“Safe to practice and ready to learn”: Toward pedagogically response-able teacher education

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 7:45 am - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Educational Ethics

Abstract

This paper phenomenologically describes the experiences of three novice teachers entering the profession. We analyze these experiences through the pragmatist lens of “pedagogical response-ability” (Stengel, 2023; 2001; 1999) and consider how the teachers—who thrived in their teacher education programs—struggled to meet the demands they faced in their secondary classrooms. In light of this analysis, we trouble the familiar goal of teacher education, which we position as the acquisition of adequate knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to help students learn. We conclude by considering how the phrase “safe to practice and ready to learn” might serve as a fruitful and reasonable objective for teacher education.

Authors

• Kyle Kopsick, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Barbara S. Stengel, Vanderbilt University