TEST Mirrors and Windows: Exploring the Intersection of Reflective Practice and Culturally Responsive Pedagogy

This qualitative case study examined preservice teachers’ experiences in secondary education preparation programs, particularly emphasizing reflective practices in their Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (CRP) and teaching practices. A cultural proficiency self-assessment and reflection, semi-structured interviews, and self-created lesson plans or instructional strategies were explored with six pre-service teachers. Three themes were identified as the findings of this work: Teaching Preparation: Foundation with Gaps, Classroom Experiences: Where Practice Puts You to the Test, Reflective Practices: The Engine for Professional Growth. Recommendations include conducting longitudinal studies to examine preservice teachers’ sustained cultural proficiency, comparative case studies across multiple teacher preparation programs, the mentorship experience, and amplified document analyses to understand how CRP is applied in practice. Finally, seeking a mixed-methods approach to more fully capture the impact of reflective practice on teacher development is recommended in order to illuminate more unique areas in this work.

Level thesis:degree_level

Ed.D.

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Young, Tiffany

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Sanchez, Jafeth E.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Duckworth, Melanie
• Burnham, Melisa
• Mitchell, Paul
• Gayles, Prisca

• Cultural Competency
• Cultural Proficiency Continuum
• Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
• Preservice Teacher
• Reflective Practice
• Teacher Preparation

Language dc:language.iso

en_US, English

Repository record dc:identifier.uri

https://scholarwolf.unr.edu/handle/11714/11668

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarwolf.unr.edu:11714/11668