School-University Partnerships: Reconfiguring the Spaces of Learning to Teach

• In Event: Expanding Approaches to Teacher Education

Abstract

This study investigates two experiments that attempt to better connect the university component of teacher education with the field. The authors use stories from preservice teachers to explore what learning took place in the spaces created through school-university collaborations. In one model, an intentional partnership was created between the university course instructor and four teachers and classrooms where preservice teachers engaged in fieldwork. The other model moved the methods course to a middle school partnering with a teacher and two of his US History classes. Our findings indicate that the communities created in these spaces pushed preservice teachers to engage deeply with the field in learning to teach and blurred the lines between theoretical and practical teacher knowledge.

Authors

• Gerardo Joel Aponte-Martinez, Michigan State University

• Elizabeth A Kenyon, Michigan State University