A Teacher Educator Wannabe: Troubling My Disqualification to Teach Teachers

• In Event: Our Experience Matters: Valuing the Experiences of Transnational Doctoral Students as Teacher Educators in the United States

Abstract

It was a gloomy day in March 2019 when I first came to campus to meet with my now advisor to discuss the prospects of my doctoral application. The conversation went well until I asked about funding and employment opportunities. Although I knew before coming to campus that I was (and am still not) qualified to teach in my department due to my lack of K-12 teaching experience in the U.S., it was hard to come to terms with the reality that I would not be able to officially put myself in a teacher educator’s shoes despite being enrolled in a teacher education doctoral program.

This autobiographical self-study (Samaras et al., 2004) relies on my personal history makes a case for valuing the experiences of transnational teacher educators. By sharing my narratives as a primary school teacher in Vietnam, a Vietnamese instructor in Hawaii, and a teaching assistant in a methods course, I highlight how experiences outside K-12 U.S schools should be valued more in U.S. teacher education. Ultimately, I offer three reasons why experience in K-12 schools should not be the sole determinant that disqualifies transnational doctoral students to work as teacher educators. First, teacher education should be a site of inquiry in which both teacher educators and prospective teachers are encouraged to grapple with its complexities and everchanging nature (Loughran, 2007). Second, the absence of the standard experience allows for the possible reimagination and reinvention of practices in teacher education. Finally, “schoolteacher” is one of many sub-identities that a teacher educator might associate with (Swennen et al., 2010). Accordingly, other experiences such as teaching in higher education but not necessarily in teacher education classes or working as a teaching assistant or a junior researcher in teacher education should also be valued appropriately because they jointly contribute to developing a teacher educator identity.

In my situation, despite the lack of a teaching experience in K-12 US schools, my self-study reveals that have found ways to make the most use of my circumstances including reflecting on my teaching experience in Vietnam, exploring the institutional structures through my work as a graduate assistant, and actively seeking out opportunities to work with preservice teachers. Such experiences jointly shaped my views of teacher education as a site for relationship building, collective inquiry, and learning and unlearning.

Although I still see myself as an outsider who wrestles day in and day out to make sense of cultural experiences, ways of knowing, doing and talking; a part of me has been forced to acculturate to the U.S, while remaining Vietnamese and a non-resident alien according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ categorization. While my immigration status only reflects my legal identity in the U.S, it is also a constant reminder of my transnationality. The transnational identity and a sense of alienness add another layer of complexity in shaping and reshaping intertwined personal and professional identities. Still, I never doubt my determination to become the best version of a teacher educator.

Author

• Thi Nhu Quynh Dang, Indiana University
  Presenting Author