Preparing pre-service teachers for the profession: creating spaces for transformative practice

Abstract

Within professional learning communities, the processes of shared reflection and critique, or critical transformative dialogues are considered crucial for the maintenance and improvement of professional practice. This paper focuses on the development of the processes of critical transformative dialogues and their application in the professional development of pre-service teachers. Participants reported a growing understanding of the importance of a continuing critical dialogue, and an appreciation of the value that critical feedback has in developing professional skills. The paper argues for the value of providing spaces for early engagement in the processes of critical transformative dialogue as part of professional preparation. A cumulative model of transformative practice for supporting pre-service teachers’ emerging schema for teaching is proposed.