"We Want to Bring Them Into What We Love": Exploring Desire in Teacher Education

• In Event: 30.080 - Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: 30.080-14 - Researching Empathy and Relations in an Era of Neoliberalism

Abstract

Much of the discussion on teacher preparation is focused on the development of practices and dispositions. Less discussed is how preparation may develop particular desires for teaching. Eros, or passionate desire, is an inherent and integral part of teaching that is often overlooked. This study employs a liturgical framing of desire to qualitatively examine the presence of desire in the activity of two alternative teacher preparation programs. The analysis reveals how instructors establish orienting narratives through the learning experiences that may be interpreted as conveying to preservice teachers desired ways of being and reasons for teaching. Furthermore, differences of desire between the two programs highlight an unacknowledged difficulty with establishing a consensus in teacher education.

Author

• Ian Renga, Western State Colorado University