“Learning how the game is played”: An ethnically encapsulated beginning teacher's struggle to prepare black youth for a white world

The "U" Curve Hypothesis: A Framework for Making Sense of Learning to Teach in Diverse Settings

“…As the Birrell (1995) study illustrated, people take their oft unexamined social and cultural contexts with them wherever they go, and they usually are not aware of how these factors inform or misinform their actions or impressions. Activities such as teaching in some cultures may appear the same on the surface as those in other cultures, but they are based on different assumptions that cause confusion and frustration due to different meanings in each culture (Tinney, 2007).…”

“…Quality teacher education requires a safe and affirming environment as we struggle to overcome our lesser natures and support our optimal learning (Birrell, 1995;Krashen, 1981Krashen, , 1985. Patience is necessary, as we simply do not know what we do not know and cannot see what we cannot see.…”

A Beginning Teacher's Journey toward Culturally Responsive Practice

“…Feeling safe as a learner is essential to realizing growth as a teacher (Birrell, 1995). In today's high stakes educational environment, where testing and accountability demands often label children, teachers, and schools as failures, we should not be surprised if teaching and learning are reduced to lower level events.…”

Preservice teachers' views of inclusive science teaching as shaped by images of teaching, learning, and knowledge

“…The assignment culminated in a written synthesis of the interview observations and a subsequent class discussion that focused on an analysis of the issues that would impact science teaching and suggestions of potential strategies that could be used to provide effective science learning experiences for all the students in their diverse classrooms. Through the analysis and synthesis of their own research findings, we hoped to highlight issues of diversity in learners within a single grade level and to challenge preservice teachers' assumption that students learn, reason, and understand in the same way as the teacher candidates (Birrel, 1995).…”

“…We understand this pattern to represent the preservice teachers' singular view of knowledge and what it means to learn in a classroom. As explained by Birrel (1995), preservice teachers often view their own experiences and lifestyles, which are typically considered mainstream, as the norm; all others are understood to be deviant. This view was seen in our preservice teachers' views of students from low-socioeconomic-status (SES) homes as failing "to get the attention they deserve," as having a paucity of life experiences to bring to the science classroom, and as typically being capable of only low science achievement.…”