Competing Centers of Gravity: A Beginning English Teacher’s Socialization Process within Conflictual Settings
Abstract
This case study follows a teacher candidate through her semester of student teaching English in a suburban high school in the U.S. Southeast. The study is part of a line of inquiry that investigates the factors that contribute to teachers’ development of concepts to guide their instruction. In particular, this research focuses on the mediational role of settings in teachers’ development of a teaching conception and the attributions made by the teacher candidate to the sources for her understanding of how to teach. Data for the research consist of observations and interviews with focal teacher Anita and key stakeholders. These data were analyzed to identify the pedagogical tools used during student teaching and the sources to which she attributed her learning of them. Findings indicate that Anita’s initial conception of teaching was complicated by competing centers of gravity—that is, settings with conflicting notions of effective practice—that pulled her in many different directions, thus making her ability to develop a coherent approach to teaching a challenge. The study concludes with a discussion of conventional linear views of concept development and how attention to the settings of learning to teach can help explain the difficulties of learning to teach in cohesive and consistent ways
Reference
Smagorinsky, P., Rhym, D., & Moore, C. P. (2013). Competing centers of gravity: A beginning English teacher's socialization process within conflictual settings. English Education, 45(2), 147.
Journal
English Education
Analysis
Is this article part of a larger project or series of studies?
yes
Does this study draw on a large, preexisting data set?
no
Research Approach
Geographic Setting
- Southeastern United States
Institutional Context
Certification Level
Programatic Focus
Research Location Context
- student teaching placement schools
Preservice Participants
- Undergraduates (university based program)
Preservice Sample Size
1
Duration of Data Collection
Data Sources
- artifacts
- fieldnotes
- Interviews
- interviews (post-lesson)
- Observations
Data Analysis Tools
- coding to a prior categories
- Inductive analysis
Researcher Positionality
- inside (staying their own students)
- Inside (studying their own programs)
Research Questions
What pedagogical tools did she employ during student teaching, and to what sources did she attribute her understanding of how to use them?
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? Yes
To what degree did different sources identified as attributions byAnita provide compatible approaches to teaching and learning?
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? Yes