Collaboration for Coherence: Combining Forces to Improve Practice in a Secondary Teacher Education Program

• In Event: Redesigning and Theorizing Teacher Preparation Programs Using a Democratic Approach

Abstract

A secondary program redesign effort was studied by a diverse research group consisting of graduate students, instructors, program administrators, research associates, and a mentor teacher. The group undertook to gather data to (a) determine if program goals were met through the redesign, (b) understand how mentor teachers conceptualize their roles as teacher educators through this reform, and (c) to understand how the research group’s democratic process of planning contributed to program coherence. Findings indicate that program coherence increased due to the program redesign and the democratic collaborative process among diverse stakeholders. Mentor teacher conceptualizations of roles as teacher educators were also impacted by the process of collaboration. The study demonstrates the significance of democratic decision-making models for teacher education programs.

Authors

• Anne Beitlers, University of Washington - Seattle

• Winston S Benjamin, University of Washington

• Jondou Chen, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Tina Y. Gourd, University of Washington

• Anthony Longoria, University of Washington - Seattle

• Morena Newton, University of Washington

• Shane Pisani, University of Washington

• Renee Shank, University of Washington - Seattle