Supporting Pre-service Science Teachers in Developing Culturally Relevant Pedagogy
Open Access
Author:
Krajeski, Stephen Edward
Graduate Program:
Curriculum and Instruction
Degree:
Doctor of Philosophy
Document Type:
Dissertation
Date of Defense:
August 29, 2014
Committee Members:
Scott Mc Donald, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor Gregory John Kelly, Committee Member Richard Alan Duschl, Committee Member David P Baker, Special Member
This study employed a case study methodology to investigate a near‐authentic intervention program designed to support the development of culturally relevant pedagogy and its impact on preservice science teachers’ notions of culturally relevant pedagogy. The unit of analysis for this study was the discourse of pre‐service science teachers enrolled in a second semester science methods course, which was the site of the intervention program. Data for this study was collected from videos of classroom observations, audio recordings of personal interviews, and artifacts created by the preservice science teachers during the class.
To determine how effective science teacher certification programs are at supporting the development of culturally relevant pedagogy without an immersion aspect, two research questions were investigated:
1) How do pre‐service science teachers view and design pedagogy while participating in an intervention designed to support the development of culturally relevant pedagogy?
2) How do pre‐service science teachers view the importance of culturally relevant pedagogy for supporting student learning? How do their practices in the field change these initial views?
