Preservice Teachers’ Learning From Practice-Focused Teacher Education With a Compassionate, Justice-Oriented Lens: A Multiple-Case Analysis

• In Event: Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: Preparing Preservice Teachers to Be Social Justice Educators

Abstract

In this multiple-case study, we explored how teacher education practices focused on modeling compassion in critical, justice-oriented teacher education (Author, 2008) shaped novice teachers’ learning. We examined two practice-focused secondary (grades 6-12) teacher education courses with shared conceptualizations of social justice, and our distinctive settings—a mid-sized city in the southeastern U.S. and a major metropolitan area in the U.S. Midwest—and course contexts enabled us to examine the commonalities and particularities across contexts. This study provides a more informed understanding of specific teacher education practices that can generate equitable, intellectually challenging learning opportunities for all students, such as cultivating an open classroom community and modeling the use of specific teaching strategies that serve diverse learners.

Authors

• Hilary Gehlbach Conklin, DePaul University

• Hilary E. Hughes, University of Georgia - Athens