Teacher Candidates Using Annotated Technology Foster Cultural Responsiveness and Ethics

Abstract

Education preparation programs are guided by national and state standards in training teacher education candidates for a career in education. Though embedded in coursework and assessed through various assignments, there is limited assessment of whether teacher education candidates comprehend specific concepts within a standard. There are advances that allow observation and assessment of teacher candidates, which gives all parties involved in student teaching a method to gage the candidates’ ability to identify distinctive archetypes within a standard as it applies to the candidate’s culture and beliefs. Digital tools, such as video annotation software (VAS) programs, include settings that permit their users to provide feedback on a digital platform. The feedback can be used to measure candidates’ comprehension of their own culture and beliefs in relation to specific concepts within a standard to cultivate the development of cultural responsiveness and ethics. GoReact is a VAS program used at a top 20 Historically Black College University (HBCU) to assess teacher candidates’ knowledge of cultural responsiveness and ethics in student teaching. The information from the digital platform was quantified, showing emergent themes and findings that are relative to whether VAS programs are a useful tool for measuring cultural responsiveness education and ethics in teacher candidate training.

1. Introduction

Sitting in a classroom with a laptop open to a rubric that targets the five dimensions of multicultural education [1] and multicultural approaches [2], a professor digitally evaluates the performance of teacher candidates (TCs) in the student teaching course on a learning management system. One by one, the TCs share multimedia presentations on culturally relevant activities for their selected English Language Learner (ELL) case study students. Simultaneously, teacher candidates in the audience who are enrolled in the same student teaching course are notating their favorite colleague activities and justifying their opinion with their university-issued I-pad pen and digital journals. While teacher candidates pause to allow others to prepare to present, the professor asks students to address where they are cognitively in their understanding of Banks’ dimensions and approaches. Students journal privately to their professor’s comments such as:

“I need more work on understanding knowledge construction. I say this because I will need to work towards helping my students become effective critical thinkers”.

“The concepts that I learned the most today were content integration and an equity pedagogy. The concept that I need more work on is prejudice reduction and empowering school culture”.

“The concepts that I learned about the most today was Content Integration. I learned that there is more to it than just showing different cultures flags, holidays, and famous people”.

“The concept I need more work on is content integration cause including other cultures and not creating biases against my students through the activities I chose is important. I see now that my Hispanic holiday stuff could reinforce stereotypes”.

Faculty members and teacher candidates are able to depict and assess how cultural relevance is represented using a fictitious ELL case study student within the four walls of their university multiculturalism classroom. But the question presents itself as to what can be observed in teacher candidates who move cultural relevance from theory to practice in student teaching? What digital tool is used to measure and evaluate students’ culturally responsive behaviors or lack thereof in actual classroom settings? This chapter responds to address these questions by sharing the 4-year experience of implementing an annotated software system to promote collaborative assessment of learning outcomes required by educational preparation programs for preservice teachers.

2. Literature review

2.1 Consideration for a digital tool selection to assess cultural responsiveness

When moving teacher candidates from the classroom to field experiences, key factors must be addressed before purchasing technology. Considerations for practical and useful technology should include, but not be limited to cost, safety of information, accessibility, user-friendliness, universal design, and sustainability. Miller [3] suggests that the following be critiqued before purchasing educational technology which includes responses to the questions reflecting how the purchase may impact the teaching and learning of cultural responsiveness and/or relevance. First, does the educational technology align with the toughest course goals? Cultural relevance can be more abstract at the highest dimension and approach of learning how to implement multicultural practices within teacher candidates’ instruction. So, knowing realistically what a digital tool can or cannot capture must be factored in how the tool is utilized. Second, does the educational technology align with what is known about how people learn? Traditional teacher candidates are familiar with asynchronous and synchronous digital tools. The ideal tool for teaching and learning of cultural relevance would promote both in a student teaching environment. Third, is the educational technology of high quality in the areas of accurate content, functionality, and support? A tool that allows a preview of the platform for learning, as well as describes and shares to new user online manuals, training sessions, and follow-up support, is at a premium for all users because not all learners are comfortable with Web 2.0-based technologies. Fourth and final, is the educational technology of a notable value? Between the cost to teacher candidates or the institute of higher learning, the commitment required by the institute to gain access, awareness, and usage of the tool, the amount of faculty and student time they will have to commit, and the learning outcome benefits of the new technology versus previously or presently supplied digital supports need to be reviewed. Moving students effectively from the acquiring of knowledge to demonstrating knowledge through technology is a goal of educational technology. But the assessor or potential purchaser of the technology should ask if there are other methods or materials that could supply the same outcomes in a manner that supports teaching and learning of cultural relevance for teacher candidates.

Educational Technology to indicate the growth and development of multicultural concepts is not new. Traditionally, multiculturalism and/or an ethics course are offered in universities and colleges with educational preparation programs. As institutes of higher education adopted more technological advancements, curriculums transitioned with the advancements as well. Video-Mediated Technology, Telementoring, online courses with diverse digital tools connect college students with communities beyond the campus walls and are used to address multiculturalism, social justice, and diverse cultural practices and perspectives within a digital platform [4, 5].

Combining the strength of a digital tool that meets the criteria for purchasing an educational technology with a best practices multicultural teacher education framework has the capability of addressing important educational outcomes in an educational preparation program. Due to the availability and ever-increasing number of digital tools, the challenge in higher education is to select an instrument that is easy to implement for faculty and supplies the level of depth required to meet the needs of diverse prospective teachers. Kompar [6] suggests choosing a digital tool that is “mile deep,” meaning it is flexible across subject areas and user-friendly enough to allow the development of twenty-first century skills throughout the various levels of Bloom’s taxonomy [7]. This concept laid the foundation for selecting a digital tool that could address the learning outcomes associated with cultural responsiveness within a student teaching experience.

3. Digital tool selection

In an educational preparation program, teaching faculty are tasked with the responsibility to assess their teacher candidates’ level of understanding in a manner that distinguishes between levels of performance fairly and objectively [8]. Faculty are also encouraged to help teacher candidates use reflection to self-assess progress [9]. Another aspect that comes into play is the relationship between the cooperating teacher and the student teacher. No longer is the educational preparation program faculty member the majority provider of information about subjects for the student. Instead, the cooperating teacher is the person who provides real-world examples, or the lack of them, for the student teacher to emulate. With that information in mind, the digital tool must be able to show the perspective of all parties (faculty, cooperating teachers, teacher candidates, university officials, etc.) to support the final assessment of the teacher candidate [10].

In researching Web 2.0 technologies that support interactive communication and assessment, the researchers explored video annotation technology. Video annotation software (VAS) programs permit participants to provide feedback in a video recording setting. The feedback can be given in the form of text comments, video feedback, or simple oral recordings to the person being viewed on an uploaded recording. The software program includes places for associated rubrics, documents, and instructional videos to provide directions for any participant. VAS programs can be purchased or used as a free tool from the World Wide Web (See, Top Tech for Digital Annotation by Common Sense Technology at https://www.commonsense.org/education/top-picks/top-tech-for-digital-annotation).

When looking at considerations for using a digital tool, privacy is important and that is lacking in online tools without The Family Educational Rights and Act (FERPA) rights or regulations for the children and adults recorded and commented upon within the system. Software in the paid category was examined by an educational preparation program at a Historically Black College University (HBCU) during a 4-year period. Though many Video-Annotated Software programs are on the market, three of the for-pay tools that are available and were designed to be marketed to different educator preparation programs (EPPs) are Edthena (https://www.edthena.com/about.html), Torsh Talent (http://www.torsh.co/classroom-observation-tools/torsh-talent/), and GoReact (goreact.com). GoReact was chosen for the educational preparation program at a top 20 HBCU due to cost factors and caps by the university on student materials and supplies per course as well as the thoughtful practices for reviewing educational courses as described by Miller [3]. Considerations also included if this tool could help the participants note their understanding of cultural responsiveness based on their multiculturalism instruction such as the one described in a university diversity course. An example of annotation text synchronized with a teaching behavior is shown in Figure 1, Example of GoReact.

Figure 1.

Example of GoReact.

Within the annotated system noted, a time stamp is stated beside each text. A round symbol with two letters shows the category reviewed. A graph is depicted in the right bottom corner to show how many times a category was discussed by the viewer. The paperclip icon shows that two items are attached and available for downloading. The clipboard with the check depicts that there is a rubric attached to this assignment. Other symbols, such as the camcorder, microphone, and library books, indicate that other multimedia sources can be uploaded for additional feedback.

4. Standards

Most recently, the educational preparation program at a top 20 HBCU uses Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) national standards, Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC) national standards, and Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) state standards to assess cultural responsiveness in teacher candidates. These standards are actualized through the demonstration of lesson plans that are presented in real time or asynchronously to the faculty member of record, also known as the university supervisor (US) and the cooperating teacher (CT).

4.1 CAEP

The Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) is composed of a board of directors, volunteers, assessors, and staff members whose goal is to review and support the accreditation and pre-accreditation of educator preparation providers whose degrees lead to teacher licensure, certification, or endorsements for applicants within the United States and internationally [11]. Through evidence-based practices for accreditation, CAEP provides teacher candidates with assurance that a CAEP program is governed by high standards that include the principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion. The CAEP standard of focus in this study, as noted in the chart, is Standard 1: Content and Pedagogical Knowledge. This means that the provider ensures that candidates develop an understanding of the critical concepts and principles of their discipline and facilitates candidates’ reflection of their personal biases to increase their understanding and practice of equity, diversity, and inclusion. The provider is intentional in the development of their curriculum and clinical experiences for candidates to demonstrate their ability to effectively work with diverse P-12 students and their families (2022, Initial Level Standards https://caepnet.org/∼/media/Files/caep/standards/2022-initial-standards-1-pager-final.pdf?la=en).

4.2 InTASC

The Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC) is a consortium of state education agencies and national educational organizations dedicated to the reform, preparation, licensing, and ongoing professional development of teachers. The InTASC standards are composed of 10 standards with multiple indicators that review the knowledge, skills, and dispositions expected of teachers [12]. The standards of focus, 2, 4, 5, and 9 are noted in Table 1. The Level III Field Experience requires candidates to focus on these InTASC standards throughout the entire student teaching experience.

Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation Standards

Standard 1: Content and Pedagogical Knowledge

CAEP: R1.3 Instructional Practice

The provider ensures that candidates are able to apply their knowledge of InTASC standards relating to instructional practice at the appropriate progression levels. Evidence demonstrates how candidates are able to assess (InTASC Standard 6), plan for instruction (InTASC Standard 7), and utilize a variety of instructional strategies (InTASC Standard 8) to provide equitable and inclusive learning experiences for diverse P-12 students. Providers ensure that candidates model and apply national or state-approved technology standards to engage and improve learning for all students.

Retrieved from https://ccsso.org/sites/default/files/2017-12/2013_INTASC_Learning_Progressions_for_Teachers.pdf

Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium Standards

Standard #2: Learning Differences. The teacher uses understanding of individual differences and diverse cultures and communities to ensure inclusive learning environments that enable each learner to meet high standards.

Standard #5: Application of Content. The teacher understands how to connect concepts and use differing perspectives to engage learners in critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative problem solving related to authentic local and global issues

Standard #9: Professional Learning and Ethical Practice. The teacher engages in ongoing professional learning and uses evidence to continually evaluate his/her practice, particularly the effects of his/her choices and actions on others (learners, families, other professionals, and the community), and adapts practice to meet the needs of each learner.

Retrieved from https://ccsso.org/sites/default/files/2017-12/2013_INTASC_Learning_Progressions_for_Teachers.pdf

Performance Standard 6: Culturally Responsive Teaching and Equitable Practices

The teacher demonstrates a commitment to equity and provides instruction and classroom strategies that result in culturally inclusive and responsive learning environments and academic achievement for all students.

Retrieved from https://doe.virginia.gov/teaching/performance_evaluation/teacher/

Table 1.

Standards for educational preparation programs.

4.3 VDOE

The Virginia Department of Education’s (VDOE’s) uniform performance standards include seven standards [13]. Within each of the seven standards are key elements that describe the knowledge that teachers should possess, and actions required to advance student learning. Together, these seven standards represent the scope and complexity of teaching and noting learners’ outcomes within school divisions. The Level III Field Experience requires candidates to address these standards throughout the student teaching experience in conjunction with the InTASC standards.

With the national and state standards as the precedence, culturally responsive education is embedded into the curriculum, but an across-the-board assessment is needed to for consistent measure of application on the various standard’s concepts. Video annotation technologies that support interactive assessment are methods to both gage awareness of culturally responsiveness within a standard and address the inconsistencies in that recognition. GoReact is the video annotation software (VAS) program with the capabilities not only to assess, but also to evaluate teacher candidates as well as providing a platform to evaluate themselves.

5. Defining culturally responsive education at a historically black college and university

Culturally Responsive Education is the teaching-and-learning process in which students’ different cultural references, home cultures, and previous experiences are taken into consideration by the educator, curriculum developer, and the environment that hosts the learner. The goal is to meet the academic standards (CAEP, InTASC, and VDOE) and socio-emotional needs of students, promoting recognition of marginalized people in a manner that infuses their cultural perspectives and realities that foster awareness, tolerance, and advocacy of justice for those in the aforementioned populations. This expanded version of the concept utilized at a top 20 HBCU rests upon the research of Geneva Gay’s [14] perspective on Culturally Responsive teaching and Aronson and Laughter’s [15] research on culturally relevant education in terms of emancipatory pedagogies, as described by Joyce King in Michelle Foster’s [16] Compilation on Readings for Equal Education. The expanded version of the concept also includes understanding the impact of cultural conflict on negating cultural relevancy in the classroom [17], and all of these ideas are incapsulated in the study of multicultural education [18].

6. Competencies to be addressed for cultural responsiveness

Culturally Responsive Education has its foundation with researchers, teachers, and advocates within the social, educational, and global realm of policymakers. The evolution of the concept of CRE evolved from a more simplistic understanding of best practices for diverse learners. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, multicultural goals identified by Gollnick and Chinn [19] characterized the EPPs. Candidates were prepared to help all students to: 1). learn basic skills; 2) acquire knowledge of the historical and social background of society to understand racism, sexism, and poverty; 3) overcome their fear of differences that lead to cultural misunderstandings and intercultural conflicts; 4) function effectively in their own cultural and other cultural situations; 5) value cultural differences among people and to view differences in an egalitarian mode rather than in an inferior superior mode; and 6) understand the multicultural nation and interdependent global society in which they live. To this current date, the text Multicultural Education in a Pluralistic Society by Gollnick and Chinn [19] is still used to examine socioeconomic and cultural conditions that impact educational achievement of diverse learners. They are reflected in the revised course syllabi in varied courses to support the infusion of multicultural education. CRE is not only crucial to educational preparation programs but is also supported by current research and resources and assessed through a variety of methods from case study assignments to quantifiable field experiences during preservice field teaching placements. Table 1 depicts the standards that infuse the concept of cultural responsiveness.

Developing a culturally diverse training curriculum includes historical considerations as well as contemporary developments. Acknowledging past failures to provide teacher candidates quality education on how to work with children from diverse backgrounds is necessary as well as sharing how to correct these issues [20]. Through the years, updated perspectives on multicultural education have been developed with the ever-changing education population in mind. These updated perspectives on multiculturalism to include ethics have been reflected in universities and colleges’ educational preparation program curricula [21].

With the current global events indicating an increase in racial assaults and discriminatory behaviors of non-Christian religions, and immigrants, universities need to stay in constant communication with teacher candidates and their cooperating teachers to explore the most relevant cultural practices for their given placements. For teacher candidates to understand its meaning at a top 20 HBCU using a digital platform, the goal is for those teacher candidates to be able to: 1) demonstrate the knowledge of different value systems and the ability to analyze and evaluate their influence on behavior; 2) use relevant information and materials of various cultures for developing curriculum content; 3) understand different patterns of human growth and development within and between cultures, 4) recognize potential cultural and linguistic biases in the development, administration, and interpretation of assessment instruments; 5) demonstrate the ability to provide a learning environment that meets students’ diverse needs; and 6) demonstrate knowledge of various cultures and philosophies and an interest in expanding one’s knowledge. These attributes have been reviewed over the duration of the university’s education preparation program and have remained relevant for more than a decade. To evaluate teacher candidates’ present understanding of culturally responsive practices with national and state standards, their culturally responsive educational behaviors are assessed within the video-annotated system to note the progress in supporting their learning and modifications of their practices as needed. The notion that one-size-fits-all is inexplicable, given cultural relevance is a humane element relevant to the development of technologies and ethics in education and particularly the growing use of educational technologies. Thus, the use of technologies in education must be inclusive of cultural relevance, in that cultural relevance must be a fundamental element to identify and measure cultural relevance.

7. Methodology

Teaching standards from three sources were applied as guidelines to determine the use of culturally responsive teaching through GoReact Annotations. These standards included: 1) the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation standards (CAEP), 2) the Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium standards (InTASC), and 3) the Virginia Department of Education standards (VDOE). Terms were pulled from these three standards to determine an alignment with culturally relevant statements found in GoReact. GoReact has a specific icon representing culturally responsive pedagogy, in which students, site or university supervisors may click to indicate culturally responsive teaching. There were four guiding questions. The findings indicated compliance with educational standards, term alignment, and indicated usage of GoReact.

Information from GoReact was accumulated from over the last four years (2019–2022) and included comments from 23 teacher candidates. These comments were originally color coded in GoReact and the color systems were removed to secure and ensure anonymity among the 118 responses over the time frame in GoReact particularly associated with cultural responsiveness. The comments were dissected, examining keywords that matched wording in the national and state education standards dealing with cultural responsiveness and ethics. Inferential statistics were used to produce percentages of how the responses aligned with the three educational standards that address cultural relevance. The highest percentage correlated to the most common and most used responses and the lowest percentage correlated to the least and less used response. Table 2 shows the breakdown of responses by standard in GoReact.

Educational standard terms usage alignment
Concepts/Terms from Educational Standards	Educational Standards	Usage	Correlated terms to concept terms within Educational Standards	Responses from GoReact entries
Community relevance	CAEP #1	18%	Community	Shared sense of community
	Intasc #2		Society
	VDOE #6		Relationship	Shared connections of daily lives
			Related
			Multicultural	Shared family lives
Cultural references: racism, sexism, gender, religion, immigrant, abilities, and/or socioeconomic status	CAEP #1	17%	Non-typical	Funwa Ni Alaafia is a non-English phrase
	Intasc #2		Non-sexist
	VDOE #6			Showed understanding of Title IX
				Shared sense of support and understanding for others
				Respected differences
				Shared and integrated People of Color (POC) in non-traditional roles
Value cultural differences	CAEP #1	15.95%	Different	Gestured satisfactory with the “Shaky thumb”
	Intasc #2		Difference
	VDOE #6		Differences	Distinguished familiar and common in communities from differences
			Diverse
Responsive learning	CAEP #1	15.4%	Responsive learning	Created an inclusive learning environment
	Intasc #9
	VDOE #6			Reflected upon personal cultural actions, remarks and asked how I (student) can improve
				Used videos, pictures, and books related to student populations
Inclusivity	CAEP #1	4.7%	Inclusion	Created an inclusive environment
	Intasc #2		Include
	VDOE #6		Incorporate	Made connections
Content knowledge	CAEP #1	3.7%	Content	Respect how students’ culture reflects the way they learn content
	Intasc #5		Skills building
	VDOE #6		Critical thinking
			Content application	Present the same content knowledge from an alternative learning perspective
Interdependent Global Society	CAEP #1	2.65%	Internet	Reviewed real-world connections
	Intasc #5		Real World
	VDOE #6			Reviewed world experiences
				Reviewed global learning
Equity	CAEP #1	53%	Fair
	Intasc #5
	VDOE #6

Table 2.

National and state educational standards’ correlation to GoReact responses.

GoReact reports on three responses: 1) cooperating teacher, 2) teacher candidate, and 3) university supervisor responses. Each response adheres to a color-coded system that allows for the categorization and subsequent separation of responses. Cooperating teachers and university supervisors have experience in culturally relevant education and ethics, making their positions ones of supervision meaning sponsorship, mentorship, coaching, observation, directorship, guidance and support, and facilitation or growth and development which makes their responses more supervisory commentary [22, 23]. Their responses in GoReact were identified as exclusionary, in that their responses were not those of teacher candidates in an education preparation program.

Responses from teacher candidates were collected from students who would receive their initial license to teach in United States public schools. The number of teacher candidates from a top 20 HBCU in Virginia varies from semester to semester, thus the number of responses changed per semester with course enrollment. However, the group size from 2019 to 2022 included 23 teacher candidates. All teacher candidates require a practicum/internship with at least three schools and each school representing diverse cultural and socioeconomic demographics. The practicum/internship experiences are recorded by teacher candidates in GoReact, and they have opportunities for self-reflection by clicking a corresponding icon. Site and university supervisors used the GoReact Rubric with four scoring levels: Distinguished-4 points, Proficient-3 points, Emerging-2 points, and Unsatisfactory-1 point to evaluate teacher candidate experiences. Teacher candidates who successfully completed practicum/internship receive their teaching license and start their professional careers as teachers.

8. Findings

The purposes of this study were to determine how GoReact culminated awareness in teachers to become culturally relevant and ethical in their teaching practices and responses. The data to answer these questions were gathered through an analysis of text from GoReact with a teacher candidate group from 2019 to 2022. During the year of Fall 2021, there were no teacher candidates. Data collected during the 4 years per semester indicated appropriate application of standards as presented in GoReact. The culmination of responses provided evidence of specific terms reoccurring within the text. Reoccurring terms represent both the understanding and the application of the digital performance of teacher candidates’ usage of culturally relevant pedagogy and are displayed in Figure 2. Terms from Standards Used in GoReact, which shows the three standards (CAEP, InTASC, and VDOE), are presented in relation to terms in GoReact.

Figure 2.

Terms from standards used in GoReact.

8.1 Standards and cultural relevance

The first priority of the study is to examine the three standards and concept alignment and then the recognition of cultural relevance as an examination in usage: cost, safety, of information, access, adaptability, and sustainability.

1. Equity is not equality. Equity introduced an interesting finding within the correlation between rules and fairness. Teacher candidate comments represented equality rather than equity. Teacher candidates made statements such as follow the rules. Although, rules imply fairness in its application; however, students of color have not consistently experienced fair and equal applications of rules. E pluribus unum, out of one many is one is the antithesis to equity. The word “rule, rules” was found at a rate of 2.1%, while equity was used at a rate less than 1%. When equity is the goal, the following rules may not be the best approach to ensure every student receives resources and support needed for success.

2. Interdependent Global Society as found in the GoReact text correlated with the terms such as real-world or global connections. Although the percentage rate was low for this term, it was an indicator that teacher candidates made efforts to connect lessons to international events and experiences. Most importantly, as more corporations realize that diversity and inclusion yield greater productivity and performance outcomes, teacher candidates are integrating life lessons on diversity and inclusion.

3. Content, although a specific icon in GoReact, and as described by the CAEP and InTASC standards, revealed the lowest percentage rate. Content was only searched through the Cultural Relevance icon, not the Knowledge Content icon. The references for this description within the narratives were used minimally, at a rate of approximately 4% were terms referenced as content, content application, content knowledge, critical thinking, or skills building.

4. Responsive learning challenges teacher candidates to evaluate their behaviors and actions.

5. Value cultural differences were distinctively made in the comments teacher candidates made such as the gesture that suggested satisfactory with a “Shaky thumb.” This illustrates the intuitiveness of teacher candidates to be inclusive of body language as well as gestures which may have different meanings depending on location.

6. Cultural references (racism, sexism, gender, religion, immigrant, abilities, and/or socioeconomic status) were made to describe identities of geographic, language, and sex orientations.

7. Community relevance was consistently referenced by teacher candidates in the GoReact. Teacher candidates used terms such as: community, society, relationship, related, and multicultural. These terms were most frequently used to describe community relevance.

The three standards have overlapping terms as found in the descriptions of each standard; yet there are distinctive descriptions among the three standards CAEP, InTASC, and VDOE.

The common terms as written per standards are equity and inclusion, which are found within the descriptions of each standard, although equity is an embedded concept of InTASC. There were also common concepts found within the GoReact text provided by both teacher candidates and supervisors. One hundred eighty-eight statements were reviewed from the GoReact text. These terms were extrapolated from the text with direct reference to the three educational standards: CAEP, InTASC, and VDOE.

8.2 VAS alignment with how teacher candidates learn

GoReact aligns with how people learn particularly with content learned in classrooms. Teacher candidates’ average scores from the GoReact Rubric were Proficient as were the scores on the single category of Culturally Relevant. Over the 4 years, 2020 showed the best rating for Distinguished, earning a rating of 130%. During the same year in the category of Proficient, the rating was 86%, and there was an increase in this category in 2022, 165%. In the category of Emerging, teacher candidates demonstrated an ability to work closely with students but were not able to demonstrate culturally relevant lessons. Over the 4-year period, only 8% of the teacher candidates scored Unsatisfactory. The overall scores on the GoReact Rubric correlate with the single category of Culturally Relevant, with both scores indicating Proficient performance (see Table 3).

GoReact Rubric
Culturally Relevant Icon Rating
Distinguished 4 points Lesson fosters an inclusive environment planned with individual differences and community relevance. Lesson allows students to demonstrate diverse ways of learning.	Proficient 3 points Lesson is planned for individual differences that include multiple cultural components. Lesson is able to relate to personal or community concepts.	Emerging 2 points Lesson allows for working closely with students but is unable to address diversity in instruction with whole or small group. Lesson allows for cultural demonstration but is unable to demonstrate diverse cultural perspectives.	Unsatisfactory 1 point Lesson does not address individual differences nor includes multicultural perspectives. Lesson does not address diverse needs.	Dates
30%	47%	17%	0	2019
130%	86%	39%	0	2020
47%	78%	39%	0	2021
60%	165%	56%	8%	2022

Table 3.

GoReact rubric.

Teacher candidates’ performance from the rubric was consistent with the overall GoReact Evaluation and the GoReact Culturally Relevant Evaluation. Teacher candidates rated Proficient on the GoReact Rubric. The reflective statements by teacher candidates, such as respect for students’ culture, help the way they learn content suggest an awareness of the importance of aligning content with learning.

8.3 The educational quality of the technology

There were 188 entries in which teacher candidates and supervisors made responses beyond simply clicking an icon by offering an explanation. There were other icon clicks that were not included in the count, but it was Culturally Relevant that addresses the educational standards to include ethics. The annotated digital operations in GoReact allowed teacher candidates to move through each icon function with simplicity, ease, and accuracy.

8.4 The educational value of the technology

The cost and benefits are consistent with accessibility of teacher candidates. There is not any cost to the students to download and use the software, nor is there a cost to the site or university supervisors. The process to record is simple and the icons are not complicated with clear and a click to navigate through the process. Teacher candidates complete recording responses without time restrictions and they have a choice to write a response or not. Teacher candidates as well as site and university supervisors received training prior to the application of GoReact.

9. Implications and concluding thoughts

The findings implicate the value of VAS in developing cultural relevance and ethics in education during student teaching for teacher candidates in an educational preparation program at a HBCU. Equity, ethics, and cultural relevance are key to any technology use for teacher candidates in an educational preparation program. However, there are limitations in the current report of findings. First, the responses from the teacher candidate category were limited in number, meaning equivalent to a sample size. As more responses from teacher candidates concerning cultural relevant education are collected in GoReact, more research is needed to prove the need for cultural relevance across the board in educational preparation programs. Second, the findings are localized to a top 20 HBCU in Virginia and cannot necessarily be generalized to other HBCUs or other colleges and universities. In other collegiate settings, the findings may yield varied results. Finally, the findings were influenced by the curriculum design of the top 20 HBCUs’ educational preparation programs with multiculturalism and ethics being implied. The findings can only be comparable to other college and universities if their educational preparation program’s curriculum aligns or is similar in design. Only then can these findings be considered as a resource for program curriculum necessary for teacher candidates in an educational preparation program.

The findings suggest that students are engaged in software that is interactive, evaluative and provides for self-reflection. Most importantly, teacher candidate engagement with GoReact suggests their usage and good performance rates, which is contrary to Doug Lederman’s findings. Doug Lederman [24] argues with some reservations of the Duha T. Altindag study that online technology does not improve student performance nor engagement. Additionally, GoReact provides teacher candidates with resource limitations an opportunity to complete course requirements without regard to finances and transportation difficulties. Thus, accessibilities and finances are challenging issues for marginalized groups with those concerns. GoReact is an inclusive software in which inclusion and culturally relevant pedagogy are fundamental to its design. Thus, the added benefits of GoReact rebuke notions of poor student performance in relation to online learning. GoReact provided students with convenience and access, interactive support from site and university supervisors, and the opportunity to self-reflection.

10. Conclusions

This chapter covers the application of a digital tool used in student teaching with teacher education candidates in an educational preparation program at a top 20 HBCU. The HBCU chose the digital tool of video annotation software (VAS) program that permits its users to provide feedback from cooperating teachers, university supervisors, and other students on a digital platform to student teachers. GoReact (VAS) program used in the educational preparation program allowed for the monitoring of responses as related to cultural relevance and ethics. The findings showed that teacher candidates recognized cultural relevance as related to the National Standards of Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) and the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC) as well as those provided by the State of Virginia Department of Education (VDOE). As cultural relevance in education is acknowledged by the teacher candidates as well as the educational preparation program, that cultural relevance sponsors encompassing ethical aspirations. The findings also showed that the VAS program of GoReact aligns with how the teacher candidates learn and educational quality of the technology is of value. While the findings were empirical, they also showed noted limitations that included the number of responses, localization, and curriculum variation. The findings supported that the educational preparation program saw students engaging in software that is interactive, evaluative, accessible, and convenient as long as cooperating teachers onsite and university supervisors collaborated with students and used the platform for feedback as for opportunity to teacher candidate self-reflection. This use of GoReact in a student teaching experience opens countless opportunities for the future of teacher candidates as they embark on a career in education.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge and thank the trailblazers in the field of multiculturalism and cultural relevancy pedagogy in education. Acknowledgments and gratitude are also given to teachers in the profession, past and present, who provide student teaching experience to teacher candidates in educational preparation program and mentor newly graduated teacher candidates to promote the retention of teacher in the education profession.