International Journal of Arts and Humanities (IJAH)

In this article, I explore the vignette interpretations of two early childhood teachers who are white and work with children of color from low-income families. Their interpretations reveal a silence of culture, race and language and the presence of culturally responsive teaching approaches, demonstrating their growing cultural competence (Hammond, 2015; Gay, 2010). This suggests the need for teacher preparation programs to provide a more robust and integrated approach to support teacher candidates’ capacity to work effectively across all identity boundaries in culturally-inclusive learning environments with a dynamic use of the pragmatics of child development to support culturally responsive teaching practices (Cardwell, 2016). In this way, teacher candidates can adjust their teaching approaches and academic content to make learning personally meaningful and culturally relevant for every child, leading to increased learning and equity in culturally inclusive urban classrooms (Cardwell, 2016; Young, 2011; Horowitz, Darling-Hammond & Branford, 2005; Harvey, 1999).