Democratic Collaboration and Cohesion: Combining Forces to Improve Practicum Practices in a Secondary Teacher Education Program

• In Event: 56.080 - Roundtable Session 23
  In Roundtable Session: 56.080-13 - Theoretical Perspectives in Preservice Teacher Field Experiences

Abstract

A secondary program redesign effort over two years and two cohorts of teacher candidates was studied by a diverse research group consisting of graduate students, instructors, program administrators, research associates, and mentor teachers. The group undertook to gather data to (a) determine if program goals were met through the redesign, (b) 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

• Tina Y. Gourd, University of Washington

• Cornelia Anne Kirking, University of Washington

• Anthony Longoria

• Morena Newton, University of Washington

• Shane Pisani, University of Washington

• Renee Shank, University of Washington - Seattle