Here we share findings from a 9-month qualitative case study involving a school–university professional development inquiry into how teachers develop, implement, and interpret community-based pedagogies (CBPs), an asset-based approach to curriculum that acknowledges mandated standards but begins with recognizing and valuing local knowledge. After describing the structure and activities of the professional development project, we focus on the work and perspectives of four teachers at one public school in Bogotá. The challenges identified were outweighed by the benefits, including increased student engagement, motivation, family–school involvement, and an appreciation of local knowledge as curriculum resource. In addition to generating rich curriculum exemplars in chemistry, social studies, and language arts, the teachers’ interpretations and enactments of CBPs indicate that CBPs are flexible enough to allow multiple entry points, teacher autonomy, and ownership, and share enough commonalities with other pedagogical approaches to allow different learning trajectories for teachers and students.
Ashton-WarnerS. (1986). Teacher. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster (Original work published 1963)
2.
BomerR.MalochB. (2012). Diverse local literacies and standardizing policies. Language Arts, 90(1), 44-52.
3.
BorkoH. (2004). Professional development and teacher learning: Mapping the terrain. Educational Researcher, 33(8), 3-15.
4.
BransfordJ. D.BrownA. L.CockingR. R. (2004). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school (Expanded ed.). Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
CalvoG. (2007). Public policies and educational equity in the city of Bogotá. In PinkW. T.NoblitG. W. (Eds.), International handbook of urban education (pp. 665-683). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
7.
ChauxE. (2009). Citizenship competencies in the midst of a violent political conflict: The Colombian educational response. Harvard Educational Review, 79(1) 84-93.
8.
Cochran-SmithM. (2004). Walking the road: Race, diversity, and social justice in teacher education. New York: Teachers College Press.
9.
Cochran-SmithM. (2005). Teacher educators as researchers: Multiple perspectives. Teaching and Teacher Education, 21(2) 219-225.
10.
Cochran-SmithM.LytleS. (1993). Inside/outside: Teacher research and knowledge. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
11.
Cochran-SmithM.LytleS. (2009). Inquiry as stance: Practitioner research for the next generation. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
12.
ComberB. (2016). Literacy, place, and pedagogies of possibility. New York, NY: Routledge.
13.
Compton-LillyC.StewartK. (2013). “Common” and “core” and the diversity of students’ lives and experiences. In ShannonP. (Ed.), Closer readings of the common core (pp. 63-70). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
14.
CumminsJ. (1986). Empowering minorities students: A framework for intervention. Harvard Educational Review, 56(1), 18-37.
15.
DesimoneL. (2009). Improving impact studies for teachers’ professional development: Toward better conceptualizations and measures. Educational Researcher, 38(3), 181-199.
DeweyJ. (1990). The school and society & the child and the curriculum. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press (Original work published 1902)
18.
DixsonA.ChapmanT.HillD. (2005). Research as aesthetic process: Extending the portraiture methodology. Qualitative Inquiry, 11(1), 16-26. doi:10.1177/1077800404270836
19.
Doctors Without Borders. (2006). Living in fear: Colombia’s cycle of violence. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Author.
20.
DohertyR.HilbergS.EpalooseG.TharpR. (2002). Standards Performance Continuum: Development and validation of a measure of effective pedagogy. The Journal of Educational Research, 96(2), 78-89.
21.
FreireP. (1987). Education for critical consciousness. New York, NY: Continuum (Original work published 1969)
22.
FreireP. (1988). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Continuum (Original work published 1970)
23.
GarciaE.AriasM. B.MurriN. J. H.SernaC. (2010). Developing responsive teachers: A challenge for a demographic reality. Journal of Teacher Education, 61(1-2), 132-142.
24.
GonzálezA. (2007). Professional development for teachers in Colombia: Between colonial and academic practices. Íkala, revista de lenguaje y cultura, 12(18), 309-332.
25.
GruenewaldD. (2003). The best of both worlds: A critical pedagogy of place. Educational Researcher, 32(4) 3-12.
26.
Haas DysonA.GenishiC. (2005). On the case: Approaches to language and literacy research. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
27.
HanedaM.WellsG. (2012). Some key pedagogic principles for helping ELLs succeed in schools. Theory Into Practice, 51(2), 297-304.
28.
HawkinsM. (2014). Ontologies of place, creative meaning making, and creative education. Curriculum Inquiry, 44(1), 90-112. doi:10.1111/curi.12036
29.
Instituto Colombiano para el Fomento de Educación Superior. (2007). Fundamentación conceptual del area de ciencias naturals [Conceptual foundations in the natural sciences]. Bogotá, Colombia: Author.
30.
JohnsonK. E. (2009). Second language teacher education: A sociocultural perspective. New York, NY: Routledge.
31.
JohnsonK. E.GolombekP. (2011). Research on second language teacher education: A sociocultural perspective on professional development. New York, NY: Routledge.
32.
KretzmannJ.McKnightJ. (1993). Building communities from the inside out: A path toward finding and mobilizing a community’s assets. Evanston, IL: Institute for Policy Research.
33.
KumashiroK. (2009). Against common sense: Teaching and learning toward social justice. (Rev. ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
34.
Lawrence-LightfootS. (2005). Reflections on portraiture: A dialogue between art and science. Qualitative Inquiry, 11(1), 3-15. doi:10.1177/1077800404270955
35.
MarshallE.TooheyK. (2010). Representing family: Community funds of knowledge, bilingualism, and multimodality. Harvard Educational Review, 80(2), 221-241.
36.
MaxwellJ. (2005). Qualitative research design: An interactive approach (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
37.
McDonaldM. A.BowmanM.BraykoK. (2013). Learning to see students: Opportunities to develop relational practices of teaching through community-based placements in teacher education. Teachers College Record, 115(4). Retrieved from http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentId=16916
38.
McInerneyP.SmythJ.BrownD. (2011). “Coming to a place near you?” The politics and possibilities of a critical pedagogy of place-based education. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 39(1), 3-16.
MerriamS. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in education (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
41.
Ministerio de Educación Nacional. (2006). Estándares básicos de competencias en lenguas extranjeras: Inglés [Basic standards of competencies in foreign languages: English]. Bogotá, Colombia: Imprenta Nacional.
42.
MollL. C.AmantiC.NeffD.GonzálezN. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: A qualitative approach to connect households and classrooms. Theory Into Practice, 31(2), 132-141.
43.
MurrellP. (2001). The community teacher: A new framework for effective urban teaching. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
44.
NietoS. (2000). Placing equity front and center: Some thoughts on transforming teacher education for a new century. Journal of Teacher Education, 51(3), 180-187.
RodríguezJ. G.BlascoC. M. (2010). Interdisciplinarity and research on local issues in schools: Policies and experiences from Colombia. Issues in Integrative Studies, 28, 109-137.
47.
SalazarM. (2013). A humanizing pedagogy: Reinventing the principles and practice of education as a journey toward liberation. Review of Research in Education, 37(1), 121-148.
48.
SharkeyJ.Clavijo OlarteA. (2012a). Community-based pedagogies: Projects and possibilities in Colombia and the US. In HonigsfeldA.CohenA. (Eds.), Breaking the mold of education for culturally and linguistically diverse students: Innovative and successful practices for 21st century schools (pp. 129-138). Lantham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
49.
SharkeyJ.Clavijo OlarteA. (2012b). Promoting the value of local knowledge in ESL/EFL teacher education through community-based fieldwork. In ReichmanC.MedradoB. (Eds.), Práticas e projetos de formação de professors de inglés (pp. 39-58). João Pessoa, Brasil: Editora Universitária da Universidade Federal da Paraíba.
50.
ShultzJ. M.Gómez CaballosA. M.EspinelZ.Ríos OliverosS.FonsecaM. F.Hernandez FlorezL. J. (2014). Internal displacement in Colombia: Fifteen distinguishing features. Health Disaster, 2(1), 13-24.
51.
SmithG.GruenewaldD. (2007). Place-based education in a global age: Local diversity. New York, NY: Routledge.
52.
SobelD. (2004). Place-based education: Connecting classrooms and communities. Great Barrington, MA: The Orion Society.
53.
StakeR. (2000). Case studies. In DenzinN.LincolnY. (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 435-454). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
54.
Suárez-OrozcoC.Suárez-OrozcoM.TodorovaI. (2008). Learning in a new land: Immigrant students in American society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
55.
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. (2015). World Urbanization Prospects: The 2014 Revision (ST/ESA/SER.A/366).
56.
ValenzuelaA. (1999). Subtractive schooling: U.S.-Mexican youth and the politics of caring. Albany: State University of New York Press.
57.
WallaceC. (2002). Local literacies and global literacies. In BlockD.CameronD. (Eds.), Globalization and language teaching (pp. 101-114). New York, NY: Routledge.
58.
ZeichnerK. (2011). Teacher education for social justice. In HawkinsM. (Ed.), Bilingual education and bilingualism: Social justice language teacher education (pp. 7-22). Bristol, UK: Channel Press.
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
