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Education scholarship is unclear about what matters most to novice teachers' enactment of culturally responsive instructional practices. To better understand the factors that contribute to novice teachers' instructional decision-making, the authors used Role Theory as a framework for an in-depth analysis of three first-year urban teachers who completed the same teacher preparation program. Classroom observation data of the three teachers indicated that one of the teachers used culturally responsive instructional practices frequently, one used them occasionally, and one only rarely. To understand this range in use, surveys and interviews measured the school context and cognitive variables that influenced each teachers' perception of their professional role. Findings indicate that the key factor affecting use of culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) was the degree to which each teacher experienced consistent or conflicting role demands between their school context and their personal beliefs about teaching. The role consensus experienced by one teacher supported her frequent use of CRP, while the role conflict experienced by the second teacher was attributed to her occasional use, and the role overload experienced by the third teacher explained her rare use of CRP. Implications for preparing teachers to deliver CRP in unfamiliar and complex environments are discussed.

Within a framework of social identity theory (SIT), this paper utilizes social cognitive psychological theories to explain how and why White urban teachers often struggle to create loving spaces in urban classrooms, particularly when their students are from social groups different from their own. Social categorization theory is useful for describing how the sociocultural context of urban schools and schooling created and sustains the archetypal teacher savior identity. Social identity theories of intergroup behavior and organizational role theory are employed to explicate how the group norms of teacher saviors describe and prescribe pedagogical practices that create a hierarchy between teachers and students, leaving little room for warmth and caring. Finally, guided by Howard's (We can't teach what we don't know: White teachers, multiracial schools, 2nd edn. Teachers College Press, New York, 2016) concept of a transformationist teacher identity, I offer suggestions for how teacher educators can help preservice teachers cultivate positive teacher-student relationships in their future classrooms by knowing themselves, knowing their students, and knowing their practice. Ultimately, SIT suggests that urban teachers must be metacognitive about the ways in which their identities are constructed and enacted in schools if they are to care about and for their diverse students.

Students of color in urban areas experience a multitude of intersecting oppressive structures that influence their behavior in schools. As a result, teachers in these schools often face distinct student behavior challenges to which they are often ill-equipped to respond. Colorblind approaches to student misbehavior, those that do not acknowledge students' environments and cultures, are often punitive in nature and result in consequences that are not in students' best interests. We propose, then, that preservice teachers who aim to teach in urban schools are required to consider contextual and cultural influences on student behavior as part of their teacher preparation coursework. Drawing upon existing scholarship, we propose a course framework that focuses exclusively on techniques that cultivate strong student-teacher relationships and academically supportive student behaviors. The framework consists of five thematic units: 1) trauma-informed and trauma-sensitive classrooms, 2) facing cultural conflicts, 3) culturally informed care, 4) culturally relevant/responsive classroom management, and 5) restorative discipline philosophy and practices.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop and validate the dispositions for culturally responsive pedagogy scale (DCRPS). Design/methodology/approach: Scale development consisted of a six-step process including item development, expert review, exploratory factor analysis, factor interpretation, confirmatory factor analysis and convergent and discriminant validity analyses. Findings: The final scale contains 19 Likert items across three dispositional domains: Disposition for Praxis, Disposition for Community and Disposition for Social Justice. The alpha reliability value for the overall scale was 0.92. Practical implications: The DCRPS can be used in teacher preparation programs for programmatic evaluation, for teacher candidate growth assessment or for career counseling. Originality/value: Other scales related to multicultural education reflect teachers' general beliefs about diversity and/or inclusive education. The DCRPS is the first scale that assesses teachers' beliefs and attitudes underlying culturally responsive teaching practices.

This study examined potential links among parents' role beliefs for involvement and social-contextual variables contributing to its development. A sample of parents from two Title I middle schools responded to surveys assessing their perceptions of student and teacher invitations to involvement, school expectations of involvement, school climate, childhood schooling experiences, and their role beliefs. Parents' perceptions of student invitations to involvement, school expectations of involvement, and school climate had the largest effects on parents' role beliefs in one school, while school climate was the sole predictor of parents' role beliefs in the other. Teachers' invitations to involvement were not directly related to role beliefs in either school. Differences between schools are discussed in relation to social and cultural capital. (Contains 3 figures and 5 tables.)