Examining Collaboration in Teacher Preparation and Clinical Practice

ABSTRACT

Collaboration among educators is a vital component for teachers’ success working with diverse students. Teacher preparation programs, however, have not sufficiently included experiences in which teacher candidates can learn about professional collaboration in preparation for clinical and professional experiences. In this article, the authors describe the experiences from two pairs of teacher candidates—one pair who completed a cotaught teacher preparation course focused on collaboration, and the other pair who did not. The authors used interviews, observations, and content analysis of candidate artifacts to examine these experiences within the framework of symbolic interactionism. Findings suggest differences between these pairs of teacher candidates related to how they understood and managed collaborative situations. Implications for teacher preparation and clinical practice are included.

KEYWORDS:

• Clinical practice
• collaboration
• preservice teachers
• teacher preparation

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anthony Pellegrino

Anthony Pellegrino is assistant professor of education at George Mason University. His research interests include preservice teacher preparation and social studies education practices.

Margaret P. Weiss

Margaret P. Weiss is assistant professor of special education at George Mason University. She teaches preservice and practicing teachers and researches collaborative practices and coteaching in inclusive team-taught classrooms.