Recognition and Respect for Difference: Science and Math Pre-service Teachers' Attributes that Underlie a Commitment to Teach in Under-resourced Schools

Abstract

This work revealed what is at the core of a particular group of prospective teachers that underlie their commitment to teach in under-resourced schools and districts. Prospective teachers committed to teaching in under-resourced schools have qualities or attributes of recognition and respect for students and families who come from low-income and culturally different backgrounds and experiences. These prospective teachers were able to recognize complex interactions that students and their families face at the individual, social and institutional level. They also sought ways to address their students' learning needs by drawing from students' experiences to make meaningful connections between home and school. To identify students' and families' lived experiences, cultural practices, and language as resources to draw from, are acts of recognition and respect towards students and their families who are, for many prospective teachers, different from themselves. Recognition and respect for difference are essential attributes that underlie a socially just and humanistic pedagogy which can positively impact the learning outcomes for students who are historically poorly served by our public schools. This work highlights a different view that prospective teachers from majority White European backgrounds have about social others. It also provides a new framework using social otherness as a lens to reveal prospective teachers' understandings and knowledge about students and families from low-income backgrounds.