Making It Their Own: Preservice Teachers' Experiences, Beliefs, and Classroom Practices

Abstract

Educational researchers widely recognize the need to better prepare preservice teachers for the challenges they will face in classrooms (Brookhart & Freeman, 1992; Fullan, 1991; Goodlad, 1990) Kagan, 1992). Novice teachers report that their undergraduate education programs do inadequately prepare them to face the demands of teaching in classrooms with increased numbers of children who do not speak English; children with disabilities; children with inadequate family support for learning (Vaughn, Bos, & Schumm, 1997); and students who remain unmotivated to learn, disillusioned with their school progress, and alienated from the dominant school culture (Goodlad, 1984; Kozol, 1991). Many teachers become discouraged and disillusioned with their profession. Their lack of perceived effectiveness, along with other factors, contributes to this frustration. Much research on teacher socialization has led to a pessimistic perspective on the ability of teacher education programs to substantially change classroom practice (Hoy, 1968; Hoy & Rees, 1977; Lortie, 1975;. Pugach (1992) characterized these researchers as being in the functionalist tradition of teacher socialization research, which contends that the individual teacher is acted upon by the powerful, pervasive school culture so that individual teaching philosophies are subsumed into the existing school culture. Beginning teachers, insecure and lacking in confidence, are vulnerable; their first years of teaching are often socialization to the status quo (Pugach, 1992, p. 142). Those adhering to the functionalist perspective contend that the teacher as change agent is an unattainable goal and that socialization is basically a process that sustains conservative educational practice (Pugach, 1992, p. 135). Goodman (1988) questions the functionalist contention that beginning teachers are as a group sculptured into a given predetermined form by external forces (p. 133); he states that the socialization process is individually mediated. Those from the interpretive tradition of teacher socialization give greater weight to individual teacher flexibility and control in classroom interactions and collegial relationships, empowering teachers to exert greater influence on the school culture (Little, 1982; Rosenholtz, 1989). Renzaglia, Hutchins, and Lee (1997) suggest that those novice teachers who have a firmly established core of beliefs and practices (p. 361) are more likely to act as change agents in their classrooms and experience satisfaction in their roles as teachers. Preparing teachers as change agents begins with an understanding of the beliefs that underlie teacher decision making (Pajares, 1992; Richardson, 1996). Beliefs and attitudes are not only reflected in [teacher] decisions and actions, there is evidence that teachers' beliefs and attitudes drive important decisions and classroom practice (Renzaglia et al., 1997, p. 361). A growing number of educational researchers have shifted their focus from instructional strategies and teaching behaviors to the beliefs and perspectives that prompt teachers to use these instructional strategies and exhibit these behaviors (Beijaard & De Vries, 1997; Goodman, 1988; Renzagliaet al., 1997; Richardson, 1996; Schon, 1983; Tatto, 1998; Tillema, 1997). Much has been learned from research on preservice teachers' beliefs (Clark, 1988; Foss & Kleinsasser, 1996; Hollingsworth, 1989; Munby, 1982; Schuck, 1997; Veenman, 1984). They form their beliefs about teaching and learning early and are highly resistant to change (Kagan, 1992; Munby, 1982). These beliefs serve as filters for new information in a way that culturally held beliefs are frequently confirmed rather than confronted (Hollingsworth, 1989; Kagan, 1992). Preservice teachers tend to be relatively passive in their student roles (Goodlad, 1990), and, as insiders (Pajares, 1992), they are reluctant to challenge the status quo. …