Pas de deux: The complicated relationship between cooperating teachers and pre-service teachers
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26443/mje/rsem.v58i3.10136Keywords:
Teacher identity, teacher education, pre-service teachers, practicum, cooperating teachers, mentorshipAbstract
The practicum experience is a crucial moment of learning for a pre-service teacher (PST). At the heart of the experience is the relationship PSTs have with their cooperating teachers (CTs). To examine how this relationship was negotiated during the practicum, this article applied Cortazzi’s analysis of narrative approach to stories told by 13 PSTs, stories that comprised part of a larger mixed-method study. Findings from analysis of the more than 200 narratives told by the 13 PSTs disclosed the several ways in which PSTs experienced support from their CTs, including planned introductions of the PST to the classroom students, the CT’s explicit support of PST decisions, and a negotiated withdrawal of the CT’s presence.
References
Agheshteh, H., & Mehrpur, S. (2021). Teacher autonomy and supervisor authority: Power dynamics in language teacher supervision in Iran. Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research, 9(1), 87–106. https://doi.org/10.30466/ijltr.2021.120977
Atay, D. (2007). Beginning teacher efficacy and the practicum in an EFL context. Teacher Development, 11(2), 203–219. https://doi.org/10.1080/13664530701414720
Badia, A., & Clarke, A. (2021). The practicum-mentor identity in the teacher education context. Teaching Education, 33(4), 355–371. https://doi.org/10.1080/10476210.2021.1920910
Beauchamp, C., & Thomas, L. (2009). Understanding teacher identity: An overview of issues in the literature and implications for teacher education. Cambridge Journal of Education, 39(2), 175–189. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057640902902252
Benson, P. (2010). Teacher education and teacher autonomy: Creating spaces for experimentation in secondary school English language teaching. Language Teaching Research, 14(3), 259–275. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168810365236
Britzman, D. P. (2012). Practice makes practice: A critical study of learning to teach. SUNY Press.
Capizzi, A. M., Wehby, J. H., & Sandmel, K. N. (2010). Enhancing mentoring of teacher candidates through consultative feedback and self-evaluation of instructional delivery. Teacher Education and Special Education, 33(3), 191–212. https://doi.org/10.1177/0888406409360012
Clarke, A., Triggs, V., & Nielsen, W. (2014). Cooperating teacher participation in teacher education: A review of the literature. Review of Educational Research, 84(2), 163–202. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654313499618
Coldron, J., & Smith, R. (1999). Active location in teachers' construction of their professional identities. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 31(6), 711–726. https://doi.org/10.1080/002202799182954
Conway, P. F. (2001). Anticipatory reflection while learning to teach: From a temporally truncated to a temporally distributed model of reflection in teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 17(1), 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0742-051X(00)00040-8
Cortazzi, M. (1993). Narrative analysis. The Falmer Press.
Creswell, J. W. (2008). Narrative research designs. In J. W. Creswell (Ed.), Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 511–550). Pearson Education Inc.
Darling-Hammond, L. (2012). Powerful teacher education: Lessons from exemplary programs. John Wiley & Sons.
Darling-Hammond, L. (2014) Strengthening clinical preparation: The holy grail of teacher education. Peabody Journal of Education, 89(4), 547–561, https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2014.939009
Fives, H., Hamman, D., & Olivarez, A. (2007). Does burnout begin with student-teaching? Analyzing efficacy, burnout, and support during the student-teaching semester. Teaching and Teacher Education, 23(6), 916–934. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2006.03.013
Gee, J. P. (2000). Chapter 3: Identity as an analytic lens for research in education. Review of Research in Education, 25(1), 99–125. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X025001099
Hong, J. Y. (2010). Pre-service and beginning teachers’ professional identity and its relation to dropping out of the profession. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(8), 1530–1543. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2010.06.003
Ingersoll, R. M., & Strong, M. (2011). The impact of induction and mentoring programs for beginning teachers: A critical review of the research. Review of Educational Research, 81(2), 201–233. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654311403323
Labaree, D. F. (2000). On the nature of teaching and teacher education: Difficult practices that look easy. Journal of Teacher Education, 51(3), 228–233. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487100051003011
Labov, W. (1972). Language in the inner city: Studies in the Black English vernacular. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Little, D. (1995). Learning as dialogue: The dependence of learner autonomy on teacher autonomy. System, 23(2), 175–181. https://doi.org/10.1016/0346-251X(95)00006-6
Mena, J., García, M., Clarke, A., & Barkatsas, A. (2016). An analysis of three different approaches to student teacher mentoring and their impact on knowledge generation in practicum settings. European Journal of Teacher Education, 39(1), 53–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2015.1011269
Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Pas de deux. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved April 11, 2024, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pas%20de%20deux
Morgan, D. L. (1997). Focus groups as qualitative research. SAGE Publications.
Pennington, M. C., & Richards, J. C. (2016). Teacher identity in language teaching: Integrating personal, contextual, and professional factors. RELC Journal, 47(1), 5–23. https://doi.org/10.1177/00336882166312
Polkinghorne, D. E. (1995). Narrative configuration in qualitative analysis. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 8(1), 5–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/0951839950080103
Polkinghorne, D. E. (1988). Narrative knowing and the human sciences. SUNY Press.
Polkinghorne, D. E. (2007). Validity issues in narrative research. Qualitative inquiry, 13(4), 471–486. https://doi.org/10.1177/107780040629767
Rajuan, M., Beijaard, D., & Verloop, N. (2008). Student teachers’ perceptions of their mentors as internal triggers for learning. Teaching Education, 19(4), 279–292. https://doi.org/10.1080/10476210802339951
Riches, C., & Parks, P. (2021). Navigating linguistic identities: ESL teaching contexts in Quebec. TESL Canada Journal, 38(1), 28–48. https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v38i1.1367
Sachs, J. (2005). Teacher education and the development of professional identity: Learning to be a teacher. In M. Kompf & P. Denicolo (Eds.), Connecting policy and practice: Challenges for teaching and learning in schools and universities (pp. 5–21). Routledge.
Saldaña, J. (2015). The coding manual for qualitative researchers (3rd ed.). SAGE.
Sfard, A., & Prusak, A. (2005). Telling identities: In search of an analytic tool for investigating learning as a culturally shaped activity. Educational Researcher, 34(4), 14–22. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X034004014
Steinbach, M., & Kazarloga, V. (2014). Square-headed frogs and world citizens: Attitudes and identities of ESL teacher candidates in Québec. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 13(5), 319–334. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2014.958038
Swain, M., Kinnear, P., & Steinman, L. (2015). Sociocultural theory in second language education: An introduction through narratives (2nd ed.). Multilingual Matters
Teng, F. (2019). Understanding teacher autonomy, teacher agency, and teacher identity: Voices from four EFL student teachers. English Teaching & Learning, 43(2), 189–212. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42321-019-00024-3
Thomas, L. (2017). Learning to learn about the practicum: A self-study of learning to support student learning in the field. Studying Teacher Education, 13(2), 165–178. https://doi.org/10.1080/17425964.2017.1342354
Thomas, L., & Beauchamp, C. (2011). Understanding new teachers’ professional identities through metaphor. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27(4), 762–769. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2010.12.007
Volkmann, M. J., & Anderson, M. A. (1998). Creating professional identity: Dilemmas and metaphors of a first‐year chemistry teacher. Science Education, 82(3), 293–310. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1098-237X(199806)82:3<293::AID-SCE1>3.0.CO;2-7
Wallace, C. S., & Brooks, L. (2015). Learning to teach elementary science in an experiential, informal context: Culture, learning, and identity. Science Education, 99(1), 174–198. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21138
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 McGill Journal of Education / Revue des sciences de l'éducation de McGill
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Those wishing to reproduce all or part of any material published on this website are asked to email mje.education@mcgill.ca for permission and to acknowledge the McGill Journal of Education as the original source.
Authors must transfer copyright of their article to MJE. Authors may use all or parts of their work in any future publication with the article's origin in MJE acknowledged in the customary manner.
A copy of our standard form may be requested from mje.education@mcgill.ca
