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Globalization is a powerful force that will shape the future world in which our children will live. To prepare our students for the world, we need to prepare their teachers. To be effective in the new global environment, teachers need broader sets of knowledge and skills than have previously been required. We designed this action research study to examine our teacher candidates’ use of global education content to support our ability to develop their knowledge, skills, and attitudes toward its use. The following research questions focus the study: How do elementary education teacher candidates utilize global content within integrated unit plans? How can the elementary social studies methods course prepare teacher candidates to use global content? The findings reveal teacher candidates’ integration of global content was strongest in the areas of foundational-knowledge-level dimensions with few examples of higher-level application, cross-cultural experiences, or action-oriented learning tasks. Secondly, global education content requiring a critical perspective was minimal or nonexistent in the teacher candidates’ planning. We discuss these two concerns and present action steps to build teacher candidates’ capacity for developing higher levels of global content into their instructional unit planning.

This study of 65 elementary school teacher candidates enrolled in social studies methods classes examined attitudes toward currently contentious curriculum issues before and after participation in a practicum experience teaching an arts-integrated unit on Africa. These curriculum issues included arts-integrated project-based learning versus narrower skill-based lessons; the importance of creativity, leadership, organizational, and affective skills; and student-centered versus teacher-centered instruction. Attitudes were measured by teacher candidates placing themselves on each of ten continuums between endpoints representing opposing curriculum approaches and responding to open-ended questions. Statistically significant pre-post differences with medium effect sizes occurred on three of the continuums indicating that teacher candidates now placed greater value on arts-integrated curricula to teach social studies content; recognized that choice motivates students; and expressed more enjoyment of planning complex, long-term, student-centered projects. They recognized deep conceptual learning and engagement of elementary school students during the student-centered arts-integrated lessons but noted that the time and effort of complex project work were barriers to implementation. Social studies methods teachers need to involve teacher candidates in field experiences that offer authentic arts- integrated student-centered project work to allow them to adopt curriculum stances not experienced as elementary school students.

This paper examines the experiences and outcomes of male teacher candidates in the College of Education at a large university in California.

This mixed methods study highlights findings from the preliminary analysis of student records as well as qualitative observation notes from their university supervisors and master teachers during their student teaching placements. Comments from student teaching assistance plans and remediation tools from the College of Education, Field Placement Office were also used. It also included the quantitative analysis of enrollment data as well as mid- and final student teaching evaluations for one semester. This multiple data triangulation process was used to illuminate the unique challenges and successes of male teacher candidates and the variables that influence their outcomes.

There were significant statistical differences (p < 0.05) between the male and female teacher candidates across each key measure used. Male teacher candidates scored lower in the areas of mathematics, assessment, planning and student engagement during instruction.

This study offers strategies that teachers’ trainers may use to recruit, retain and more effectively support the needs of their male elementary teacher candidates.

Few studies have examined both qualitative and quantitative data to determine pedagogical factors that impact male teacher candidates’ challenges and/or successes during their student teaching experiences. Moreover, few studies have explored how teacher training programs can more effectively support the needs of this population. This study is designed to fill that void.

The purpose of this paper is to examine undergraduate elementary education teacher candidates’ abilities to successfully integrate social justice teaching into their interdisciplinary ELA and social studies thematic units. The projects were analyzed to determine the extent to which, if any, social justice education has been addressed.

This study used purposive sampling of two sections of an elementary writing methods course. Students were grouped into Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) to design an integrated thematic English Language Arts (ELA), Social Studies and Social Justice unit. At the conclusion of their project, components of their units were analyzed using the Social Justice Continuum of Teacher Development.

Overall, the results indicate that candidates were likely to plan for inclusive practices in their instructional units. There was significant attention across units to inclusive materials and content, but there was very little attention to critical or transformative practices in planning. This likely indicates candidates’ awareness about the need for diverse content but tells us little about their ability to critically analyze the power structures themselves that contribute to the need for inclusive practices.

Before classroom teachers can be expected to engage in critical conversations in their own classrooms, the experiences they have within their preparation programs need to be considered. These findings indicate more explicit work must be done to support candidates in their ability to critically analyze hegemonic power structures and to engage their students in learning experiences that move beyond using diverse resources into teaching advocacy strategies to students.

Purpose – This chapter focuses on how teacher candidates engage in a process of body mapping to narratively inquire into how their daily informal and formal music experiences inform elementary music teaching practices.

Methodology and findings – In a primary/junior music education course at Brock University, teacher candidates utilize a course assignment to create a visual narrative (body map), along with oral and written narratives that outline their music experiences. Through this narrative inquiry, teacher candidates become aware of how their personal lived experiences influence their perceptions about elementary music teaching. This chapter offers conceptualizations of five threads that emerged from the narratives: process of body mapping and musical experience, music everywhere, school influences, family, and fear.

Value – This inquiry deepens understandings of curriculum making possibilities in elementary music teacher education as teacher candidates begin to form their music teacher identity based on their lived experiences. Such visual, oral, and written narratives contribute to increased narrative understandings by demonstrating the power teacher candidates' personal music experiences have in shaping teacher identity and, in turn, teaching practice.

This paper investigates and reports on the study abroad experiences of 22 teacher candidates from the Southeast region of the USA (n=22). The purpose of this paper is to examine the teacher candidates’ development of social and emotional learning through their international teaching experiences.

The study is framed by Critical Cosmopolitan Theory, which is a theoretical lens for a critical understanding of the development of global competencies for critical consciousness. The paper uses a case study research design (Yin, 2008), which included data collected via artifact analysis, participant interviews and participant observation through field notes.

The study found how the study abroad and international teaching experiences were instrumental in aiding in the teacher candidates’ social and emotional learning. This included the adoption of culturally responsive teaching practices, development of reading the world and enactment of taking action to rewrite the world.

One of the limitations is the relatively small sample size. This is due, in part, to the high cost associated with study abroad. The high cost of study abroad can be a barrier for students to access the cross-cultural experiences afforded by study abroad. The hefty price tag of study abroad often limits the number of teacher candidates at public institutions who can go on study abroad (Malewski and Phillion, 2009). A future research agenda is needed about ways to help off-set the costs in order to make study abroad more affordable and equitable.

The practical implications of this paper are that it provides an instructive lens for how to integrate social and emotional learning within a study abroad experience. At the same time, the paper connects socio-emotional learning (SEL) with the development of global competencies and global citizenship.

The social implications relate to the practical implications in that the paper illustrates how SEL is connected to the development of global citizenship development. The study weds the critical cosmopolitan framework with SEL to show how learners develop empathy through reading and rewriting the world.

The case study presented in this paper highlights the possibilities of study abroad in tandem with international teaching experiences to help prepare teachers with SEL features like fostering empathy, developing culturally responsive practices, and becoming critically conscious and cosmopolitan. The study fills a gap in the literature regarding the development of SEL among elementary education teacher candidates through study abroad and international teaching experiences.

Social studies may be taught in relevant and powerful ways regardless of the current barriers and challenges teachers encounter with this subject. While it would be best to give social studies the same importance and time as other subjects, schools today often do not teach social studies or it is taught within an integrated topic. The purpose of this paper is to address current issues regarding integrating social studies in elementary classrooms. The authors then provide one example of an attempt to integrate social studies and mathematics. Finally, the authors conclude with important points to consider while integrating social studies and mathematics using a critical multicultural lens.

The authors engaged in the social studies and mathematics day to support teacher candidates in their practicum experience. In this study, the authors followed the Action Research paradigm; constantly reflect on the practices while preparing elementary school teachers. The authors understand action research as “a continuous process of inquiry, reflection, and evaluation to understand and improve practice” (Goenaga Ruiz de Zuazu, 2016, p. 8). As teacher educators, the authors particularly focused on self-study research, as indicated by Pine (2009), which can be implemented to improve educators’ own teaching to facilitate personal-professional growth.

Reflecting on the authors’ experiences and the barriers to teaching social studies, the authors continuously return to discussing the importance of balancing both content areas. In the activities designed by teacher candidates, the authors found they put more emphasis on the mathematics portion, leaving the social studies portion till the end and only if time permitted. In not addressing this situation with them, the authors perpetuated the low status of social studies. The authors needed to permit more time for teacher candidates to allow students to reflect on social and critical issues and promote discussions throughout the lesson, giving social studies equal status to mathematics.

This paper contributes to the teacher education literature and how students planned and implemented a social studies and math day.

In this chapter, we explore two intersecting plotlines of teacher knowledge and content knowledge through an experience in which we engaged our teacher candidates during our mathematics methods course. Teacher candidates were tasked with the challenge of creating hands-on, interactive activities for small groups of fifth-grade students based on a selected Common Core State Standard for Mathematics (CCSS-M) related to the area of fractions. Responsible for both planning and preparing their activities, the teacher candidates were the curriculum designers. What we designed as the practice teaching activity involved a morning of planning and implementing a fraction activity with small groups of fifth-graders in short sessions, making adjustments, prompting and cueing students, extending learning, managing behaviors and distractibility – experiencing the early challenges and rewards of their first experiences in teaching – gaining practice and feedback. Forming the core of this chapter is a narrative construction of Michelle’s personal experience working with teacher candidates and fifth-grade students in practice teaching spaces for the first time, discovering moments along with our students, when they bridged the expansive gap from living as education students to feeling like beginning teachers. Teacher candidates’ responses to the experience and reflections on their challenges and successes are shared.

Public schools are spaces where capital-T transformation in teachers is needed (Guillory, 2012). To shift schools to places where all communities are valued, teacher education programs must create spaces where shifts in beliefs and practice can occur. This study aims to describe how the use of a social justice curriculum framework impacted teacher candidates by creating such a space.

This is an ethnographic study. Qualitative ethnography is appropriate when “the study of a group provides an understanding of a larger issue” (Creswell, 2015, p. 466). In this case, studying the impact of a social justice framework on the children and teacher candidates in the program allows the researchers to capture the relationships developed during the course of the program and study.

The framework created valuable experiences for both teacher candidates and elementary age participants. Data were collected to determine the impact of the program on all participants. The authors discuss implications for practitioners planning a social justice curriculum and for teacher educators planning field experiences for teacher candidates.

The need for shifting beyond culturally relevant pedagogy has been well documented in the field (Cho, 2017; Guillory, 2012; Paris, 2012). Moving toward – culturally sustaining pedagogy, multicultural social justice curriculum, critically conscious teachers – must be a priority in teacher education (Banks, 2013; Convertino, 2016). This has been explored in other studies, particularly in studies of merging – or emphasizing – multicultural and social justice education and curricula (Cho, 2017; Lawyer, 2018; Sleeter, 2018). What sets this study apart, and what needs further exploration diverse, is how to set up multicultural social justice education projects involving culturally and economically teacher education candidates and students working together (Cammarota, 2016; Lawyer, 2018; Valenzuela, 2016).

The questions that arise from this study make it new in the field. These include how to set up these diverse field experiences, including how to increase recruitment and retention of culturally and economically marginalized students in teacher education programs (Cammarota, 2016; Castaneda, Kambutu and Rios, 2006). These are important questions to consider in designing research and recruitment projects in colleges of teacher education. Exploring how to push multicultural education into multicultural social justice education deserves additional attention and exploration (Cammarota, 2016; Lawyer, 2018; Sleeter, 2018; Valenzuela, 2016).

This study aims to examine how teacher candidates of Color (TCoCs) experienced and perceived culturally responsive teaching across three teacher education programs at a predominately White institution in the USA. At the time of the study, the campus was reeling from a series of racist incidents on- and off-campus, and the teacher education programs were attempting to recruit more TCoCs.

Drawing on a critical race theory counternarrative approach and qualitative research focus-group interviews, the authors centered the voices of seven TCoCs and their experiences with culturally responsive teaching in their coursework.

The TCoCs experienced and perceived culturally responsive teaching as promising yet fleeting, missing the mark, and a misuse of culture and language that resulted in harm. The TCoCs urge teacher education to hire racially–ethnically–linguistically diverse faculty, provide affirming spaces for TCoCs, and curricular transformation.

Study findings contribute to recent calls for teacher education programs to attend to the lived experiences, concerns and expectations of future teachers of color.