With this first issue of 2022, we are excited to take the editorial leadership for Action in Teacher Education. To begin, we would like to thank the University of Nevada Las Vegas team including Emily Lin, LeAnn Putney, Shaoan Zang, Iesha Jackson, Katrina Lieu, and Peter Wiens for their dedicated work and assistance with a successful and smooth transition. Additionally, we would like to thank the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE), the ATE Professional Journal Committee, and Taylor and Francis for their support and encouragement as we begin our work together.
Action in Teacher Education is an official publication of ATE. The aim of the journal is to provide a space to share ideas related to teacher education and teacher educators and how we, as a profession, may increase our effectiveness in preparing future teachers. As our team begins its tenure, our hope is to foster connections to teacher education in this unprecedented time.
During 2020, we witnessed dedicated individuals across the country and around the world advocating for equity and inclusion. We also observed and benefited from scores of dedicated individuals across the field of science, collaborating to ensure public safety and health and to create a vaccine for COVID-19. The implications of these dynamic issues resonate with the many dedicated individuals committed to the field of education. Innovative research will contribute to the development of equitable models and effective methods for schools and universities as we forge ahead together during the coming years. To effect change in the field, we, as an editorial team, have three goals:
Provide cutting-edge research on digital and virtual education platforms in teacher education and K-12 schools;
Highlight and support research on the racial inequities in U.S. education and advocate for approaches to address and reconcile racial schisms in schools;
Encourage development of theory and practices into the relationships linking mental health and authentic engagement, focusing on teacher resiliency and student well-being through socioemotional learning.
Hopefully, during this tenure, you as a teacher educator and we as editors will effect positive change in our profession and the world of education.
Our Team
Our team includes six scholars and authors that are invested in teacher education. We come from different backgrounds and bring with us unique strengths to create a solid leadership team.
Amanda M. Rudolph, Professor, Stephen F. Austin State University: Amanda earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction, Secondary Education with an arts education focus from the University of Arkansas. Her research agenda focuses on education reform, rural education, and gifted and talented education. She has a background in quantitative statistics with a specialty in survey development. She has served on the board of ATE as well as founding editor for TxEP: Texas Educator Preparation and editor for The Texas Forum of Teacher Education.
Heather K. Olson Beal, Professor, Stephen F. Austin State University: Heather received her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Louisiana State University. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in educational foundations, family and community engagement, and educational policy and advocacy. Her scholarship examines the issues of second language education, school choice, and the experiences of women and mothers in academia. Her qualitative research has been published nationally and internationally.
Chrissy Cross, Associate Professor, Stephen F. Austin State University: She earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction in Science and Math from Texas Tech University. She teaches courses in graduate and undergraduate education as well as in the STEM teacher education program. She has published research in the areas of persistence and retention for STEM pre-service and in-service teachers, curriculum and instruction, qualitative research methods, and motherscholarhood in academia. She is the co-PI on two NSF Noyce grants.
Nancy P. Gallavan, Professor Emerita, University of Central Arkansas: Nancy received her doctoral degree in Curriculum Leadership with a cognate in cultural competence from the University of Denver. She specializes in classroom assessment and teacher efficacy. Nancy has served as ATE president and editor of the ATE Yearbook for many editions. She has published more than 120 peer-reviewed articles and brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the team.
Tracey C. Hasbun, Associate Professor, Stephen F. Austin State University: Tracey received her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction: Early Childhood from Texas A&M University. Her research interests include early childhood, early literacy and language acquisition, and teacher education. Tracey teaches in graduate and undergraduate early childhood programs.
Tingting Xu, Professor, Stephen F. Austin State University: Tingting earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Florida State University. Her research agenda focuses mainly on childhood obesity and preservice teachers’ professional development. She also works as a data analyst for the Office of Assessment and Accountability. She teaches early childhood courses in the Department of Education Studies.
Issue Notes
The five articles in this issue bring a spotlight to critical issues in teacher education. Three articles relate to field and clinical work and issues that arise with those components of teacher education. Of the other two, one addresses the experiences of LGBTQ+ students of color and the other addresses classroom management perceptions of preservice teachers. All the articles share an emphasis on improving experiences of our teacher education candidates.
First, Capello offers a look into supervision practices in “ ‘I Wanted to Give Back to the Profession:’ Preservice Teacher Supervision as Service Work.” This case study investigates the positioning of supervision work as service and the implication of that positionality. The study calls for a deliberate recruitment of professional supervisors, ongoing professional development, and a resistance to consider supervisory work only as service. The piece is timely as the shifting foundation of higher education has not stilled.
The next article, “Critical Conversations in Practice-Based Teacher Education: Fostering Equitable Teaching in a Yearlong Practicum” by Daly, uses self-study and discourse analysis to look at the way mentors and mentees share their thoughts on teaching and equity. Conversations were structured around how to serve minoritized fifth-grade students in one classroom. The study shows the need for the use of critical conversations to prepare more equity-focused future educators.
In “Preservice Teachers’ Self-efficacy During a Field Experience at a Juvenile Detention Facility,” authors Pytash and Hylton use a mixed-methods approach to investigate self-efficacy of preservice teachers while they taught writing in a juvenile detention facility. Overall, the study showed that self-efficacy did increase over the course of the experience. This piece highlights the fact that alternative field experiences may be as effective for our preservice teachers as traditional field experiences. Not only did the preservice teachers have a valuable learning experience, but a group of unseen students were seen and validated.
Moving from field experience and clinical practice, author Beck explores the experiences of LGBTQ+ students of color in “Testimonial Injustice and Teacher Education.” Beck uses narrative inquiry for the study of the personal experiences of students with intersecting identities. This piece questions our decisions in connection with LGBTQ+ students of color. The powerful study calls for us to include these students in our decision-making processes.
Finally, Gokalp and Can provide us with “Evolution of Pre-service Teachers’ Perceptions about Classroom Management and Student Misbehavior in an Inquiry-Based Classroom Management Course.” The current study employs a qualitative case study approach. Overall, the study adds to our knowledge of classroom management pedagogy in concluding that the teacher-based direct instruction approach may not be the most effective. In this case, use of inquiry-based approaches leads to a deeper understanding of student misbehavior.
This issue marks the beginning of the 44th volume of Action in Teacher Education. We look forward to working with the authors and with the dedicated reviewers of Action to bring three more relevant and engaging issues this year. Hopefully, along the way, we will make some promising changes in these uncertain times.