PREPARING PRESERVICE

TEACHERS IN A DIVERSE WORLD

Article Critique

JANUARY 31, 2015

SUSAN BEELEY
ETEC 500: Research Methodology in Education
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The purpose of Preparing Preservice Teachers in a Diverse World was to summarise the

research carried out in the five year Beyond Awareness project. The aim of this project was to

determine whether training in ethnographic observation techniques would help preservice

teachers develop habits of mind (Lenski, Crawford, Cumpler &Stallworth, 2005a) that would

allow them to be more effective in todays diverse classrooms. Though a total of 28 preservice

teachers were included in the study from the beginning, only 6 were selected as key informants

and had their data, all qualitative in nature, analysed. Information was gathered through

ethnographic observations of the preservice teachers in different community settings, for

example in local shops, on the bus, and around the school. Papers written by the participants on

cultural issues in the classroom and on the ethnographic approach were also analyzed.

Additionally, three formal interviews and five informal interviews were carried out with these 6

individuals.

The motivation behind this study was the existence of an increasingly White teacher

population while the student population was becoming increasingly diverse (Lenski et al.,

2005a). The authors felt that given these circumstances, teachers need to become more culturally

responsive if they are to meet the needs of the students that they teach. The authors developed

the Beyond Awareness project as the existing approaches used to promote cultural awareness in

trainee teachers had mixed results. The authors seem to have carried out significant background

research and their methodology appears sound as do their instruments. A pilot study was also

carried out so that appropriate adjustments could be made prior to data collection. I found this

article very thorough in its approach, from providing a detailed and well backed up account of

observations and research that lead to this particular report, through to a comprehensive

description of how the research was carried out and what was discovered. Many of the
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references used were previously written journal articles on themes relating to ethnographic

observation and the impact of culture on learning.

The Portland State University website (http://www.pdx.edu/profile/meet-professor-susan-

lenski) confirms that the lead author, Susan Lenski, works at Portland University as a professor

in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Her work considers the different levels of

reading and her work is focused on training teens to be critical consumers of higher level

information. She has won numerous awards for her dedication to teaching and has published

over 60 articles and 20 books (para. 2,3). For this reason I would consider her an expert in her

field and a credible and qualified source of information. In addition, she had experts help her

with the research, one anthropologist and one on-site teacher to help train the preservice teachers

on making ethnographic observations.

The researchers were hoping to find that by training preservice teachers to make

ethnographic observations they would develop the habits of mind (Lenski et. al., 2005a)

required to recognise their own culture and become responsive to the cultures brought into the

classroom by the students. As the data collected was purely qualitative there was no statistical

analysis provided, however through triangulation of the information collected during

observations, written papers and interviews the reliability of the conclusions was improved.

The conclusion that was drawn from this research was that participant observation and

ethnographically informed approaches embedded within teacher preparation courses could be

key elements to developing more reflective ways to address culture and cultural diversity in

teachers education (Lenski et. al., 2005a). As the participants were encouraged to think more

about culture, both their own and their students, they became better able to incorporate cultural

sensitivity into their teaching practice.

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I found myself wondering what issued the pilot study found that needed tailoring? As the

background research was so thorough I would expect the issues to be small, nonetheless it would

be interesting to know what they were. I also found myself wondering how and why the six

teachers that were used were selected from the original 28. The sample size was small to begin

with so generalizability was always limited, but what criteria was used to rule out 22 or the

original sample? Finally, the Beyond awareness project was originally intended for those going

into teaching in a high-need schools (Lenski et. al., 2005b). I would be interested to know

something about the backgrounds of the preservice teachers themselves as well as the areas that

they were making their observations in as this article suggests the suburbs which may not allow

the results to be applied to those in high need schools.

I found myself concerned that the lack of a control group hinders validity. It could be the

case that during the first years of teaching in a culturally diverse classroom, teachers instinctively

develop the ability to make ethnographic observations and put them into practice to suit the

needs of the students they teach and that in the long run this early introduction might not prove

necessary. Additionally, for this research to be replicable and therefore more reliable, more

detail on the instruments used to check for before and after differences in the preservice teacher

would need to be made available. Finally, ever the scientist, I would feel more comfortable if

there was some translation of qualitative information into quantitative information so that any

statistical significance of the findings could be determined.

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References

Lenski, S. D., Crawford, K., Crumplter, T., & Stallworth, C. (2005a). Beyond Awareness:

Preparing Culturally Responsive Preservice Teachers. Teacher Education Quarterly,

Spring 2005. Retrieved from http://0-

files.eric.ed.gov.opac.msmc.edu/fulltext/EJ795311.pdf

Lenski, S. D., Crawford, K., Crumpler, T., & Stallworth, C. (2005b). Preparing preservice

teachers in a diverse world. Action in Teacher Education, 27(3), 3-12.

Portland State University (2015). Profile: Meet Professor Susan Lenski. Retrieved from

http://www.pdx.edu/profile/meet-professor-susan-lenski