In the Middle of Nowhere: (In)Visibility, Value, and the Clinical Educator

• In Event: Gender Equity as an Act of Praxis

Abstract

Teacher preparation programs must demonstrate how well they help beginning teachers become effective teachers. However colleges and universities are not designed to support this work. University clinical supervisors in particular – those closest to education students -- are invisible members of educational communities. Supervisors are almost all women, and their gender and work with children render them marginalized and powerless in higher education and the K-12 systems. Drawing from experiences within clinical residency programs, this theoretical study focuses on two ideas: 1) the ways in which clinical educators’ work is rendered invisible and unvalued by the university and P-12 school structures, and 2) the ways in which the organizations’ actions serve to counter the ideals and changes they purportedly support.

Authors

• Nancy S. Niemi, Yale University

• Amanda Rabidue Bozack, University of New Haven