Reconsidering the Teacher Story: Story as Apparatus in the Production of Teacher Knowledge

• In Event: Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: Nurturing Reflection and Inquiry With Preservice Teacher Education

Abstract

Educating for diverse democracies requires researchers to attend to the representations used in teacher education. What do they include and what do they leave out? What is made possible for teachers-to-be by these inclusions and exclusions? How can we tell stories about teaching that help new teachers enact “complex practice under conditions of uncertainty” (Grossman et al, 2009, p. 2058)?

This study considers the implications for teacher preparation programs of relying heavily on what I call the Teacher Story, stories that flat out the complexities of teaching into linear narratives. In the methodology literature, representation has been seriously challenged by feminist scholars, and this paper will consider the implications of this critique on the use of representations in teacher preparation.

Author

• Courtney L. Rath, Universty of Oregon