Urban Teacher Residencies: Contributions and Barriers to the Professionalization of Teaching

• In Event: Approaches of Collaboration and Inquiry in Teacher Education

Abstract

This paper explores the professionalization of teaching as it relates to the emerging model of the urban teacher residency (UTR). It begins with a theoretical overview of professionalization as it pertains to teaching, exploring the concept’s suitability as a backdrop for examining the UTR model. It describes tensions in the field of teacher preparation reflected in various iterations of residency program implementation by studying residency efforts in cities throughout the United States, especially the new Seattle Teacher Residency program (STR). In examining how residencies currently influence and enact various interpretations of professionalization, this discussion extends current understandings of the role of teachers in transforming the teaching profession, and argues for giving teachers more agency in the arena of teacher preparation.

Author

• Susan Desha Stahl, University of Washington - Seattle