Using banks' typology to analyze the cultural autobiographies of pre-service teachers in a children's literature class

The present study was designed to examine the stages of cultural identity described by Banks (2001) within a pre-service teacher education context. We selected a sample of 31 pre-service teachers from a Southern university in the United States who wrote reflective papers on their cultural identity as part of their children's literature class in college. Results of the narrative analysis indicated students' responses regarding their different stages of identity development. Even though more advanced stages could be found in some of our participants' responses, still a majority of the pre-service teachers were in the stage of unexamined identity. This study highlighted the importance of examining how the progress of one's identity was related to one's attitudes, understandings, and practices in an educational context.