Come
participate in the selection of the next professor for TECS
Meet Ranita Chervalu, candidate for
Assistant Professor, Tenure Track,
Primary Education (Grades K-2) Child
Development
Wednesday, December 4
Job Talk:
2:30 –
3:30 Furcolo 228
Title: Negotiating
Identities in Early Childhood Teacher Education: Learning from Preservice
Given the burgeoning diversity
amongst populations of young children, as well as the continued marginalization
of children of color and children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, teacher
education has turned its attention to the development of multicultural teacher
education practices that aim to help preservice teachers engage in culturally
and linguistically responsive pedagogies. The scholarship that informs the
development of such practices is largely shaped by the experiences, needs, and
perspectives of White preservice teachers (Sleeter, 2001). And yet,
simultaneously there have been numerous calls to diversify the teaching profession.
The discourse surrounding preservice teachers of color has centered on
recruitment rather than understanding their learning needs with respect to
teacher preparation.
In shifting the discourse from
recruitment to multi-culturally responsive teacher preparation, Ranita Cheruvu
will present her research on the experiences of early childhood preservice
teachers of color in a PWI. Through the
lens of critical race theory, her research examines how four preservice
teachers of color negotiate their understandings of their racial identities
with their experiences in an early childhood multicultural education course
that provides a continuous space for deliberate and critical identity work. Based
on an analysis of written course work and a series of interviews with each
participant, findings from this study elucidate the experiences of preservice
teachers of color in the context of learning to teach children from diverse
backgrounds. Findings also shed light on the multiple ways that preservice
teachers of color negotiate their layered, nuanced, and shifting identities.
Graduate
Student Round Table:
10:00 – 10:45 Furcolo
21C
