Community-Oriented Frameworks for Professional Development School Initiatives: Addressing Teacher Recruitment, Development, and Retention While Supporting Learners

• In Event: Millennium Hotel Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: Teaching in a Professional Development School Partnership

Abstract

The teacher shortage calls for innovative recruitment, development, and retention practices. This qualitative inquiry highlights one such innovation, the Academy for Future Teachers (AFT) a PDS sponsored teacher-cadet program for high-schoolers interested in teaching. Stakeholders participating in AFT in three different roles (high school participants, n=34; PDS preservice teacher-residents, n=7; and master teachers AFT faculty, n=6) offered perspectives on the role of AFT in their respective teaching trajectories. Participants indicated AFT supported prospective, preservice, and current educators alike while serving learners in our community. This highlights possibilities that community-oriented partnerships (such as PDS initiatives) can create via social practices that affirm all individuals involved in schooling across university/P-12, serve learners and communities well, and elevate our vocation.

Authors

• Teresa R. Fisher-Ari, Georgia State University

• Lauriece R Forstner, Georgia State University

• Anne E. Martin, Georgia State University

• Harley Gordon Granville, Georgia State University

• Victoria Cox, Georgia State University

• Veronica Vichi-Miller

• Gwendolyn T. Benson, Georgia State University