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ABSTRACT
Clinical supervisors serve an essential role in the field of teacher preparation. Despite acknowledgment of the complexity of this work, supervisors are often marginalized, provided inadequate support in their roles, and seen as evaluators for individual student teachers as opposed to part of a larger program. Instead of positioning clinical supervisors at the fringes of our teacher preparation program, we reorganized our teaching internship to center supervisors as the hub connecting interns, collaborating mentor teachers, districts, and faculty. In this manuscript we share benefits of this relational model coupled with ongoing challenges. In the field of teacher preparation, there is a longstanding call for coherent preparation models that focus on, among other factors, the dynamic integration of clinical practice, the rigorous selection of clinical educators and coaches from both higher education and the PK-12 sector, and the designation of specific sites to support ongoing clinical preparation (AACTE, 2018; Darling-Hammond, 2014; Hands & Rong, 2014; McDonald et al. 2013, 2014; National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, 2010). Essential to implementing these models are those who serve as clinical supervisors.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).