Place-based pedagogical content knowledge: Teaching from, in, and for New York City

Abstract

Urban teaching is frequently constructed as being uniquely difficult and undesirable, but individuals who have deep understanding of and affective ties to urban schools, through their experiences as urban public school students, are more likely to want to work in urban schools (Boyd, Lankford, Loeb, & Wyckoff, 2005). Further, these individuals bring place-based funds of knowledge to pre-service teacher education programs, including multicultural capital and an understanding of how to navigate complex bureaucratic and political systems in order to take advantage of the many resources that cities offer (Authors, 2018). However, there is little existing research on how these teachers leverage those funds of knowledge to promote student learning as teachers of record, leading to a lack of clarity about what actually distinguishes “urban” teaching from other types of teaching (e.g. Milner, 2012). This study suggests that these urban-to-urban teachers draw upon their place-based funds of knowledge, and also benefit from continued place-based support, from pre- to in-service teaching, in their urban teaching careers.