Making sense and facing tensions: an investigation of core practice complexities

Neel, Michael

doi:10.1080/10476210.2017.1296826

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Such efforts are crucial in moving students and educators “from cynicism and despair to hope and possibility” (Hackman, 2005, p. 106) once they have truly engaged with an analysis of oppression. This approach may also avoid the challenges that can arise if narrowly defined core practices are used as justification for narrowing teacher preparation experiences (Neel, 2017), and provide support for a collective resistance to external credentialing procedures.…”

Section: Implications For Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Theory-Practice Divides and the Persistent Challenges of Embedding Tools for Social Justice in a STEM Urban Teacher Residency Program

et al. 2020

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This study examined how the concept of social justice was operationalized in the university coursework of students enrolled in an urban teacher residency program that aims to diversify the teaching corps and prepare secondary STEM teachers for urban classroom environments. Based on analysis of 39 syllabi and interviews with nine faculty members, we found that challenges in embedding social justice theory with STEM content knowledge were attributable to the lack of a shared definition among program faculty, and external pressures imposed by state teacher credentialing requirements. We conclude with recommendations for practice by suggesting ways that rigorous STEM content knowledge can be combined with locally and historically contextualized social critique and tools for change in order to support teachers in enacting justice-oriented practice in communities.

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Section: Implications For Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Theory-Practice Divides and the Persistent Challenges of Embedding Tools for Social Justice in a STEM Urban Teacher Residency Program

et al. 2020

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“…Another tension was that teacher candidates communicated a disconnect between their methods courses where the practice-based framework was being emphasized and their "real world" field placement. The author concludes by reflecting on his initial assumptions that a core practice approach to course redesign would be a blueprint for a linear process; instead, he found that the redesign process was complex with ongoing tensions that threatened the entire process (Neel, 2017).…”

Section: Review Of the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Where Do We Start? Initiating a Practice-Based Teacher Education Program

Hurlbut¹

2019

Proceedings of the 2019 AERA Annual Meeting

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In recent years, there has been renewed interest in practicebased teacher education around the enactment of high leverage practices, but there is scant scholarship detailing the perceptions of faculty members who must be implementers of such programmatic shifts. Our study utilized survey and interview data to better understand faculty members beliefs and prior work related to this line of inquiry. Initial results suggest that despite practical concerns, our participants are optimistic about high leverage practices, and in contrast to deficiency narratives about teacher education, participants articulated sophisticated teacher preparation methods along these lines. Participants also desired programmatic coherence.

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“…Such opportunities to practice require not simply an ability to explain the reform but chances to engage in reform practices and assess gaps between one’s attempts and the vision of reform teaching (e.g. Kazemi and Wæge, 2015; Neel, 2017).…”

Section: Preparing Psts To Teach Reform-oriented Social Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meeting the demands of the C3 framework in elementary social studies methods

Neel

Palmeri

2017

SSRP

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Purpose In both elementary schools and elementary teacher education programs, social studies is marginalized while standards require increasingly more ambitious reasoning, reading, and writing in social studies than has historically been documented in American elementary schools. The purpose of this paper is to explain the challenges that elementary social studies teacher educators face in preparing elementary school teachers to facilitate the kind of ambitious social studies envisioned in the NCSS’s C3 Framework and advocate an approach to successfully address these challenges. Design/methodology/approach This paper articulates a targeted and ambitious approach to elementary social studies teacher education. The authors describe five recommendations from the teacher education literature for supporting preservice teachers in learning disciplinary-oriented social studies teaching, recommendations that guided the redesign of the social studies methods course. The authors then highlight key aspects of the redesigned methods course and demonstrate how the authors engaged the challenges inherent in the work of elementary social studies teacher education. Findings Although this paper is not arranged in such a way as to substantiate empirical findings, the purpose of the paper is to demonstrate an approach to elementary social studies education aligned with extant literature on preparing teachers to engage in reform teaching practices, specifically those disciplinary oriented practices suggested in NCSS’s C3 Framework. As such, the paper should be read as a perspective on practice. Research limitations/implications The type of disciplinary-oriented approach described here is increasingly under investigation in secondary teacher education research and similar approaches are under investigation in elementary math and science education research. To the authors’ knowledge, the approach is novel in elementary social studies education. Furthermore, the authors believe it offers a direction for researchers interested in gaps in the literature related to practice based teacher education and disciplinary-oriented social studies teacher education. Practical implications The approach described here offers specific guidance and resources for teacher educators who are struggling with the challenges of the contemporary social studies education landscape and/or who wish to focus methods courses in disciplinary ways. Social implications Research in social studied education has demonstrated that when students are exposed to disciplinary practices in social studies, their literacy skills improve and they learn analytical skills that support their development as citizens (consumption of media, participation in public discourse, ability to discern arguments). Originality/value As noted above, the approach described here is novel in elementary social studies education. Combining a disciplinary approach with a practice-based frame in elementary social studies represents an opportunity for empirical research and offers new approaches to the practice of teacher education and early career professional development.

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Making sense and facing tensions: an investigation of core practice complexities

Cited by 9 publications

References 49 publications

Theory-Practice Divides and the Persistent Challenges of Embedding Tools for Social Justice in a STEM Urban Teacher Residency Program

Theory-Practice Divides and the Persistent Challenges of Embedding Tools for Social Justice in a STEM Urban Teacher Residency Program

Where Do We Start? Initiating a Practice-Based Teacher Education Program

Meeting the demands of the C3 framework in elementary social studies methods

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