We are pleased to write this introduction to the second issue of volume 46. As usual, the articles included herein contribute new and important insights into a range of educator preparation issues. Taken collectively, these five articles employ unique research methodologies and theoretical lenses to explore critical and timely topics, such as barriers facing Latino male teachers and issues of particular relevance to English language arts teachers. Three of the articles employ qualitative research methodologies and data collection processes, including case study design, participant observation, and in-depth interviews. One paper, “Engaging with Engagement: Interrogating Preservice Teachers’ Theories of Engagement in their Literacy Planning and Reflection,” written by Lindsey Rowe, Jackie Ridley, Marie E. Borkowski, Sarah E. Jackson, and Michiko Hikida, adopts a post-qualitative approach to explore preservice teachers’ conceptualizations of engagement and their implications for teaching and learning. A fifth paper, a conceptual piece coauthored by Sara Werner Juarez and Alicia Brown Becton, provides a wellness framework to address compassion fatigue and burnout among educators.
The first article in this issue, “Reimagining Preservice Experiences for Aspiring Latino Teachers in the United States,” written by Donna Volpe, Sharon Lai-LaGrotteria, Victoria Bisceglia, and Jeremy N. Price, addresses the critical need to prepare a diverse teacher workforce to prepare teachers with varying cultural, ethnic, and linguistic backgrounds. Because the largest growing demographic in US schools is Latino/a/x students, Volpe and colleagues add to the important body of research which focuses on encouraging this growing group of students to pursue careers as professional educators. Using a qualitative approach, Volpe and her coauthors employed document analysis and conducted in-depth interviews and observations to analyze the experiences of potential Latino male teachers. Study participants noted the importance of relationships in their personal and professional lives and explored barriers they faced to becoming educators. Findings also identified the implementation of a culturally sustaining curriculum as critical to the future Latino students’ success as educators. Volpe and colleagues’ findings should enable educator preparation programs to evaluate their recruitment and retention practices to better meet the needs of this important population of future educators.
Coauthors Lindsey W. Rowe, Jackie Ridley, Marie E. Borkowski, Sarah E. Jackson, and Michiko Hikida delve into the concepts and practices of engagement. Their article, “Engaging with Engagement: Interrogating Preservice Teachers’ Theories of Engagement in Their Literacy Planning and Reflection,” the coauthors ground their research on First Generation Activity Theory, Reader Response Theory, Self-Determination Theory, and Inter-Comprehension Theory. The coauthors collect data using a post-qualitative approach and analyze data by adopting the thinking with theory approach. Through diffraction, the coauthors examined the potential consequences for visualizing potential relational consequences of theories of engagement. They encourage teacher educators to (re)imagine engagement through a languaging relation perspective by shifting toward a more humanizing conceptualization of engagement and centering the ongoing (re)making of relations as people teach and learn.
In their article, “Virtual Pedagogical Microsystem: An Ecological Model for Preservice Teacher Fieldwork,” coauthors Sarah Donovan and Libby Adjei report the findings from their qualitative case study. The coauthors investigated the pedagogical content knowledge of secondary English language arts during online fieldwork. Grounded in youth lens theory and repositioning pedagogy to ecological systems theory, the coauthors collected data through interviews with preservice teachers and with high-school students as well as through their recorded fieldwork sessions. Their data analyses revealed a co-created, shared, interdependent virtual microsystem of learning. Donovan and Adjei advocate that teacher educators who purposefully and authentically embed learning partnerships across multiple teacher preparation courses are more likely to promote democratic and equitable ways of building relationships and supporting responsiveness to individual learners while disrupting hierarchical relationships. These implications benefit preservice teachers, as they transition into their roles and responsibilities as classroom teachers and clinical experience teacher educators.
In the fourth article, “Engaging in Video Clubs: Teacher Candidates’ Visioning of Linguistically Responsive Literacy Instruction,” Lori Czop Assaf, Michelle Forsythe, and Deniz Atal utilized semester-long video clubs as a means to examine teacher candidates’ (TC) visions or ideas regarding linguistically responsive literacy instruction (LRLI), as well as their reflections and discussions on the videoed practices of exemplary teachers. Although research on the use of video analysis is extensive and has been indicated to show promise in the development of teacher candidates’ understanding and expertise, the current study makes an important contribution to the literature in that the analysis specifically targets responsive teaching related to cultural, racial, ethnic, and linguistic diversity in literacy instruction. Using a qualitative approach that included five different sources of data, the coauthors collected evidence, over two semesters, from 32 TC. Case studies of four TC were then used to provide more thorough context and examples. From the larger group’s reflections and discussions, four themes were identified, including equitable resources and classroom organization, student engagement, student relationships, and scaffolded instruction. The four case studies taken from the larger sample highlighted various components of LRLI that corresponded with their vision or idea of teaching. The authors’ study reminds teacher educators of the value of collaboration, peer-dialogue, and ongoing reflection and also provides one method of video analysis to focus on LRLI.
In the fifth and final article, Sarah Werner Juárez and Alicia Brown Becton address a critical issue in the field of education, which is the shortage of highly qualified teachers in the US. Stress and burnout are consistently identified by teachers as reasons for leaving the profession, making it important for preservice teachers (PSTs) to be provided with preventative support before they ever enter the classroom, especially given that many teachers leave the field within the first 3–5 years. Through “A Self-Care and Wellness Framework in Educator Preparation to Address Burnout, Compassion Fatigue, and Secondary Traumatic Stress,” the coauthors discuss an approach that includes wellness and self-care lessons that faculty can implement over a 15-week semester. After each wellness domain is addressed (i.e., physical: eating well/better, sleep, physical activity), PSTs are encouraged to write specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals, monitor their goals, and share with their peers. The self-care lessons and wellness framework presented in this paper underscore the value of self-care as it relates to teachers and PSTs, the importance of a collaborative, holistic approach by educator preparation programs to support PSTs in the area of wellness, and offer one possibility for mitigating teacher stress, burnout, and fatigue.
We are confident that the articles in this issue will inspire critical dialogue that will advance the field of educator preparation. The articles address an intriguing range of topics – working toward a desperately needed diverse teacher workforce, teacher recruitment strategies, clinical practice, video clubs, and teacher self-care and wellness practices – that are sure to pique the curiosity and, hopefully, improve the scholarship and practice of readers.