Showing papers in "Journal of Teacher Education in 2016"
TL;DR: Teacher education programs typically teach novices about one part of teaching at a time as mentioned in this paper, and they might offer courses on different topics such as cultural foundations, learning theory, or classroom management.
Abstract: Teacher education programs typically teach novices about one part of teaching at a time. We might offer courses on different topics—cultural foundations, learning theory, or classroom management—or...
152 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on identifying and elaborating how teacher educators use pedagogies of enactment to learn in and from practice, and how they do so in practice-based teacher education.
Abstract: In recent years, work in practice-based teacher education has focused on identifying and elaborating how teacher educators (TEs) use pedagogies of enactment to learn in and from practice. However, ...
130 citations
TL;DR: The Community Teaching Strand (CTS) as discussed by the authors is a programmatic effort in teacher education, which aims to engage local community members as mentors of teacher candidates in two postgraduate programs.
Abstract: This article analyzes a programmatic effort in teacher education, “The Community Teaching Strand” (CTS), to engage local community members as mentors of teacher candidates (TCs) in two postgraduate...
110 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the edTPA (a teacher performance assessment) implementation at one private university during the first year that our state required this exam for initial teaching certification was examined.
Abstract: We examine edTPA (a teacher performance assessment) implementation at one private university during the first year that our state required this exam for initial teaching certification. Using data f...
100 citations
TL;DR: A systematic review of empirical research at the intersection of social justice and teacher education published in peer-reviewed journals within the last 10 years is presented in this article, where the focus, design, and findings of the research identified as a basis for recommending future research in the field.
Abstract: Teachers play a crucial role in promoting more equitable educational outcomes for marginalized students from low socio-economic backgrounds. Correspondingly, there is a clear warrant for preservice teacher education to work toward the development of teachers who are socially just in their beliefs and practices. This article comprises a systematic review locating empirical research at the intersection of social justice—as it is variously defined within the literature—and teacher education published in peer-reviewed journals within the last 10 years. We explore the focus, design, and findings of the research identified as a basis for recommending future research in the field. By taking stock of the current state of the field and articulating questions that remain under-researched and research approaches under-utilized, we are better placed to move beyond revisiting familiar research terrain.
87 citations
TL;DR: Despite an increasing research interest in subject-specific teacher knowledge, the scientific understanding regarding teachers' professional knowledge for teaching English as a foreign language (TE) is limited as discussed by the authors, despite the increasing interest in teacher knowledge.
Abstract: Despite an increasing research interest in subject-specific teacher knowledge, the scientific understanding regarding teachers’ professional knowledge for teaching English as a foreign language (TE...
85 citations
TL;DR: The state of Florida has taken an unprecedented approach to teacher professional development in its Race to the Top (RTTT) Program application by proposing to promote an international innovation that originates in Japan, "lesson study,” as a statewide teacher development model.
Abstract: The state of Florida has taken an unprecedented approach to teacher professional development in its Race to the Top (RTTT) Program application by proposing to promote an international innovation that originates in Japan, “lesson study,” as a statewide teacher professional development model. Since winning the US$700 million RTTT funding in 2010, the Florida Department of Education and districts have been promoting lesson study as one of the statewide vehicles to implement the state standards aligned with the Common Core State Standards. This study analyzed the state and districts’ approaches to promote lesson study using policy documents, statewide district survey data, and interviews. We found that a majority of districts mandated lesson study implementation without securing or spending sufficient funding. In addition, the existing organizational structures and routines for professional development pose a major challenge in capacity building of district leaders and teachers to engage in lesson study.
79 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the identity transformations of a preservice teacher during a practicum are examined as a process in motion, revealing oscillations between two identity positions and a pattern of multi-stability.
Abstract: Currently, the inner dynamics of teacher identity transformations remain a “black box.” Conceptualizing preservice teacher identity as a complex dynamic system, and the notion of “being someone who teaches” in dialogical terms as involving shifts between different teacher voices, the study investigates the dynamical processes at play when transitions between identities occur. Using a single-case design, and drawing on intra- and inter-personal data collected across three timescales, the identity transformations of a preservice teacher during a practicum are examined as a process in motion. The study offers a systemic account of the participant’s teacher identity experiences, analyses revealing oscillations between two identity positions and a pattern of multi-stability. It is suggested that complexity approaches can be valuably used in mentoring processes to help students make sense of identity transformations and the conditions under which they occur. In the longer term, support of this kind can have a p...
65 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a micro-analysis of post observation conversations between classroom teachers and mentors is presented, showing how the sequential organization of an episode (i.e., who initiates the interaction, question format used by mentors) could potentially serve to provoke or hinder teacher reflection.
Abstract: We present a micro-analysis of post observation conversations between classroom teachers and mentors. Using the approach of conversation analysis, we show how the sequential organization of an episode (i.e., who initiates the interaction, question format used by mentors) could potentially serve to provoke or hinder teacher reflection. Our analysis reveals the different stances adopted by mentor and teacher during potentially discomfiting episodes, the relationship between the structure of initial questions, and the impact of question types on elicited teacher responses/reflections. Implications for handling this type of interaction for more effective professional development collaborations are discussed.
64 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the use of digital storytelling by teacher educators of color to pedagogically deconstruct Whiteness in a predominately White, urban-focused teacher education course, a necessary deconstruction if these teacher candidates are to effectively teach urban students of color.
Abstract: Teacher education is replete with an overwhelming presence of Whiteness, a presence that if not explicitly interrogated indefinitely recycles hegemonic Whiteness. Needed are pedagogical strategies that expose the hegemonic invisibility of Whiteness. This critical reflection examines the utilization of digital storytelling by teacher educators of color to pedagogically deconstruct Whiteness in a predominately White, urban-focused teacher education course—a necessary deconstruction if these teacher candidates are to effectively teach urban students of color. Particularly, this article deconstructs four academic years of digital stories produced in a mandatory diversity course in an urban teacher education program and illustrates how digital storytelling itself promotes a critical self-revelation that confront Whiteness in White teacher candidates. The preliminary analyses suggest that digital storytelling is a racially just way of having White teacher candidates self-reflect on their own Whiteness in a mult...
62 citations
TL;DR: In this article, two teacher educators in urban teacher education programs identify and analyze the components of their teacher education practice in relation to a qualitative case study of a teacher education program in a city.
Abstract: In this cross-institutional, qualitative case study, two teacher educators in urban teacher education programs identify and analyze the components of our teacher education practice in relation to a...
TL;DR: The authors studied the preparation of elementary teachers to teach mathematics to students from diverse racial, ethnic, and linguistic backgrounds by focusing either on teachers' learning or on teachers’ learning abo...
Abstract: Researchers have studied the preparation of elementary teachers to teach mathematics to students from diverse racial, ethnic, and linguistic backgrounds by focusing either on teachers’ learning abo...
TL;DR: In 2016, teachers in the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) district in Michigan engaged in rolling teacher sick-outs to protest their deplorable working conditions as discussed by the authors, and more than 60 schools were closed due to teachers not showing up for work.
Abstract: Earlier this year, teachers in the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) district in Michigan engaged in rolling teacher sick-outs to protest their deplorable working conditions. On January 11, 2016, more than 60 schools were closed due to teachers not showing up for work. On January 20, a sick-out forced the district to close 88 of its 97 schools due to more than 865 teachers being absent from classrooms (Lewis, 2016). For years, DPS teachers have voiced their concerns about poor pay, lack of supplies, overcrowding in classrooms, and unsafe building conditions. These are not new phenomena; Jonathan Kozol (2005) has been documenting such "shame of the nation," particularly with respect to traditionally marginalized populations (e.g., schools with majority students of color, schools with students in poverty) for decades. Former Detroit teachers' union president Steve Conn stated, "the young people in this city deserve the same quality education provided in predominantly white suburbs" (Lewis, 2016). According to Fox News (http://www.foxnews.com/ us/2016/01/25/qa-look-at-detroit-public-schools-teacher-sick-outs.html), Conn reported that incoming teachers make approximately US$32,000 annually, a salary lower than teachers in neighboring communities. Furthermore, there have been no pay raises in DPS for the past 4 years, and DPS teachers now pay approximately 25% of their health care costs, compared with no required contribution only 5 years ago. Equally concerning are the instructional and learning environments for teachers and students. Many DPS teachers report working in rooms without heat in the winter or air-conditioning in warmer weather, and recent city inspections have found schools with water-damaged ceilings, mold, standing water inside buildings, and rodent infestations. The sick-outs are a response to not only dehumanizing working conditions for teachers but also their resistance to state control of the school district and the governor's restructuring plan. We are calling attention to the teacher sick-outs in Detroit and the factors leading up to them in these pages, because they represent one of the numerous examples throughout the country of educators' resistance to the continued de-professionalization of teachers and teaching and the institutional and structural forms of dehumanization that teachers experience regularly. Furthermore, we believe teachers' professional self-concept is negatively impacted by inequitable working conditions in many high-need schools and communities that are not present in schools that are resource-rich. If teacher professional self-concept indeed plays a significant role in instructional quality and can contribute to student learning success (as illustrated by Paulick, GroBschedl, Harms, & Moller, 2016), what is being done--or should be done--at the building level and within the profession more generally to ensure that educators work in supportive educational spaces and have opportunities to enhance their pedagogy and practice in ways that empower and effectively prepare them to educate youth of various cultural backgrounds? Several of the papers in this issue of Journal of Teacher Education (JTE) raise central questions related to (a) a kind of teacher professional development which fosters social justice-focused critical inquiry (see Brown, 2016), (b) mentoring teachers through instructional dialogue (see Kim, 2016), and (c) cultivating teachers' positive academic self-concept and professional knowledge (see Paulick et al., 2016). We believe that these papers, and others like them, challenge teacher educators and the larger field to consider strategies for professionalizing teachers and teaching as the profession faces a dual challenge. The challenge is that of meeting the needs of more diverse learners and doing so in increasingly complicated contexts that are often farther removed from the lived experiences of many, perhaps most, P-12 educators. We believe that for teachers to do their best work in the classroom on behalf of all children, their physical and sociopolitical work environments must be humanizing spaces that advance professionalization rather than detract from it. …
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present the results of an international survey on ethics content and curriculum in initial teacher education (ITE) and find that 24% of the ITE programs surveyed contain at least one mandatory stand-alone ethics course.
Abstract: Despite a broad consensus on the ethical dimensions of the teaching profession, and long-standing efforts to align teacher education with wider trends in professional education, little is known about how teacher candidates are being prepared to face the ethical challenges of contemporary teaching. This article presents the results of an international survey on ethics content and curriculum in initial teacher education (ITE). Involving five Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries—the United States, England, Canada, Australia, and the Netherlands—the study’s findings shed light on teacher educators’ perspectives on the contribution of ethics content to the education of future teachers and provide a snapshot of how well existing programs line up with their aspirations. The results showed that 24% of the ITE programs surveyed contain at least one mandatory stand-alone ethics course. The meaning of the results vis-a-vis opportunities for expanding ethics education in preservice teaching programs is also discussed.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present findings from a 9-month qualitative case study involving a school-university professional development inquiry into how teachers develop, implement, and interpret community-based pedagogies (CBPs), an asset-based approach to curriculum that acknowledges mandated standards but begins with recognizing and valuing local knowledge.
Abstract: Here we share findings from a 9-month qualitative case study involving a school–university professional development inquiry into how teachers develop, implement, and interpret community-based pedagogies (CBPs), an asset-based approach to curriculum that acknowledges mandated standards but begins with recognizing and valuing local knowledge. After describing the structure and activities of the professional development project, we focus on the work and perspectives of four teachers at one public school in Bogota. The challenges identified were outweighed by the benefits, including increased student engagement, motivation, family–school involvement, and an appreciation of local knowledge as curriculum resource. In addition to generating rich curriculum exemplars in chemistry, social studies, and language arts, the teachers’ interpretations and enactments of CBPs indicate that CBPs are flexible enough to allow multiple entry points, teacher autonomy, and ownership, and share enough commonalities with other pe...
TL;DR: In this article, issues of standardization, student achievement, and diversity have dramatically altered teaching within early childhood programs across the United States, and this has created a situation in which teac...
Abstract: Issues of standardization, student achievement, and diversity have dramatically altered teaching within early childhood programs across the United States. This has created a situation in which teac...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the learning reported by a set of volunteer participants from three university teacher education programs: from one Southwestern U.S. University, the program in secondary English/Language Arts Education and the program of elementary education; and from one Southeastern U. Southeastern University, a program in higher education.
Abstract: This study investigates the learning reported by a set of volunteer participants from three university teacher education programs: from one Southwestern U.S. University, the program in secondary English/Language Arts Education and the program in Elementary Education; and from one Southeastern U.S. University, the program in secondary English/Language Arts Education. Based on interviews conducted between the end of coursework and the beginning of student teaching, this study uses a sociocultural perspective to consider not only the manner in which the teacher candidates’ learning was mediated by a host of factors, including formal teacher education courses and mentor teacher guidance, but also a wide range of factors that introduced competing conceptions of effective teaching. The interviews were analyzed collaboratively by the two authors, who relied on a sociocultural analysis attending to the pedagogical tools, attribution of learning to specific sources and the settings in which they were located, the ...
TL;DR: In this article, a qualitative case study explored a community-university partnership for teacher preparation with an urban Indigenous community organization and examined the roles of Indigenous community organizations in teacher preparation.
Abstract: This qualitative case study explored a community–university partnership for teacher preparation with an urban Indigenous community organization. The study examined the roles of Indigenous community...
TL;DR: In this article, a number of complex networks shape policy and practice in teacher education; these include, but are not limited to, university and non-university-based teacher educators, schools' policies and practices, including mentoring and induction, educational researchers with diverse scholarly backgrounds (e.g., political science, economics), accreditation agencies such as Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), regulatory agencies at the local and federal levels such as the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE), and private advocacy groups such as National Council
Abstract: Prompted by internal and external criticism, demands for accountability, and an authentic desire to better understand processes associated with learning to teach, the field of teacher education--and more specifically, of teacher preparation--is experiencing a vigorous period of change. In some cases, this has resulted in "innovations"--such as current proposals to evaluate and regulate teacher education and preparation programs, reform of the requirements to attain qualified teacher status (QTS), and the creation of systems for evaluating teacher effectiveness--that have been enacted without evidence of potential effectiveness. In addition, because different communities or networks operate using different rules and instruments to achieve intended goals, a persistent problem with respect to teacher education policy and practice is a lack of coherence leading to contradictions in the system. For instance, in the United States alone, a number of complex networks shape policy and practice in teacher education; these include, but are not limited to, university and non-university-based teacher educators, schools' policies and practices, including mentoring and induction, educational researchers with diverse scholarly backgrounds (e.g., political science, economics), accreditation agencies such as Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), regulatory agencies at the local and federal levels such as the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE), and private advocacy groups such as the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ). The resolution of contradictions that have emerged out of raising and addressing policy and practice questions in teacher education has in some cases served to move the field forward, but in other cases, has done just the opposite. An international case in point is in England, where the Department for Education has introduced a proposal to reform the current "Qualified Teacher Status" which, if implemented, would effectively transfer the responsibility to judge when a teacher is qualified from university-based teacher education to the school's headmaster after first undergoing a significant period of school teaching. In some cases, these contradictions are far from resolution as advances in related areas of knowledge and practice (e.g., cognitive science) have revealed the enormous complexity inherent in teaching and in learning to teach. These findings bring into question traditional ways of knowing in teacher education as well as current notions of what it means to be an effective teacher and by extension, what constitutes an effective teacher education/preparation program. The role of research at this moment has never been more important as a vehicle that can facilitate learning by examining and reflecting on the "construction and resolution of continuously evolving contradictions" (Engestrom, 1987, p. 79). Contradictions in Teacher Education and the Role of Research Globally and from a cultural and historical standpoint, teacher education has often involved the resolution of contradictions created by questioning, implementing, and reflecting on the system. The most prominent of these are what the goals and purposes of teacher education should be, who should teach and what should teachers know and be able to do, where and how should teachers be prepared, and how quality can be secured, evaluated, and reported. In the sections that follow, each of these issues is "unpacked" with respect to the need for research evidence to inform policy and practice directed at improving the preparation and ongoing development of effective teachers. What Should Be the Goals of Teacher Education? Much discussion has occurred around whether teacher education's key goal is to prepare teachers as autonomous professionals able to adapt the curriculum to the diverse needs of students guided by a strong moral compass, whether teacher preparation should be focused on equipping teachers with technical expertise capable of effectively enacting the curriculum and managing classrooms (e. …
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the factorial structure of preservice teachers' academic self-concept with regard to three domains of professional knowledge (content knowledge (CK), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), and pedagogy/psychological knowledge [PPK]).
Abstract: We investigated the factorial structure of preservice teachers’ academic self-concept with regard to three domains of professional knowledge (content knowledge [CK], pedagogical content knowledge [PCK], and pedagogical/psychological knowledge [PPK]). We also analyzed the relation between preservice teachers’ academic self-concept and their professional knowledge. The sample consisted of N = 631 German preservice secondary teachers in biology and physics. To analyze the factorial structure of the academic self-concept, we applied confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) and compared different models of complexity. Results confirmed that preservice teachers’ academic self-concept is empirically separable into CK, PCK, and PPK. Furthermore, the self-concept scales were positively related to the corresponding test scores in the professional knowledge domains. Our results revealed that preservice teachers’ academic self-concept is differentiated at a very early state of teacher education and reflects CK, PCK, and P...
TL;DR: This article investigated the role of facilitation of professional development to promote teacher learning when using animations and videos in a study group with five teachers and found that the facilitators' practices increase teachers' learning opportunities when studying representations of teaching.
Abstract: Providing opportunities for learning through professional development requires the examination of facilitation of sessions with teachers. This study investigates facilitation of professional development to promote teacher learning when using animations and videos in a study group with five teachers. We ask: What practices (and moves within those practices) do the facilitators enact during high-quality conversations and specific to the professional development activities? We found that moves for sustaining an inquiry stance were more frequently performed than other moves, suggesting that the facilitator’s practices increase teachers’ learning opportunities when studying representations of teaching. In addition, the study suggests that there are no significant differences when facilitating discussions of animations and videos. The teacher learning goals seem to be more important than the type of representations of teaching used for the enactment of facilitation moves. Our findings are relevant for designing...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider how youth participatory action research (YPAR) can be used to build the civic teaching capacities of preservice teachers working in urban settings, and they find that YPAR supported teacher learning in three areas: cultivating student-centered teaching practices, observing and documenting students' strengths and capacities, and developing new understandings of the structural inequalities that shaped the lives of the students in urban schools.
Abstract: This article considers how youth participatory action research (YPAR) can be used to build the civic teaching capacities of preservice teachers working in urban settings. In the final semester of an urban-focused teacher education program, preservice teachers led YPAR programs in the urban schools in which they student-taught the previous semester. This article analyzes what preservice teachers learn through the process of YPAR. Specifically, we found that YPAR supported teacher learning in three areas: cultivating student-centered teaching practices, observing and documenting students’ strengths and capacities, and developing new understandings of the structural inequalities that shaped the lives of the students in urban schools. Drawing on data collected over the past 6 years, we argue that leading children and young people in participatory action research projects can contribute to the creation of the transformative civic educators so sorely needed in urban settings.
TL;DR: This article explored participants' knowledge with respect to four teaching practices: providing and evaluating explanations; selecting and using representations; analyzing student errors, misconceptions, and non-conventional solutions; and selecting tasks.
Abstract: Central in the frameworks proposed to capture the knowledge needed for teaching mathematics is the assumption that teachers need more than pure subject-matter knowledge. Validation studies exploring this assumption by recruiting contrasting populations are relatively scarce. Drawing on a sample of 644 Greek-Cypriots preservice and inservice elementary school teachers and university students with strong mathematical background, this study explored participants’ knowledge with respect to four teaching practices: providing and evaluating explanations; selecting and using representations; analyzing student errors, misconceptions, and non-conventional solutions; and selecting tasks. Results emerging from an item response theory (IRT) model and non-parametric tests showed significant differences among these groups, largely in the first two practices. Clinical interviews with a voluntary sub-sample of these participants provided insights into the unexpected findings related to the other two practices. The theore...
TL;DR: The Transformative Reflection model as discussed by the authors is based on principles from cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) and empirical work on reflection, and is used in a teacher preparation course.
Abstract: This article has two aims: (a) to offer a new model for a teacher preparation course that features reflection and teaching as integral, inseparable actions and (b) to provide empirical evidence from an exploratory ethnography to demonstrate teacher development possibilities with this model. The model, termed Transformative Reflection, was founded on principles from cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) and empirical work on reflection. This study examines two CHAT-based mediation practices that became a focus of 12 childhood education masters students inquiry during reflection sessions: (a) posture as a tool for working with students and (b) open questions as a tool to re/orient learners. Based on analysis of observations, interviews, journals, and video, we found candidates took action individually and collectively to interrogate and, in many cases, change how they planned learning activities, how they re/oriented learners to the learning object, and how they viewed students as agents.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors suggest that embodied and artistic approaches in preservice teacher education create so-called small openings where students may recognize their and their future students' identities and move toward including varied identities in their future classroom communities.
Abstract: The arts generally and theater specifically offer effective strategies to help educators recognize and make visible the multiple student and teacher identities within classrooms. Without student and teacher agency in schools, there cannot be equitable and liberatory learning environments. Noted Brazilian theater artist and activist Augusto Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed (TO) offers promising opportunities to embody Crenshaw’s notion of intersectional identities and Purdie-Vaughns and Eibach’s concept of Invisible Intersectionality. This article shares research conducted in a teacher education course on culturally relevant pedagogy where students engaged in TO activities to explore the multiplicity of their and their future students’ identities. The authors suggest that embodied and artistic approaches in preservice teacher education create so-called small openings where students may recognize their and their future students’ identities and move toward including varied identities in their future classroom communities. Language: en
TL;DR: The authors argue that the increasingly prominent role that accountability plays in the lives of individuals and the workings of systems as complex as schools, school districts, and state governments has the potential to discourage innovation and silence those whose voices are already rarely heard in classrooms and in broader society.
Abstract: The present issue of Journal of Teacher Education (JTE) contains a group of articles quite distinct in their focus, scope, and methodologies. Despite this diversity in approaches and in r eported findings, we see a resonance across these pieces. This resonance reflects a set of issues that are significant to us individually and collectively as scholars and that we think are of critical importance to the field of teacher education. In this editorial, we consider how the current emphasis on content-focused standards and accountability--from individual teachers' classrooms to entire states and the federal government and even the global community--is positioned within broader sociopolitical contexts such that it is far too easy to lose sight of the ways that teaching and learning are affected by knowledge, skills, and practices that may not be measured by these standards. We argue that scholarship can and should be used to combat increasing pressures to reduce teacher preparation to standardized coursework that privileges subject matter, often to the exclusion of other important knowledge and practices. We also argue that the increasingly prominent role that accountability plays in the lives of individuals and the workings of systems as complex as schools, school districts, and state governments has the potential to discourage innovation and silence those whose voices are already rarely heard in classrooms and in broader society. The current emphasis on content-focused standards is evidenced in the widespread support and adoption of national standards. For example, whereas some states are reviewing their position on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for Mathematics and Literacy (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010), 42 states have adopted the CCSS (Bidwell, 2014; Ujifusa, 2015). Also, 40 states have shown interest in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS; Achieve Inc., 2013; National Center for Science Education, 2013). As of November 2015, 16 states have adopted the NGSS (Heitin, 2015) and several more are considering somewhat edited versions. In addition, the Council of Chief State School Officers (2015) currently is drafting history and social studies standards for the CCSS. Together, these events above point to the instantiation of educational policy through what may be the "most profound and widely distributed educational reform activity in recent history" (Koestler, Felton, Bieda, & Otten, 2013, p. v). These national standards and the movement toward their adoption, such as education more broadly, are situated within broader sociopolitical structures and systems of privilege and oppression that influence how such policies are framed and taken up. Careful consideration of these broader sociopolitical structures is critical, however, if the efforts of national standards are to move beyond rhetoric toward real change in students' learning (Apple, 1992). How the CCSS and NGSS are positioned and framed in the current sociopolitical climate suggests that they are grounded in global competitiveness and conflated with market interests (Eppley, 2015; Gutstein, 2010; Koehler, Binns, & Bloom, 2015). In this way, the CCSS and NGSS are positioned as part of a larger, neoliberal narrative disconnected from the experiences and realities of students from non-dominant communities (Eppley, 2015; Gutstein, 2010; Lee, Miller, & Januszyk, 2014; Parsons & Dorsey, 2015). In fact, the CCSS Mathematics have been critiqued for being part of a neoliberal agenda; lacking an explicit focus on race, class, and gender; and neglecting a connection between policy and practice (Bartell et al., in press; Gutstein, 2010). Similarly, the NGSS have been criticized for paying little heed to the needs of racially and linguistically diverse students, the very learners who make up an increasing proportion of the U.S. population (e.g., Buxton & Lee, 2014; Rodriguez, 2015). …
TL;DR: This paper explored the role of perfectionism in teacher occupational commitment and retention and found that none of the dimensions of perfectionism predict teacher commitment in the sample as a whole, but that the order dimension significantly predicts long-term commitment to struggling urban versus affluent suburban schools.
Abstract: Very little is known about the role of person-level qualities, or personality, in the teacher labor market. This study explores the role of perfectionism in teacher occupational commitment and retention. One hundred eighteen graduates of a competitive teacher preparation program with widely varying levels of total years commitment to the job completed a measure of three dimensions of perfectionism—standards (holding oneself to high standards), order (valuing neatness, tidiness, and being disciplined), and discrepancy (perceiving a gap between ambitions and abilities)—and gave information about their personal backgrounds and work histories. Results suggest that none of the dimensions of perfectionism predict teacher commitment in the sample as a whole, but that the order dimension significantly predicts long-term commitment to struggling urban versus affluent suburban schools. These results imply that long-term urban teachers may be adept at overlooking difficult and sometimes chaotic circumstances to sust...
TL;DR: In this paper, a comparative investigation of the compensation and benefits afforded to cooperating teachers (CTs) by teacher education programs (TEPs) in 1957-1958 and 2012-2013 is presented.
Abstract: We offer a comparative investigation of the compensation and benefits afforded to cooperating teachers (CTs) by teacher education programs (TEPs) in 1957-1958 and 2012-2013. This investigation replicates and extends a description of the compensation practices of 20 U.S. TEPs published by VanWinkle in 1959. Data for the present investigation came from 18 of those TEPs. Descriptive statistics and qualitative analyses were used to identify trends and make comparisons across the two time periods. Findings indicate that compensation for CTs continues to fall into five categories: (a) monetary compensation, (b) professional learning opportunities, (c) CT role-focused resources, (d) engaging CTs in the college/university community, and (e) professional recognition. Changes in the nature and quality of benefits indicate that in many instances, the programs in our sample offer less to their CTs than they did in 1957-1958 while expectations for CTs have historically increased.
TL;DR: This paper examined the responses of 82 preservice teachers to the acclaimed documentary "Which Way Home", a film that profiles unaccompanied adolescents who hitchhiked the train, and found that most of the teachers were concerned about their own safety.
Abstract: In this mixed methods study, we examined the responses of 82 preservice teachers to the acclaimed documentary Which Way Home, a film that profiles unaccompanied adolescents who hitchhiked the train...
TL;DR: This paper presented a qualitative study of integrating target language (TL) materials and activities within a WL teacher preparation program at a large, Midwestern public university, and found that these experiences integrating language and language-teacher learning helped them extend their TL proficiency into pedagogical and professional domains.
Abstract: This article presents a qualitative study of integrating target language (TL) materials and activities within a world language (WL) teacher preparation program at a large, Midwestern public university. Based on document and interview data, I analyze how teacher candidates engaged with curricular materials written in the respective TL, how they interacted with their peers in the TL about those materials, and how they described the effect of both on their learning. As the analysis demonstrates, candidates reported that these experiences integrating language and language-teacher learning helped them extend their TL proficiency into pedagogical and professional domains. Moreover, they reported that this work helped them more fully understand the complexities of teaching.