Fostering Dispositions through the Literary Arts

Abstract

The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (2008) requires that institutions preparing teachers consider not only the knowledge and skills needed to enter the classroom but also the dispositions for professional practice. Thus, teacher educators need to develop pedagogical practices designed to foster dispositions such as those cited by the council: Being fair and believing that all students can learn. The arts disciplines, from visual to literary, offer opportunities to promote dispositions in teacher education. This study examined one multicultural foundations course in which students read historical and biographical fiction chronicling collisions among diverse worldviews. The data reveal that the present preservice teachers characterized their experience with the literary arts as engaging. Once engaged, they recognized the necessity of understanding their students' stories. The literary arts led the preservice teachers to reexamine negative assumptions about their students—a reexamination vital to developing the disposition to believe that all students can learn.