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ETD Abstract Container

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Reading and responding to multicultural children's literature with preservice teachers: A qualitative study of pedagogy and student perspectives

Colabucci, Lesley M.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1092338037

Abstract Details

2004, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Educational Theory and Practice.
While many scholars have considered how young people read and respond to multicultural children’s literature, few studies have contributed to our knowledge about how adult readers make sense of these texts. This research investigates how preservice teachers in an undergraduate children’s literature class read and responded to multicultural children’s literature. Teacher educators have been struggling to understand how to prepare teacher candidates for the diverse classrooms they will enter. Despite their hard work in both inquiry and teaching, we still need more research on how to teach teachers. Accordingly, this study examines student responses alongside the pedagogy of the teacher. During the spring of 2003 at a small college in a major Midwestern city, the activities of a children’s literature course with 22 students were documented. This qualitative project emerged from a constructivist paradigm and involved narrative methods. Data sources included: student writing, whole class and small group discussions, artifacts from class activities, fieldnotes, and a researcher reflective journal. Analysis and interpretation was conducted to develop understandings of the ways preservice teachers map their personal stories onto the stories in multicultural books and what those maps can teach us about preparing them for diverse classrooms. The context of the class and pedagogy of the teacher were considered alongside the responses. The students’ writing and talk about the texts suggested five broad kinds of response: (IA) intimate disclosures: life-to-text connections; (IB) intimate disclosures: text-to-life connections; (II) dialogue and difference: text-and-life collide; (IIIA) disconnections and difference: “intolerance”-of-difference; (IIIB) disconnections and difference: “tolerance”-of-difference; and (IV) transcendence-of-difference. Analysis of pedagogical moves resulted in the delineation of tensions that teachers face in doing this work with preservice teachers. These tensions are related to how teachers occupy authority, how students perceive classroom community, how the teacher uses silence, and how students address and are addressed by each other. These patterns and tensions led to pedagogical implications based on new understandings of how preservice teachers’ read and respond to multicultural texts and how the teaching they experienced contributes to those readings and responses.
Rudine Bishop (Advisor)
257 p.
multicultural children's literature; preservice teachers; diversity; equity

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Colabucci, L. M. (2004). Reading and responding to multicultural children's literature with preservice teachers: A qualitative study of pedagogy and student perspectives [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1092338037

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Colabucci, Lesley. Reading and responding to multicultural children's literature with preservice teachers: A qualitative study of pedagogy and student perspectives. 2004. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1092338037.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Colabucci, Lesley. "Reading and responding to multicultural children's literature with preservice teachers: A qualitative study of pedagogy and student perspectives." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2004. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1092338037

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1092338037
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.