Difficult to Locate: The Obscurity of Addressing Poverty Within Teacher Education Programs

• In Event: Targeting Poverty With Teacher Education Programs

Abstract

This study examined how New Zealand Preservice Teacher Education programs (PTE) and preservice teachers acknowledged and engaged with issues of poverty. This paper explores the role and influence of PTE coursework on preservice teachers’ understandings of poverty and teaching in disadvantaged schools. Organized in two parts, the first section presents evidence of poverty’s general obscurity within PTE coursework. The second half of the paper examines the implications of this absence on preservice teachers’ understanding and engagement with poverty during their PTE program. Deeper analysis of the data illustrates the resilience of institutional messaging of poverty that resonates in PTE program design and delivery, and influences preservice teachers’ conceptions and engagement with poverty in educational contexts.

Author

• Jennifer Tatebe, University of Auckland