Stories from Discontinuing Student Teachers

Abstract

This paper tells the stories of two early childhood student teachers who decided to discontinue their enrolment in their pre‐service programme. Both consistently received above‐average grades and positive practicum reports but became distressed by their experiences in the programme. The paper focuses on the emotional intensity of their responses to the experiences they encountered. It suggests that an understanding of student teachers' emotional frames of reference and their epistemological perspectives might assist teacher educators to become more sensitive to students' emotional well‐being. In turn, this might alleviate some of the emotional distress which can accompany learning to teach, and help to stem attrition from teacher education programmes.