VIRTUAL MADRID FOCUS ON PEDAGOGY

Abstract

The complex educational landscape requires that teacher preparation programs not only build candidates’ content area expertise but also develop their skills as reflective, equitable, culturally competent, and community-focused educators equipped to teach diverse learners (Paulick et al., 2024; Rowan et al., 2020; Zeichner et al., 2016). This presentation examines how an urban teacher residency program in Los Angeles embeds community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005) and community engagement at its core—through ongoing collaboration with community-based organizations—to prepare teachers within a yearlong, service-learning model (Mitchell, 2008). The theory of community cultural wealth challenges the “cultural deficit” model, which wrongly attributes underperformance to a lack of cultural capital among students from underprivileged backgrounds. Instead, it posits that all students possess valuable cultural wealth and resources, developed within their families and communities, which are often undervalued by educational institutions. Grounded in this asset-based framework and using a mixed-methods design, this research analyzes: (a) surveys of residents and community-based partners, (b) seminar content integrating community cultural wealth and community equity literacy, (c) residents’ reflective journals documenting community engagement experiences, and (d) course assignments, including community demographic analyses, investigation of community resources, and community-based instructional units. Findings illuminate how embedding community cultural wealth and engagement within teacher education fosters candidates’ understanding of students’ lived experiences, strengthens partnerships with families and communities, and promotes equity-driven pedagogical practice. This work offers insights for transforming educator preparation to produce teachers who legitimize and leverage the cultural wealth inherent in the communities they serve.