Boundaries and Barriers: Negotiations in and Around Extended Clinical Practice

• In Event: Negotiating the Boundaries of Student Teaching: A Reconsideration of Shared Clinical Practice

Abstract

Objectives
This paper contributes to the larger symposium by sharing findings from two years of data collected within an extended clinical practice program for pre-service teachers. Drawing on related literature in the field of teacher education and data collected within the study, this paper shares insights on the benefits and challenges of being deeply embedded in a school community for clinical practice.

Theoretical Framework
This study draws on the theoretical approach of inquiry as stance as a way to frame an exploration of extended student teaching that is both perspectival and conceptual (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009). In line with the overall goal of the symposium to explore renegotiated boundaries around teacher education, this theoretical approach allows researchers, practitioners, and students to blur the boundaries between those “framing the problems and those implementing the changes in response to those problems” (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009, p.123).

Methods & Data Sources
Data were collected for this qualitative study over two years and include field notes, observational data, researcher notes, student reflections, faculty inquiry group notes, and participant interviews (both individual and focus group). Data were analyzed using an inductive approach, involving multiple reviews of data with individual coding for themes that appeared across all data sets (Marshall & Rossman, 2006).

Discussion of Findings
Being deeply embedded in a school community as part of a shared clinical practice program provided numerous opportunities to notice, challenge, accept, or embrace the different boundaries that emerged as we traversed university-school-professor-teacher-student lines. Participants reported difficulties navigating the various roles within the school building, and in particular, managing the deep relationships that were built in the school even though they were negotiating positions as new stakeholders in the school community. One student teacher shared an example of the challenges she faced as she negotiated boundaries in her role:
“I feel like we are truly embedded. In the last professional development we went to, the principal said that everyone had to have the flow of the day on the board because the quality review was coming up. The teachers were in a panic; it’s something that’s a big deal even though it’s a tiny little thing. The teachers were upset, and that shouldn’t impact us but yet it’s stressing us. To make it in this, you need to hold your ground.”

Additional data revealed multiple instances of participants being positioned as having to take sides in conceptual or curricular issues, and of participants struggling to navigate boundaries as they worked to assimilate into the school culture because they were there for an entire year.

Scholarly Significance
This paper, as a contribution to the larger symposium, adds to the research on clinical practice by bringing forth findings that are important to consider in developing and implementing shared clinical practice programs. These findings suggest that when the traditional boundaries around student teaching are renegotiated, significant support is needed for student teachers to understand, and navigate the conceptual distinctions made by various stakeholders in their school communities.

Author

• Liz Chase, St. John's University