Dispositions and Dis/ability: Teacher Educator Perspectives

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: Developing Teacher Identities Through Collaboration

Abstract

Professional teaching dispositions are ubiquitous in teacher education programs despite continued scholarly debate of their meaning and use. This paper investigates the relationship between dispositions and dis/ability in teacher education. It problematizes how dispositions can reflect normative views of teaching and teachers. Interviews with teacher educators illuminate how professional teaching dispositions reflect assumptions and ideologies of dis/ability, how teacher educators engage with disability through the cultivation and assessment of pre-service teachers’ dispositions, and instances where the assessment of dispositions remove teacher candidates from programs based on disability.

Author

• Katie Roquemore, Landmark College