Understanding ESL Preservice Teachers' Metaphorical Epistemology in the Teaching Practicum Context: Insights From Social Realist Theory and Practice Architectures

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: Teaching Content in Context: Knowledge of Learners, Communities, and Learning

Abstract

This study examined twenty ESL preservice teachers’ learning-to-teach experiences amid the teaching practicums from the perspectives of social realist theory and practice architectures in the US. Through iterative discourse analysis and constant-comparative approach, this paper reveals four aspects of the participants’ metaphorical epistemology. First, most of the participants developed the constructivist/situative metaphorical epistemology on ESL teaching by grappling with the emergent properties and practice architectures. Second, the participants’ metaphorical epistemology changed from pre-reflection and surface reflection to pedagogical reflection. Third, the participants modeled the reflective disposition by activating their personal emergent properties and tackling the social-political arrangements. Fourth, the participants’ metaphorical epistemology predominantly focuses on their pedagogical reasoning and negotiation of their multiple professional identities.

Authors

• Gang Zhu, East China Normal University

• Aidong Zhang, Louisiana State University Shreveport