Tensions In Teaching About Teaching

This book captures the excitement – and the difficulties – of self-study of teacher education practices, placing it at the forefront of approaches to practitioner inquiry. It offers insight into the relationship between teaching about teaching and learning about teaching that emerged through the author’s own self-study project. The book illustrates how tensions can act as a means for both analysing practice and articulating the professional knowledge that comprises a pedagogy of teacher education.

This book focuses on the tensions that emerge in teaching the English language arts methods course within teacher education programs. The book features chapters that grapple with the historical legacies of influence on methods/pedagogy as well as contemporary challenges in teaching methods courses alongside field experiences. Multiple perspectives from those involved in teaching methods courses within English language arts teacher education programs are presented as a way to dialogue about current and future challenges. Dialogue is sustained throughout the book, as each chapter includes an adjacent response that prompts readers to ask further questions about the chapter’s content. Content with the chapters in the book focus on describing a “tension” or “dilemma” that the author faced when teaching the middle/secondary ELA methods course or adjacent field experience. Discussion in the chapters’ responses highlights the importance of the field’s history and its present response to the tension featured. This book will be a useful resource to teacher educators who wish to investigate new approaches to dilemmas faced in teaching the methods class to pre-service teachers.

The central theme of this book is the ambiguities and tensions teachers face as they attempt to position themselves in ways that legitimize them as language teachers, and as English speakers. Focusing on three EFL teachers and their schools in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, it documents how ordinary practices of language educators are shaped by their social context, and examines the roles, identities, and ideologies that teachers create in order to navigate and negotiate their specific context. It is unique in bringing together several current theoretical and methodological developments in TESOL and applied linguistics: the performance of language ideologies and identities, critical TESOL pedagogy and research, and ethnographic methods in research on language learning and teaching. Balancing and blending descriptive reporting of the teachers and their contexts with a theoretical discussion which connects their local concerns and practices to broader issues in TESOL in international contexts, it allows readers to appreciate the subtle complexities that give rise to the "tensions and ambiguities" in EFL teachers' professional lives.

Learning to teach is complex. Teacher candidates begin a preservice program with powerful tacit assumptions about how teachers teach based on lengthy apprenticeships of observation over many years as students. Virtually all teacher education programs provide a mixture of coursework and classroom experience. Much has been written about the theory-into-practice approach in teacher education, an approach that assumes teacher candidates who have been provided with instructions about how to teach will be able to recall and apply them in a school setting. In reality, teacher candidates report considerable difficulty enacting theory in practice, to the point that many question the value of coursework. This book takes an in-depth look at five future teachers in one teacher education program, analyzing and interpreting how they and their teacher educators learn from experience during both coursework and practicum experiences. Many assumptions about the complex challenges of teaching teachers are called into question. Is the role of a teacher educator to synthesize research-based best practices for candidates to take to their field placements? Does the preservice practicum experience challenge or reinforce a lifetime of socialized experiences in schools? Must methods courses always be seen by most teacher candidates as little more than sites for collecting resources? Where and how do candidates construct professional knowledge of teaching? The data illustrate clearly that methods courses can be sites for powerful learning that challenges tacit assumptions about how and why we teach.

Covering all grade levels, Tensions of Teaching is a collection of teachers' and principals' thoughts and reflections about their experiences as practitioners and learners. Through their writings, the participating educators learned a great deal about the political nature of teaching, as well as everyday issues that teachers face. They discovered that every action and every decision in a classroom carries with it the potential both to support and to interfere with a student's learning. They observed how their decisions make them vulnerable and fearful. And, they learned how teaching is fraught with tensions. The action research, and the writing which brings it to fruition, allowed them - and all who read this book - to better understand the constraints under which teachers work.

Education is a profession filled with tension. Pressures to help students achieve their potential come from all directions: political, parents, students, teachers, administrators, interpersonal, and intra-personal. The tensions experienced can result in two distinct paths. The first path may take teachers and administrators toward feelings of bewilderment, exhaustion, frustration, and ultimately burnout. The second path can result in rejuvenation. When on this path, tension can serve as a catalyst for change, improved communication, and improved student engagement and achievement. Coping with Tensions: A Catalyst for Transformative Change for Teachers and Administrators explores why some teachers, school leaders, and school organizations walk the path of bewilderment and disillusionment, while others choose the path of engagement.

The results of a seven-year research study identify the challenges new teachers face and how all concerned can help keep new teachers in the profession. Like thousands before them, the seven teacher-authors of this book started their first teaching jobs full of energy and excitement. They were eager to implement the thoughtful practices and ideas they learned in their methods courses in order to make a lasting difference in their students' lives and to make a positive change in the profession. Then reality hit. After a few weeks in the classroom, some of the teachers found that their excitement and confidence were replaced by self-doubt, isolation, and disappointment. Instead of challenging the status quo in their school systems, some of the teachers found themselves slipping toward it as they tried to bring their teaching visions to life. In a climate where nearly half of new teachers leave the profession in the first five years, many early-career teachers are facing the same disillusionment and challenges. That's why these seven teachers got together with a university researcher to study what life is really like for new teachers. The authors recount their experiences from the preservice year through the first six years of teaching. They share moments of joy and success, but they also tell hard stories about obstacles that drive the knowledge, enthusiasm, and energy of new teachers underground and cause many to leave the profession. Their stories will resonate with both new and experienced teachers, offer important advice for job seekers, and provide much-needed insights for university faculty, school administrators, colleagues of new teachers, and district leaders to think about how they can better embrace the energy and innovation that new teachers bring while supporting them in moments of insecurity and vulnerability. New teachers will know they are not alone and that even when they feel the least empowered, they actually do have a voice and can use it to effect change.

Addresses the challenges of meeting national accreditation requirements, including designing assessment instruments and making data-driven decisions. This book explores and shares tensions created as teacher education programs experience changes because of accountability requirements related to the accreditation process.