Context-specific teacher preparation may make a difference

Marlena is one PST who participated in RHU’s UAS program. Her cultural noticing ability appears to be evidenced by an explanation she gives of a conflict between her host mother, Fernanda, and another of the PSTs in her house, Lauren. Marlena explains,

us. It ended in many arguments. From our host mother’s point of view,…since…we are living in her house…we should eat what is provided and be thankful….[Lauren] thought that [Fernanda] should adjust her cooking options to fit her needs. (Marlena IDI post- test).

Marlena seems to be able to compare Lauren’s perspective to Fernanda’s and notices differences in cultural values that led to the conflict. She notices that Lauren more highly valued her individual right to follow her vegetarian diet and skip dinners where meat was served, which is not surprising as some U.S. Americans place a high value on individual rights. Marlena also appears to notice that Fernanda felt that Lauren was acting as a rude houseguest by turning down her hospitality. This also makes sense as showing hospitality to guests is an important cultural practice for many Mexicans. Marlena’s cultural noticing ability may help her understand differences in cultural values and practices when she works with culturally diverse students in U.S. classrooms.

Marlena also appears to notice cultural differences in her classroom. Even on her very first day in her JIS classroom, she seems to be sensitive to the cultural context. Her new mentor teacher tells her that Mexicans touch a lot more than U.S. Americans, and not to be surprised if the students touch her a lot. Marlena responds, “I noticed that! So it’s ok if they want to sit in your lap?” The teacher tells her that this behavior is normal and cultural (FN 02, 04.16.12). Marlena seems to already have the ability to engage in cultural noticing and cultural responding on her first day in Mexico, as she appears to quickly notice this cultural difference and seems to be ready to adapt her behavior in the classroom to accommodate it. These abilities may be related to her participation in the UAS program before coming to Mexico, as this context- specific teacher preparation program encourages PSTs to pay attention to contextual factors that

should shape their teaching practice. Marlena’s cultural noticing and cultural responding abilities may help her in the future when she has her own U.S. classroom. They may help her to notice the cultural practices of culturally diverse U.S. students and adapt her teaching practice to accommodate these practices.

Michelle is another PST who was in the UAS program. In this excerpt, Michelle describes what she notices about cultural context in Mexico relating to her host mother and meal time behaviors, and how she responds to what she notices. She explains:

Whenever I…eat dinner [at home], I just put as much as I want on my plate….I was always taught not to waste food….Here, it’s put on my plate and I’m expected to eat…until everything is gone….[My host mother] said, “It…makes me very sad when you don’t eat everything that I make you….” [So I] eat as much of it as I can….[then when she leaves] the room….[I] throw it away (Michelle interview 2).

In this excerpt Michelle compares her host mother’s cultural practices around meals to her own and seems to adapt her behavior to respond to the context. In the U.S., Michelle was taught not to waste surplus food but rather to conserve it for a later time. In Mexico, Michelle’s host mother seems to believe that surplus food should be given to guests as a gesture of hospitality and refusal of this food is offensive. Even though Michelle’s values appear to go against wasting food, she seems to adapt her behavior to respond to the cultural practice she observes. Again, it seems that the UAS emphasis on the importance of context may have influenced Michelle’s behavior. Michelle’s ability to notice details about cultural context and respond to them may help her when she teaches in a U.S. classroom and she encounters a family with cultural practices that are different from her own. She may be able to respond to these different cultural practices by adapting her teaching practice.

Cameron is a third UAS PST who seems to engage in cultural noticing and cultural responding, both inside and outside of his classroom. Gay (2010) suggests that the cultural practices of Latin American students around learning have historically involved more verbal participation than those of White students in the U.S., so discussing ideas with other students may be a useful classroom activity in classrooms with high populations of Latin American students. Cameron seems to notice this difference at JIS, and his teaching practice responds to what he notices. I observed that Cameron changed his voice frequently to hold the attention of his students in the following field notes passage: “Cameron uses his voice well to hold the attention of the class: he changes the volume and how fast he speaks to keep students engaged” (FN 20, 05.06.13). In the next field notes excerpt, I ask Cameron how he adapted his teaching practice based on cultural information he learns from his JIS students:

I asked him if he used [voice modulation] at his last placement. He says no, at…Primrose…he used a lot of "teacher hand up = quiet" and beats to get student attention. He noticed the first week at JIS that these strategies weren’t working as the students were too chatty. So he uses voice modulation instead (FN 12, 04.26.13).

Cameron notices within his first few days at JIS that some of the teaching practices he used in the past to manage his class did not work for his more verbal Latin American students at JIS. As a result of what he notices, Cameron seems to modify his teaching practice to respond to this difference in cultural practices. Cameron continues to explain how he adapts his lessons for his more participatory JIS students: “I had to adapt my lessons to make it even more engaging, and still allow them at times to talk” (Cameron interview 2). As Cameron seems to arrive in Mexico already with some cultural noticing and cultural responding abilities, he appears to be able to quickly notice details about cultural context related to appropriate classroom behavior at JIS and

modify his teaching practice to respond to the needs of his students. It appears that the UAS emphasis on teaching as an activity that should respond to contextual information may have influenced Cameron, as he makes this adjustment early on in his IST experience. Cameron’s cultural noticing and cultural responding abilities will probably continue to serve him well when working with culturally diverse U.S. students in the future.

Annie is a PST who was not part of the UAS program. Annie also has moments of learning inside the JIS classroom that lead her to adapt her teaching practices. But unlike the UAS PSTs, Annie’s adaptations seem to be focused only on modifying her pedagogy to match her cooperating teacher’s style. She does not modify her teaching practices to respond to details about cultural context gathered from her students. Although her cooperating teacher seems to have good ideas about teaching that are worthy of emulation, Annie’s focus on using her cooperating teacher as a model for her own practice seems to blind her from noticing any details about cultural context on her own. Even when asked directly about the need for adaptations based on student cultural practices, Annie cannot offer any details about cultural context that she has noticed. She can only describe adaptations she could make based on the pedagogical practices of her co-op teacher. When asked what differences she noticed between the students in her previous student teaching placement in the U.S. and her JIS students that led her to adapt her teaching, Annie persists in focusing on emulating her cooperating teacher’s practices:

I…really liked the way that [Miss Olivia] ran the classroom….At home, with five- and six-year olds, it’s not baby talk, but I wouldn’t use the words that Miss Olivia does….she uses her normal conversation voice….Language was a huge thing for me to adjust to (Annie interview 2).

As Annie seems to still be in the early stages of developing cultural noticing ability, she does not say she notices any cultural differences even when directly asked about them. Although she discusses languages differences, she still sees these only as pedagogical differences between how U.S. teachers talk with young children and the way her cooperating teacher, Miss Olivia, talks with her class at JIS. She does not see these language differences as possible differences in cultural practices between JIS and U.S. teachers and students. Although Annie’s teaching practices may improve by using her cooperating teacher as a model, her teaching does not respond to any details she notices about her students’ values or cultural practices.

Lisa is another PST who was not part of the UAS program. When Lisa discusses adaptations she made in her JIS classroom, she limits her observations to the fact that most of the JIS students bring technology (phones, tablets and computers) to class. When directly asked if she made adaptations to her teaching practice to respond to the needs of students who did not grow up in the U.S., Lisa responds, “Not as much, because most of my adaptations have always been Special Ed adaptations.…I couldn’t even give you an answer because I wasn’t even paying attention to the cultural aspect of it” (Lisa interview 2). Like Annie, it seems that as Lisa is still just beginning to develop the ability to engage in cultural noticing, as she does not seem to notice anything about the cultural context that should inform her teaching practices. As a result, Lisa’s teaching practice does not respond to any information about her students’ values or cultural practices.

Overall, prior participation in the RHU UAS program appears to make an important distinction between PSTs in the Mexico IST program. UAS PSTs seem to enter the program with an ability to engage in cultural noticing and sometimes cultural responding as well, both

inside and outside of the classroom. PSTs without this preparation notice less about the cultural context and do not appear to engage in cultural responding.

2.4.2.2 PSTs with some intercultural competence may deepen capacities through an IST