Learning to Teach Through Collaborative Conversation: A Feminist Approach

Abstract

As part of a longitudinal research project on learning to teach literacy and as a personal quest to make her work as a teacher educator more supportive, this researcher arranged an ongoing conversation for members of three cohorts of preservice and beginning elementary teachers. The conversation was prompted by an interest in beginning teachers’ critical responses to the personal support for learning to teach that they receive from their teacher education programs. From the social, collaborative, and nonevaluative conversations, personally and contextually relevant issues in learning to teach emerged, as did the processes of identifying and understanding them. The result was not only a clarification of important relational and political issues that seem prerequisite to issues of academic learning, but also the emergence of a feminist consciousness —in both teachers and researcher. The method of studying the group’s learning, then, became an example of feminist praxis: a willingness to risk and examine personal experiences as women and to be changed by the research process itself. The value of this conversational approach for learning to teach in urban settings becomes clear in the narrative.

Initiating Change in Prospective Elementary School Teachers' Orientations to Mathematics Teaching by Building on Beliefs

“…He attributed this attitude to the tendency of prospective teachers to see themselves in the role of nurturers. Beliefs about the importance of relationship building endure into the first years of teaching when new teachers often expend a great deal of energy trying to find ways to develop positive relationships with their students (Hollingsworth, 1992). In reviewing the research literature on learning to teach, Wideen et al (1998) concluded, "Beginning teachers value social and peer groups, positive self-concept, and helping behaviors" (p. 142).…”

Women succeeding in the sciences: theories and practices across disciplines, edited by Jody Bart. Pp. 287. £19.95. 1999. ISBN 1 55753 122 6 (Purdue University Press, distributed by Eurospan ). - Proofs from THE BOOK (2nd edn), by Martin Aigner and Gunter M. Ziegler. Pp. 223. £18.50. 2001. ISBN 3 540 67865 4 (Springer-Verlag). - Mathematics of the nineteenth century 1: mathematical logic – algebra – number theory – probability (2nd edn), edited by A. N. Kolmogorov and A. P. Yushkev

“…Research is establishing that women's modes of thought and women's methods of knowledge construction are different from those of their male counterparts (Belenky et al 1986). Women achieve higher levels of learning through collaborative processes and experiential learning than through passive assimilation (Hollingsworth 1992). The idea that collaborative learning is beneficial to women is supported by cultural feminism, which emphasizes a holistic and collective orientation to the world and work (Gilman 1988), as well as feminist epistemology, which considers experience as knowledge (Belenky et al 1986).…”

Developing Beginning Teachers through: An Interactive Induction and Internship Program

“…This program emphasized positive interdependence and collaboration among 4 first-year physical educators, 8 interns during a 3-month field experience, and 2 university supervisors. All participants agreed to reflect and encourage values consistent with a learning community model (Lieberman, 1996;Little & McLaughlin, 1993;Noddings, 1996) where all would be co-learners and dialogue would be informed by an ethic of care (Hollingsworth, 1992;Noddings, 1992). fy the impact of this program on the beginning teachers.…”