"That's What the Jobs Are": Centering Precarity in Teacher Education

• In Event: 66.087 - MTCC Roundtable Session 30
  In Roundtable Session: 66.087-13 - It Is What It Is: On Defining the Teacher Situation

Abstract

Drawing on a survey of international studies highlighting the challenges faced by novice teachers and data from a local case study of early-year teachers in Toronto, Canada, we explore relationships between precarious employment, teacher education, and teaching practice. Building on Butler (2004; 2011), Armano & Murgia (2013), and Tsianos & Papadopoulos (2006), alongside what Cochran-Smith & Lytle (2009) term “an inquiry stance,” we explore precarity as a challenge for the static structures of initial teacher education programs (Vosko, Zukewich, and Cranford, 2003; Biesta 2014). We argue that by centring precarity in teacher education programs, teacher educators can unsettle the presumptions of teaching practice and better respond to the specific challenges of early-year teachers across international contexts.

Authors

• Ty Walkland, University of Toronto

• Jason Brennan, University of Toronto