“Teaching is not at all what it's advertised to be!”: A narrative approach to examining student teachers' knowledge and beliefs about teaching
Abstract
The purpose of this narrative inquiry was to investigate preservice teachers' learning during student teaching. Through the lens of narrative inquiry I was able to look at individual student teachers' stories and examine the ways in which they hold knowledge about teaching. Like much of the research on teacher knowledge that is framed within the social-constructivist perspective (Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 1999; Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1993; Dewey, 1933 & 1938; Elbaz, 1991; Putnam & Borko, 2000), this study was conceived in the idea that understanding the contexts of individuals' lived experiences leads to a better understanding of how knowledge and beliefs are formed. Narrative as a way of knowing underscores my epistemological approach to this study. Narrative as a holistic method to studying the knowledge teachers' hold, moves the emphasis from learning about teaching, to learning from teaching. During the course of this study, I looked into the unique experiences of five student teachers, what they learned about teaching, about adolescent students, about themselves and how their beliefs about teaching evolved during student teaching. Through the living, telling and retelling of their stories, the student teachers emerged with an awareness of what they had learned about teaching and what they still needed or wanted to know about teaching. For the most part, it seemed the participants came away from student teaching learning what they had expected to learn about how to teach English; further, what I call the “core” of their beliefs, essentially remained unchanged. However, there were surprises and awakenings for each of the student teachers that occurred at different times and as a result of their individual experiences and relationships—surprises and awakenings that even they could not have recognized at the time. As well, there were surprises and awakenings for me, as a teacher educator and as a researcher that enabled me to rethink some of my own assumptions about teaching, learning, the nature of knowledge, and teacher education in general.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Finders, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Curricula|Teaching|Teacher education
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