Foundations in Field: What Undergraduate Teacher Candidates Can Learn From Practicing Educators

• In Event: Becoming Educators: Mentorship and Justice-Oriented Praxis

Abstract

The authors of this paper are undergraduate candidates and faculty in a teacher education program at a regional public university in the Midwest. As part of their junior-level block of methods courses, the future teachers had field placements in secondary classrooms corresponding to their licensure areas (social studies and math). These placements included qualitative data collection with their host teachers (documented observations and interviews). In collaboration with the faculty authors, both of whom teach the single required social foundations course, the teacher candidates conducted a secondary analysis of their data to explore the social, philosophical, and policy implications of what they learned from their cooperating teachers. We learned that, in addition to instructional practice, classroom-based field experiences provide models of teacher identities, beliefs, motivations, and aims that are also an important component of educator preparation.

Authors

• Thaylea Pierce, Purdue University Fort Wayne

• Vivi Clark, Purdue University Fort Wayne

• Donald Joe Ohlinger, Purdue University Fort Wayne

• Isabel Nuñez, Purdue University Fort Wayne