Constructing a critical professional identity among teacher candidates during service-learning

2013 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 398-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurit Dvir ◽  
Ilana Avissar
Author(s):  
Reid Richard Riggle

Many teacher candidates enter teacher preparation programs with the desire to serve or to change the lives of others. Teacher education programs are uniquely positions leverage this desire to serve through intentional service-learning field placements. Service-learning, particularly early in the preparation program, can play a critical role in building the disposition to serve. This chapter explores one way teacher preparation programs can cultivate the orientation to serve high-need schools. Candidates enrolled in the Village Project serve in high-need schools, address a real community and educational need, and are provided reflection opportunities to connect the experience to their developing knowledge of learning and motivation. Ultimately, the goal the Village Project as an early service-learning field experience is to help teacher candidates develop a professional identity that increases the personal desire to work in educational communities that have a need.


Author(s):  
Adam Moore ◽  
Susan Trostle Brand

Teacher educators committed to social justice are charged with preparing future professionals with the knowledge and skills characteristic of change agents. This chapter explains how two university faculty members co-taught a general education course about education and social justice enlisting service-learning. This multidisciplinary course allowed teacher candidates to work with peers from other majors to select, plan, and implement a service-learning project. The structure and design of the course is described, along with examples of readings, film, media, and organizations that promote social justice. Qualitative reflections from former students are included, along with descriptions of service-learning projects. Recommendations and implications for teacher educators designing a similar course are provided.


Author(s):  
Thomas Browning ◽  
Scot Wilson ◽  
Crystal D. Howell ◽  
Alexandra M. Weiss ◽  
Kathryn E. Engebretson

This chapter outlines the experiences of teacher candidates engaged in service-learning at a large Midwestern university. The authors set out to study this service partnership by asking, What benefits do teacher candidates identify from this service learning partnership? What do they see as challenges? What have they learned? In this chapter, the authors describe the answers to these questions. Obstacles to and opportunities for future development of this partnership are also discussed, and some implications for teacher educators are also outlined.


Author(s):  
Michael T. Ndemanu ◽  
David J. Roof

Using surveys and follow-up interview data, in this chapter, the authors evaluate the influence of an immersive service learning experience from a multicultural education course for aspiring teachers. The chapter examines how required 20-hour field experience is utilized by different professors as part of a professional disposition assessment to pre-screen students for admission into the teaching program, as well as how the field experience impacts teacher candidates' belief system and cultural competency. This research examines and seeks to provide points of discussion regarding the challenges of the service-learning component and recommendations for improving the course. To improve the course delivery and the unique partnership, the multicultural education course has with a variety of community organizations received surveys from hundreds of former students. This project builds on these initial surveys with interviews.


Author(s):  
Omobolade Delano-Oriaran

This chapter shares an Authentic and Culturally Engaging (ACE) Service-Learning framework as a pedagogical approach in equipping teacher candidates with the knowledge, skills and dispositions to be successful in-service teachers in diverse PK-12 school environments. As PK-12 schools become more racially and culturally diverse, there is a need to better prepare teacher candidates for diverse school environments, especially given that many teachers have asserted that they do not know how to teach diverse students. The chapter highlights components of the ACE framework and suggests practical strategies that teacher educators can use in integrating this framework into their courses. The end of the chapter focuses on teacher educators and how they can engage in a relearning process to unpack their previous knowledge regarding social justice and multicultural education in an effort to prepare their teacher candidates for diverse schools followed by a suggested checklist applicable to any teacher preparation course.


Author(s):  
Omobolade Delano-Oriaran

This chapter shares an Authentic and Culturally Engaging (ACE) Service-Learning framework as a pedagogical approach in equipping teacher candidates with the knowledge, skills and dispositions to be successful in-service teachers in diverse PK-12 school environments. As PK-12 schools become more racially and culturally diverse, there is a need to better prepare teacher candidates for diverse school environments, especially given that many teachers have asserted that they do not know how to teach diverse students. The chapter highlights components of the ACE framework and suggests practical strategies that teacher educators can use in integrating this framework into their courses. The end of the chapter focuses on teacher educators and how they can engage in a relearning process to unpack their previous knowledge regarding social justice and multicultural education in an effort to prepare their teacher candidates for diverse schools followed by a suggested checklist applicable to any teacher preparation course.


Author(s):  
Tonya Huber ◽  
Elizabeth R. Sanmiguel ◽  
Lorena P. Cestou ◽  
Mayra L. Hernandez

As teacher-preparation programs educate and evaluate candidates to become globally competent instructional leaders, special attention should be given to international service-learning. Immersing teacher candidates in real-world experiences beyond their comfort zone is a cornerstone of this theoretical inquiry, including self-reflection strategies grounded on Paulo Freire's liberatory pedagogy for social justice. The research team reviews self- and cultural-awareness experiences, dispositions, and profiles of university teacher candidates, during a semester of curriculum studies affording opportunities to engage in local, local to global, and/or global/international service-learning. The discoveries will inform teacher educators as they develop and strengthen critical inquiry and service-learning components of their own courses.


Author(s):  
Christine Rosalia

The purpose of this study is to describe an ongoing service-learning project that brings pre-service teachers in an MA graduate program in Teaching English as a Second Language to tutor English language learners in a low-income urban high school. Excerpts from nine different teachers on sessions with the same learner offer snapshots of the learner's progress as he interacts with them. Impact on teacher expectations and demonstrated resilience working with this student is evaluated in concert with how well the project embodies the standards of service-learning as mutually beneficial practice. An analogy will be drawn between the behaviors of passengers in a stopped subway train and the varied ways teacher candidates and the project as a whole embodies culturally responsive teaching.


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