Elementary preservice teachers’ navigation of dilemmatic spaces in linking critical pedagogical thinking with practice during practicum

ABSTRACT

In order to create equitable and inclusive educational experiences, preservice teachers need to learn how to exercise their critical thinking to make critical pedagogy a part of their practice. However, preservice teachers often encounter dilemmatic tensions when they attempt to experiment with and enact critical pedagogical thinking during their practicum. Informed by the concept of dilemmatic spaces, this study examined the processes by which six preservice teachers identified and responded to dilemmatic tensions as they worked to understand and practice critical pedagogical thinking across three practicum spaces: a community inquiry project, onsite coursework, and classroom teaching. The findings reveal that preservice teachers often use one (or several) of three tactics to respond to dilemmatic tensions in engaging in critical pedagogical thinking and practice within and across these practicum spaces: (a) wait and see; (b) improvise and see; and (c) implement and see. The participants thus negotiated the emergent tensions and dilemmas across practicum contexts and professional relationships in varying ways, and with differing degrees of success. This study argues for explicit attention to dilemmatic tensions in practicum to better support preservice teachers’ critical pedagogical thinking-practice within and against the spatial, interactional, and contextual complexities of practicum.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical pedagogical thinking and practice
• dilemmatic spaces
• preservice teachers
• practicum
• teacher education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.