Language, Culture, and Equity in Colorado school districts. Throughout my 22-year career as a public educator committed to educational equity, access, and opportunity, I’ve remained adamant that educators be prepared to address the unique and important aspects of students’ diversity in their teaching. I have worked to develop culturally competent White teachers by creating opportunities for them to uncover their personal values, attitudes, and beliefs about their culturally and linguistically diverse students. Yet, despite my heartfelt and passionate efforts, I lacked strong resources to guide my work. That is what this important text offers: guidance.

Schooling Multicultural Teachers: A Guide for Program Assessment and Professional Development is based on the Dispositions for Culturally Responsive Pedagogy Scale (DCRPS) – a scale that measures educators’ beliefs, values, and attitudes about multicultural teaching. First, Drs. Whitaker and Valtierra create a strong rationale for the use of the scale in program assessment and professional development by building explicit connections to the historical and contemporary multicultural education context within the United States. Second, they demonstrate how the DCRPS can be used as a tool for program evaluation. Third, and most relevant to my own professional work, this important book serves as a guide for preservice and in-service teacher development that builds on teachers’ identified strengths.

My current position is in a rural Colorado district where 39% of our students are eligible to participate in the free and reduced lunch program, 27% are students of color – most of whom are Latinx (21%), and 5% are English language learners. I see many commonalities between my school district and the rural schools featured in Chapter 10 wherein the authors detail a customized two-year professional development for teachers with a strong sense of community, but a weaker understanding of social justice. Like many districts in the United States, the academic achievement gaps between our White students and our students of color are persistent. As my current position is new, I plan to use the DCRPS to measure staff readiness to approach equity work based on their personal dispositions for multicultural teaching. Once our equity work is underway, taking cues from part 2, I will use the DCRPS for program evaluation and improvement. After our district has increased our capacity to engage with difference, I can envision adapting many of the exercises that Drs. Whitaker and Valtierra feature in part 3 to develop culturally conscious multicultural teachers. Finally, in my role as president of Colorado’s state chapter of the National Association for Multicultural Education, I look forward to inviting other equity specialists around the state to utilize this text to facilitate professional development and future program evaluation in their own districts, be them urban, suburban, or rural.

I am happy to make such a recommendation because this book provides an opportunity for school leaders to enhance their educators’ efficacy for equitable teaching. This is a resource many of us in the field of multicultural education have been anxiously awaiting so that we can support our teachers in educating some of our nation’s most vulnerable students.

María L. Gabriel

Acknowledgments

Dr. Manya C. Whitaker

This book is one of those projects that you stumble upon and can’t quite believe happened. I have never been a classroom teacher so I never saw myself writing a book for education practitioners, but I did, largely because of others’ belief in me.

First, I want to thank my research partner, Dr. Kristina Valtierra for her positive attitude, quick laughter, and deep knowledge of qualitative methods. I am not really a ‘teamwork’ kind of person, but she makes it easy and fun. I couldn’t ask for a better colleague, collaborator, or friend.

But when I leave work, it is my partner, Dr. Michael Sawyer who reminds me to take a breath, relax, and stand firmly in the fact that I have something to offer the world. He is my rock and my source of calm, and my biggest inspiration.

To my grandmother and father – both teachers – you instilled in me a desire to effect and affect change in the most beautiful way possible. So here I am, a third-generation teacher, walking in the footsteps of giants.

I also have to recognize the dozens of students, past and present, who joyfully participate in our research, allowing us to dissect their papers, grill them with questions, and sit in the back of their classrooms while typing feverishly. Every time I send another data request I am reminded of your generous spirits that led you all into a selfless profession.

Finally, I must acknowledge my past research assistants for their integral work in helping develop the DCRPS. Samantha Ellner: thank you for the extensive research and review of other scales, for designing pilot measures, conducting focus groups, and for administering online surveys. I hope your work on this project helped you prepare for your own research career. To JJ Calhoun: we are forever in your debt for your deep thinking and willingness to push us outside of our ideological comfort zones.

And to all public school teachers: you are amazing. Thank you for taking care of our kids.

Dr. Kristina M. Valtierra

Early in my career as a frazzled elementary school teacher, there were some exceptional multicultural educators who sustained me. These courageous change-agents instilled hope that despite ideologies and policies that perpetuate educational inequities, teachers can – and do – transform lives. As such, my utmost gratitude goes to teachers. Thank you for your dedication, courage, resilience, and contributions to social justice.

I am indebted to my research partner Dr. Manya Whitaker who inspires me as a revered teacher, distinguished scholar, respected leader, and steadfast advocate for young people. Without her expertise in psychology and survey design (& editing!), this book would not exist. We complement each other in important ways. I am blessed to have you as a colleague and friend.

Thank you to our education students for being gracious research participants and open to vulnerability, interrogation, and renegotiation of their ideologies to enact educational equity. Your commitment, humility, passion, and love keep me going. I owe special gratitude to my research assistants: Andy Rivas, Acelynn Perkins, and Thuy Dang. Each of you contributed to qualitative data collection and analysis. Your insights enlightened this project. A special shout out to Acelynn for her partnership in what became Chapter 5. Ace, as a determined new teacher and emerging scholar, you sustain my hope.

Thank you to Dr. María Gabriel for contributing the compelling foreword to this book and your unwavering commitment to multicultural education. And, Dr. Mike Taber, chair of our education program, I am appreciative for your generous spirit, mentorship and making our department a place of thrival.

Most importantly, this book would not exist without my loving spouse Micheal and our three boys Myles, Carter, and Marcus – the lights of my life. I am forever inspired by your encouragement, patience when I sneak out to write, and witty humor that brightens my days. Micheal, over the years you have made many sacrifices to support my vocation. My faithful life partner, this accomplishment is not mine alone – it’s ours.