Abstracts Philosophy, Religion, and Theology

Recognition and Footing: Using Charles Taylor to Understand the Student as Cultural Other

by Spencer J. Smith

America’s public schools are diversifying. This diversification demands that teacher preparation programs prepare novice teachers with a vision of teaching that accounts for cultural difference. Scholars like Gloria Ladson-Billings have done work on how teachers might move toward more culturally relevant teaching with all students, but Ladson-Billings herself observes the need for a more theoretical grounding for this kind of teaching. I investigate the vision of teaching found in the philosophies of Plato, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Dewey, Nel Noddings, and Paulo Freire to see if any of them offer the theoretical grounding for culturally relevant teaching. When these philosophies are found wanting, I turn my investigation to an organization doing the explicit work of preparing teachers to teach culturally Other students—Teach For America. I also suggest the philosophy of Charles Taylor offers useful principles for grounding culturally relevant teaching. Through historical and qualitative study, I use Teach For America as a case study of a teacher preparation program preparing teachers to teach diverse students. This dissertation offers lessons for all teacher preparation programs seeking to better do this work and for all teachers wishing to be culturally relevant in the classroom.