Professional spaces for pre-service teachers: sites of reality, imagination and resistance

Abstract

Questions about the practicum within teacher education tend to focus on the amount of time allocated to it in programs. In this research, we were interested in the quality of the experience rather than assuming “more is better”. To understand what is going on and where, this study focussed on the school and especially the departmental office or room as a site for workplace learning. Using qualitative methods we constructed narratives from the data provided by a cohort of four-year bachelor degree pre-service teachers during and following their final major (10 week) practicum experience. Using theories of spatiality to make sense of the data, we found that the narratives revealed stories of spaces where compliance, disappointment were the key features of the practicum, and where resistance through absence (from the departmental office) was an important strategy to manage the experience. This research challenges the “more is better” argument.

Keywords:

• practicum
• spatial theory
• workplace learning
• departmental staffroom or office
• narrative

Acknowledgement

This research was funded by the Australian Research Council.

Notes

1. The trouser part of the track suit uniform of a player chosen to represent a region/State – Tess was a recognised state level player.

2. In Australia this term is most likely to refer to rugby league or Australian Rules Football.

3. The heartland of Australian Rules Football is the State of Victoria. Some in Queensland still regard AFL as an unwanted incursion, even though the game is now considered national and the region where the research took place has a successful AFL franchise.

4. A pseudonym.