Unpacking the “Urban” in Urban Teacher Education (original) (raw)
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Urban-Focused and Community-Based Teacher Preparation
2019
Existing challenges in many urban schools have led to an increased emphasis on urban-focused teacher preparation. While this work can be demanding and complex, many Christian teacher education programs desire to engage in this work as part of their efforts to prepare their teacher candidates to teach all students and to promote more equitable educational opportunities in urban communities. In this article, the author reviews the literature on effective urban teacher preparation and then discusses the potential for collaboration with local schools and communities to support this work in Christian teacher education programs. The author argues that authentic engagement with urban schools and communities is necessary to provide teacher candidates with the understandings, frameworks, and experiences needed to flourish in their work and to develop meaningful relationships with students, families, and community members.
From "Urban" to Urban: Engaging Schools and Communities in Teacher Education
Issues in Teacher Education, 2014
This study examines the impact of a new course that broadens a teacher education program in preparing teachers to engage in urban schools and communities. Our examination focuses on the following question: To what extent and in what ways does this urban education course that includes a community organization field placement impact teacher candidates in terms of their understanding of: (a) social justice, (b) the relationship between their identity and their pedagogical practices, and (c) urban communities as educational resources? Findings suggest that the course is having an impact on teacher candidates and most reported insightful experiences with the resources in urban communities for use in their future teaching.
Do as I Say and Do as I Do: Teacher Educators’ Narratives about Urban Teaching
Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research, 2008
Teacher educators share much in common with their pre-service candidates, but neither group resembles the increasingly diverse PreK-12 student population in cities across the United States. In the words of Gary Howard (1999): How can you teach what you don't know? A group of faculty members at a small, suburban liberal arts college decided to address this dilemma head-on by creating an urban teaching group. In addition to reading about and discussing important issues related to urban education and culturally responsive pedagogy, we participated in community mapping with early childhood candidates and were assigned to inner-city elementary classrooms. Across a tenweek term, we observed, tutored, and taught lessons under the supervision of cooperating teachers, many of whom were our own graduates. Through direct experience, reflection, and dialogue, we challenged our assumptions and examined the realities of teaching in an urban setting.
1999
This paper examines interrelationships between curriculum and instruction in an urban teacher education program and state educational policies promoting school reform. It notes how national policy talk and organizational strategies promoting systemic reform in schools serving low-income students influence the work of teacher educators preparing teachers for urban settings. The paper presents the experiences of seven teacher educators in an urban education program, comparing stated intentions of state policies for improving schools with actual effects observed by teacher educators. Cases are based on data collected by university faculty, including: field notes during visits to student teachers, evaluation reports of student teachers, notes about class incidents, and students' written classwork. Overall, the cases suggest that state policies adopted with the rationale of improving education in fact constrain faculty from helping students learn to teach against the grain of accepted practice in urban schools. The cases warn about the limitations of systemic reform as it is developing. They raise questions about how policies that seem reasonable and rational become destructive. The researchers suggest that the divide between teacher research and academic research in part results from disparity in the proportion of females in teaching and teacher education. Information and insights from female teacher educators working in programs that prepare urban teachers are missing in debate about educational reform. (Contains 68 references.) (SM)
2019
The current narrative surrounding urban education, while incomplete, often focuses on concerns related to student achievement, failing schools, and teacher quality. This article targets teacher preparation as one response to these challenges and investigates the extent to which liberal arts colleges and universities are involved in this work. The article provides a summary of practices associated with effective urban-focused teacher preparation and analyzes data from liberal arts teacher education programs. Based on this research, the author categorizes the programs’ various approaches and offers recommendations for maximizing the ability of such programs to effectively engage in this crucial work.
Reexamining Pitfalls of Experience In Urban Teacher Preparation
Over 30 years ago, Feiman-Nemser and Buchmann (1985) wrote about " pitfalls of experience " in teacher education. In the current study, I share vignettes of three student teachers engaged in an urban teacher preparation program to highlight how these pitfalls are still operating—and are arguably even more problematic— as we prepare teachers to work with minoritized youth. I add additional detail to the familiarity pitfall and also suggest the existence of a new standardization pitfall. I end with cautions for teacher educators and a call for reimagined student teaching experiences as we consider these and other pitfalls in the preparation of teachers for urban settings.
Reframing Urban Education Discourse: A Conversation With and for Teacher Educators
Theory Into Practice, 2007
This article represents a conversation between two urban educators-one African American and one White. Not only the influence of race, but also the influence of personal and cultural histories on urban classrooms and colleges, unfold during their conversation. Providing important insights into the nature and significance of the work of urban education, their dialogue also demonstrates the need for, and examples of, multiple divergent voices in the struggle for practical and theoretical thinking in urban education to give direction to meaningful improvements.
2014
This article outlines how Loyola University Chicago’s School of Education has re-conceptualized the preparation of teachers to meet the sophisticated and changing needs and realities of urban schools and communities by focusing on student achievement. In contrast to often criticized university-based models of teacher preparation, the Teaching, Learning, and Leading with Schools and Communities program represents a shared responsibility between university, school, and community partners to impact and support student learning, achievement, and success. The four tenets around which this comprehensive teacher education program is organized are described: (a) partnerships with schools and communities, (b) teacher preparation for diverse classrooms, (c) a developmental trajectory of field-based experiences, and (d) stakeholders engaged in communities of practice.