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To describe how a digital storytelling project used in preservice elementary literacy methods courses expands the notion of video reflection and offers an intentional zone of contact in which preservice teachers create their own idealized vision of their future classroom.

Using the multimodal text as a point of departure, each researcher used a different analytical method to approach the data, allowing for examination of different aspects of the product and process of digital storytelling. These analysis methods include theoretically driven analysis based upon theories of Bakhtin (1981) and Vygotsky (1978), metaphor analysis, and performative analysis. This chapter describes the findings from each analytic lens, as well as the affordances of the multiple research lenses.

The results of the study shed light on how preservice teachers constructed a dialogue around their beliefs about themselves as teachers and visions of their future classrooms. The space between the real and the imagined provided a critical writing space where preservice teachers were able to vision their evolving identity and make visible their negotiation of intellectual, social, cultural, and institutional discourses they encountered. These artfully communicated stories engaged preservice teachers in creating new meanings, practices, and experiences as they explored possibilities and imagined themselves in their future classrooms. In these compositions, the preservice teachers maintained, disrupted, and/or reinvented classroom contexts to accommodate their own understandings of literacy teaching and learning.

The zones of contact that were consciously created in this digital storytelling assignment allowed teacher educators to provide the cognitive dissonance which research shows makes teacher beliefs more amenable. Additionally, asking preservice teachers to engage in the type of analysis described in this chapter may prove to be a useful avenue for helping to make the negotiation that took place during the composing of the digital stories more explicit for the preservice teachers.

This study examined early childhood special education preservice teachers' perceived knowledge and confidence, as well as actual knowledge of functional assessment-based interventions pre- and postuniversity course participation. A quasi-experimental two-group pre- and posttest design was applied to examine (1) initial differences between two groups (by assigned instructor) in preservice teachers' perceived knowledge, perceived confidence, and actual knowledge, (2) growth over time on these three measures, and (3) their concluding performance following course completion. Results indicated mean score differences between groups at the start of the functional assessment-based intervention course instruction. Large magnitude effects were found for both groups when comparing pre- to posttest scores of preservice teachers' ratings of their perceived knowledge and confidence, as well as a measure of actual content knowledge. Posttest scores showed preservice teachers ended the experience with similar levels of actual knowledge, regardless of group membership. Findings indicate preservice teachers may benefit from a preparation course with applied practice to develop knowledge and confidence for using functional assessment-based interventions, a promising practice (What Works Clearinghouse, 2016), to support students with challenging behaviors. Limitations and future directions are presented.

This case study aims to examine the discourses of Early Children Education (ECE) curriculum and preservice teachers’ teaching practicum in Hong Kong to explore issues of developing preservice teachers as leaders for their future career. Adopting the qualitative case study methodology, semistructured interviews and documentation were mainly used for data collection to address the following research questions: (a) To what extent are preservice teachers in ECE in Hong Kong aware of the needs of leadership development for their future career? (b) To what extent are the preservice teachers in ECE in Hong Kong able to be developed as leaders in the process of teacher education? (c) What are factors influencing the leadership development of preservice teachers in preschools in Hong Kong? Documents such as program handbooks, field experience handbooks, and student participants’ teaching portfolios were collected for analysis. Both teacher educators and preservice teachers were invited for individual interviews to reflect on their experiences of supervising or participating in teaching practicum. The findings revealed that both teacher educators and preservice teachers were aware of the importance of developing preservice teachers as leaders. The teaching practicum provided various opportunities for preservice teachers to develop leadership skills. However, personality and learning experiences provided in the curriculum will also impact on leadership development. This study also informs policymakers, curriculum developers, and teacher educators about possible curriculum changes and potentials of developing preservice teachers as leaders for their future career.

An analysis of traditional authoritarian preservice teacher development approaches in Pakistan demonstrates that they develop teachers as technicians who carbon copy the same authoritarian training model in their classrooms. The more contemporary approaches to teacher education with leadership development focus are mostly limited to in-service teacher education programs. The key dilemma with in-service education is that once the teachers have received higher qualification they tend to move out of the classrooms to assume management positions. What Pakistan requires is classroom teacher leaders who have the capacity to initiate and sustain school improvement. I propose the pedagogy of transformation, which is based on the principles of participation and emancipation suited to develop preservice teachers as active professionals who have the capacity to influence and drive improvements in their own learning and in the learning of the children. The transformation pedagogy encompasses five specific instructional strategies for nurturing teachers’ leadership skills in the current preservice teacher preparation program in Pakistan. These are: encourage active involvement and delegation of authority among preservice teachers, engage preservice teachers in critical analysis and meta-cognitive tasks, building collaborative teams and professional networks among preservice teachers, providing preservice teachers with experience of working with real-life teacher leaders, and develop preservice teachers’ moral and ethical reasoning. I bring the discussion to a closure in the form of a framework which encompasses key elements of the proposed pedagogy. The framework can be adopted or adapted to give due considerations to the complexities of the contexts where it is being implemented.

This study, carried out in the bilingual and bicultural border area of South Texas, is an exploration of bilingual preservice teachers’ identity formation and their experiences and beliefs about literacy and biliteracy during an undergraduate class focused on learning about emergent literacy in the bilingual classroom. This study is based on a sociocultural approach to learning and identity development, and research that explores how bilingual teachers’ identity is shaped through their participation in cultural and linguistic practices. The purpose of this practitioner research is to provide insights into preservice teachers’ identities as they start to explore literacy and biliteracy practices. Two research questions guide the study: What experiences about literacy and biliteracy development do prospective teachers identify as meaningful? How do these experiences contribute to define bilingual preservice teachers’ identities? Findings indicate that bilingual preservice teachers’ identities are shaped by cultural and linguistic experiences that define the bilingual and bicultural dynamics of the region. Two predominant types of experiences impact bilingual preservice teachers’ beliefs about teaching, learning, and literacy/biliteracy development. Particularly significant in defining their perceptions are the lessons learned from meaningful others – especially mothers and teachers – and certain relevant memories regarding effective practices they experienced when learning to read and write. Implications for teacher education preparation of bilingual teachers are identified.

This chapter illuminates the impact of providing informal learning experiences for students pursuing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) teaching careers at a time when there is a considerable shortage of qualified teachers in America's urban centers. Preservice STEM teachers were provided with the opportunity to participate in a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant funded Noyce Internship Program prior to serving as counselors and teaching assistants in a STEM camp for underrepresented middle school students. Through the Noyce Internship Institute, participants were introduced to interactive sessions that model promising teaching practices including inquiry-based and project-based learning. This narrative inquiry examines the impact of these experiences on preservice STEM teachers' self-efficacy and highlights outcomes in three areas: increase of preservice teachers' confidence, classroom management, and strengthening their desire to teach STEM.

In this chapter, I describe how postmodern perspectives assist me in negotiating my multiple roles and responsibilities as an early childhood teacher educator in an increasingly complex pedagogical and workplace context. In particular, I focus on how postmodern understandings support me in therorizing my practice and envisioning productive possibilities for change. Underpinning the chapter are three interconnecting motifs that imbue my work as teacher educator – reflexivity, hope, and a commitment to transformative change. The chapter concludes with reflections about the potential of postmodern perspectives to enhance the agency of teacher educators and preservice teachers alike.

This chapter is an examination of research as teacher education. I present the experiences of preservice teachers/education students engaging in term-length research projects focusing on a student of a cultural or social background different from their own, while also documenting their own experiences of conducting research in their student teaching settings as part of their coursework. Recognizing the possibilities and addressing the challenges encountered by preservice teachers when engaging in research to learn about socially and culturally diverse students contributes to the body of teacher knowledge needed for all educators in an increasingly diverse local and global community. Students in the student teaching component of their teacher education program are professionally positioned to access firsthand the complexity and nuances of diversity in a school community. Examination of their experiences highlighted benefits of including research, namely narrative inquiry research, to engage preservice teachers in learning about issues of diversity and curriculum in ways that are highly relevant to their own teaching contexts, while at the same time, gaining a framework and assuming an inquiry stance that will serve them well throughout their careers. I also explore challenges of engaging preservice teachers in research to learn about diversity in classrooms and schools.

Evidence-based practice (EBP) can have a powerful impact on school-aged children. Yet this impact may not be realized if classroom teachers do not use empirically supported interventions and/or fail to include the best research available when they make important educational decisions about children. Whether classroom teachers use EBP may be influenced, in part, by what they learned or failed to learn in their preservice preparation programs. This chapter describes recent efforts to assess preservice teachers’ understanding and use of empirically supported interventions and provides four examples of how such practices were taught to preservice general educators in a small, regional teacher preparation program. We discuss four contemporary educational reform movements (i.e., federal policies mandating EBP, state-level policies linking growth in pupil learning to teacher evaluation, clinically rich teacher preparation, and the emergence of a practice-based evidence approach) that should increase interest and use of EBP in teacher education and offer recommendations for how teacher educators might infuse EBP into their traditional teaching, research, and service functions in higher education.

Learning through formal and informal experiences is critical for building content knowledge, pedagogical skills, and self-efficacy/confidence for preservice teachers. teachHOUSTON offers numerous teacher enhancement opportunities outside the teacher education courses which allows preservice teachers to connect to the real world which includes being able to relate to a diverse population of students and to understand how the course content can be related to them, their families, and communities in their everyday experiences. Through formal and informal experiences such as professional development workshops, discipline specific courses, research experiences, and internships, preservice teachers have the opportunity to engage in hands-on science activities they can use with their students, develop lessons, and gain knowledge on how to deliver this content while managing their classroom. This chapter will give an overview of the formal and informal experiences offered through teachHOUSTON with a highlight on the structure and content of the six week Noyce Internship Program which engaged interns as counselors and teaching assistants in a summer STEM camp for underserved middle school students and introduces the interns to interactive sessions that model promising practices for teaching.