Showing papers in "Journal of Teacher Education in 2019"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that practice-based approaches to teacher preparation are increasingly calling for and adopting practicebased approaches, with particular emphasis on identifying and centering core practices.
Abstract: Reformers are increasingly calling for and adopting practice-based approaches to teacher preparation, with particular emphasis on identifying and centering core practices. In this article, we argue...
171 citations
TL;DR: Grow Your Own (GYO) programs are cited in recent policy briefs as viable pathways for increasing the racial/ethnic diversity of teachers, yet recent scholarship on GYO programs is minimal.
Abstract: Grow Your Own (GYO) programs are cited in recent policy briefs as viable pathways for increasing the racial/ethnic diversity of teachers, yet recent scholarship on GYO programs is minimal. To addre...
89 citations
TL;DR: The Diversified Teaching Workforce (DTW) Topical Action Group (TAG) as discussed by the authors was formed to address recruitment, research, mentorship, professional development, and advocacy of teachers of color.
Abstract: The genesis of this issue is in large part an outgrowth of the organizing efforts of the leaders of AACTE’s Diversified Teaching Workforce (DTW) Topical Action Group (TAG). The DTW TAG held its first meeting at the 2015 AACTE Annual Conference, and subcommittees were formed to address recruitment, research, mentorship, professional development, and advocacy. At the 2016 AACTE Annual Conference, the DTW TAG presented a research panel that explored various facets of research needed across the teacher development continuum for Teachers of Color (TOCs; please see Editors’ note regarding definition). Based on the need for more research scholarship, DTW team leaders Drs. Conra Gist, Margarita Bianco, and Marvin Lynn proposed a theme issue to the Journal of Teacher Education (JTE) editors focused on developing a diversified teaching workforce in the United States and the implications for teacher education. Three of the five articles in this issue (those authored by Bristol & Goings; Gist, Bianco, & Lynn; and Kohli) are among the many efforts resulting from this group’s work and were accepted for publication after proceeding through the regular review process. The remaining two articles were selected because they are aligned with this same issue: one (by Acosta) is focused on the paradox of pedagogical excellence among exemplary Black women educators, and the other (Jackson & Knight-Manuel) on pedagogical tools and practices utilized by TOCs to support Black and Brown students’ navigation of the college knowledge and access process. Collectively, these articles provide deeper insights into factors associated with recruiting and retaining TOCs in U.S. schools and ways to enact critical change in teacher education programs, teacher professional development, and educational policy making. We see insights from these articles as useful for considering diversifying the teacher workforce across North America and as being insightful for international contexts where student demographics are increasingly diverse and teacher workforces are racially and ethnically homogeneous. Teacher diversity is not a new topic in teacher education. However, as teacher education programs experience heightened pressure to develop rigorous routines and practices to establish professional consensus, the project of ensuring structural access to increase racial and ethnic diversity in the teaching workforce, along with equitable, meaningful, and transformative learning opportunities for culturally diverse students, must be centered as a key issue in current debates taking place in the field. Given the important difference TOCs can make in all students’ learning and schooling experiences (Bond, Quintero, Casey, & Di Carlo, 2015; CarverThomas, 2018), particularly for racially and ethnically diverse students, and the persistent teacher shortages in areas where the percentage of these students are highest, ensuring a more diversified teaching workforce is critical for our profession. In this editorial, we urge teacher educators, educational researchers, and educational policy makers to more deeply consider the challenges associated with racially and ethnically diversifying the teaching workforce. Specifically, we want stakeholders to consider how the narrative that has been constructed regarding the underrepresentation of TOCs in U.S. schools suppresses an explicit examination of and response to how (a) historical and contemporary legislation and policy create(d) a pushout and keepout process for recruiting and retaining TOCs; (b) the often toxic environmental and operational conditions for TOCs in their preparation programs and workplaces have negative implications for teacher retention and attrition; and (c) Students of Color and White students are miseducated (Woodson, 1937) due to the 812418 JTEXXX10.1177/0022487118812418Journal of Teacher EducationCarter Andrews et al. editorial2018
77 citations
TL;DR: The importance of multicultural education in preparing teachers to meet the needs of all students was emphasized by five decades of rhetoric and reform in teacher education as mentioned in this paper, and state and national policy init...
Abstract: Five decades of rhetoric and reform in teacher education underscore the importance of multicultural education in preparing teachers to meet the needs of all students. State and national policy init...
69 citations
TL;DR: With disproportionately high attrition rates for teachers of Color, there are many lessons to be learned from veteran teacher leaders that can inform how we train teachers as discussed by the authors, which can be used to train teachers of color.
Abstract: With disproportionately high attrition rates for teachers of Color, there are many lessons to be learned from veteran teacher leaders that can inform how we train teachers. In this article, I share...
63 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the effects of 23 networked professional learning communities in the Dutch context, using a mixed-methods approach, and found moderately positive effects on teachers' perceived satisfaction; the knowledge, skills, and attitude developed; and their application to practice.
Abstract: Teacher professional learning is considered crucial for improving the quality of education. Teacher collaboration in professional learning communities can contribute to the effectiveness of professional development efforts. In the past decade, there has been a shift from within-school to between-school professional learning communities. However, results regarding their effectiveness have been inconsistent. In this study, we examine the effects of 23 networked professional learning communities in the Dutch context, using a mixed-methods approach. Results showed moderately positive effects on teachers’ perceived satisfaction; the knowledge, skills, and attitude developed; and their application to practice. Considering the early stage of development of these professional learning communities, teachers’ participation in networked professional learning communities seems promising for enhancing their professional learning.
62 citations
TL;DR: Despite the potential of video for professional learning, the field lacks an integrated framework to inform teacher educators' pedagogical decision making, particularly in the context of preservice as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Despite the potential of video for professional learning, the field lacks an integrated framework to inform teacher educators’ pedagogical decision making, particularly in the context of preservice...
61 citations
TL;DR: This article used a phenomenological approach to explore the organizational dynamic of boundary heightening for 27 Black male teachers, across 14 schools, in one urban school district in one city in the US.
Abstract: This article uses a phenomenological approach to explore the organizational dynamic of boundary heightening for 27 Black male teachers, across 14 schools, in one urban school district. Black male t...
60 citations
TL;DR: This article used the frame of professional identity to interpret the heterogeneity among teachers' perceptions of professional development, using interviews with a diverse sample of teachers, drawing on the interviews with different types of teachers.
Abstract: Drawing on interviews with a diverse sample of teachers, this study uses the frame of professional identity to interpret the heterogeneity among teachers’ perceptions of professional development. S...
57 citations
TL;DR: Despite the heated debates about dispositions in teacher education, most accrediting agencies continue to put dispositions among their priorities as discussed by the authors, which concur with the authors of this article.
Abstract: Despite the heated debates about dispositions in teacher education, most accrediting agencies continue to put dispositions among their priorities. The authors of the current article concur with the...
50 citations
TL;DR: Teacher preparation programs (TPPs) have received a great deal of policy and research attention of late as mentioned in this paper. And despite the commonsense notion that preparation for formal classroom responsibilities shi...
Abstract: Teacher preparation programs (TPPs) have received a great deal of policy and research attention of late. And despite the commonsense notion that preparation for formal classroom responsibilities sh...
TL;DR: In this paper, a review examines the past 25 years of empirical research on social justice in teacher education, focusing on the question of how researchers in the field, who demonstrate a long-standing aspirational commitment to preparing new teachers for diversity and equity, address students' and teacher candidates' multiple social markers of identity, and in particular the complexity of their identities.
Abstract: This review examines the past 25 years of empirical research on social justice in teacher education, focusing on the question of how researchers in the field, who demonstrate a long-standing aspirational commitment to preparing new teachers for diversity and equity, address students’ and teacher candidates’ multiple social markers of identity, and in particular the complexity of their identities. Using the framework of intersectionality, we illustrate how teacher education researchers position student and teacher candidate identities and their complexity. Findings indicate that identity is typically addressed in a unidimensional manner, with little acknowledgment of students’ or teacher candidates’ complex, multiple, and intersecting identities. We conclude our analysis by exploring the potential of intersectionality as a framework for identity considerations when preparing equity-minded new teachers who are committed to social justice.
TL;DR: Although teacher educators may perceive their program and courses to be coherent, the question remains to what extent student teachers also are able to perceive the linkages within their programs as mentioned in this paper...
Abstract: Although teacher educators may perceive their program and courses to be coherent, the question remains to what extent student teachers also are able to perceive the linkages within their programs. ...
TL;DR: In this paper, classroom teachers have been asked to "cooperate" during student teaching, providing advice to imitate and emotional support to meet immediate needs, based on theories of educative e...
Abstract: Traditionally, classroom teachers have been asked to “cooperate” during student teaching, providing advice to imitate and emotional support to meet immediate needs. Based on theories of educative e...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the importance of preparing, recruiting, and retaining high-quality teachers into the profession, and advocate that teacher attrition is problematic and costly for teachers.
Abstract: Preparing, recruiting, and retaining high-quality teachers into the profession has been a concern of policy makers and practitioners for some time. Teacher attrition is problematic and costly for s...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a study based on an initiative for increasing college and career readiness for Black and Latino male high school students in New York City, using data that include 58 total hours of participan...
Abstract: This study is based on an initiative for increasing college and career readiness for Black and Latino male high school students in New York City. From data that include 58 total hours of participan...
TL;DR: In teacher education, it is imperative that course design, method of instruction, and classroom procedures align with the content as mentioned in this paper and one way to achieve this may be to "flip" the classroom.
Abstract: In teacher education, it is imperative that course design, method of instruction, and classroom procedures align with the content. One way to achieve this may be to “flip” the classroom. While flip...
TL;DR: In an era of increased teacher accountability, teacher preparation programs across the country are faced with increasing pressure to adopt rigorous and high stakes performance-based assessments, such as performance assessment.
Abstract: In an era of increased teacher accountability, teacher preparation programs across the country are faced with increasing pressure to adopt rigorous and high stakes performance-based assessments, su...
TL;DR: A primary goal of teacher preparation programs should be to develop the reflective and critical problem-solving capacities of preservice teachers, especially social justice-oriented programs that p....
Abstract: A primary goal of teacher preparation programs should be to develop the reflective and critical problem-solving capacities of preservice teachers, especially social justice–oriented programs that p...
TL;DR: Within a sociocultural framework, this paper used situated learning theory to explore the use of a coteaching approach during student teaching, which is a model for learning to teach where clinical edu...
Abstract: Within a sociocultural framework, we use situated learning theory to explore the use of a coteaching approach during student teaching. Coteaching is a model for learning to teach where clinical edu...
TL;DR: Bartell, Floden, & Richmond as discussed by the authors present a set of papers on the assessment of teaching and teacher preparation programs, focusing on how to develop assessments that are informative, scalable, and accepted by experts in the field.
Abstract: It is always a challenge to decide how to select manuscripts to appear together in a hard copy issue of the Journal of Teacher Education, especially when many have already appeared online. For the second issue in our current volume, we chose to bring together a set of papers because, although they differ in grain size and specific focus, they address a matter which has broad reach and at the same time is situated at the heart of discussion and debate about teacher and program quality. It is the issue of assessment. The papers in this issue all represent efforts to address a persistent challenge facing teacher education—how do we develop assessments that are informative, scalable, and accepted by the majority of experts in the field. Identifying common approaches to assessment has rarely been met with unbridled enthusiasm and agreement but has instead been met with skepticism, debate, and frustration. In addition, there are those who are suspicious that there can ever be assessment tools developed which are independent enough from specific contextual variables that they can be implemented meaningfully at sufficient scale and thus provide guidance which diverse stakeholders can trust and implement confidently. Then, there are those who challenge assessments that are purportedly objective and neutral and thus perceived as scalable (Salazar, 2018). Critics argue that assessments are value statements that are based on the perspectives of the developers of such assessments (Flynn, 2015; Salazar, 2018). When accreditation agencies prioritize certain indices of teacher quality (e.g., dispositions, core practices) and issues of scalability and value-neutrality are ignored, those playing leadership roles in teacher preparation programs may find themselves without the necessary time, resources, and expertise to respond thoughtfully to external demands. The result may be the cobbling together of assessments that are not useful for evaluative or learning purposes and may not reflect programmatic or institutional values. In this editorial, we want to build upon some of these dilemmas as well as related ideas we presented in an earlier editorial (Bartell, Floden, & Richmond, 2018). We also want to challenge some of the notions upon which tools and assertions about assessment are often built. We propose that four questions ought to be asked to carefully examine the assessment of teaching and teacher preparation programs: Why? What? Who? and How? Why
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the risk of hurting one's own or others' interests in video-based learning, and propose a method to mitigate the risks of hurting others in instructional practice.
Abstract: Classroom videos can make instructional practice public, cultivating collaborative, critical teacher discussions. However, video-based learning also involves a risk—the risk of hurting one’s own or...
TL;DR: The recent trend of teacher resignation letters posted online and then going viral on social media has brought renewed attention to the issue of teacher attrition (Strauss, 2017; Walker, 2017) as discussed by the authors, and the attendant news coverage, contribute to a narrative describing teaching as filled with duties and responsibilities which are underresourced, extend beyond the scope of teaching and require teachers to sacrifice their personal life and mental health for low pay.
Abstract: The recent trend of teacher resignation letters posted online and then going viral on social media has brought renewed attention to the issue of teacher attrition (Strauss, 2017; Walker, 2017). These resignation letters, and the attendant news coverage, contribute to a narrative describing teaching as filled with duties and responsibilities which are underresourced, extend beyond the scope of teaching, and require teachers to sacrifice their personal life and mental health for low pay. Teaching is not portrayed as a profession, nor are teachers afforded respect. A closer look by Dunn and her colleagues (Dunn, 2018; Dunn, Deroo, & VanDerHeide, 2017; Dunn, Farver, Guenther, & Wexler, 2017), however, demonstrates that teachers do not leave the profession primarily because of low pay or student behavior. Rather, teachers, enacting their agency by writing these resignation letters and sharing them publicly, cite increases in standardized testing, restrictions on curriculum, negative impacts on the socioemotional needs of children, a lack of trust and respect for their profession, and their own lack of voice and agency. In other words, these teachers are faced with a problematic choice—either continue to teach in contexts that constrain their agency or express their agency by and through leaving the profession. These systemic factors cited by teachers are a product of neoliberal reforms and policies. The neoliberal agenda includes a focus on economic well-being and competitiveness in a global economy (Woodrow, 2003) and reflects a shift from education as a social concern to education as a market concern (Eppley, 2015). In this neoliberal context, curricular reforms were implemented which reduced learning to bits of information and skill to be taught and tested, efforts were made to reduce educational costs through moves such as increasing class sizes, and teachers’ work was intensified at the same time teachers were isolated from decision-making processes and from each other (Ross & Gibson, 2006). Teacher preparation programs recognize the numerous competencies that are heralded as quintessential for today’s teachers: subject-matter knowledge, professionalism, student rapport, community connectedness, and so on (Warren, 2018). In addition, recognizing the effects neoliberalism has on teaching and teachers, numerous researchers press for teacher preparation to support teachers to do the work of addressing normative assumptions in educational institutions and to develop competencies to teach and advocate for social justice (Ahmed, 2012; Cochran-Smith et al., 2016). Many programs strive to embed the tenets of social justice and to prepare future teachers to recognize and understand the ways in which neoliberalist ideologies affect their work in schools. As Reagan, Chen, and Vernikoff (2016) argue, “learning to teach for social justice is a process in which individuals explore, grapple with, and seek to address tensions that are present in current educational structures and practices” (p. 214). The ways in which we prepare teacher candidates to grapple with the numerous tensions is a key concern. Given the seemingly robust climate for social justice in teacher preparation (Zeichner, 2006), we have not made fundamental shifts in outlook, ideology, and curriculum necessary to challenge societal implications for all learners, nor have we created a system that nurtures teachers working as change agents. We must acknowledge that not all teachers, future teachers, or teacher educators are prioritizing a social justice mandate, and with a slow movement toward change, graduates enter a workforce and working conditions that are not receptive to those who question the status quo, let alone to teachers who strive to take an activist stance. For these reasons, to persist in their commitment to providing just and meaningful educational opportunities for their students, teachers must have significant levels of agency, the ability to access or create a network of support, and strategies for connecting to the everyday practices of teaching.
TL;DR: In this paper, a structural equation model is used to explain a relatively large portion of the variance in teachers' decision to implement IBL, and the implications for professional development and research on teachers' use of IBL in general, and within history education in particular, are discussed.
Abstract: Even though studies have shown that the impact of professional development on inquiry-based learning (IBL) tends to remain limited when it fails to consider teachers’ beliefs, there is little known about how these beliefs influence teachers’ adoption of IBL. In answer to this issue, the present study offers a framework that explains teachers’ use of IBL through three constitutive dimensions of beliefs systems, covering the constructs of education, the self, and the context. This framework is empirically investigated through a survey study with 536 secondary school history teachers. The resulting data are used to estimate a structural equation model (SEM), which indicates that the framework is able to explain a relatively large portion (38%) of the variance in teachers’ decision to implement IBL. Based on the findings, the implications for professional development and research on teachers’ use of IBL in general, and within history education in particular, are discussed.
TL;DR: The authors have documented that effective Black educators ignite the torch and light the path toward effectively meeting the needs of all students, particularly African American, and described descriptions of such educators as ineffective and ineffective.
Abstract: Research has documented that effective Black educators ignite the torch and light the path toward effectively meeting the needs of all students, particularly African American. However, descriptions...
TL;DR: In this article, the dimensionality of mathematical knowledge needed by elementary school teachers is explored, focusing on the construct of Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) for elementary school students.
Abstract: This study explores the dimensionality of mathematical knowledge needed by elementary school teachers. Specifically, we focus on the construct of Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching to investigate ...
TL;DR: For more than 100 years, case-based instruction (CBI) has been an effective instructional method for building problem-solving skills in learners as discussed by the authors, while class discussion is often included as part of...
Abstract: For more than 100 years, case-based instruction (CBI) has been an effective instructional method for building problem-solving skills in learners. While class discussion is often included as part of...
TL;DR: Cammarota and Romero as mentioned in this paper describe how they utilized a framework they call critically compassionate intellectualism (CCI), a trilogy of critical pedagogy, authentic caring, and social justice-oriented cu...
Abstract: Cammarota and Romero describe how they utilized a framework they call critically compassionate intellectualism (CCI)—a trilogy of critical pedagogy, authentic caring, and social justice–oriented cu...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors re-examine coherence as a process shaped by principled reasoning and which situates expertise beyond teacher preparation institutions, in an effort to advance the preparation of empowered and resilient educators who are responsive to the contexts in which they will teach.
Abstract: Teacher education, particularly as represented by the myriad institutions which provide programs to prepare individuals for the classroom, is positioned amid many forces, both internal and external. Historically, university-based programs have been undervalued by the institutions within which they sit, and they also have generally been ignored. More recently, increased scrutiny and demands for greater accountability have resulted in a shift in expectations focused on the provision of evidence that such programs provide value-added experiences for participants. The pressure to demonstrate that program graduates develop more consequential teaching knowledge and practice than they would have if they had not had such programmatic experiences, has led to design—and in some cases evaluation— efforts targeting what most would call “program coherence.” In this editorial, we reexamine coherence as a process shaped by principled reasoning and which situates expertise beyond teacher preparation institutions. We do this in an effort to advance the preparation of empowered and resilient educators who are responsive to the contexts in which they will teach. Like all components of teacher preparation, conceptualizations of “program coherence” are situated within political and historical contexts. Current narratives “bashing” teacher preparation and questioning its effectiveness in turn rally cries advocating, for example, for program coherence with a focus on “core practices” touted to bridge theory and practice to effective ends (Philip et al., 2018 and this issue; Richmond, Bartell, Floden, & Petchauer, 2017). Resultant efforts may include a conceptualization of coherence as an objective outcome where theory and practice (or standards and curricula and activities) are aligned. Such views may result in prospective teachers being treated as objects to be molded in one specific way, holding particular views toward teaching and learning (Buchmann & Floden, 1991). Although these conceptions of program coherence recognize that teacher educators and teacher education programs should have informed, organized, and integrated ideas, they may also foster program design, which lacks flexibility to support prospective teachers in being challenged and encouraged to explore and make sense of a range of ideas and realities. These conceptions generally minimize the particularities of local contexts, the myriad of needs and varied expertise of multiple agents and run the danger of serving as proxy for maintaining the status quo and undermining efforts toward equity and justice. They position coherence as an achievable end state—a box to check, and if that box was checked for all teacher education programs then the long-standing “issues and problems” faced in schools, as evidenced by achievement scores on standardized tests, would be fixed. Such notions, however, ignore systemic oppressive processes and run the risk of repeating historically rooted injustices. Instead, we see coherence as a process (Honig & Hatch, 2004). In this process, various stakeholders, including prospective teachers, mentor teachers, school districts, families, and communities, craft and negotiate coherence together. Program coherence includes a commitment to a shared mission—e.g., one that centers justice and continuously negotiates whether and how current notions of and efforts toward program coherence privilege the values and practices of dominant groups. The multiple demands and myriad of contexts informing teacher education programs is not a problem to be solved, then, but a reality to be continuously assessed and negotiated. This continual flexibility takes into account factors such as prospective teachers’ perceptions of program coherence (Canrinus, Klette, & Hammerness, 2017 and this issue), variation in prospective teachers’ cultural frames of reference within and across racialized categories (Cherng & Davis, 2017 and this issue), teacher educators’ unique expertise and autonomy, family demands for quality schooling, and community efforts toward justice and equity, within, through, and beyond schooling. It allows for prospective teachers to “build connections among various knowledge and skill, but where loose ends remain, inviting a reweaving of beliefs and ties to the unknown” (Buchmann & Floden, 1991, p. 71). It requires asking questions such as coherence for whom? According to whom? To what end(s)?
TL;DR: In collaborative groups, teachers negotiate the tension between working as a cohesive group and confronting differences of opinion and practice as mentioned in this paper, which can complicate their work and can result in conflicts between teachers.
Abstract: In collaborative groups, teachers negotiate the tension between working as a cohesive group and confronting differences of opinion and practice. Varied status between teachers can complicate their ...