Mentoring and Mediating the Interface of Multiple Knowledges in Learning to Teach Challenging Content

Abstract

Learning to teach subject matter topics that emerge as challenging for culturally and linguistically diverse students remains a key goal for prospective teachers. Teacher education needs multiple ways to guide preservice teachers (PSTs) for this work. One context for such teacher development is classroom-based teacher inquiry. I describe an innovation in teacher inquiry pedagogy that mentors PSTs in (a) mining multiple sources of knowledge for teaching challenging areas of content learning, (b) systematically analyzing knowledge gleaned from these sources, and (c) mediating through visual representations the overlapping, reinforcing, and sometimes conflicting ideas gleaned from sources, in order to advance conceptions and practice in content-based learning for diverse youth. I describe the pedagogy in practice, then use a case of one PST to illustrate how her knowledge evolved in learning to teach persuasive writing to early adolescent English language learners. It was in the knowledge sources interface, mediated by visual representations and written reflections, that this PST’s developing knowledge gained texture and depth.

Citation

Athanases, S.Z. (2014), "Mentoring and Mediating the Interface of Multiple Knowledges in Learning to Teach Challenging Content", International Teacher Education: Promising Pedagogies (Part A) (Advances in Research on Teaching, Vol. 22), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 403-426. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-368720140000022022