Exploring pre-service teachers’ literacy practices with children from diverse backgrounds: Implications for teacher educators

The context for this investigation was an undergraduate literacy methods course taught by Cindy, the first author of this manuscript. A central course goal was to prepare pre-service teachers to provide effective literacy instruction for children from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The focus of this study was an examination of the learning and reflections of the pre-service teachers in Cindy's class. Cindy required the pre-service teachers in this study to engage in a literacy practicum at an urban elementary school where over 85% of the student population was comprised of children from ethnically and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Each week for seven weeks, the pre-service teachers worked in small teaching teams in different upper-elementary classrooms to create, teach, and reflect upon their one-hour long literacy lessons. In this study we explored the pre-service teachers’ responses to the literacy needs of children from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and we articulate the implications of this work for us as teacher educators.