Teacher Perspective Development: A Study of Preservice Social Studies Teachers

Abstract

This study investigated the formation and development of preservice social studies teachers' perspectives. An individual's teaching perspective is a way of thinking and acting in a teaching situation. Examples of teaching perspectives were obtained through observations of and interviews with social studies education majors (N = 21) at a major midwestern university. The interview data were consistent with the hypothesis that preservice teachers' perspectives are the product of a dialectical process of professional socialization. The influence of social structural variables, such as teacher education course work and field experiences, appeared to be marginal and apparently did not produce deep internal changes in the belief systems of the participants. The participants were active mediators in their relationships with socializing institutions as represented by the schools and university teacher education. The active role of the individual in the development of a teaching perspective was illustrated through the employment of four strategies: (a) role-playing, (b) selective role-modeling, (c) impression management, and (d) self-legitimation.