Understanding how pre-service English teachers adopt stance toward academic teaching inquiry tasks

Heny

2016

Cogent Education

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Though teacher educators nationwide are considering ways to provide urban placements for pre-service teachers (PSTs), little research has examined how PSTs experience placements in schools operated by charter management organizations (CMOs). This study considers CMOs-which often hold particular instructional and classroom management philosophies-as a specific type of school-based learning environment. We draw from a Discourse analytic theoretical framework using qualitative methodology to study how three English education focal PSTs experience disconnections between student-teaching placements at CMO schools and their teacher education program. Findings suggest three ways teacher educators can support PSTs in navigating school-based learning. PSTs in this study experienced contexts and philosophies that varied greatly between their schools and teacher education program. Implications include: (1) PSTs must feel that others in their schools value their learning; (2) PSTs in cohorts must feel they belong to learning communities; and (3) PSTs need support in confronting paradoxes they face between theory and practice.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“It’s just really not me”: How pre-service English teachers from a traditional teacher education program experience student-teaching in charter-school networks

Heny

2016

Cogent Education

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“…'; Amy: 'Why does his teacher identify him as "very capable and very intelligent," and yet he continues to receive low grades in his AP [Advanced Placement] class?') but still reveal questions are framed by prior experiences with students (see also Salerno and Kibler 2014). Such pre-findings might indicate PSTs' growing understanding of the challenges students face in classrooms.…”

Section: Relationshipsmentioning

confidence: 94%

Questions they ask: considering teacher-inquiry questions posed by pre-service English teachers

Educational Action Research

Kibler

2015

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Our study of pre-service teachers' (PSTs) inquiry projects includes two levels of practitioner-research: on one level, we examine the research questions PSTs pose about their classrooms; and on the second, the study is an action-research investigation of our own practice in teaching PSTs both pedagogical and inquiry practices. We study PSTs' inquiry questions specifically in an attempt to understand their concerns about teaching and to improve the ways we instruct PSTs. The project considers three research questions: how do English PSTs pose their concerns about students in inquiry questions addressed to students during fieldplacement experiences; how do they express these concerns in questions posed about students; and what can we learn from the ways PSTs embed conceptualizations of students in questions? Findings reveal a possible mismatch, with PSTs asking students directly about personal interests but often formulating research questions about academic challenges. Such disparity suggests PSTs might be reluctant to broach difficult subjects with students -a reluctance that might deter PSTs from openly discussing challenges with students or from enlisting students as collaborators in inquiry. Additionally, PSTs expressed that their prior knowledge of students constituted 'researcher bias.' These findings indicate to us as action-researchers and teacher educators that we need to make changes in how we help PSTs involve students as collaborators in inquiry and that we need to help them understand that teacher-inquiry does not require an unrealistic ideal of researcher neutrality but instead requires teachers to examine their knowledge and to investigate questions systematically. IntroductionWhile teacher-inquiry is increasingly viewed as a promising means of training beginning and pre-service teachers (PSTs) to become practitioners who constantly improve their classrooms, little research has been conducted on the inquiry questions PSTs ask. Yet gaining understanding of how PSTs choose and structure questions is instrumental in helping teacher educators support practitioner-research and teacher action research. With additional knowledge, teacher educators can better understand concerns new teachers have about teaching and how PSTs do or do not regard teacher-inquiry and practitioner-research as ongoing instructional practices for promoting positive changes in their future classrooms. Our project contains two layers of

“…A student complained she moved his seat from racist motives, and his father requested a conference with her and the principal. Amy was visibly upset, crying when she told cohort members about the situation (see Salerno & kibler, 2014, for further analysis of this incident). One conference outcome was that Amy or her mentor would call the student's father about future problems.…”

Section: Positive Interactions With Familiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relational Challenges and Breakthroughs: How Pre-Service English Teachers’ Figured Worlds Impact Their Relationships with Students

Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education

Kibler

2018

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Background/Context Figured worlds have been conceptualized as spaces, or “realms,” where individuals assign meaning and significance to actors and characters or come to understand what they take as “typical or normal.” This study applies a lens of figured worlds to descriptions that pre-service teachers (PSTs) give of themselves and their relationships with students they said were challenging to teach. Purpose/Objective Research focused on two questions: (1) How do PSTs describe their own figured worlds in relation to those of their students? (2) What challenges and breakthroughs do PSTs describe in their efforts to understand students’ figured worlds through relationship building? Setting Data are from a cohort of secondary English education PSTs during teacher preparation at a large public university in a South Atlantic state. Population/Participants/Subjects At graduation, the cohort consisted of 15 members, all of whom participated in our study. All of the participants were women of typical university student age. Participants described their race/ethnicity as White (11), Korean (1), Filipino-American (1), Chinese-American (1), and Hispanic (1). Research Design This qualitative study uses open-coding analysis to consider ways PSTs talked about their figured worlds and their student relationships across their two-year English education teacher preparation. Data include field notes of course discussions and practice-teaching observations, interviews, course presentations, lesson plans, and course assignments, especially from three teaching inquiry projects that PSTs completed during their program. The researchers take a practitioner-inquirer stance, as they were both involved in helping prepare the cohort. Findings/Results Among Question 1 findings, PSTs reveal various individual figured worlds in addition to several group-defined figured worlds, including group identities such as: women; students who had themselves excelled in school; new, young, and inexperienced teachers; people identifying strongly with English content; and people of privilege. Among Question 2 findings, PSTs overwhelmingly viewed relationships with students as important; however, they experienced many challenges and breakthroughs in building those relationships. Conclusions/Recommendations PSTs entered their preparation and their student-teaching classrooms with their own figured worlds about themselves and what teacher–student relationships should look like. In practice teaching, however, they experienced many challenges to building the types of relationships they expected. And they also experienced breakthroughs in improving these relationships. For teacher educators, it is important to understand the figured worlds that PSTs bring to teacher–student relationships and to help them in understanding that students’ figured worlds might not align with their own.