Disrupting the Deficit: Examples and Counterexamples of Clinical Experiences' Potential to Transform Thinking

• In Event: Innovative and Diverse Pedagogies in Teacher Preparation

Abstract

This action research study occurred at the nexus of two agendas in teacher education: culturally responsive education (CRE) and the clinical model for teacher preparation. Using an activity theory framework, research questions examined how preservice teachers (PSTs) in a "classroom embedded structure" (Howell, Carpenter, & Jones, 2013, p. 40) CRE course made connections between the tenants of CRE and the teaching and learning they witnessed in high school classrooms. Using the concepts of activity theory-settings, tools, and appropriation-we describe how PSTs processed their theory-practice connections with varying degrees of appropriation of those theories, as well as recognized their own deficit perspectives. We describe implications of using clinical experiences to more explicitly unpack theory recognize assumptions.

Authors

• Mary Shelley Thomas, University of Louisville

• Lateefah Ameerah Id-Deen, Kennesaw State University

• Sheron L. Mark, University of Louisville