Michelle Benegas, a doctoral candidate in C&I’s Second Languages and Cultures track, gave a TED Talk at TEDxUMN: Turning Ideas into Action Salon this past November. In Benegas’ talk, “Confessions: New Teacher of Newcomers,” she intimately describes her experiences as a teacher of new immigrants and contemplates the cost of her cultural education.
“Giving a TEDx talk is entirely different from presenting at a conference because speakers are asked to tell their personal story,” says Benegas. “Even though much of my talk focuses on my lacking knowledge as an early teacher, I am proud of my story. I am not uncomfortable about presenting my vulnerability. As a teacher educator, I see similar versions of my story in many of my teacher candidates. I hope that by being forthcoming about my growth as an educator and a person, teacher candidates will more confidently engage in the critical discourses needed to bring more equity to education for marginalized learners.”
In C&I, Benegas researches the preparation of culturally relevant teachers, and cites her early experiences as a new teacher of newcomers as her motivation. “My research seeks to examine how teacher candidates learn to bridge the theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) with the sociopolitical environments of schools. While we know that CRP is a key to closing the opportunity gap, there is a lack of understanding about what CRP looks like in practice and how teachers can learn to enact it. My research follows student teachers as they learn to teach diverse students in culturally relevant ways, within the parameters of a public school.”
Benegas also serves as the first Vice President of MinneTESOL (Minnesota Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages), and in 2015, she will assume the role of president. She is a former Saint Paul Public School teacher, and the school that she references in her talk is LEAP High School in Saint Paul. It is a high school made up entirely of immigrants and refugees.
TEDxUMN: Turning Ideas into Action took place at the Whole Music Club in Coffman Union on November 16. To learn more about the SLC program area and Ph.D. track, please visit the SLC program area page. Please visit our student stories section to read more experiences in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction.
