This session discusses our use of GoReact technology within a TARGET grant project to create transparency around culturally responsive practices for teacher candidate development in coursework and student teaching placements.
Although aligned with professional best practices and state and national guidelines, teacher candidate observation and evaluation writ large centers white paradigms, ways of knowing, and ways of being (Cooper, 2013; Hawley & Irvine, 2011; Salazar & Lerner, 2019). This is particularly problematic given the demographic shifts in our society and counteracts school district efforts to diversity the teacher workforce.
We adapted the “Framework for Equitable and Excellent Teaching” (Salazar & Lerner, 2019), integrating it with the “Culturally Responsive Instruction Observation Protocol” (Powell, Cantrell, Correll, & Malo-Juvera, 2017) and needs from our context to enrich our teacher candidate field evaluation and observation forms with specific competencies and indicators of culturally responsive teaching (CRT). This melding of resources explicates practices, strategies, and dispositions necessary to teach in a culturally responsive, sustaining, and equitable way for all students–and does not simply accept whiteness as normative.
With our resources, we intended to increase transparency around CRT expectations for teacher candidates as well as for faculty, adjuncts, supervisors, and cooperating teachers around the areas of planning, establishing classroom climate, standards-based teaching, assessment, content, and professional behavior. We gauge changes in teacher candidate understanding of CRT practices throughout course and fieldwork. The emphasis on CRT practices helps bridge theory and practice, making the strategies practically accessible to a more diverse teaching population.
The project aimed to leverage technology by using video and a software (GoReact) that allows timestamped feedback connected to our rubric. Research demonstrates the importance of observations to improve teaching (Darling-Hammond, 2013) and the power of video to provide timely and detailed feedback (Pianta, 2008 & 2014). Using this technology in addition to a WordPress site, we share culturally responsive teaching examples and tools that are accessible and clear.
In our presentation, we will share how we are utilizing GoReact in our project. First, we will provide an example of the way the technology works for field observation and how it aids in gathering evidence and providing targeted points of critical reflection around culturally responsive practices connected with our evaluation rubric. Second, we will discuss how teacher candidates utilized video samples from teacher video websites and of their practice in teaching methods’ coursework to evaluate others and self-assess video observations using the evaluation rubric. This allowed students to better understand the language in the evaluation rubric and opened discussion around what culturally responsive practice looks like and why.
Additionally, teacher candidates’ self-recordings with GoReact software of their initial teaching attempts during fall practicum allowed them to witness the shared uncertainty around their identity changing to become “the teacher.” They annotated videos of themselves and others on the culturally responsive teacher evaluation rubric, thus clarifying expectations and bolstering candidates’ self-assessment and reflection. This process built community, embraced vulnerability, and pushed growth for teacher candidates while providing targeted feedback and a vision for their teaching practice.
In essence, we will share our perspectives on GoReact as a technological tool supporting our work, notable outcomes, and future plans.