Chapter 14: Preparing Teachers to Prevent Classroom Management Challenges Using Culturally Responsive Classroom Practices

Situating classroom management in a sociocultural context, this chapter provides an overview of how teacher educators can prepare preservice teachers (PSTs) to use culturally responsive practices to support students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. In particular, we explore how teacher educators can help PSTs learn how to prevent classroom management challenges by attending to three interconnected domains of culturally responsive practice: (a) student-teacher relationships based in culturally relevant, critical teacher care; (b) culturally relevant pedagogy; and (c) culturally responsive classroom management. We suggest that preparing preservice teachers for this work requires that they both critically reflect on their own cultural biases and learn how to use their students’ diverse backgrounds as assets in the classroom. Throughout the chapter, we highlight promising practices teacher educators can use in coursework and field placements for cultivating these dispositions and pedagogies with middle grades preservice teachers.