A research proposal submitted to the Urban Studies and Planning Program
Senior Sequence Class of 2010-2011
December 2, 2010
Chi Dang
University of California at San Diego
Urban Studies and Planning Program
USP 186 Wednesday 3:00-3:50 pm
Email: chidang@mac.com
Abstract
This proposal outlines a research strategy to examine how teacher education programs incorporate teaching methods that successfully create culturally competent and responsive teachers. Current research suggests that teachers must address demographically changing classroom due to increased immigration. This raises fundamental problem of the fragmentation and superficial treatment of diversity that currently prevails in teacher education. This proposal outlines a research strategy aimed at addressing how teacher educators implement issues of student diversity in their classroom to help pre-service teachers become culturally responsive in their classrooms. Specifically, the study will be a case study of University of California San
Diego’s Education Studies Masters of Education program. This research will contribute to teacher preparation education literature.

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Introduction
Since the end of WWI, the United States has been experiencing prominent demographic shift from a majority European American population to one that is ethnically diverse, characterized by a Latino and people-of-color majority (Hayes 1990, 239). With the growing size of the classroom comes the growing demand for public school teachers and the growing need for education reform to address the new student demographic. This increasing demand in addition to the low supply of teachers has led to decrease in seeking more qualified teachers who can effectively address this emerging diverse student population (Schoon 2002, 420). This is problematic due to the rise in ethnically mixed classroom that requires educators to be equipped with educating students from a greater array of differing backgrounds (Tanners 1997, 233).
The typical response of teacher education programs to the growing diversity among K-12 students has been to add a course or two on multicultural education, bilingual education, or urban education but to leave the rest of the curriculum largely intact. In addition, these courses are often optional and do not go far enough to prepare teachers because the teachers have the option of avoiding issues of diversity because such ideas are sometimes neglected or clash with other courses (Lucas and Villegas 2002, 21). This plays a significant component when many educators suggest that novice teachers lack the preparation necessary to be successful in today’s urban classrooms.
With such a fundamental problem that exists in teacher preparation education, this project will explore how teacher educators develop and implement methods that effectively prepare teachers to become culturally responsive. I will do a case study on UCSD’s Education
Studies teacher education program, specifically their Masters in Education and Teaching
Credential Program. I chose this specific program because the Education Studies department at

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UCSD supports the goal of equity and educational excellence for all K-12 students in their public schools. I also choose this program because of the department’s commitment in preparing their graduates to become highly successful teachers in underperforming schools situated within linguistically and culturally diverse communities. According to their website, this goal is actualized through the academic and field components of their programs. In their masters programs, students learn research-based teaching practices and engage in extensive reflection and writing on their classroom practice ( http://www-tep.ucsd.edu/about/ ).
Conceptual Framework and Literature Review
Public Agenda produced a report entitled “A Sense of Calling: Who teaches and Why” which indicates that most new teachers believe they “could have used far more preparation for the realities and challenges they inevitably had to confront when running real-world classrooms.”
However, few teacher education programs prepare teachers to be effective in urban classrooms serving diverse groups of students (Ladson-Billings 2001, 3). Most teacher education programs respond to the changing demographics of students by creating a new and different set of rules and regulations to add to its current practices. Instead of deconstructing the curriculum, “teacher educators believed that adding a course, a workshop, or field experience on diversity would be sufficient to suggest that real change was occurring in the profession” (Ladson-Billings 2001, 3).
Concerns on the part of teacher educators during the last twenty years infer that they were not showing teacher education students how to practically implement the theories of multicultural education, that student were not receiving comprehensive and coherent academic education and training, and that a discrepancy exists between theory and practical experience. Therefore it is imperative for teachers to be become culturally responsive, in turn I will examine what skills should the teachers should prepare for and have to become such an educator.

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A culturally responsive teacher is one that:
“ (a) is socioculturally conscious, that is recognizes that there are multiple ways of perceiving reality and these ways are influenced by one's location in the social order; (b) has affirming views of students from diverse backgrounds, seeing resources for learning in all students rather than viewing differences as problems to be overcome; (c) sees themselves as both responsible for and capable of bringing about education change that will make schools more responsive to all students; (d) understands how learners construct knowledge and is capable of promoting learners' knowledge construction; (e) knows about the lives of their students; and (f) uses his or her knowledge about student's lives to design instruction on what they already know while stretching them beyond the familiar”
(Lucas and Villegas 2001, 21).
With this in mind, effective teachers who are culturally responsive contribute to the success of all their students. The criteria that determine whether a teacher is culturally responsive is shown when there are improvements in the student’s academic achievement, student’s develop cultural competence, and students develop a sense of sociopolitical consciousness (Ladson-Billings 2001,
144).
According to scholars such a Wertsch and Polman (2001) from a social constructivist theoretical perspective, the importance of the educator's understanding of students' diverse backgrounds enhances the students' learning because the teacher is more aware of implementing instruction that deals directly to their students (Chizhik and Chizhik 2005, 118). It requires the instructor to maintain a dialogue with their students that are on topic while relatable to themselves. This in turn maximizes learning and minimizes resistance. Therefore it is imperative that the teacher must gain this understanding during their preparation before they enter their classroom. Teacher educators can play a fundamental role in contributing to the success of their pre-service teachers, which can translate to the success of diverse students. For example, when teacher educators use constructivism teaching methods in their learning environment, it allows for the pre-service teachers to gain new insights into the nature of knowledge beginning from the surface. This knowledge is also situated and strongly interwoven with experience and emotion,

Dang, Chi 5 which can affect their understanding of their student’s diverse backgrounds. These educational practices contrast starkly with traditional practices in teacher education, the very same practices that were supposed to prepare teachers for new approaches to learning and teaching. In order to change educational practices, it is necessary to break the circle of traditionally trained teachers who teach in a traditional manner. The ability to understand and use conceptual change pedagogy as a function of prior content learning experience represents a major challenge for teacher educators and researchers (Korthagen, Loughran, and Russell 2006, 1021).
The primary conceptual issue being dealt with in this study is exploring how methods are being used and are considered effective in teacher preparation programs that help teachers gain the skills to address the needs of ethnically diverse classrooms. Current literature suggests that the growing diversity of the classroom has given educators the opportunity to play a significant role in learning and teaching students the skills to mediate and moderate tensions among diverse individuals and groups by learning and teaching systemic thinking, becoming more transdisciplinary in their approaches, helping people address injustice, and owning the potential to become hegemonic (Butler and Byrd 2006, 378-9). Therefore much of the responsibility lies within the hands of the teacher educators who guide pre-service teachers in achieving these goals. Specifically, teacher educators must be willing to accept the challenge of constantly reevaluating and reconstructing teacher education from within, beginning with their courses, to program goals, to the larger educational environment. In addition, instead of teacher educators focusing on theory to practice methods, they should incorporate ways to educate principles of practice that might more generally shape the nature of teaching and learning about teaching
(Korthagen, Loughran, and Russell 2006, 1038-39).
Research Design

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This study will be a qualitative case study of the faculty members of the Education
Studies department at UCSD who are primarily involved with the Masters in Education Multiple and Single Subject Credential Program. I chose this particular case because it is an accredited teaching credential program that has a distinguishing feature in focusing on equitable educational practices. Overall, UCSD Education Studies department requires that their students examine their teaching performance in relationship to diverse social, cultural, economic, and political context of California public schools, making it an appropriate teaching program for my study. Also, because of the program’s accredited status and fulfillment of state requirements, it can be applicable to other education programs in California. In addition, the program is conveniently located on campus and I have permission and easy access to the faculty, students, and program data. I will collect data from multiple sources: course observations, intensive faculty interviews, teacher educator lesson plans, and their course syllabi.
In determining what I believe are the most important issues surrounding teacher preparation programs, I will use the following questions to guide my research: (a) What are the role(s) of teacher preparation programs in addressing diverse students? (b) What are the needs of diverse students that must be addressed? (c) What are the role(s) of teacher educators in addressing the needs of pre-service teachers (d) What is required from the teacher educator and the pre-service teacher to become culturally responsive educators? (e) How do teacher educators develop and apply methods of equity and diversity into the classroom? (f) How do teacher educators measure how effective their methods are? Although these are many questions, I intend on focusing more on the last three questions for my research.
I will use my internship experience with the Education Studies department as observational evidence. For example, my internship will involve me compiling data (teacher

Dang, Chi 7 reports) about the program and assessing whether the program satisfies the standards required by the California Commission on Teaching Credentialing requirements and if they can renew their accredited status. Because of the program’s emphasis on equity and diversity training, they must state how their program addresses and implements this theme in accordance to state standards.
My internship will provide me with the teacher educator reports that will allow me to assess how the program integrates themes of diversity and equity while meeting the state requirements.
Also, because I have permission from the teacher educators, I also have access to entering their classrooms and observing how they incorporate issues of equity and diversity in their classroom. Due to time limitations and scheduling conflicts, out of the eleven courses required for the masters program, I will sit in on two required courses offered winter quarter during week one and two. These courses are the two course requirements from the four courses offered winter quarter for the masters in education program. I will sit in on six lectures from EDS 361,
Innovative Instructional Practices II (the second course in a three course sequence) offered
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (9-11:50 am) and two lectures from EDS 205A, Reflective
Teaching Practice offered Thursday (5-7:50 pm). In addition, I will sit in on two EDS 272,
Education and Culture courses offered Mondays (5-7:50 pm). Although this course is mainly for the Ed. D program, participants from the masters program can take this course with consent from the instructor. I chose this course specifically because it explicitly examines the impact of social and cultural forces on teaching in U.S. public schools, making it appropriate to assess the program’s implementation of multicultural education.
In preparation for my lecture observation, I will be in contact with the course professor and with their permission, I will study their syllabi and hopefully lesson plan before the lecture.
If the professor has taught the class before, I will ask them about how they have implemented

Dang, Chi 8 discussions on equity and diversity in their past lectures and how the pre-service teachers typically responded. This allows me to prepare for what to look for in terns of kinds of responses, questions, and concerns the pre-service teacher and the teacher educator have in the classroom. During my lecture observations, I will record my observations with two-column logs; with the left-hand column containing the words, actions, and gestures that the teacher educators make, and the right-hand column containing the pre-service teacher’s words, actions, and gestures. On the far right margin I will record the time at five-to-seven minute intervals. The observation logs will contain no evaluation or interpretation of the teachers’ or student’s words, actions or gestures. The criteria that I will use for the observation logs would consist of words that address equity, diversity, multiculturalism, social justice, etc. The documentation of these words will show me how often these issues are mentioned in the course. From there I will go back to the educator’s course goals and lesson plan to see if my observations align.
At the end of the observation I will share what I have recorded on the log and ask the teacher educator a series of questions: (a) “How close did the lesson resemble what you planned to do?” (b) “What do you think did not work as well as you have liked” (c) How do you intend to follow this up? I will also ask the pre-service students if they wanted some suggestions. Within twenty-four to forty-eight hours I will write a summary of my observation (Ladson-Billings,
146). From these questions and observations I expect to find the constructive comments on the cyclical process in where teacher educators develop, implement, review, and edit their teaching methods to address issues of equity and diversity.
Because of my easy access to faculty members, I also intend on conducting extensive interviews with the ten teacher educators of the master program. I intend to conduct these interviews either through the phone or in person during winter break and the first two weeks of

Dang, Chi 9 winter quarter. Interview questions will include: (a) Why did you decide to become a teacher educator? (b) Which courses have you taught in the master’s program? (c) How do you incorporate issues of equity and diversity in your classroom? (d) What is the theoretical framework in which you base your teaching style and how does that affect the ways in which you incorporate issues of diversity and equity? (e) What are the challenges that you have experienced in incorporating pedagogical methods into your teachings? (f) As you look at the program in general, what do you se as some of its strengths? (g) What do you see as some of the program’s weaknesses? (h) From your experience, how do you think your student’s have changed from taking your course(s)? (i) Is there anything else about the program you want to comment on?
From these questions I am primarily looking for the methods and challenges they have encountered in developing their course, while implementing Teaching Credentialing state requirements and program requirements.
Due to major time constraints, I have many limitations in conducting an extensive, comprehensive assessment on how all the teacher educators in the master programs develop and address issues of equity and diversity in the classroom. Some of the downsides in conducting my case study are that my research can provide little basis for scientific generalization. Another objection to using my case study in my research is that it has seemingly emerged with a renewed emphasis, especially in education and related research, on randomized field trials or “true experiments”. Such studies aim to establish causal relationships- that is, whether a particular
“program” has been efficacious in producing a teacher that is culturally responsive. Therefore my research on my case study should be valued as an adjunct to these qualitative experiments rather than as an alternative to them.
Concluding Section

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The expected outcome from this research will hopefully contribute to the development of effective teacher preparation programs that address the needs and concerns of ethnically diverse students. From this research, I hope to contribute to the greater understanding towards the needs and skills that teachers have in order for them better relate and teach their students. My goal is to contribute to increasing the equality of student education, by increasing the education experienced by teachers.

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References
Butler-Byrd, N., Nieto, J., & Senour, M. N. (2006). Working successfully with diverse students and communities.
Urban Education, 41 (4), 376-401.
Chizhik, E. W., & Chizhik, A. W. (2005). Are you privileged or oppressed?
Urban Education,
40 (2), 116-143.
Hayes, F. W. (1990). Race, urban politics, and educational policy-making in washington, D.C.
Urban Education, 25 (3), 237-257.
Korthagen, F., Loughran, J. and Russell, T. (2006) Developing fundamental principles for teacher education programs and practices. Teaching and Teacher Education , 22 (8), 1020-1041
Kyles, C. R., & Olafson, L. (2008). Uncovering preservice teachers' beliefs about diversity through reflective writing.
Urban Education, 43 (5), 500-518.
Ladson-Billings, Gloria. Crossing Over to Canaan: The Journey of New Teachers in Diverse
Classrooms. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco (2001), 1-172.
Schoon, K. J., & Sandoval, P. A. (2000). Attracting, preparing, and keeping great urban teachers.
Urban Education, 35 (4), 418-441.
Tanners, L. (1997). Immigrant students in new york city schools.
Urban Education, 32 (2), 233-
255.
University of California Education Studies Department “About Page” http://wwwtep.ucsd.edu/about/ .