Toward “New Suns”: Exploring the Intersections of Synchronous-Service and Grow Your Own Teacher Preparation

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Friday 7:45 am
  In Poster Session: Teacher Pipelines, Recruitment, and Pathways

Abstract

Amid teacher shortages, preparation models that promise innovation like “Grow Your Own” are increasingly paired with “synchronous-service” designs that place beginners immediately in practice. This qualitative, longitudinal study examines the experiences of bilingual special educators who completed one such model as “community insiders”—individuals who grew up in the communities in which they were now working. We draw on a critical, sociocultural policy framework and community cultural wealth to consider how the intersection of these models created new possibilities while also repackaging familiar harms. Guided by Octavia Butler’s call to look for “new suns,” our findings call for preparation designs that move beyond urgency and treat teacher learning as collective, identity-affirming work toward more just educational futures.

Authors

• Devon Hedrick-Shaw, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Acelynn C. Perkins, University of Colorado - Boulder