"How Can I Help Her Move?" A Critical Look at Teacher Educators' Goals for Teachers

• In Event: Roundtable Session 39
  In Roundtable Session: Transitioning From Teachers to Teacher Educators: Forming and Sustaining an Inquiry Community

Abstract

Objectives:
Cochran-Smith and Lytle (2009) frame “inquiry as stance” (IAS) as a counter-hegemonic stance that, when adopted by practitioners, challenges ideas about every aspect of education and schooling that are “implicit or explicit in the dominant education regime” (p. 3). IAS can be seen as a political repositioning of the collective intellectual capacity of practitioners, allowing for positive and democratic transformation of teaching, learning, and schooling. Inclined towards social justice attitudes, critical perspectives, and multicultural education, the original questions of this inquiry group were centered on how to assist teacher candidates in developing critical perspectives and adopting an inquiry stance. It was agreed that such a stance would support teachers in identifying, critiquing, and transforming the outcomes in their personal practice and beyond (Simon et al., 2012). However, as a group, the goal of developing teacher candidates’ inquiry stance and critical perspectives during their teacher education program was continuously problematized. In attempting to orient teachers along a critical continuum, we recognized that, as Schulte (2004) suggests, “There are some serious ethical aspects to consider when challenging students’ deeply held beliefs” (p. 716). This presentation highlights the developing teacher educators’ critical reflections, personal shifts, and pedagogical decisions related to the topics of: 1) advocacy for an inquiry stance 2) the pedagogy of transforming teacher candidates and teaching practitioner inquiry, and 3) the ethics of shifting potential teacher candidates orientations.

Rational:
In providing an emic perspective on emerging critical teacher educators’ balancing of goals, methods, ethics, and ideological convictions for transforming the orientations of teacher candidates, this paper offers an examination of teacher educators’ development toward educating for the moral aspects and social justice perspectives (Schulte, 2004; Willemse, Lunenberg, Korthagen, 2008). This research also highlights how teacher educators might address the complexity of encouraging practitioner inquiry as a life-long stance, rather than projects that teacher candidates engage in during teacher educations programs (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009).

Theoretical Framework and Methodology:
This paper utilizes the theoretical framework of inquiry as stance and the methodology of self-study as presented in the overall session summary, applicable for all four papers.

Data Sources:
Data sources included: notes from inquiry group meetings; reflection and journal entries; inquiry narratives; and blog posts from the course in which the inquiry group was established.

Conclusions:
The goal of having teacher candidates oriented with an inquiry stance ultimately remains complex. Though the educators were able to locate some effective practices, they continued to wrestle with their desire for social justice in classrooms and their desire to model democracy in their own practice. The teacher educators often juxtaposed the optimal education for students with that of teacher candidates’ potentially fragile sensibilities. The teacher educators ultimately resolved to respect the orientations and capacity for change in their teacher candidates, even while providing transformative opportunities through use and examples of practitioner inquiry. Results of this exploration highlight how developing teacher educators need support, not only from their peers, but also more experienced teacher educators in developing their teaching ideologies and ethical pedagogies.

Authors

• Renata Love Jones, Boston College

• Meredith Cromwell Moore, Boston College