Evolving Dilemmas: Two Teachers’ Role-Identity Development as Social Studies Discussion Facilitators

• In Event: Portraits of Growth: How Novice Social Studies Teachers Develop as Discussion Facilitators

Abstract

Objectives
An extensive literature has captured the complex dilemma-management that constitutes the work of teaching (e.g., Kavanagh et al., 2020; Lampert, 1985). Classroom discussions are especially rife with dilemmas, given their contingent and emergent nature. For novice teachers facilitating discussion, the challenge of deciding when and how to negotiate conflicting goals, respond to students’ contributions, and make choices about one’s role is especially acute. In this paper, two early-career teachers who began their teaching practice online worked alongside researchers to examine how their instructional dilemmas evolved over their first three years teaching.

Method
Two teachers, Maya and Jared, were invited to collaborate on this paper because they were (a) the longest (4 years) and most consistently involved participants (each completed 11 video-stimulated recall interviews) and (b) represented the two different teacher preparation programs in our project. Both teachers were trained in DSMRI analysis and applied the method to their own video stimulated recall interviews (Kaplan & Garner, 2022).

Findings
This proposal presents segments of the teachers’ self-analysis in their own words.
Maya
When I began leading discussions, my goals focused on centering student voices, and my dilemma was that I perceived it as impossible. So, instead, I focused on my action possibilities to use my voice for the goals of encouraging students to talk and connect their ideas to each other. As my self-perception improved, I experimented with removing myself physically to encourage student voice. Now I realize that my voice is still important and I have been deliberating how and when to include my voice in discussion at critical moments. Now my dilemmas focus on negotiating the goals of creating grading systems that promote accountability without stifling authentic discussion.

Jared
Entering teaching, my goal was for students to openly share ideas on complex issues. To pursue these goals, I used action possibilities like four corners activities with scaffolds for students to self-facilitate. However, having students run discussions resulted in challenges when discussing complex and difficult history.
My prevalent dilemmas surrounded the issue of teacher disclosure: deciding whether and how to share my opinions on a topic. As my self-perceptions as a teacher developed and I became more comfortable, my dilemmas changed. Instead of grappling with "Should I have shared my opinion?", I am now deliberating "When could have been the right time to jump in with my opinion?"

Significance
Through the lens of the DSMRI, these self-commentaries indicate that preservice teachers did not understand their challenges to be ones of pedagogical skill or content knowledge. Rather, their dilemmas emerged within their role identity systems as tensions between goals, action possibilities, and ontological beliefs about what was possible. If teacher education were reframed to more closely mirror how teachers experience challenges in facilitation, it may prove fruitful. The findings suggest that teacher learning and development in discussion facilitation can be understood as the gradual emergence of deep personal principles that frame the core dilemmas teachers grapple with as they consider interventions to scaffold student discourse.

Authors

• Abby Reisman, University of Pennsylvania

• Maya Jonsson, The School District of Philadelphia

• Jared Mahoney, The School District of Philadelphia

• Lightning Jay, Binghamton University - SUNY

• Avi Kaplan, Temple University

• Timothy Patterson, Temple University