This qualitative study explores the holistic approaches that seven mentors use to attend to the well-being of new professionals as they transition into the classroom. We define holistic mentoring as practices that intertwine the professional with the personal, and bring together the aesthetic, intellectual, and moral in supporting beginning…

In this collaborative autoethnography, written by multiple stakeholders involved in a teacher residency program, we address the complexities of preparing and supporting social justice-oriented teachers. We identify three tensions faced in the design and (re)development of the teacher preparation program. These tensions include preparing teachers…

Teacher residencies, based on the medical school training model, are emerging as an innovative model of educator preparation. The authors describe one such program in New York City, the Teaching Residents at Teachers College (TR@TC). They say the program has been successful in recruiting nontraditional candidates (including minorities) into…

Background: Diversity across the world is changing, given the growing number of immigrant children in schools. These increases in transnational mobility have teachers struggling to reconsider their everyday practices to accommodate many more newcomers in their classrooms. The need for teachers to become more responsive to changing social…

Teachers who attended urban schools as students are uniquely positioned to understand both the structural context that urban schools operate within and the many funds of knowledge that urban students bring to school. The purpose of this study is to examine the funds of knowledge that individuals who have been students in urban schools and now wish…

Background: Racial inequities are a persistent reality in K-12 schools in the United States. There is a need for consensus and coordination between principals and teachers if they are to address the harm of racial inequities in education. Yet, despite this need and the interdependence of teachers and principals in schools, their preparation is…

In light of shifting immigration trends and demographics, teacher preparation must be rethought to ensure culturally and linguistically responsive curriculum and classroom practice. This imperative is one with which educators have long been struggling, but have yet to adequately address. Fourteen years ago, I wrote an article about this very same…

This study addresses how teacher candidates committed to a social-justice-oriented urban teacher residency programme articulate and reflect why they want to be teachers in high-need public schools and what they expect from teaching so as to ascertain what they expect to do. The participants of this study included 77 graduates who participated in…

This article presents a study of mentor teachers who work with residents in an urban teacher residency program in New York City. Forty-six mentor teachers (i.e., cooperating teachers) were asked to describe moments of effective mentoring, as well as their own strengths, weaknesses, and goals as mentors. Implicit in mentor teachers' descriptions of…

Singapore is an international leader in education as indicated by its students' results on international assessments. Because of this success in education, educators from around the world study the island nation to discover the "Singapore secret" and have begun to adopt its educational practices. This study examines how one school within…

This exploratory study documents the practices of a group of mentor teachers (MTs) in high-need schools within a high-accountability district. These MTs support teacher candidates, called residents, in an urban teacher residency program. The primary research question--what are the mentoring practices of a group of strong MTs?--led the authors not…

This qualitative study analyzes the retention data of an urban teacher residency program, a recent approach to developing quality teachers. The authors identify patterns of movers, leavers, and stayers and draw on interview data to better understand residents' (program graduates) perspectives on ways the program informs their practice after…

This mixed methods study examines one teacher preparation program's use of Danielson's 2007 "Framework for Professional Practice," with an emphasis on how different stakeholders in the traditional student teaching triad rated student teachers, called residents, and justified their ratings. Data sources include biannual self-assessments…

Teaching Residents at Teachers College (TR@TC) is an 18-month program that prepares teachers for high-needs schools in New York City in two areas: teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) and teaching students with disabilities. Student teachers, called residents, spend a year working with a mentor teacher. Mentors play three roles:…

This article presents findings from an exploratory empirical study of teaching residents' opportunities and learning within the overlapping contexts of English as a Second Language (ESL)/special education classrooms and high-need urban schools. Utilizing documentation from the first year of a teacher residency program, our findings illustrate the…