«How Do We Know They Know?»: A conversation about pre-service teachers learning about culture and social justice

Teacher education programs are charged with educating teachers to teach all students – preparing them to teach multiethnic, multiracial, multilingual, and differently-abled students in an increasingly global, inter-dependent world. This book takes as its starting point the assumption that pre-service teacher candidates, primarily white and middle-class, come to college to pursue a teaching degree having little if any experience of a social nature with persons not like themselves. Rooted in areas of theory and practice and based around the «Schools and Society» and «Culturally Relevant Teaching» courses required by the Teacher Education Program social justice conceptual framework, «How Do We Know They Know?» is a conversation about ways to assess these pre-service teachers’ growth and movement, as they progress from naiveté to awareness about the realities of culture in schools.

Table of Contents:
Contents: R. Deborah Davis/Barbara Beyerbach: Introduction – Pat Russo/Anne Fairbrother: Teaching for Social Justice Pre-K-12: What Are We Talking about? – Tania Ramalho/Barbara Beyerbach: Introducing Globalization and Sustainability Issues in Teacher Education: Impact of Two Courses in a Social Justice-Oriented Program – Shirley Wells/Bruce Long Peng: Understanding Institutional Injustices: A Case Study of Pre-service Teachers – Virginia MacEntee: Can We Know If They Know and How Do We Know They Know? – Dennis Parsons: Bodies in Motion/Narratives in Transformation: Negotiating Pre-Service Teachers’ Writings on Urban Life and Teaching as Interns in NYC – Roberta Schnorr/Amanda Fenlon: What Really Matters for Students with Disability Labels: Preparing Special Educators to Lead – Sharon Kane: Teaching Social Justice in a «Non-Shoving Too Much Information Down Your Throat Kind of Way» – Mary Harrell: Social Justice Teaching: Being Fully Present In Relationship – Barbara Beyerbach/Marcia Burrell/Beverly Cosey/Jan Perry Evenstad/Delores Grayson/Dennis Parsons/Tania Ramalho: Assessing the Impact of GESA (Generating Expectations for Student Achievement) on Teachers, Preservice Teachers, and K-12 Students – Kenneth J. Fasching-Varner/Michelle Erklenz-Watts/Jim Wood: What’s Knowledge Got to Do with It?: Epistemology in Diversity and Social Justice Education.

About the Author :
The Editors: R. Deborah Davis is Associate Professor in Curriculum & Instruction at the State University of New York at Oswego and serves as the Diversity Coordinator for the School of Education. She earned her M.P.A. at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, and Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from the School of Education, Syracuse University. Davis is also Region 2 Director on the board of the National Association of Multicultural Education. She is author of Black Students’ Perceptions: The complexity of persistence to graduation at an American university (2004). Arcenia London, Visiting Professor at SUNY Oswego, teaches courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. She is President of the New York Chapter of the National Association for Multicultural Education. Dr. London has written various articles and presentations on the topic of staff development and teacher training, and is editor of a curriculum guide with Elizabeth Sill, A Practical Guide to Education That Is Multicultural People Puzzle (1994). Barbara Beyerbach is Professor at the State University of New York at Oswego in the Curriculum and Instruction Department. She also serves as a co-director of Project SMART (Student-centered, Multicultural, Active, Real-world Teaching), a teacher professional development program aimed at creating urban/rural partnerships to improve education K-16. Dr. Beyerbach is the author of numerous articles in the areas of teacher professional development, culturally relevant teaching, and professional development schools.