Examining Preservice Teachers’ Narratives of Learning to Teach Diverse Students

• In Event: Roundtable Session 67
  In Roundtable Session: When Experience Is Complex: Competing Stories on the School Landscape

Abstract

We examine written narratives documenting student teachers’ experiences of learning to teach in diverse elementary classrooms. Narratives were based on a year-long research study whereby a group of teacher education students in a combined Teacher Certification and Masters Degree program documented their interactions and experiences of working with an individual student in their student teaching classroom. We explore what these narratives reveal about the formation and growth of instructional relationships with elementary-age students. We are interested in examining the kind of evidence such insider narratives provide on the development of personal professional knowledge in learning to teach. This work offers documentation of the value of engaging pre-service teachers in teacher inquiry examining their learning and growth.

Authors

• Elaine Chan, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

• Stephen A. Swidler, University of Nebraska - Lincoln