The "Project of Learning to Teach" at New Graduate Schools of Education: A Cross-Case Analysis

• In Event: Teacher Preparation at New Graduate Schools of Education: Findings From a National Study

Abstract

Purpose
Feiman-Nemser (1983, 2001) defined “learning to teach” as what teachers do as well as how they interpret preparation, use knowledge and experience to make decisions, and reflect on assumptions, beliefs, and values. This paper examines how preparation programs across nGSE sites conceptualized and enacted “the project of learning to teach” within the affordances and constraints of new private sector organizations.

Theoretical Frameworks
This paper is guided by frameworks regarding knowledge-practice relationships (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999) and communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998). Additionally, because three of the four sites were designed to prepare teachers for urban schools serving minoritized and diverse populations, this analysis is also informed by a framework for understanding the various, and at times, overlapping layers of “context-specific teacher preparation” (Matkso & Hammerness, 2014) and by the assumption that students’ heritages, cultures, norms, and experiences are essential parts of school contexts.

Data Sources
This paper uses case data from four nGSEs (see “modes of inquiry,” above). In particular, it draws on: observations of courses, learning modules, and mentoring sessions; interviews with instructors, candidates, and graduates; and, collection of public and proprietary handbooks, syllabi, assignments, assessments, and tools.

Methods
This analysis generated assertions about learning to teach at nGSEs, supported by multiple data sources and cross-site triangulation (Stake, 2005). The analysis followed Erickson’s (1986) approach to assertion-development and Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña’s (2014) guidelines for pattern coding and higher-level explanations.

Findings
Cross-case analysis revealed that all four nGSEs shared the assumption that teaching is a learned activity, not an innate talent or a skill picked up on the job. However, sites had differing visions of good teaching, ranging from automatic application of technical behaviors to enacting complex principles of practice (Cochran-Smith, 2014; Philip, 2019). These visions were based on specific, but different, assumptions about the knowledge needed for teaching, the nature and meaning of practice, and the role of theory in practice. Further, all the programs used pedagogies that were parallel to the pedagogies candidates were expected to use in K-12 teaching in order to socialize them into particular communities of teaching practice. But programs had dramatically different ideas about communities, ranging from the idea that good practice is universal, on one hand, to the idea that practice is situated and co-constructed with students in particular contexts, on the other hand. The analysis considers the implications of these differences given that three nGSEs were preparing teachers specifically for urban schools. Finally, despite dramatic differences, all four nGSEs exhibited high degrees of internal program coherence (Hammerness, 2006) based on clear articulations of good teaching supported by overlapping design elements, structures, and infrastructure that tightly linked program parts and mitigated against fragmentation. This finding complexifies the idea that program coherence per se is desirable.

Significance
This paper provides an evidence-based, theoretically-driven analysis of how nGSEs conceptualized and enacted teacher preparation, and how they align program concepts and structures. Given that nGSEs lay claim to territory long reserved for university schools of education, this knowledge is significant.

Author

• Marisa Olivo, Boston College