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"They Almost Become The Teacher": Pre-K To Third Grade Teachers’ Experiences Reading And Discussing Culturally Relevant Texts With Their Students, Amy Clark, Jane Fleming

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

This qualitative research study examined 13 preschool to third-grade teachers’ experiences reading and discussing culturally relevant texts (CRTs) with their students. Teachers worked at four schools in a large urban school district and with child populations from different sociocultural and linguistic backgrounds. We employed provisional and open-coding to analyze teacher interview data. Three salient themes emerged from the data: children’s identity investment in reading and discussing CRTs, children’s interest in CRTs, and children’s depth of comprehension when discussing CRTs. Findings from teacher observations suggest that reading and discussing CRTs with children from nondominant social backgrounds can tap into children’s capacities …