Utilizing Teacher Candidate Journey Maps for Continuous Improvement in an Educator Preparation Program

• In Event: Harnessing Improvement Science for Equity in Education: Addressing Inequities in Educational Leadership, Teacher Preparation, and Systemic Reform

Abstract

Utilizing journey maps the lived experiences of ninety teacher candidates in a large educator preparation program in California were examined. An improvement science framework (Bryk et al., 2015) was used to inform how we can use what we learn from the experiences of our teacher candidates to continuously improve our program. Findings included areas for improvement resulting in the need to develop change ideas in course design, clinical integration, and wellness support for teacher candidates. We argue that candidate perspectives are critical to developing effective programming that produces highly prepared teachers in positive learning environments. We further argue that it is essential to intentionally approach the defining the problem stage prior to testing out changes to the program.

Authors

• Heather L. Horsley, California State University - Fresno

• Christina Macias, California State University - Fresno