Ethnic Studies Teacher Field Supervision: Realities and Tensions of Ethnic Studies Student Teaching

• In Event: Pedagogies for Ethnic Studies Teacher Education

Abstract

Objective
From the perspectives of three field supervisors of Color (FSoC), this self study seeks to elucidate the multiple competing tensions of teacher education and how FSoC navigate those tensions as they support Student Teachers of Color (SToC). Field supervision plays an important role in supporting ethnic studies teachers in navigating competing perspectives and demands while making concrete decisions about what and how to teach.

Theoretical Framework
Literature on field supervision of student teachers (STs) focuses on activities (Phillips, 2004; Price-Dennis & Colmenares, 2021), feedback (Kolman, 2018) and dialogic moves (Burns & Badiali, 2018 & 2016) enacted by field supervisors (FS) as they observe, supervise, and evaluate STs. In order to engage STs in conversations that allow for reflection, understanding, and development of ES pedagogy, FSs must get to know STs on a personal level, attending to their unique identities, needs, and circumstances (Montecinos et al., 2002). Further, FSs must understand the contexts, relationships, and dilemmas STs face while in their placements so that conversations can address and deepen the STs understandings of the tensions they are facing.

Berry’s (2008) framework explicates the tensions teacher educators must consider in their work: (1) telling & growth, (2) confidence & uncertainty, (3) action & intent, (4) safety & challenge, (5) valuing and reconstructing experiences, and (6) planning & being responsive. While this framework is useful for contextualizing the many dilemmas STs face, little attention is given to the ways that aspects of teachers’ and teacher educators’ identities (race, gender, etc) inform and impact those tensions. Our study builds on this framework to discuss the unique ways that FSoC and ethnic studies SToC experience the student teaching context.

Methods & Data Sources
Over the course of one academic year (2021-2022), three Women of Color offered field supervision to a cohort of 27 SToCs in a large urban public school district. The FSoCs in this study engaged in a process of self-study that also cultivated a critical friendship in which each participant was able to “encourage and solicit respectful questioning and divergent views to obtain alternative perspectives, and they work to help validate the quality and legitimacy of each other’s claims” (Samras & Roberts, 2011, p. 43). By coding and analyzing notes on weekly meetings and multiple journal reflections over time, the research team was able to deeply understand the role of field supervision in making sense of the competing tensions faced by ethnic studies SToCs.

Results
Ethnic studies SToCs and FSoCs grapple with specific tensions related to their commitment to teach ethnic studies in public K-12 schools: (1) Questioning our complicity in the oppressive system and navigating feelings of upholding subtractive (Valenzuela, 1999) practices of the schooling system such as standardized testing, (2) Recovering from questions about whether we “belong” in schools and legitimizing the teaching of ES, and (3) Understanding practices that support our well-being as PoC in schools.

Significance
In the often unsustainable teaching profession, teaching contested courses such as ethnic studies, SToC need specific forms of support to name, make sense of, and navigate the tensions we face.

Authors

• Darlene Lee, University of California - Los Angeles

• Julieta Rico, University of California - Los Angeles

• Keara L. Williams, University of California - Los Angeles