Putting theories into action: A case of study of how early educators made sense of teaching lessons that reflected their students’ sociocultural worlds

While many within early childhood and early childhood teacher education continue to call for early educators to engage in activities that attend to children’s sociocultural worlds, practicing and preservice teachers often ignore such practices and make instructional decisions that address the issues of standardization and increased academic achievement. This has created a situation in which teacher educators need to assist practicing and preservice teachers with developing instructional responses that address demands of their local teaching context while taking into account issues that reflect children’s sociocultural worlds. This article addresses this issue. It examines the findings from a qualitative case study that investigated how a sample of graduate students made sense of an assignment that asked them to research, develop, and implement learning activities with their students that reflected issues central to their lives in and/or outside their classrooms. Analyzing and interpreting these teachers’ sensemaking illuminates possible practices that teacher educators can offer preservice and classroom teachers in formulating context-based instructional strategies that reflect their students’ sociocultural worlds.