Forthcoming Research & Inquiry

Expanding the Cultural Lens: Implementing an Ongoing Online Professional Development During the COVID-19 Pandemic

by Cory Brown, Pamela Correll, Ximena Uribe-Zarain, Kimberly J. Stormer PhD

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic provided one of the more significant changes to education. Schooling at all levels (preschool to higher education) were required to pivot their instruction while simultaneously realizing the significant disparities in access (Goudeau et al., 2021) that impaired students from being able to actively engage in the educational process. This qualitative study explored online teacher professional development (oTPD) offered to five novice teachers in a variety of schools within the Midwest during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The participants all attended the same undergraduate university where culturally relevant pedagogy was taught across the curriculum. Findings suggest that connecting culturally responsive teaching and culturally relevant pedagogy to teacher coaching enables participants to acquire the knowledge and support they need to effectively implement this approach in their classrooms, ultimately promoting equity and social justice in education. Overall, the participants showed growth throughout the instructional coaching and professional development sessions.