Keywords
Academic achievement; Critical thinking; First year teachers
Abstract
Novice teachers believe and behave according to perceptions about teaching, learning, and schooling they formed during childhood and adult experiences with families, classrooms, communities, media, and teacher education programs. Perceptions build funds of knowledge shaping teacher efficacy that influence their development of cultural competence–the processes of acquiring, accepting, and applying requisite knowledge, skills, and dispositions for ensuring educational equity and excellence for all learners. Through their words, actions, and interactions, novice teachers socially reproduce their interpretations of perceptions influencing their cultural competence visible through their generational perpetuation of practice. Survey research with novice teachers reveals the importance of their critical thinking substantiated with novice teachers’ benefits and limitations for each perception. Implications for personal, professional, and pedagogical growth are supported by novice teachers’ voices.
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