Teaching Synchronous-Service Teachers: Traditional Teacher Education at a Crossroads

Abstract

Background/Context Teachers enrolled in alternative training and licensure programs may have experiences that lie outside what is considered typical for both preservice teachers and in-service teachers. This article explores the experiences of a growing cadre of “synchronous-service teachers”—including, but not limited to, Teach For America (TFA) corps members— who are teaching full time while also completing coursework in teacher preparation programs. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of the Study This study considers how synchronous-service teachers perceived the education and training they received while enrolled in traditional teacher education coursework, as well as how they interpreted their broader interactions with the teaching profession and teacher education writ large. Research Setting and Participants This research was conducted in the Midwestern United States in a major metropolitan area with a TFA regional presence. Thirty-six corps members who completed coursework at a traditional teacher education institution opted to participate in this study. They were primarily White and female, and most entered TFA immediately following completion of their undergraduate degrees. The majority had little previous exposure to the education discipline. Research Design The thirty-six corps members were interviewed about their experiences while participating in TFA, teaching at their schools, and, especially pertinent to this article, learning at a partner university where TFA corps members in the region completed teacher education coursework. Findings/Results The findings suggest that corps members held primarily negative views about the teacher education coursework they experienced. They complained that the teacher education programming failed to provide immediately applicable insights and lacked rigor and relevance. Yet they also maintained paradoxical expectations about what teacher education, particularly for synchronous-service teachers, should or should not entail. Conclusions/Recommendations The article concludes by suggesting the potential utility of synchronous-service teachers as a conceptual category, noting that these teachers should be considered distinct from others. As such, providing synchronous-service teachers with teacher education programming designed for either preservice or in-service teachers may lead to missed opportunities in terms of professional learning and exacerbate negative sentiments about teacher education. The experiences and opinions of synchronous-service teachers can have considerable significance, particularly when these teachers go on to affect education leadership and policy. In sum, teacher education institutions are at a critical crossroads concerning how and whether to proceed with similar partnerships, especially as alternative recruitment and training programs continue to grow in the United States and beyond.

Teach For America influence on non-TFA teachers in TFA-hiring schools

“…As such, both mentoring and attrition are areas of concern for both TFA and the individual schools who host its CMs. Ultimately, the findings confirm the importance of in-service as well as pre-service mentoring (see also, Anderson & Aronson, 2020) and teacher education designed specifically for the synchronous-service roles inhabited by TFA CMs (Thomas & Lefebvre, 2020).…”

“…The growth and prominence of TFA in the education reform landscape has garnered a considerable amount of investigation. 2 Common emphases in the research literature include the recruitment and training of corps members (Brewer, 2014;Donaldson & Johnson, 2011), their lived experiences (Blumenreich & Rogers, 2021;Brewer & deMarrais, 2015;Matsui, 2015;Thomas & Lefebvre, 2020;Veltri, 2010), perceived outcomes (e.g., student achievement, principal satisfaction, etc. ; Clark et al, 2013;Darling-Hammond et al, 2005;Glazerman et al, 2006;Kane et al, 2008;Turner et al, 2011), retention (Brewer, 2014;Donaldson & Johnson, 2011), and what alumni go on to do after their two-year stint in the classroom (Dobbie & Fryer, 2011;Higgins et al, 2011;McAdam & Brandt, 2009), such as law school, school administration and leadership, charter school 1 One study investigates the spill-over effects in Miami-Dade County, but it largely focuses on student achievement data, as opposed to the personal experiences of teacher-colleagues (see Backes et al, 2019).…”

“…Largely missing from this theoretical framing of the subjectivities of teachers and their interactions with policies, however, is an understanding of teachers themselves as reflecting or embodying policy. As alternative certification policies and state/federal laws allow new routes into the profession, new categories of teachers enter classrooms, schools, and the teaching profession, writ large (Thomas & Lefebvre, 2020;Thomas & Xu, 2022). In the case of TFA teachers, CMs in many ways embody controversial education policies related to teaching and teacher education (see Thomas, 2018a).…”

“…Finally, sociocultural policy studies help highlight both the symbolic and tangible effects of policies such as the introduction of cadres of TFA teachers. Symbolically, new entrants into the teaching profession who come from alternative routes may signify shifts in expectations about the roles, judgements, knowledges, and skills of the profession, thereby altering conceptualizations of what is required to be prepared as an exemplary teacher (see Holloway, 2021;Thomas & Lefebvre, 2020). These perceptions are more than just opinions of the general public about particular educational policy issues; rather, the perspectives of non-TFA teachers offer insights into the lingering symbolic effects of TFA on the chosen career of these teachers, with potential implications for status and career esteem.…”

Maintaining meritocratic mythologies: Teach For America and Ako Mātātupu: Teach First New Zealand

“…The interviews generally lasted between 1 -2 hours in duration and were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Additional information about this data set and concomitant methods and findings are available elsewhere (Thomas, 2017(Thomas, -2020. iv Data from the New Zealand case consisted primarily of semi-structured interviews with participants and community stakeholders (N=33), including interviews with TeachFirst thought leaders and key personnel (n=3), current AM/TFNZ participants (n=16), programmes alumni (n=5), school principals who employ AM/TFNZ participants (n=2), university professors and leading experts in teacher preparation practices (n=6), and a representative from a national teacher's union who played a key role in advocating for specific changes to the AM/TFNZ certification process (n=1).…”