Reflections for Transforming the Perspectives of Teacher-Directed Practices towards Community-Based Ethnographic Practices with Migrant and Minority Students

This conceptual paper represents the retrospective/current reflections and findings from teacher education research of an intercultural educator gathered over 45 years of research in country-specific schools. Considered are the perspectives of primary and secondary school teachers who teach migrant/minority students and who are influenced by national policies which expose them to new local intercultural classroom practices. Its intent is to question the use of homogenized teacher-directed practices that not only essentialize these students’ traditions, customs, cultures, religions, and languages but also project a deficit model in classrooms which minimalizes their contributions. Proposed is the deconstruction of homogenized, rigid teacher-directed practices arising from their professional training, classroom teaching, and pedagogy, towards community-based ethnographic (CBE) practices so that teachers, students, and ethnographers can immerse themselves in classroom participatory inquiry and critical thinking that unpacks students’ lives and creates dialogical processes that identify, utilize, and legitimize local “funds of knowledge”. By implementing a CBE approach, a more realistic understanding of the educational contexts, experiences, and perspectives of migrant/minority students and their teachers can be identified to develop interculturally ladened learning activities and content that concretely address diversity.