This study takes a fine-grained look at the inaugural implementation of a high-stakes teacher performance assessment (the edTPA) from multiple perspectives and chronicles how participants used the reading, writing, and discussion of poetry to cope with and sometimes critique the edTPA. Teacher researchers sought to understand multiple perspectives…

When integrated into pre-service education programs, service learning has the potential to influence teacher candidates' pedagogy, professional dispositions, commitment to teaching, and sensitivity to student differences. Teacher candidates may make biased assumptions about an individual with a particular disability label based upon what they…

This article describes an interprofessional service-learning initiative to address the educational and psychosocial needs of grandparent-headed families. This qualitative study explores the perceptions and experiences of the preservice teacher education students involved in implementing this project. Findings suggest that there are numerous…

Over the past several decades a growing amount of research has considered the role, challenges, and complexities of teaching reflective inquiry to preservice teachers. Generally accepted as a valuable component of a teacher education program, there are persistent levels of ambiguity regarding how reflective inquiry can be intentionally fostered…

Despite the long history of the study of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), two facts remain obvious. First, there are almost as many conceptions regarding the definition of PCK as there are researchers interested in it. Second, it is largely unclear which methods enable teacher educators to best prepare teacher candidates to use PCK. Recently,…

This paper introduces autobiographical analysis as a "disruptive strategy" that is deliberately structured to enable preservice teachers to develop new ways of thinking about teaching. Specifically, we: 1) describe how we incorporate a process of critical examination of preservice teachers' biases and assumptions throughout their…

Urban public schools and their teachers are under siege. From increased standardization, privatization and testing to a growing number of students whose needs are not being met by schools, urban public school teachers face a daunting task. Without a space in which to critically examine their daily experiences within schools, many well-intentioned…