What's Urban About Urban Teacher Preparation? A Case Study of the Urban Teacher Education Program

• In Event: 66.046 - Inspiring Teaching: Context-Specific Teacher Education for the 21st Century

Abstract

During the last decade, the number of teacher education programs that identify themselves as preparing new teachers for urban settings has increased, often emerging in sites with high teacher shortages. While this suggests a growing perception that preparing teachers for a particular school context makes sense, it also raises a key question. Just what is urban about urban teacher preparation? How is it different from a more “universal” or generic approach to teacher preparation?

Reviewing more than 30 years of research, Weiner (1993) concluded that, historically, the impact of the urban context has been overlooked in research on effective teaching. More recently, both researchers and practitioners have come to acknowledge the importance of attending to the particulars of urban school settings. For example, researchers have focused on understanding working conditions in large urban districts, factors affecting teacher retention and attrition, and culturally relevant pedagogical practices, with particular attention to implications for beginning teachers (Irvine, 1991; Ladson-Billings 1994; Moore-Johnson 2004). A related body of work describes the manner in which teachers are prepared to work in urban contexts (Alkins et al., 2006; Cochran Smith et al., 2009; Quartz et al., 2003, 2008.)
In this paper, we explore the nature of urban teacher preparation though a detailed examination of the Urban Teacher Education Program (UTEP) at the University of Chicago, as one example of a “context specific” urban teacher preparation program. Its mission--to prepare exceptional teachers for Chicago Public Schools--is part of the university’s larger commitment to eliminating the achievement gap for low-income and minority students. Based upon analyses of data (i.e. program descriptions, course syllabi; transcriptions of interviews with program staff), this case study reveals what UTEP faculty believe that teachers need to know about urban schools and children; the varied ways that UTEP defines the urban context; and the opportunities UTEP candidates have to learn about these ideas.

Review of these data suggest that one key concept threading through the program is the examination of the urban context as a cultural space in which beginning teachers must traverse social class, ethnicity, and cultural differences of the students they will teach. An examination of syllabi suggests that teachers have multiple opportunities to learn about this idea. For instance, all students are required to write an essay about a situation in which they’ve ventured outside of their cultural comfort zone and how that experience changed their perception of their own culture and the culture of the “other.” A second key concept is understanding the urban context as a geographical context where working conditions include a lack of resources, low-morale, and high density of students with special needs or behavior issues. Through an analysis of various experiences in this two year program, the paper reveals the coherent ways in which faculty aspire to prepare teacher candidates for Chicago public schools and set the stage for a compelling understanding of how the unique features of urban schools settings are acknowledged and integrated into the already challenging work of learning to teach.

Authors

• Kavita Kapadia Matsko, University of Chicago

• Karen M. Hammerness, American Museum of Natural History