Date Approved

2-18-2020

Embargo Period

2-26-2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A. Reading Education

Department

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Education

College

College of Education

Advisor

Madden, Marjorie

Committee Member 1

Lee, Valarie

Committee Member 2

Browne, Susan

Subject(s)

Culturally relevant pedagogy; Elementary school teachers

Disciplines

Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education | Elementary Education | Language and Literacy Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine what teachers know (and still need to know) about culturally sustaining pedagogy and what happens when practitioners try to implement culturally sustaining pedagogies within their classrooms. A pre-question, survey, teacher readiness scale, recorded discussions, notes in a teacher research journal, and a post question were all analyzed to determine how five teachers who are completing their MA in Reading: Reading Specialist, incorporated culture into the classroom as well as their and their students openness and views of culturally sustaining pedagogy. Findings were that these five teachers who are completing their MA in Reading coursework have a surface-level understanding of how to implement a culturally sustaining pedagogy. While they made attempts to include culture and diversity in the classroom, their attempts were limited. However, the findings revealed that the participants have an awakening awareness that instructional practices need to change if they are to truly engage in culturally sustaining pedagogy. Teachers shared their experiences and reactions to attempting to implement this pedagogy to diverse populations of students. Implications for further research are discussed. For future teacher researchers, more research is also needed on the actual implementation of culturally sustaining pedagogies in diverse school districts through explicit practices.

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