CURRENT ISSUE - FALL 2011

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Peer Field Placements with Preservice Teachers: Negotiating the Challenges of Professional Collaboration

Wendy Gardiner, National-Louis University
Karen Shipley Robinson, Otterbein College

Abstract
Peer placements, pairing two preservice teachers with a cooperating teacher, have been shown to provide a more supportive and collaborative context for learning to teach than the traditional student-cooperating teacher, single placement model. In some cases, however, tensions existed. This qualitative study seeks to expand the extant research by identifying and analyzing the challenges 24 preservice teachers experienced in their peer placements. While virtually all preservice teachers viewed their peer placements positively, results indicate that all preservice teachers negotiated challenges that pertained to the act or perceived value of collaboration in practice. Specifically, preservice teachers’ prior experiences had not prepared them for in-depth collaboration, and their tendency to view teaching as an autonomous profession that one gains entry into by “sinking or swimming” influenced their perception of the role of collaboration in professional learning. Recommendations are provided to guide the development or refinement of peer placements.

What Does Teaching for Social Justice Mean to Teacher Candidates?

Young Ah Lee, The Ohio State University at Lima

Abstract
To better prepare teacher candidates to teach for social justice, teacher educators need to know students’ understandings of social justice embedded in their personal histories and past and current learning experiences. Using participatory action research, this study examines how 6 early childhood (grades pre-K–3) teacher candidates understood and changed, or did not change their understandings of teaching for social justice. Using qualitative methods, this research aims to understand the complexities of interactions between the participants’ identity and their conceptualization of teaching for social justice within a teacher education program. The results of this study provide early childhood teacher educators with insights and tools for encouraging social justice teaching.

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