This article analyzes a programmatic effort in teacher education, “The Community Teaching Strand” (CTS), to engage local community members as mentors of teacher candidates (TCs) in two postgraduate teacher preparation programs in a large research university. Three different conceptions of the nature and purpose of teacher–family–community relations frame the analysis: involving families and communities, engaging families and communities, and working in solidarity with families and communities. Three primary research questions are explored in this article: What do TCs learn through their participation in the CTS? To what extent and how do TCs bring community teaching into their classrooms during the program and as first-year teachers? What programmatic features encouraged and/or constrained TC learning from the community mentors? After describing Mountain City’s “Community Teaching Strand,” the article identifies a set of TC learning and practice outcomes as well as a number of tensions that arose in the programs in the attempt to implement engagement and solidarity approaches to working with families and communities. Finally, the implications of this work for teacher education are discussed.
Baquedano-LopezP.AlexanderR. A.HernandezS. J. (2013). Equity issues in parental and community involvement in schools: What teacher educators need to know. Review of Research in Education, 37, 149-182.
2.
Barajas-LopezF.IshimaruA. (in press). Darles el lugar: A place for nondominant family knowing in educational equity. Urban Education.
3.
BaumgartnerJ.BuchananT. (2010). “I have HUGE stereo-types”: Using eco-maps to understand children and families. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 31(2), 173-184.
4.
BowmanM.GottesmanI. (2013). Why practice-centered teacher education programs need social foundations. Teachers College Record. Available from http://www.tcrecord.org
5.
Boyle-BaiseM. (2005). Preparing community-oriented teachers: Reflections from a multicultural service learning project. Journal of Teacher Education, 56(5), 446-458.
6.
Boyle-BaiseM.McIntyreD. J. (2008). What kind of experience? Preparing teachers in PDS or community settings. In Cochran-SmithM.Feiman-NemserS.McIntyreD. J. (Eds.), Handbook of research on teacher education (3rd ed., pp. 307-329). New York, NY: Routledge.
7.
BroussardC. A. (2000). Preparing teachers to work with families: A national survey of teacher education programs. Equity & Excellence in Education, 33(2), 41-49.
8.
BrykA. S.SchneiderB. L. (2002). Trust in schools: A core resource for improvement. New York, NY: Russell Sage.
9.
BuckP.SylvesterP. (2005). Preservice teachers enter urban communities: Coupling funds of knowledge research and critical pedagogy in teacher education. In GonzálezN.MollL.AmantiC. (Eds.), Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practices in households, communities, and classrooms (pp. 213-231). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
10.
Calabrese BartonA.DrakeC.PerezJ. G.St. LouisK.GeorgeM. (2004). Ecologies of parental engagement in urban education. Educational Researcher, 33(4), 3-8.
11.
Cochran-SmithM. (1991). Learning to teach against the grain. Harvard Educational Review, 61(3), 279-310.
12.
Cochran-SmithM. (2004). Walking the road: Race, diversity and social justice in teacher education. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
13.
Cochran-SmithM.VillegasA. M. (2017). Research on teacher preparation: Charting the landscape of a sprawling field. In GitomerD.BellC. (Eds.), Handbook of research on teaching (5th ed., pp. 439-538). Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.
14.
ComerJ. (2009). What I learned in school: Reflections on race, child development, and school reform. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
15.
CubanL. (1969). Teacher and community. Harvard Educational Review, 39(2), 253-272.
16.
DonatoR. (2007). Mexicans and Hispanos in Colorado schools and communities, 1920-1960. Albany: State University of New York Press.
17.
DutroE.CartunA. (2016). Cut to the core practices: Toward visceral disruptions of binaries in PRACTICE-based teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 58, 119-128.
18.
DyrnessA. (2011). Mothers united: An immigrant struggle for socially just education. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
19.
EpsteinJ. L. (2002). School, family, and community partnerships: Your handbook for action. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
20.
EpsteinJ. L.SandersM. G. (2000). Connecting home, school, and community. In HallinanM. T. (Ed.), Handbook of the sociology of education (pp. 285-286). New York, NY: Springer.
21.
EpsteinJ. L.SandersM. G. (2006). Prospects for change: Preparing educators for school, family, and community partnerships. Peabody Journal of Education, 81(2), 81-120.
22.
EvansM. (2013). Educating preservice teachers for family, school, and community engagement. Teaching Education, 24(2), 123-133.
23.
FabricantM. (2010). Organizing for educational justice: The campaign for public school reform in the South Bronx. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
24.
Feiman-NemserS.BuchmannM. (2011). Pitfalls of experience in teacher education. In Feiman-NemserS. (Ed.), Teachers as learners (pp. 167-180). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
25.
FergusonC. (2009). A Toolkit for Title I Parental Involvement. Austin, TX: The Southwest Educational Development Laboratory.
26.
FineM. (1993). [Ap]parent Involvement: Reflections on parents, power, and urban public schools. Teachers College Record, 94(4), 682-710.
27.
FlowersJ. G.PattersonA.StratemeyerF.LindseyM. (1948). School and community laboratory experiences in teacher education. Oneonta, NY: American Association of Teachers Colleges.
28.
GonzálezN.MollL.AmantiC. (2005). Funds of Knowledge: Theorizing Practices in Households, Communities, and Classrooms. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
29.
GraueE. (2005). Theorizing and describing preservice teachers’ images of families and schooling. Teachers College Record, 107(1), 157-185.
GuillenL. (2016). Partnering with teacher education programs: The community mentor experience (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Washington, Seattle.
32.
HabermanM.DelgadilloL. (1993). The impact of training teachers of children in poverty about the specific health and human services offered to the students in their classrooms. Milwaukee: University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Retrieved from ERIC database. (ED367751)
33.
HammernessK. (2006). From coherence in theory to coherence in practice. Teachers College Record, 108(7), 1241-1265.
34.
HandV. (2012). Seeing culture and power in mathematical learning: Toward a model of equitable instruction. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 80, 233-247.
35.
HendersonA.WhippleM. (2013). How to connect with families. Educational Leadership, 70, 44-48.
36.
HodgdonE.SaundersR. (1951). Using the community in teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 2(3), 216-218.
37.
HongS. (2011). A cord of three strands: A new approach to parent engagement in schools. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
38.
HylandN. E.MeachamS. (2004). Community knowledge-centered teacher education: A paradigm for socially just educational transformation. In KincheloeJ. L.BursztynA.SteinbergS. R. (Eds.), Teaching teachers: Building a quality school of urban education (pp. 113-134). New York, NY: Peter Lang.
39.
KhasnabisD.GoldinS.RonfeldtM. (2015, April). Using simulated parent-teacher conferences to assess interns’ abilities to partner with families. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.
40.
LortieD. (1975). Schoolteacher. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
41.
MahanJ.FortneyM.GarciaJ. (1983). Linking the community to teacher education: Toward a more analytical approach. Action in Teacher Education, 5(1-2), 1-10.
42.
McDiarmidG. W. (1992). The arts and sciences as preparation for teaching (Issue Paper No. 92–93). East Lansing: National Center for Research on Teacher Learning, Michigan State University.
43.
McDonaldM. A.BowmanM.BraykoK. (2013). Learning to see students: Opportunities to develop relational practices of teaching through community-based placements in teacher education. Teachers College Record, 115(4), 1-35.
44.
McDonaldM. A.TysonK.BraykoK.BowmanM.DelportJ.ShimomuraF. (2011). Innovation and impact in teacher education: Community-based organizations as field placements for preservice teachers. Teachers College Record, 113(8), 1668-1700.
45.
MurrellP. C.Jr. (2001). The community teacher: A new framework for effective urban teaching. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
46.
MurrellP. C.Jr.StraussJ.CarlsonR.DominguezM. A. (2015). Community immersion teacher development: Pragmatic knowledge of family and community in professional field-based practice. In HollinsE. (Ed.), Rethinking field experiences in preservice teacher education (pp. 151-166). New York, NY: Routledge.
47.
NapolitanK. (2016a). Showing the seams: Teacher candidates’ experiences with programmatic tensions in community-focused teacher education (Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Part 2). University of Washington, Seattle.
48.
NapolitanK. (2016b). You have to reach before you can teach: A study of teacher candidates’ journeys of community teaching (Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Part 1). University of Washington, Seattle.
49.
National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. (2010). Transforming teacher education through clinical practice: A national strategy to prepare effective teachers. Washington, DC: Author.
50.
PerryC. A. (1916). Educational extension. Cleveland, OH: Survey Committee of the Cleveland Foundation.
51.
PhilipT.WayW.GarciaA.Schuler-BrownS.NavarroO. (2013). When educators attempt to make “community” a part of classroom learning: The dangers of (mis)appropriating students’ communities into schools. Teaching and Teacher Education, 34, 174-183.
52.
ReeseW. J. (1986). Power and the promise of school reform: Grassroots movements during the Progressive era. Boston, MA: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
SkinnerE.GarretonM. T.SchultzB. (Ed.). (2011). Grow your own teachers: Grassroots change for teacher education. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
55.
SleeterC. E. (2001). Preparing teachers for culturally diverse schools: Research and the overwhelming presence of whiteness. Journal of Teacher Education, 52(2), 94-106.
56.
TattoM. T.RodriguezA.Gonzalez-LanzD.MillerC.BusscherM.TrumbleD.. . . WooA. (2001). The challenges and tensions in reconstructing teacher-parent relations in the context of school reform: A case study. Teachers and Teaching, 7, 315-333.
57.
TurnerE.DrakeC. (2015). A review of research on prospective teachers’ learning about children’s mathematical thinking and cultural funds of knowledge. Journal of Teacher Education, 67, 32-46.
58.
WalkerV. S. (1996). Their highest potential: An African American school community in the segregated South. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
59.
WallerW. (1932). The sociology of teaching. New York, NY: Wiley.
60.
WarrenM. R.MappK. L. (2011). A match on dry grass: Community organizing as a catalyst for school reform. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
61.
ZeichnerK. (2014). The politics of learning to teach from experience. In EllisV.OrchardJ. (Eds.), Learning to teach from experience (pp. 257-268). London, England: Bloomsbury.
62.
ZeichnerK.MelnickS. (1996). The role of community field experiences in preparing teachers for cultural diversity. In ZeichnerK.MelnickS.GomezM. L. (Eds.), Currents of reform in preservice teacher education (pp. 176-196). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
ZygmuntE.ClarkP. (2016). Transforming teacher education for social justice. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
