Creating Clarity Through Understanding Complexity: Importance of Development as a Critical Component of Educator Preparation

• In Event: Innovative Approaches to Teaching Educational Psychology in Teacher Preparation Programs

Abstract

Purpose
Developmental knowledge offers future educators an explanatory framework for understanding the diverse group of students present in today’s educational space. Using a systems lens, we review the existing research and make the case that teaching educational psychology offers a foundation that speaks to the complexity of the human experience. When engaging in practice informed by developmental theory, educators are better able to contribute to the growth, learning, and well-being of an increasingly diverse student population.

Perspectives
Educator preparation programs have long grappled with how to best prepare future teachers to effectively teach an increasingly diverse student population (Zeichner, 2017). Movements toward creating educational spaces that foster achievement for students from non-dominate and translingual communities have gained attention, calling for reform in White, ableist, gendered curriculum often seen in educational contexts (Souto-Manning & Rabadi-Raol, 2018). Demands for recognition of diverse experiences and backgrounds have become prominent (Howard & Milner, 2014), representing an increasing awareness of diversity and complexity in the human experience (Pugach et al., 2018).
While the profession has recognized that transformation in learning environments is essential, the need for change exists in tandem with a teacher education system tied to accountability demands, state regulations, and measurement (Kretchmar & Zeichner, 2016). While teacher education programs vary greatly (Zeichner, 2017), a large majority place emphasis on curriculum and instruction strategies, at the exclusion of greater emphasis on child and adolescent development (Schonert-Reichl et al., 2015). As teacher education wrestles with ways to best prepare “democratic professionals” (Zeichner, 2020), it is imperative that the field consider the complexity that occurs developmentally within the educational system. The intersectionality present in the classroom space is varied and complex (Pugach et al., 2019). A teacher’s understanding of this complexity is a must for successful teaching and learning to occur (Darling-Hammond et al., 2000).

Method, Data Sources, and Conclusions
This paper builds a case for the importance of developmental and educational psychology training, using a review of relevant research (both theoretical and empirical). Relevant conclusions include:
(1) Discussions of curriculum and instruction “best practice” assume a vertical hierarchy rooted in long-standing, white-privileged systems, which translate into students and teachers of color experiencing a classroom curriculum that is non-inclusive of their lived experiences (Souto-Manning & Rabadi-Raol, 2018).
(2) Focusing on the complexity and equifinality of the intersectionality present in the educational environment allow discussions of curriculum and instruction, centered on strategies within diverse and inclusive environments, to follow.
(3) While several works have highlighted a need for developmental knowledge in early education (i.e., preschool, kindergarten, early elementary), fewer have outlined the value for secondary level educators (i.e., middle school and high school).

Significance
We position educational psychology as a critical component of educator preparation. An education steeped in the understanding of complexity of the human experience facilitates the decentering of dominant norms. The more pre-service teachers (and the instructors who educate them) embrace systemic complexities and critical developmental perspectives, the better they will be able to support students’ achievement, mental health, and overall sense of belonging.

Author

• Lisa Looney, California State University - San Bernardino
  Presenting Author