Preparing teachers to teach wherever they land…
Because not everyone attending a sub/urban teacher education program will end up teaching in a sub/urban school.
While many teacher education programs across the nation focus on critical teaching practices, not many of them examine how place (both where students/teachers are from and where they are) shapes teaching in their programs. Because the development of cultural identity does not happen in a vacuum, knowing more about how teachers’ understandings of who they are as people and professionals as well as who students are as place-connected individuals is vital to preparing culturally sustaining teachers.
Because teacher education programs are overwhelmingly metro-centric, it can be difficult to know where and how to start bringing critical rurality, rural scholarship, and rural lives into our classroom. This page offers a smattering of ideas to help you to get started.
The demands of academia often make it difficult to find time to investigate and research new practices and texts. From my own research, I’ve put together a list of texts that will save you some time and help you get started.
Having time to reflect on our own teaching as well as learn from our colleagues can also be challenging. Here, I offer a few ideas of ways to include critical considerations of place that fit nicely within the work you’re likely already asking students to do.
Want to include place-based and/or rural perspectives in your preservice methods class? Or do you want to begin considering the impact of place with your faculty? I do class visits and guest lectures! Let me know how I can help!
Dr. Parton's Literacy In Place 