A Strategy for Preservice Teachers to Integrate Cultural Elements within Planning and Instruction: Cultural L.I.V.E.S.

The large percentages of teachers in the United States are white, middle class people who may not understand or identify their own cultural connections within the American culture, let alone elaborate their own ancestral cultural elements. Educators are expected to teach a diverse student population, and preservice teachers should be prepared to plan instruction within a cultural context. Research reflects the importance of teacher candidates identifying and understanding their own culture and elements which define similarities and differences to other cultures. In this study teacher candidates learned an acronym strategy, Cultural L.I.V.E.S., for identifying cultural elements, which could be incorporated for identification of self culture, and expand their knowledge of cultural elements into lesson planning and instruction. Teacher candidates found the strategy useful when attempting to define and remember elements of culture though not everyone recalled all associated elements. More research should be conducted on what preservice teachers think about their own culture and the culture of their prospective students. Teacher candidates must understand the relationships between instructional topics and cultural elements beyond the classroom into the global community.