Student teaching in the contact zone learning to teach amid multiple interests in a vocational English class
Abstract
This case study investigates the decision making of Joni, a high school English teacher, during her student teaching in an Applied Communications II teaching assignment, comprised of students in the lowest tier of a four-track senior English curriculum. This course served as a “contact zone” for a set of competing interests: Joni’s stated beliefs about effective teaching based on her experiences as a student, the Applied Communications curriculum, the student-centered pedagogy advocated by her university professors and supervisor, and the students’ beliefs about the Applied Communications curriculum. The analysis finds that Joni’s student teaching was complicated by the different values of the various stakeholders who converged in her classroom, producing disagreement about the motive of the activity setting of her student teaching. The study concludes with a consideration of both the purpose of vocational English classes and the preparation that novice teachers receive to teach them.
Reference
Smagorinsky, P., Jakubiak, C., & Moore, C. (2008). Student teaching in the contact zone learning to teach amid multiple interests in a vocational English class. Journal of Teacher Education, 59(5), 442–454. http://doi.org/10.1177/0022487108324329
Journal
Journal of Teacher Education
Analysis
Is this article part of a larger project or series of studies?
no
Does this study draw on a large, preexisting data set?
no
Research Approach
Geographic Setting
Institutional Context
Certification Level
Programatic Focus
Research Location Context
Preservice Participants
Preservice Sample Size
1
Other Participant Data
- curriculum documents and planning books
- Teacher Educators
Duration of Data Collection
Data Sources
- fieldnotes
- Interviews
- Observations
Data Analysis Tools
- Case study analysis
- coding to a prior categories
Researcher Positionality
- Inside (studying their own programs)
Research Questions
What are the consequences for Joni's teaching as a result of the ways in which she acknowledges and interprets these four perspectives?
The four perspectives are:
" (a) Joni’s stated beliefs about effective teaching
based on her experiences as a student, (b) the Applied
Communications curriculum as interpreted by her mentor
teacher, (c) the student-centered pedagogy advocated
by her university professors and supervisor, and (d) the
students’ reported beliefs about the appropriateness and
usefulness of the Applied Communications curriculum" (p.443).
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? Yes