At the Threshold of Understanding: Elucidating Preservice Teachers' Engagement With Diversity Informed by Bronfenbrenner

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Twelve
  In Roundtable Session: Applying Educational Psychology to Teaching and Learning (Table 15)

Abstract

Currently, as the educational context shifts Post-COVID, the need for developing pre-service teachers (PSTs) with novel approaches is paramount. An introductory educational psychology course is a key context for such equipping. Despite the undeniable importance of connecting PSTs with the intersection of the theoretical principles, PSTs struggle to connect their past experiences and theoretical understandings in the teaching and learning process. Informed by Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Theory, this study explored PSTs’ processing of theoretical concepts through interrogating weekly visual and written reflections. The findings suggest that repositioning the macrosystem and engaging the chronosystem informs how PSTs understand the theoretical underpinning of the learning process. Further, diversity becomes a focal threshold concept requiring courageous engagement through a liminal space

Author

• Martha J. Strickland, Pennsylvania State University - Harrisburg
  Presenting Author