Education Commons^™

Examining Narratives: Conversations Between Community Mentors And Pre-Service Teachers, Lorena Guillen, Kate Napolitan

Collaborations: A Journal of Community-Based Research and Practice

State policy and teacher evaluation rubrics increasingly call for attention to family and community engagement. Yet teachers, schools, and families continue to face a number of obstacles preventing collaboration on all sides. Research on culturally responsive teaching, funds of knowledge, and community teaching have identified a number of concrete principles and practices for educators to partner with families and communities. However, teacher education programs continue to struggle in crafting authentic experiences for pre-service teachers to partner with families and communities. This study examines regionally-based, small group discussions– which, were part of a larger programmatic set of experiences–between preservice teachers and …