Improving Reading in Culturally Situated Contexts

Abstract

This article explores second year pre-service teachers’ ability to work with Indigenous students and their families during a small-scale project conducted in an Indigenous community. Supported field placements offered the pre-service teachers valuable opportunities to engage with the teaching of reading to Indigenous students ‘on their turf’. Given the high likelihood that pre-service teachers will be employed in schools with Indigenous populations, it is important that they develop an understanding of the reading process, the factors that impact on learning how to read, as well as cross-cultural aspects that affect the learning process. Pre-service teachers need to develop understanding of the factors that impact on the literacy development of students and how to engage them in culturally responsive pedagogical practices that focus on the positive aspects of the learner. Following the field placement, analysis of the data demonstrated that pre-service teachers were able to engage with the reading process through the use of running records, and develop field knowledge through understanding the impact of relationships on the learning environment. This information can be used by others to support field placements in Indigenous communities.