“Context-Specific” Teacher Preparation for New York City: The Bard College Urban Teacher Residency Program

• In Event: Urban Teacher Residencies, Year 1: Looking Across Models and Contexts

Abstract

This paper uses multiple data sources to examine a “context-specific” urban teacher residency program—a Bard College MAT program located in a Bronx public school -- that prepares teachers for public schools in New York City. Drawing upon data including program syllabi and assignments, interviews with 16 candidates and all 14 faculty, and surveys of all 50 graduating MAT students as well as 2009 and 2010 graduates, the research examines how faculty conceptualize the work of preparing teachers for teaching in New York; the nature of the opportunities to learn about teaching in New York in the program; and what teacher candidates are and are not learning about teaching in New York city. Initial review of these data point to key context-specific features but also some gaps in candidates’ opportunities to learn about New York city teaching. For example, analysis of interviews and syllabi suggest that the Bard program provides substantial opportunities to learn about adolescent identity development, the role of culture in learning, and the lives of students in urban settings. Analysis of syllabi and interviews also reveal that Bard provides substantial opportunities to learn about attending to student thinking in curricular planning, and how to differentiate curriculum for the range of students that they may encounter in city schools. However, analysis of interviews suggested that candidates had fewer opportunities to learn about the specific populations of students with whom they will work in New York city and fewer opportunities to learn about the specific context, standards and curriculum of New York city schools.

Given that populations in different urban settings vary substantially (Frankenberg, 2009) and that urban contexts vary historically, politically and culturally, the finding that this program did not address some of those specific features of the New York context is important. Indeed, those features that might make the program even more specifically targeted to preparing teachers to work in New York City-- as opposed to any urban area-- may need more development. Furthermore, the program may not yet provide enough opportunities to learn that are grounded in practice such as analyzing New York standards or curriculum. Because early research suggests the key role of opportunities to learn that are grounded in practice in teacher education (Boyd et al., 2009), this raises questions about how additional emphasis upon practice might be integrated into urban teacher preparation as these “context-specific” urban programs continue to develop and grow.

Author

• Karen M. Hammerness, Bard College