scholarly journals Being and Becoming Woke in Teacher Education

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Babulski

The role education plays in society has been contested in the United States since the inception of public education. Historically this contention has produced a delicate balance between promoting the social justice concerns of educating democratic citizens and the disciplinary concerns of individual intellectual development. Teacher preparation programs in American normal schools, colleges, and universities have traditionally struck a similar balance between theory and practice. In the past several decades, however, the rise of neoliberalism in American politics has shifted the balance away from equity, diversity, and inclusivity. The purpose of this study is to provide an account of the lived experiences of teacher candidates with the phenomena of being and becoming “woke” within a teacher education program that reflects neoliberal values but maintains a stated commitment to social justice. This study includes narrative vignettes that explore the phenomenality of “wokeness” as it manifests in the public-school environment and the teacher education program. It also addresses the effects of neoliberalism on teacher candidates’ willingness and ability to take up social justice for themselves, their students, and society.

Author(s):  
Gayle Y. Thieman

A major revision in a graduate teacher education program (GTEP) at a mid-sized urban university provided an opportunity to rethink goals as teacher educators in order to address issues of diversity and social justice. This chapter suggests some answers to the question: What characteristics of a teacher preparation program prepare teacher candidates (TCs) to provide high quality education for all students, including those who have been historically underserved? This chapter reports a case study of the relevant research and implementation of substantially revised university coursework to better prepare teacher candidates for a diverse student population, and increased collaboration to promote program coherence. Revised coursework emphasizes culturally responsive teaching, content area literacy, and accountability for K-12 student learning. Collaboration is facilitated by clustered placements, co-teaching, and lesson study.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Laura Atkinson ◽  
Sarup R. Mathur ◽  
Stanley H. Zucker

Most of the teacher preparation programs in the United States adhere to a traditional curriculum that includes courses in foundations, liberal arts, methods, and student teaching. Too often these programs fail to provide opportunities for culturally responsive teaching where teacher candidates are encouraged to explore the role of culture in developing identity, providing space for learning, and building communities. A one-year Urban Teacher Education Program (UTEP) was created that focused on preparing teachers to work with disadvantaged, underprivileged, and marginalized children in urban schools. Teacher candidates received spaces to question their own thinking and reflect about issues related to (1) identity, (2) culture, (3) learning, and (4) assessment during this program. Four years after program completion, five participants from UTEP were selected for this study. The study used a mixed method approach to measure maintenance in transformation in their thinking. The results showed sustainability of the impact of the program four years later.


2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee Anne Block ◽  
Paul Betts

Teacher candidates’ individual and collaborative inquiry occurs within multiple and layered contexts of learning. The layered contexts support a strong connection between the practicum and the university and the emergent teaching identities. Our understanding of teacher identity is as situated and socially constructed, yet fluid and agentic. This paper explores how agentic teaching identities emerge within the layered contexts of our teacher education program as examined in five narratives of teacher candidates’ experience. These narratives involve tension, inquiry, successes and risks, as teacher candidates negotiate what is means to learn how to teach, to teach and to critically reflect on knowledge needed to teach. We conclude that navigating teacher identity is a teacher candidate capacity that could be explicitly cultivated by teacher education programs.


Author(s):  
Carlos E. Quiñones-Padovani ◽  
Clarena Larrotta

The qualitative research study explored in this chapter took place in a physical education teacher education program at a large public university in Puerto Rico. Study findings are relevant for similar programs in the United States. The research questions guiding the chapter are: (1) What can physical education teacher candidates do to help promote community health awareness? (2) What does transformational learning look like for physical education teacher candidates in a physical education teacher education program? (3) From the point of view of the university instructor, what are the challenges training physical education teacher candidates to promote health awareness? Data collection sources include: The researcher's journal, informal conversations with physical education teacher education university colleagues from different institutions, alumni questionnaire responses, electronic communications with 11 physical education teacher education program graduates, and documents (e.g., the National Association for Sports and Physical Education Standards, and the Physical Education Teacher Education Standards). The authors draw on transformational learning theory as a framework to inform the study, and narrative analysis plays a central role reporting study findings. The chapter includes the following sections: a theoretical framework section discussing how transformational learning theory informs the study; a relevant literature section that provides the definition, benefits, and connection with concepts such as physical activity, community health, and effective teaching in physical education; a qualitative methodology section that describes the study setting and participants; data collection sources and data analysis procedures; a study findings section that is organized by research questions; an implications for practice section; and conclusion.


2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Csoli ◽  
Tiffany L Gallagher

This study of teacher candidates with learning disabilities profiles their experi-ence in a teacher education program. Two teacher candidates and their faculty advisors offer perspectives at various points during the teacher education pro-gram. Findings indicate that the teacher candidates were able to complete their required courses when their professors facilitated appropriate accommodations for them. In their elementary classroom practica, the participants thrived when teaching in their trained discipline or content area, but often needed scaffolding from teacher associates when teaching mathematics and reading. Prior to dis-closing their disability to their teacher associates, the teacher candidates attempted to gauge their mentors’ tolerance of learning disabilities. Based on their lived experiences, the participants held distinct beliefs about integration and reducing the stigma of learning disabilities. Discussion on the implications for teacher education and support of teacher candidates with learning disabilities is offered.


2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nan Kurz ◽  
Peter V. Paul

Although definitions of high quality teaching vary considerably, a good teacher capitalizes on the strengths of every student. Yet, novice teachers struggle to identify all students’ abilities. Many teachers describe inclusion practices as just another obstacle encountered in the classroom. Scholars seek to identify ways of changing this burden of inclusion mindset to a welcoming/enriching notion aligned with social justice agendas. In this paper, we discuss the need for pre-service teachers to enter the classroom with the disposition to focus on individual strengths and to understand how the diversity of students’ abilities and backgrounds contributes to the subjective well-being of the student population.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 310-329
Author(s):  
Erica Eva Colmenares ◽  
Jenna Kamrass Morvay

The purpose of this article is to explore affective (an)archives in educational research. Unlike archives, which act more like a repository, the (an)archive is a technique for research-creation; it is a process-making engine that triggers new, creative events. The affective (an)archives studied in this paper encompass the affective intensities that arise for teacher-activists participating in public political activism, as well as the affects that animate the moments of emotional crisis (or “stuck moments”) of student teachers in a social justice-oriented teacher education program. We ruminate on the possibilities, intensities, conversations, and materialities that our (an)archives might open. Specifically, we wonder what new events can these (an)archives feed-forward and what pedagogical and emotional thresholds might the traces from our (an)archives do for both our own studies and the field of educational research.


2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Lassonde ◽  
Alison Black ◽  
Jane Miller ◽  
Hanfu Mi

Colleagues in a teacher education program describe their journey of programmatic self-study as they examine how they teach and assess teacher candidates’ writing in a series of three required and sequenced undergraduate literacy courses. They lead the reader through the questions they asked themselves about their instruction and their reflective process with a goal of improving teacher candidates’ technical, reflective, and creative writing. Readers are encouraged to reflect on their expectations for teacher candidates’ writing in light of instruction and assessment. Implications for teacher education are explored.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 499-518
Author(s):  
Ana Karina de Oliveira Nascimento ◽  
Ana Lúcia Simões Borges Fonseca

ABSTRACT Teacher education can take place in multiple spaces besides the school environment (university and basic education schools), following different paths and in a decolonial way. Having this in mind, a qualitative research with an interpretative scope was conducted during a year and a half, on the range of the English project of the National Pre-service Brazilian Teacher Education Program (Pibid) at a federal university in Brazil. In this article, the focus is on the analysis of pre-service teachers’ field diaries and their content concerning one of the activities developed as part of the project: going to the movies and reflecting upon some films. The experience revealed how pre-service teachers had the chance to reflect on the relationships they were able to establish with teacher education, and the readings and experiences provided by Pibid, thus corroborating the importance of decolonizing practices.


Author(s):  
Jessica DeMink-Carthew ◽  
Maria E Hyler ◽  
Linda Valli

Numerous teacher educators are revising their programs by focusing on high-leverage practices (HLPs). Concurrently, edTPA has been adopted by a number of states as a way to assess teacher candidates' readiness to teach. There is considerable conceptual congruence in these reform strategies. Both are practice-based, focusing on the authentic work of teaching. Nonetheless, the origins of these strategies, language, and materials are not seamless. HLPs, and ways of teaching them, are generated by local teacher educators themselves; edTPA was developed on a national scale with one purpose being to provide a common assessment of readiness to teach. This chapter illustrates the collective efforts of one teacher education program to productively handle the challenges that emerge in this dual reform climate while simultaneously meeting accreditation association requirements, including a conceptual framework for educator preparation programs. A model is subsequently presented for meaningful integration of edTPA, HLPs, and institutional conceptual frameworks.


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