UC Berkeley

Abstract

HipHop Scholastics: Effective Teacher Professional Learning

by

Itoco García

Doctor of Education

University of California, Berkeley

Professor P. David Pearson, Chair

Meeting the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students in order to improve their academic engagement and achievement is a central challenge to American education. A Critical Race analysis and synthesis of academic research on teacher professional learning, Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP), and the mismatch between schools and students revealed: problems of practice and obstacles to changing them, limitations, a conceptual framework for effective professional learning and a vehicle for changing from current to more promising practices. Problematic beliefs including: teacher’s frames of reference; deficit thinking; and low expectations; combine with problematic practices such as rejection of student language and lack of: reflection; culturally relevant materials; and critical comprehension strategies to create a cultural mismatch, low student engagement, and low academic achievement in Urban Bay Unified Schools where this study took place and I worked as a principal. Teacher professional learning on CRP surfaced as a method for change. The theory of action suggested sequential professional development on systematic reflection, student academic engagement, and critical literacy would: improve teacher’s awareness of student academic engagement and linguistic affirmation; improve teacher’s perceptions of students; increase the use of critical literacy, culturally relevant materials and systematic reflection and more closely align schools with students thereby impacting student academic engagement and achievement. This participant action design study focused on an intervention that took place over ten sessions spanning four months consisting of four elementary teachers from the same school that yielded the process data. Participants were given surveys, interviewed, and observed by researchers both before and after the intervention to determine any impact on their beliefs and practices. Outlining each participant’s learning process supported a cross comparison of teachers to better understand how the impacts might have occurred. The intervention impacted systematic reflection, awareness of student academic engagement, perceptions of students, and the use of culturally and linguistically responsive practices like HipHop and linguistic affirmation. Research design challenges lessened the impact on critical literacy and may have contributed to confirmation bias. Future applications of the conceptual framework and iterations of the intervention design might (a) inform teacher professional learning on transitioning underlying beliefs from deficit to positive; (b) shift practice towards more culturally relevant materials and the use of HipHop; and (c) inform research on student academic engagement. The implications of this work might contribute to research on teacher learning by adding systematic reflection, reflective journaling and guided meditation to existing ideas about optimal form. Mechanisms that surface teacher trauma and help heal compassion fatigue in teacher professional learning are critical areas for future study and may be key in making it effective. Investigating sequential professional learning in systematic reflection, student academic engagement, critical literacy and the use of HipHop to examine implicit bias, improve empathy and shift practice to improve student engagement and achievement is a compelling area for future research as well.