Teaching that repositions the cultures, languages, and literacies of non-dominant communities, including working poor communities, indigenous communities, and communities of color, as resources and assets to value. These pedagogies work to move beyond supporting acquisition of dominant white middle class culture, language, and literacy skills and values to affirm and extend other ways of acting and being in schools.
Published in Chapter:
Embedding Diverse Children's Literature Throughout a Teacher Preparation Program
Amy Tondreau (Austin Peay State University, USA) and Zachary T. Barnes (Austin Peay State University, USA)
Copyright: © 2021
|Pages: 24
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-7375-4.ch025
Abstract
This chapter explores the incorporation of diverse children's literature into a teacher preparation program, both in and beyond a required Literature for Children course. With the aim of cultivating positive reading identities for pre-service teachers, the authors focus on the process for implementing changes to build a culture of reading, so that pre-service teachers identify as life-long readers, and specifically readers who understand the importance of diverse texts. Changes to curriculum in writing, social studies, and special education methods courses are described, as is the creation of a college-wide book club. The goal of embedding children's literature in and across teacher preparation programs is for pre-service teachers to feel prepared to bring these texts into their own classrooms and to facilitate discussions on the topics that these texts raise with their students, administrative team, and parents. In order to do this, teacher educators need to provide ample opportunities for students to practice selecting, analyzing, and discussing diverse children's literature.