Editors’ Notes

Educational theory and research are canonical. The same researchers and theorists are cited over and over to build arguments for effective instruction, models of learning, roles of contexts in teaching, and other important topics in our field. This is a facet of scholarship. We build on previous theoretical ideas and research findings to create an intellectual heritage, and we choose rigorous studies that are innovative to push our thinking. However, educational theory and research are also political, and some voices are silenced while others flourish.

For example, John Dewey’s work (1904) is viewed as seminal in American education. His philosophy still informs curriculum theory, and how we conceptualize purposes for schools in this country (Westbrook, 2015). Yet, African American scholar Anna Julia Cooper (1892/1988) published essays predating Dewey in which she articulated similar ideas about the importance of community and democracy to education. However, her scholarship is cited less often in educational research. Cooper was a classroom teacher, the fourth African America woman to receive a Ph.D, and a strong voice for women’s and all African American’s rights (Alexander, 1995). The point is not that Dewey’s scholarship is unimportant and should not be cited. However, Cooper’s contributions to teacher education have been overlooked and not received the scholarly attention warranted. Further, her innovative thinking has been acknowledged only recently as our field begins to understand the strength of her voice and depth of her ideas (Giles, 2006; Sulé, 2013). As researchers and educators, we have an obligation to ensure all voices—especially those who have been overlooked or silenced are heard. The six articles in this issue address questions about strength, professional voices, innovative ideas, and possible futures that deserve to be heard and attended to in the education of teachers.

In her qualitative study, “Seven Layers of Strength in a Model Teacher Preparation Program,” Beers identifies interrelated layers of strength in an early childhood teacher preparation program. These layers are constantly evolving, and components such as teacher research and diverse experiences are carefully situated in robust clinical experiences so that programmatic strengths are tied to concrete practice. “Accessing Teacher Candidates’ Pedagogical Intentions and Imagined Teaching Futures Through Drama and Arts-Based Structures” is a study in which a design-based experimental method is used to investigate the pedagogical decisions novice teachers make and future decisions they imagine themselves making. Drawing on photographs, tableau, (individuals or groups positioning themselves in silent frozen moments), role-playing, and drawings, Branscombe and Schneider utilize a drama-based arts frame to look toward possible instructional futures for a group of teacher candidates working with fourth grade students.

Shanahan and Dallacqua examine how teacher candidates in an adolescent literature course use young adult literature to inform their curricular futures. Their qualitative study, “Moving beyond “agreeable” texts and “boring” tasks: Pairing YAL and critical literacy in teacher education” combines young adult literature texts with literary theory. This allows them to question how juxtaposing specific young adult texts with theories, such as reader response and critical race theory, might become a tool to foster critical literacy. Hoffman, Mosley Wetzel, and DeJulio investigate how developing literacy tutoring in “hybrid spaces” can help elementary teacher candidates begin to think about their professional voices within the limits of standardized curriculum. In “Multiple Literacy Tutoring Experiences across a Teacher Preparation Program: How can Practice in Hybrid Spaces Help Resolve the “Practice Makes Practice” Dilemma?” they use action research together with design-based research to explore how teacher candidates negotiate tensions among diverse instructional spaces, a university course setting, and an elementary classroom setting. Khasnabis, Goldin, and Ronfeldt focus on partnership practices within a culturally responsive frame in “The Practice of Partnering: Simulated Parent Teacher Conferences as a Tool for Teacher Education.” These authors conceptualize parent teacher conferences as sites where teacher candidates can recognize affordances families bring into a learning partnership. Importantly, they develop a simulation in which teacher candidates interact with a Mexican-American family to experience and understand what diverse families bring to a school community. In the final article, “Building capacity and changing mental models: The impact of a short term overseas teaching experience on White teacher candidates from a rural Midwestern college,” Burgard, Boucher, and Johnston investigated changes in mental models of a group of White teacher candidates and how those changes shifted their awareness and understanding of race and culture. Their findings suggest that short-term international experience can have an impact on preservice teachers that informs their futures as educators

In her essays on education Cooper (1892/1988) argued that a key idea for successful education was “collectivity” and everyone suffers if any group is marginalized or denied access to an education (Sulé, p, 291). In this current educational climate, Cooper’s words still challenge us. The articles in this issue remind us that, collectively, we must listen and attend to voices that have not been heard, and learn from experiences of groups and individuals who have been marginalized and overlooked. Then, we can work along side teacher candidates and inservice teachers to see possible futures for all students in communities and schools where we live and teach.