Teachers' Content Knowledge and Pedagogical Beliefs Regarding the Use of African American English

Abstract

Purpose In order to provide appropriate and effective assessment and instructional activities, teachers are encouraged to develop their cultural competency. Although speech-language pathologists (SLPs) receive training on the linguistic features of nonmainstream dialects of English, such as African American English (AAE), less is known about teachers' training, beliefs, and pedagogical knowledge surrounding this topic. Method Using stratified random sampling by county population, we invited educators within selected Ohio school districts to complete an online survey ( n = 17,548). The survey probed teachers' pre- and postservice training, beliefs, and knowledge of linguistic features and terminology relating to AAE. A total of 571 teachers completed at least 50% of the survey items (3.66% response rate). Results Few teachers report receiving training on AAE and demonstrated a limited grasp of linguistic terms commonly found in AAE literature; however, many teachers reported feeling confident in their abilities to identify features of AAE in written language tasks. In terms of school culture, teachers reported that they believed AAE to be more appropriate outside (rather than inside) the classroom, and only one third of teachers received resources to enhance their knowledge of the cultural and linguistic features of AAE. Conclusions Results suggest that teachers may benefit from increased access to training and materials to further develop their cultural competence. Given SLPs' familiarity with cultural and linguistic variability, SLPs may work to support teachers' cultural competence and encourage culturally appropriate assessment and intervention practices. Additional research is needed to determine how teachers' skills in these areas predict effectiveness/teaching ability and which factors are most important in the provision of culturally relevant instruction.