What English/Language Arts Teacher Candidates Learn During Coursework and Practica

Abstract

This study investigates the learning reported by a set of volunteer participants from three university teacher education programs: from one Southwestern U.S. University, the program in secondary English/Language Arts Education and the program in Elementary Education; and from one Southeastern U.S. University, the program in secondary English/Language Arts Education. Based on interviews conducted between the end of coursework and the beginning of student teaching, this study uses a sociocultural perspective to consider not only the manner in which the teacher candidates’ learning was mediated by a host of factors, including formal teacher education courses and mentor teacher guidance, but also a wide range of factors that introduced competing conceptions of effective teaching. The interviews were analyzed collaboratively by the two authors, who relied on a sociocultural analysis attending to the pedagogical tools, attribution of learning to specific sources and the settings in which they were located, the areas of teaching in which the tools were applicable, and goals toward which the pedagogical tools were deployed. Findings suggest that even with the three programs having radically different structures and processes, the teacher candidates reported very similar learning, yet with variations conceivably following from their program structures. Furthermore, teacher education emerged as one of several sites of learning named by teacher candidates, rather than serving as their sole or even primary source of learning. The study concludes with a consideration of the many factors that contribute to teacher candidates’ conceptual understanding of effective teaching and the role of teacher education programs within this vast complex of goals, epistemologies, and practices.