"You Expect Me to Succeed in That School?" Critical Incidents That Challenge Field Experiences

• In Event: Situating Relational Care and Criticality in Clinically Based Teacher Education

Abstract

This proposal explores ways that field placements, taken for granted elements of teacher education, can exacerbate the marginalization of teacher candidates of color. Using practitioner inquiry perspectives and a research method that proposes the use of critical incidents as counterstories, the study highlights times when teacher education students were positioned as problems due to existing biases and structural racism. The presentation examines the ways that teacher education programs actively ignore the potential harm to our students when we place them with cooperating teachers that can be ignorant, hostile or abusive. Teacher educators need to reimagine policies and processes in order to support relationship building and realize the power of a field placement in the process of learning to teach.

Author

• Anne Burns Thomas, SUNY - College at Cortland