Education Commons^™

From Student To Teacher: Renegotiating Professional Identities, Zachary Milford, Anne Corey Reed

Educational Considerations

This case-study examines how first-year educators renegotiated their teacher identities as they transitioned from pre-service teachers (PSTs) to professionals. Both participants graduated from the same Teacher Education Program (TEP) and conducted their student internship in the same school as their first year of teaching. The results of this study have unique implications on first-year teachers working in the location of their student internships, as they reported isolation, internalized infantilization, and inconsistent identities. The author argues for TEPs to intentionally prepare PSTs for navigating this transition, and challenge preconceived notions of the benefits of student teaching and working in the same …

The Impact Of Mentoring And Scholarships On Teacher Candidates, Linda Gray Smith, Victoria N. Seeger, Michael Mcbride, Timothy J. Wall

Educational Considerations

The study examines data from surveys and interviews with teacher candidates and local education mentors at a Midwestern university who were involved in a Grow Your Own program; this article focuses on results for the teacher candidates. Using data based on demographics, financial need, and academic performance, the researchers identified eight educator preparation candidates from under-represented backgrounds. Each teacher candidate was invited to receive an academic scholarship of $1,500 per semester for two terms, fall 2022 and spring 2023, with the understanding each scholarship recipient would be paired with a university mentor and an in-district mentor from one of two …

Strategies For Improving Teachers’ Professional Development In Higher Education Institutions In The Southwest Region Of Cameroon, Sophie Ekume Etomes, Mou Charlotte Nsem

Educational Considerations

The expansion of higher education institutions (HEIs) in Cameroon, and the continuous change in the curriculum to meet national and global needs, calls for a need for continuous professional development of teachers to handle these challenges. This study examined peer coaching and reflective teaching as strategies for improving teachers’ professional development in HEIs in the Southwest region of Cameroon. Questionnaires and an interview guide were used to collect data from 409 teachers and 37 heads of departments respectively. The Spearman’s rho test was used to test the hypotheses while the ordinary least square regression model was used to test the …

Elementary Preservice Mathematics Teachers Fraction Knowledge: An Integrative Review Of Research, Cody J. Perry

Educational Considerations

Elementary preservice teachers struggle with fractions and explaining them despite taking numerous mathematics courses. Therefore, they may have issues when they teach fractions and related concepts. Since fractions underlie many concepts like algebra, improving teachers’ fraction knowledge is imperative. This integrative review of research synthesized findings about teachers’ fractions knowledge to provide potential strategies educator preparation programs (EPPs) can use to improve fraction mastery. The literature shows teachers lacked conceptual knowledge, used incorrect strategies and too few representations, and misunderstood magnitude and manipulatives. However, number lines and teaching conceptually helped improve mastery of fractions. Resolving issues with fraction mastery may …

The Pandemic And Teachers: How Teachers’ Daily Life In The Classroom Has Been Impacted, Bailey Mahoney

Educational Considerations

This study explores how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected educators during the end of the 2019-2020 school year and throughout the 2020-2021 school year. During a time with so much uncertainty, the focus has been on how best to approach the school year for students. Little conversation has happened concerning the impact on teachers. While research on this topic is limited to the short time span of the pandemic so far, teachers have shifted their instructional strategies, assessment strategies, and homework policies to match the needs of students. The following study seeks to highlight these changes and provide a voice …

Systemic Approaches For Professional Development On Diverse Learners In Rural Communities, Elizabeth Thorne Wallington, Adrienne Johnson

Educational Considerations

While rural communities are not monolithic, many have seen recent shifts in demographics from historically homogenous populations to more racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse residents (e.g. Sharp & Lee, 2017; Brenner, 2016). Without clear systems for addressing such changes, reactionary policies to address the accompanying conflict can establish marginalized communities, deficit-based perspectives, and structural inequities (Lee & Sharp, 2017). As an alternative approach, this paper outlines promising practices for systemic approaches to addressing the ongoing professional development needs for teachers in rural communities who are supporting students from increasingly diverse backgrounds. These practices provide the support and professional development that …

Redesigning Field Experiences To Support Rural Schools: A Praxis Reflection, Vicki S. Sherbert

Educational Considerations

The on-going social and political climate, with polarizing stances on everything from issues of social justice to mandates for mask-wearing and vaccination, brings non-normative stressors into the lived experiences of students, families, and educators everywhere. These stressors are often magnified in rural communities and schools. Yet, in spite of these challenges, many schools in rural areas have embraced opportunities for creative collaborations which foster connections and celebrate the unique richness of their communities.

This Praxis Reflection describes one such collaboration between a teacher educator at a midwestern university and a rural junior high/senior high school 300 miles west of the …

Engaging Pre-Service Teachers In Interactive Social Justice-Themed Read-Alouds, Kayln Hoppe

Educational Considerations

This qualitative case study explored how pre-service teachers responded to social justice-themed picture book read-alouds in an undergraduate literacy course. Data were collected from personal observations, semi-structured focus group interviews, and student work, and were analyzed using inductive analysis. Findings indicate how reading multicultural literature aloud plays an important role in post-secondary students’ content understanding and preparation for a career in teaching. This case study may inspire teacher educators to incorporate multicultural read-alouds into higher education coursework.

Over At The College, F. Todd Goodson

Educational Considerations

Today, rural America is complex and layered, and it deserves the attention of those who have spent far too many years flying over it only to occasionally see through the clouds and wonder what those big circles are below dotting the landscape.

The manuscripts in this issue chart several ways a spirit of new dialogue with rural America can begin. Authors discuss the embedded qualities of higher education demonstrates well how it is possible to anchor the work of post-secondary education in contemporary rural locations, and other perspectives on that which is possible if we engage productively with rural communities …

Reimagining An Elementary Teacher Education Preparation Program: Striving For Integrated Teaching, Benjamin Boche, Selina Bartels, Douglas Wassilak

Educational Considerations

Despite elementary teacher education programs preparing preservice teachers in the main content areas of literacy, math, science, and social studies, few elementary school classrooms teach all four content areas on a regular and thorough basis. Therefore, elementary education teacher preparation programs should be redesigned to support an integrated teaching model of all four content areas in order to better prepare preservice teachers (PST) to serve elementary students. The main research question for this study was "How does a collaborative and integrated elementary education program impact PSTs’ knowledge and understanding of an integrated K-6 elementary classroom?" The sample included 12 preservice …

Professional Learning Opportunities For Teacher Candidates, Victoria N. Seeger, Chad Boyles

Educational Considerations

Using a case study model, the research explored how teacher candidates viewed professional learning, its impact on undergraduate preparation for the teaching profession, and what kind of role it was perceived to play by early-career teachers. Research participants responded to questions about how the professional learning impacted their views on preparation for teaching, how experiences influenced discussions with interviewers prior to being hired, and how professional learning prepared them for interacting with colleagues and administrators. The participants’ perceptions were explored through surveys and focus groups.

Teaching Beliefs And Their Relationship To Professional Development In Special Education Teachers, Jennifer Francois

Educational Considerations

Access to high-quality, meaningful professional development (PD) for in-service teachers around inclusive practices is an important element that has the potential to influence change in classroom practice and student outcomes. This is particularly important for children with identified disabilities. Previous research has identified that a teacher’s self-efficacy impacts the adoption of PD and subsequent implementation of new educational strategies. In addition, teacher beliefs about their own teaching ability (i.e., self-efficacy) has been shown to be related to motivation and the willingness to seek out PD experiences. The current study investigates the relationship of PD and teaching self-efficacy for inclusive practices. …

Collaborative Autonomy: Exploring The Professional Freedom Of Three Science Teachers, Michael Ralph, Darian Robbins, Stephen Young, Laurence Woodruff

Educational Considerations

Education reform efforts must support and protect professional autonomy for classroom teachers. When policymakers attempt to make systemic change in ways that reduce the professional autonomy of educators, student learning suffers. Teachers need the freedom to identify their professional goals, seek resources and collaboration opportunities in pursuit of those goals, and act on feedback regarding their progress in meeting those goals. We present three stories from teachers who share a department engaged in collaborative autonomy. These accounts provide guidance for how professional autonomy can be defended by those pursuing systemic change.

Kansans Can: Redesigning Schools, Brad Neuenswander

Educational Considerations

Kansas, like many states that are coming off of an era of accountability under the federal No Child Left Behind requirements, is looking at more meaningful ways to value and measure student success. We have asked ourselves questions such as: are we focusing on the right measures; is our accountability system aligned to our educational priorities and values; or is it the educational system itself that needs to change in order to produce a more meaningful set of outcomes? These are questions that need answers before any educational reform initiatives can be addressed. The Kansas State Department of Education leadership, …

Kansans Can: Redesign Professional Learning And Re-Licensure, Paul Erickson

Educational Considerations

Professional learning is and always has been a core expectation for educators. Educators, whether they are self-directed as intrinsically motivated learners or compliantly fulfilling requirements set by their employing districts and state departments, engage in professional learning throughout their careers. While educators engage in traditional means of professional learning in the form of workshops, conferences, mentoring, and graduate coursework, this study centered on educators’ professional learning efforts that are more informal and more personalized to their specific interests and passions. This professional learning often comes in the nonconventional forms of social media, professional learning networks, peer observations, and professional units …

Making The Case For An English Academy: Reflections On An Ongoing Endeavor, Geoff Bender

Educational Considerations

This article makes a case for the academy as a site for meaningful school-university dialogue in order to strengthen rapport across stakeholders in the teacher education process while generating crucial data for a teacher education program’s continuous improvement. Similar in some ways to its cousins, including the leadership academy and the professional development school, the academy model described here is distinguished from these related structures in its diverging purposes. While invested in bringing new professionals into the field, the English Academy keeps its linked teacher education program abreast of trends in public education that help shape that program’s work in …

The Relationship Between Pre-Service Training And Teaching Self-Efficacy For Inclusive Practices, Jennifer Francois

Educational Considerations

Pre-service programming is instrumental in providing skills to teachers that builds positive teaching self-efficacy. This becomes increasingly important for those teachers who are hired to work in inclusive settings. Directives by the Division for Early Childhood and the Individuals for Disabilities Act have outlined content areas that teachers working in special education settings should have knowledge of and are comfortable in implementing (Division of Early Childhood 2014; United States Department of Education 2017). Many teachers, however, continue to come away from pre-service experiences without these skills (Lewis et al. 1999). Institutions continue to struggle with the integration of course content …

Our Moonshot: Dighton Public Schools, Kelly Arnberger

Educational Considerations

“Through redesign you have the opportunity do whatever you choose to do to make your school reflect the needs and desires of your community. I believe our public-school teachers can do the great things we keep hearing private and charter schools do if we would just let them.” Randy Watson said something to that effect at Dighton in January, 2017. We would now have permission to make our school reflect the true mission, vision, and values of our community without constraint. Sounds great! At least many of us in attendance listening to Dr. Watson that day thought so. We chose …

Author Chris Crutcher: Speaking Out On Teachers’ Role In Aiding Children Of Trauma, Lori Goodson

Educational Considerations

Nationally known young adult author Chris Crutcher shares his thoughts on how teachers can help students who are dealing with trauma in their lives.

Rags To Riches: One Migrant Worker's Journey To Educational Triumph, Sarah E. Broman

Educational Considerations

The effect poverty has on a child’s education is tragic. Without the necessary life-sustaining resources, many of our nation’s children struggle to concentrate on anything other than their immediate dire circumstances. This article tells the story of how one migrant farm worker overcame her struggles living in abject poverty to become a first generation college student and future elementary education teacher thanks to her supportive family and her compassionate, caring educators along the way.

Judgment Doesn't Heal The Hurting, Kara Lasater

Educational Considerations

Judgment interferes with the development of all relationships. For students and families who have experienced trauma, judgment can be particularly devastating as it may further damage the survivor’s already compromised sense of safety, trust, and belonging. As educators, we must develop non-judgmental attitudes toward students and families, yet sometimes our lack of self-awareness and problematic ideological positions lead us to judge. In this essay, I describe my personal journey with families and the ideological shift I experienced as I became more self-aware and attentive to others’ stories. It is my hope that my experiences will challenge other educators to engage …

Lessons Learned From The British: The Liverpool Project, Claudia J. Mcvicker

Educational Considerations

Universities around the country are beginning to feel the need to add a global dimension to their programs. One way to prepare teachers to address the challenges associated with teaching children in a global age is through carefully structured, international study abroad where the candidates are immersed in another culture and school system. This article seeks to demonstrate how a successful Teacher Education study abroad program can develop and transform pre-service candidates’ global perspective. This qualitative study was informed by the use of journal writing to prompts by ninety-six teacher education students over three different summers to learn about the …

Here Is The Place To Begin Your Explorations: An Autoethnographical Examination Into Student Teaching Abroad, Amanda D. Lickteig, Josie Rozell, Ashley Peterson

Educational Considerations

Participation in study abroad programs has increased steadily since the late 1980s and has tripled in the past two decades. Benefits of these experiences include positive academic performance, improved mental health, and better professional development—but for pre-service teachers who study abroad, these positive benefits can also transfer into culturally relevant pedagogy. As the need for teacher preparation programs to equip their students with global competence grows, cultivating undergraduates’ abilities to appreciate diverse perspectives not only empowers them to thrive in an interconnected world but also enables them to meet the academic and social needs of their culturally diverse students. In …

Kristin Ziemke: Digital Learning Can Turn Students Into Agents Of Change Around The Globe, Lotta Larson, Lori Goodson

Educational Considerations

This Educational Considerationsissue, with its theme of “Teaching and Learning in a Global Community,” highlights education in an ever increasingly connected world—and how we get our students prepared to not only survive, but thrive in such an expanding environment. As we considered this topic, one of the individuals who came to mind almost instantly was Kristin Ziemke (https://www.kristinziemke.com/)—an educator who has done so much to create bridges in this global community and helped lead us all on our digital journey.

Teaching For Global Citizenship With Young Adult Literature In The Social Studies, Casey Holmes

Educational Considerations

The rapid increase in communicative and technological integration through the late 1990s and early 2000s has reanimated the discussion surrounding the need to prepare young people to be global citizens. While the exact definition of global citizenship is difficult to pinpoint, the global community has identified several competencies that comprise responsible global citizenship. Although this idea has not yet saturated the American educational system, it will now be tested on an international scale when the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation conducts the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) this year. When the 2018 results are published in 2019, “global competence” will …

"A Constant State Of Flex And Change": A Teacher Candidate's Perceptions Of And Experiences With Military-Connected Learners, Vicki S. Sherbert

Educational Considerations

All teacher candidates enter the classroom with initial perceptions and assumptions regarding their students’ diverse lived experiences and the role those experiences may play in the classroom (Wenger & Dinsmore, 2005). For teacher candidates with no military background, concerns may extend beyond those typical of teacher candidates in other internship placements to include worries about understanding and meeting the unique needs of military-connected learners. This qualitative case study involved three teacher candidates who were about to begin their student teaching internships working in elementary classrooms in schools on a military post. This article will offer an in-depth description of one …

Changing Teacher Education: Challenging Assumptions And Moving Forward, Todd Goodson

Educational Considerations

This issue marks the first under the direction of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Kansas State University. This issue is devoted to the theme Changing Teacher Education, and our contributing authors explore various aspects of change and their implications for both teacher education as well as K-12 education. The issue also includes a new feature, Key Conversations, devoted to an interview with a leading figure whose work illuminates the theme of the issue.

A Year On The Rock: A Methods Professor Returns To The Classroom, Bradley J. Burenheide

Educational Considerations

As a Methods Professor in a Research I institution in the Midwest and the largest education program in its respective state, I faced a crisis after ten years in higher education. The concern I faced was whether or not the repertoire I taught my students was appropriate and meaningful in their training. While staying abreast of current research and strategies, I wanted to ensure that my techniques were still applicable to working with students after ten years of less connection with classrooms. This article discusses the framework employed in the research experience as well as the big lessons that were …

Karen Symms Gallagher: Caep Chair Shares Insight Into Teacher Preparation, Accreditation, Lori Goodson

Educational Considerations

At the heart of teacher preparation, changes are taking place—a push for continued high standards and an effort to determine the impact various programs are having on P-12 student learning. Leading the way is the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), which emerged in 2010 from education leaders’ desire for a next generation of accreditation model to improve the preparation of teachers for America’s schools.

In this challenging environment, Karen Symms Gallagher, the Emery Stoops and Joyce King Stoops Dean of the University of Southern California (USC) Rossier School of Education shares her insight as the recently selected …