Alignments & Tensions: Elementary PSTs as Learners and Teachers of Difficult History Pedagogy

Structured Abstract Purpose – To help teacher educators understand how to more fully prepare pre-service teachers (PSTs) for meaningful and effective instruction with multimodal texts and the underlying technologies. Design – This mixed methods investigation employed designed-based research in that as the authors observed and gathered data on PSTs’ outcomes within the context of a literacy methods course, the authors also engaged in an iterative process of collaborative design to develop a sustainable instructional model across three academic semesters with three cohorts of PSTs. The authors analyzed pre- and post-PST surveys measuring their knowledge of, disposition toward, and self-efficacy with technology and technology in teaching as well their intent to use technology in their future teaching. The authors also coded and analyzed PST lesson plans completed across each semester for instances of meaningful integration of multimodal texts and the underlying technology, and sound literacy instruction. Finally, the authors closely examined differences in how the course was shaped and “reshaped” across all three iterations and noted any differences in PST outcomes related to these shifts. Findings – Overall findings suggest that enrollment in the literacy methods course improved both PSTs’ self-efficacy and knowledge about teaching with technology while also supporting PSTs’ ability to develop sound literacy instructional plans. Moreover, strategic positioning of multimodal texts and technology, in which integration is seamless, can help PSTs meaningfully and effectively weave multimodal text sets into their literacy lesson plans. Practical Implications – This chapter contributes to the literature on integrating multimodal texts and the underlying technologies into PST programs by providing explicit, research-based recommendations for how teacher educators can meaningfully and seamlessly infuse multimodal text sets into core curricula and instructional practices.

Teacher decision-making is a key component in teaching difficult history. In this instrumental case study, we examined how pre-service teachers (PSTs) encounter difficult history at a local historic site. The findings showed PSTs gained important difficult history content knowledge, yet the learning centered white racial epiphanies instead of the experiences of oppressed people highlighted in the local difficult histories we encountered. These findings prompted us to interrogate our teacher decision-making in planning and teaching local difficult histories. In this article, we extend the difficult history dialogue by examining how teacher decision-making allows or disrupts the centering of whiteness in difficult history pedagogy.

This article investigates the function of Metalinguistic Awareness (MLA) in preparing preservice teachers (PSTs) to instruct students from diverse linguistic backgrounds. It examines the level of MLA among PSTs, their opportunities for learning and educating learners from diverse backgrounds, and their acquisition of MLA knowledge and teaching skills. The literature review highlights the positive effects of MLA on language instruction and learning, including its advantages in analyzing language properties, enhancing proficiency, facilitating language acquisition, and enhancing cognitive development and comprehension skills in bilingual students. However, the review reveals a dearth of MLA in PSTs and highlights the need to improve teacher education programs to better support students from diverse linguistic backgrounds. The study proposes the incorporation of service-learning and multicultural education programs in order to enhance the preparation of PSTs, emphasizing the significance of intercultural reflection and accommodating English language learners. It highlights the significance of MLA in the teaching and learning process as well as the consequences of inadequate training for PSTs. Future research should concentrate on a comprehensive examination of MLA and its implementation in preservice teacher education. In conclusion, this study highlights the significance of MLA in multilingual learning and the need to improve PSTs' understanding of linguistic diversity. By investigating MLA among PSTs at a private university in Pakistan, this study aims to contribute to the improvement of teacher education programs and ensure that PSTs possess the necessary knowledge and skills to effectively support diverse learners.

Video is a valuable technology used for teaching and learning and specifically, video plays a significant part in effectively preparing pre-service teachers (PSTs) for the profession. Video is now being used as a form of PST assessment, which raises concern as to whether PSTs are being properly supported in this process. Therefore, this chapter turns to years of research on video use in teacher education to 1.) Identify ways that video has effectively been utilized in teacher education 2.) Understand the most operative aspects of video with respect to both the developer and the observer 3.) Explain the concern surrounding video as a means for assessment in teacher education and 4.) Suggest ways to support PSTs in recording and creating their own video segments of teaching. In doing so, this chapter aims to contribute to improving teacher education programs in terms of video-based assessment.

Video is a valuable technology used for teaching and learning and specifically, video plays a significant part in effectively preparing pre-service teachers (PSTs) for the profession. Video is now being used as a form of PST assessment, which raises concern as to whether PSTs are being properly supported in this process. Therefore, this chapter turns to years of research on video use in teacher education to 1.) Identify ways that video has effectively been utilized in teacher education 2.) Understand the most operative aspects of video with respect to both the developer and the observer 3.) Explain the concern surrounding video as a means for assessment in teacher education and 4.) Suggest ways to support PSTs in recording and creating their own video segments of teaching. In doing so, this chapter aims to contribute to improving teacher education programs in terms of video-based assessment.

The redesign of Indonesian teacher education is moving forward at a rapid pace and Indonesian teacher educators are now in a position to augment the top down reform efforts of the national government with redesign efforts from the ground up. Redesigning the supervision of student teachers by addressing local problems with local solutions is one way to do this. This article shares the redesign efforts of three teams of faculty working at universities in the United States and explains how these efforts might be adapted to the Indonesian context. Since local expertise is essential in redesign efforts, it is important that Indonesian teacher educators work together to create a mechanism for the redesign process. The redesign of Indonesian teacher education is moving forward at a rapid pace as unprecedented changes occur at both the national and regional levels. The size of redesign is massive because of the large population, the size and nature of the geographic area, the diversity of land and people, and the number of private and public schools and universities. There are a number of resources available to undertake such a large scope of work. Teacher educators who earned Ph.D.s at home and abroad bring a range of expertise to the challenge and a network of quality private and public universities exist. These institutions have prepared quality elementary school teachers in the past but under new government mandates now have additional years to prepare teachers with the hope of enhanced preparation and teacher quality. Despite reforms mandated from the highest levels of government, some familiar challenges confront teacher educators at the local level. Salaries for both teachers and faculty are low and resources are stretched thin because faculty members’ teaching and service loads are heavy. The nature of the partnership between universities and schools poses some challenges. Additionally, while there is international support for faculty preparation and other forms of partnership not everything that works in other countries will work in the same way in Indonesia because of the much larger scale of reform. Given this unique blend of large-scale reform, limited resources, and limitations on the degree to which innovations in other settings can be transferred to Indonesia, Indonesian teacher educators need to consider their role in the redesign process. While governments design reform from the top down, teacher educators need to consider how to design change from the ground up. To undertake this work it will be helpful for Indonesian teacher educators to redesign teacher education by piloting alternatives to traditional supervision. Teacher educators will want to consider the role of quality supervision in the preparation of preservice teachers and will need to consider the importance of structure and culture in the redesign process. Key words: student teacher, preservice teacher, cooperating teacher, university supervisor

Globalisation and human mobility have contributed to increased student diversity in Australian schools and globally. Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmesare under pressure to prepare pre-service teachers (PST) who can respond to the educational and cultural needs of diverse student cohorts. International study tours and service-learning programs are conceived as means for developing interculturally competent “classroom-ready” teachers. This paper reports on a New Colombo Plan water safety/swimming programmedesigned and delivered by pre-service teachers in a rural Fijian community. Findings indicate that immersion as “other” was important for building empathy and appreciation of the lived realties of linguistically and culturally diverse Indigenous Fijian and Indo-Fijian children. Additionally, findings reveal various ways by which PST enacted cultural competence in teaching the water safety/swimming program. Where international service learning is not always be an option, we argue for multiple opportunities for PST to work with children within diverse communities and cultural life-worlds. At stake is the potential of ITE programs to enable the development of pedagogical practices for meeting the cultural and educational needs of all children We believe these calls have relevance for ITE educators and their programs in Australia and the broader Asia-Indo-Pacific region.

Specialized science courses (SSCs) integrate content knowledge (CK) with pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and prepare pre-service teachers (PSTs) for reform-oriented teaching. Studies of individual SSCs report positive short-term outcomes, including an increase in self-efficacy and CK. However, few studies explore the longer-term impact of SSCs on classroom teaching. We carried out an exploratory case study of three PSTs from a Norwegian teacher education program that included SSCs. In the context of their field practicum, we compared PSTs’ teaching of topics taught in SSCs (aligned lessons) with topics not taught in SSCs (unaligned lessons). Data collection consisted of field observations of one aligned and one unaligned lesson as well as stimulated recall interviews based on video recordings. In our analyses, we compared PSTs use of instructional strategies in aligned and unaligned lessons and how their knowledge for teaching informed these instructional decisions. We found that SSCs supported PSTs in using more topic-specific instructional strategies when teaching aligned lessons. In the aligned lessons, their teaching was better informed by knowledge of students’ understandings in science. We also examined PSTs’ perceptions of how they drew upon SSCs in their classroom teaching. They reported that SSCs had a major impact on their CK, PCK and self-efficacy for science teaching. Through this study, we provide unique insights into how PSTs draw on SSCs in their classroom teaching. We include implications for further research and the design of SSCs.

Over the past decade, scholars from a variety of epistemological and theoretical backgrounds have begun to engage more deeply with history as a form of difficult knowledge. It is difficult to comprehend and can be traumatic for different groups for different reasons. History as a school subject has largely been used as a tool of hegemony by presenting nationalistic dominant narratives that can marginalise and oppress students from minoritized populations. This academic work has been primarily theoretical, but small case studies of empirical analysis of how teachers and students engage with history as difficult knowledge have emerged to inform practice. This article draws from this body of work – grounded in theories of memory and identity, critical socio-cultural approaches, and psychoanalytic and trauma-informed analysis – to explore key considerations for informing teaching and learning difficult histories. These include the relationship between teacher moral commitments and engagement with or resistance to difficult histories; the role of emotion and unsettling nature of difficult knowledge, and making assumptions about what representations of historic social trauma are or are not traumatising for young people. These considerations have implications for teaching and teacher education.

The decades-long and contentious debate over how students are taught to read centers around the role that phonics and alphabetic code-related skills have in reading instruction. Some claim that these skills are not prioritized in most elementary classrooms because teacher education programs do not adequately prepare preservice teachers (PSTs) to teach children how to read. Although scholars do not yet agree on the knowledge and skills needed to effectively teach children to read, the current body of research around teacher education of phonics instruction is minimal and overrepresents PSTs’ acquisition of technical knowledge. As such, in this study we drew on theories of practice-based teaching practices to employ a series of three instructor-created assessments to better understand the connection between the technical and pedagogical knowledge required to teach phonics and code-related skills. Findings indicate that assessments of technical knowledge alone did not accurately illuminate PSTs’ misunderstandings. Further, results show that PSTs who were successful on technical measurements of phonics instruction were not always successful on the pedagogical assessments.

To prepare preservice teachers (PSTs) to work with diverse populations of PreK-12 students, teacher educators are incorporating a variety of field-based experiences into teacher preparation. Service-learning courses can provide PSTs with additional field experiences beyond formal student teaching. This study is concerned with the experiences of a group of undergraduate PSTs as they tutor in an alternative school as part of a service-learning course. To make sense of their experiences at the alternative school, these PSTs compared their own PreK-12 experiences and those of the students they tutored. In this study, the students at the alternative school served as the most influential contributors to PSTs’ developing conceptions of teaching and of schools—a finding that has implications for teacher preparation.

The study examined how teacher educators are appropriating technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) and substitution, augmentation, modification, redefinition (SAMR) frameworks in their pre-service teacher preparation programmes. To ensure rigor, quality, and preparedness of pre-service teachers, there is a need to articulate expectations around effective use of these frameworks together with contemporary teaching and learning theories at the pre-service teacher preparation level. One-on-one in-depth interviews and participant observations were conducted with eight (8) teacher educators. The findings revealed that teacher educators are appropriating technology in ways harmonious with their prevalent traditional teacher-centred teaching strategies at enhancement levels. The researchers recommend the adoption of technology integration frameworks and teaching and learning theory at policy making levels in pre-service teacher training institutions.

Teacher education

Research focuses on the need to prepare teachers effectively to serve the diverse population of students in public schools and particularly schools serving economically disenfranchised communities and communities of color (Cochran-Smith, 2003; Darling-Hammond, 2003; Milner, 2003; Oakes, Franke, Quartz, & Rogers, 2002). The articles in this special issue discuss myriad perspectives regarding the politics of preparing teachers to fill this great need in our society today. In this article, we extend the discussion to the classroom door; that is, we ask this of ourselves and our colleagues: Regardless of the politics of how, where, and under what conditions--those we choose and those that are imposed on us--are we effectively training teachers to in today's schools, particularly those located in the most difficult of social, political, and economic realities of urban life? During the past 10 years, a number of issues pertaining to teacher educators' reflections on their pedagogies and practices have appeared in teacher education literature. This article discusses some of the dilemmas teacher educators face pertaining to addressing racial, socioeconomic, and cultural differences between teachers and students in our preparation of preservice teachers. These issues have enormous implications for our endeavors to effectively prepare teachers to in urban schools where unquestionably, the need is greatest for teachers who are well trained and confident in their ability to effectively nurture the academic well-being of their students. Given the diverse population of students in today's public schools and the population of students entering teacher education programs, how are we, as teacher educators, addressing in our university classrooms this impact of compounded differences in the K-12 classroom? For the new teacher, these differences are usually manifested in their struggle with classroom management. Their struggle begs a related question for us: How do we, as teacher educators, address the issue of classroom management, particularly as the issue enters our classrooms through the mouths of teachers describing the behaviors of students who are from different races and class backgrounds than themselves? Lastly, how do we, as teacher educators, convince our preservice teachers that the academic excellence of these students is possible if the preservice teachers have neither witnessed nor been provided with any evidence of such an occurrence within the populations of students they serve in the urban school context? In other words, as we establish the harsh reality of disproportionate failure in urban schools, how do we simultaneously convey the possibility of improving academic achievement in these contexts? Can we, as teacher educators, convince our students of this possibility if we have never witnessed it ourselves? How do we cultivate a pedagogy of achievement pertaining to low-income and minority students in ourselves and then teach it to our students in the process of preparing them to be effective teachers for these students? These issues will be discussed in broad strokes to provoke further dialogue in light of the politics of teacher education highlighted throughout this special issue. We begin by laying out the social, political, economic and cultural contexts of urban inner-city living and schooling--terrains that are often unfamiliar to the majority of teachers admitted into our teacher education programs and yet teachers whom we are required to prepare to in these settings. More important, yet often not addressed, is the fact that these terrains are often unfamiliar to many teacher educators as well. Ultimately, we conclude with the question, What does it mean to effectively prepare teachers to in schools and contexts with which we as teacher educators are also unfamiliar? We conclude with suggestions of ways to interrogate our own pedagogies and practices so that we may commence on the journey of knowing, learning, and teaching alongside our students. …

Online and blended learning (OBL) brings unique advantages to K-12 teachers and students. Thus, it is essential to prepare preservice teachers (PSTs) for designing effective K-12 OBL lessons in educator preparation programs (EPPs) so they can utilize OBL’s distinctive characteristics to benefit their students immediately when they have their own classrooms. The purpose of this research is to introduce the design and implementation of this topic, K-12 OBL, into the stand-alone edtech course for middle grades PSTs. This study investigates PSTs’ self-reported beliefs, technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) development, and lesson design scores. Results demonstrated that PSTs developed positive beliefs and some TPACK domains. The majority of PSTs designed blended lessons and demonstrated mastery in instructional materials, learning activities, and learner interactions, but needed to improve learning objectives, assessment and measurement, and accessibility and usability. PSTs developed positive beliefs and TPACK domains similarly despite the course modalities. Nevertheless, PSTs enrolled in the blended section had higher lesson design scores compared to their peers in the online section. Challenges, such as lack of time, depth, and content-specific knowledge, exist that prevent some preservice teachers from designing more effective lessons. The researcher argues that a technology infusion method should be used to prepare PSTs for OBL in EPPs. Practical strategies for integrating new topics into the edtech course are shared. Directions for future research on the effectiveness, challenges, and productive possibilities of coaching preservice teachers to design effective K-12 OBL lessons are also discussed.