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Examining Teacher Educator Ontological Stance in Practice-Based Teacher Education

Sun, April 7, 11:50am to 1:20pm, Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Floor: 700 Level, Room 714A

Abstract

Purpose
Drawing on Pennycook (2001), Morgan (2016) urges teacher educators to “problematiz[e] givens in the micropractices of our teaching” (p. 711). We use the construct of ontological stance as a lens to examine the teaching practices of the first author (FA) as she engaged in the practice-based pedagogy of rehearsals with teacher candidates. This study is part of a collaboration we have undertaken to critically examine our pedagogies of teacher education to understand the spaces for voice and agency of teacher candidates engaged in rehearsals, and to contribute to the limited literature base in practice-based second language teacher education in general and in the pedagogy of rehearsal in particular (Authors, 2017, in press).

Perspective
Rehearsals are often thought of as opportunities for teacher educators to mediate the learning of novices as they navigate the complex moment-to-moment challenges of how to teach (Authors, in press). However, unlike regular classroom interactions, rehearsals occur in the teacher education setting, and are an opportunity for teacher candidates to enact part of a lesson with classmates participating as students, and the teacher educator in the dual role of “student” and “coach,” at times pausing the lesson to ask questions, share feedback, and redirect the presenting teacher. The pedagogy of rehearsal is part of a dynamic cycle of learning that is intended to scaffold the teaching capacities of novices (Lampert et al., 2013). However, until now, rehearsal has been proffered as a way to improve novice teachers’ skills, with little questioning of the kinds of interactions that unfold in rehearsals. Furthermore, despite clear power differentials, teacher candidates’ opportunities for agency or development of their own rationale for practice in the context of rehearsals has yet to receive sustained attention.

Methods and Data Sources
Primary data sources are transcripts and video from two twenty-minute rehearsals that occurred in the FA’s ESL methods course. Supporting data sources include the FA’s journaling and transcripts of recorded conversations and emails with the second author regarding our use of rehearsals and our practice. Data were coded using the constant comparative method (Corbin & Strauss, 2015) to identify themes related to interactions in rehearsal.

Results and Significance
Findings indicate that the FA allowed rehearsals to unfold without many coaching interruptions. She waited until after rehearsals, first eliciting feedback from other teacher candidates in the course, then building upon that feedback to add her suggestions. In contrast, the limited empirical literature on rehearsal indicates that the majority of interactions between teacher educators and novice teachers involve directive feedback, with the least amount of time spent facilitating discussion (Lampert et al., 2013). These differences in approach to rehearsal, the lack of empirical examples of the pedagogies of rehearsal in action, and the gap in the literature on pedagogies of practice-based teacher education in general (e.g., Authors, 2017) indicate that the different ontological stances (Pinnegar & Hamilton, 2009) that teacher educators enact within practice-based pedagogies such as rehearsal merit further investigation and problematization, particularly if we aim to develop teachers with critical, reform-oriented identities.

Authors