Three Approaches to Teacher Residencies: A Critical Turn?

• In Event: Critical Turn in Teacher Residencies

Abstract

Purpose: All teacher residencies are not created equal. In response to this assertion, three distinct approaches to teacher residencies, which are mediated through school-university partnerships (SUPs), are outlined in a typology to establish the extent to which equity is foregrounded among teacher residency programs—marking a critical inflection point for how residencies are enacted by practitioners and researchers in the field.

Mode of Inquiry: Drawing on program documents, this chapter utilizes self-study as a methodology to review a SUP for a teacher residency at an HBCU in the southwestern United States to illustrate an equity-centric model.

Findings: Leveraging an equity and third space perspective, three separate approaches to the SUPs are unpacked to establish the outline for this proposal. A novel typology of three distinct approaches to SUPs for teacher residencies is outlined to establish the extent to which equity is foregrounded among teacher residencies: ceremonial, conventional, and communal teacher residency approaches.

Significance: Two chief implications for this contribution to the symposium may signal a critical turning point for teacher preparation programs as it relates to the ways they are implemented and the overall recommitment to equity-centered teacher residencies. First, the Third Space becomes ineffective if the entities (i.e., school and university spaces) do not represent a demonstrated duty to guarantee that care and justice guide their work. Although few recommendations exist in foregrounding equity in teacher residencies, McDonald and Zeichner (2009) argue that within-program efforts in teacher education (e.g., recruitment, social relations, instructions, strategies, and structures) are the typical places driving the conversations around issues of equity and social justice. Although teacher residencies are increasingly becoming prolific due to an injection of state (e.g. TEA, 2023) and federal monies (e.g., Campbell et al., in press; Silva et al., 2014; Wasburn-Moses, 2017), equity is not yet fully actualized within this canon. Over four hundred programs have been characterized as residencies in the United States (Saunders et al., 2024) with a rising number of over 7,000 residents (NCTR, 2020). Despite this growth, the recent pushback on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices in teacher residencies (AACTE, 2025; Hill-Jackson, 2023) provide us with a pressing dilemma: we can decide to either fold to the pressure of illegitimate anti-DEI attacks or continue to find ways to ensure that fairness is centered in teacher residency policies and practices. The three approaches to teacher residencies allow teacher residency practitioners and researchers to clarify our values in the face of such resistance to equity.

Author

• Valerie Hill-Jackson, Texas A&M University