Preservice teachers’ struggles in finding culturally sustaining spaces in standardized teaching contexts

Policymakers’ neoliberal reforms have negatively altered early childhood teaching and teacher education. In doing so, these policies make it difficult for preservice teachers to learn how to engage in pedagogical practices that sustain their students’ sociocultural worlds. To address this issue, we utilized case study methodology to examine how a sample of preservice teachers (n = 5) struggled with making sense of how to engage in culturally sustaining practices across their professional training program. Findings from our investigation demonstrate how these preservice teachers appeared to possess both a conceptual and pedagogical understanding of culturally sustaining practices. Yet, they stated that they struggled to find the space required to implement such practices in their field placements, which made them question the landscape of public education while seeking out spaces that might allow them to engage in such practices as classroom teachers. Analyzing these findings illuminate at least three opportunities for teacher educators to support preservice teachers in identifying spaces within their teaching for engaging in culturally sustaining practices in their field placements and future classrooms.