Preparing Community Teachers Early: Exploring Aspiring Teacher Learning and Identity Development in a Grow Your Own Program

ABSTRACT

This qualitative study examined a group of aspiring teachers who completed a pre-collegiate Grow Your Own (GYO) teacher program. The goals of the GYO program were to recruit and introduce high school students to the teaching profession and facilitate their transition to a teacher education program and eventually back to teaching in their communities. Findings showed that learning foundational knowledge about teaching and engaging in teaching activities in the GYO program provided early opportunities for participants to experience various aspects of being a teacher and begin constructing identities as teachers. Participants also developed an increased awareness of diversity and equity issues related to education in their communities and started accumulating knowledge and strategies as culturally responsive, community-oriented teachers. Mentorship from their teachers further fostered their sense of belonging to the teaching profession and ongoing teacher identity development. Research implications and recommendations for teacher education programs and policy makers to strengthen and sustain GYOs and district-university-community partnerships in teacher preparation were discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Grow your own programs
• preservice teacher education
• teacher identity

Acknowledgement

We thank the ATE editorial team and anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback and helpful suggestions on earlier drafts of this manuscript. We are most grateful to the aspiring teachers and teacher mentors who participated in this study. Their dedication to education in their schools and communities has greatly enriched our research and knowledge.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yiting Chu

Dr. Yiting Chu (he/him) is an Assistant Professor in the Doctor of Education in Educational Program Development at the College of Education, University of South Florida. His research is situated in the intersections of teacher learning and development in/for diverse contexts, with the goal of supporting culturally responsive and equity-oriented educators for multicultural schools and communities.

Amy L. Weems

Dr. Amy L. Weems is an Assistant Professor in the School of Education at the University of Louisiana Monroe. Her service and research interests include educator roles in promoting secondary literacy skills development, sociocultural factors that impact student success and postsecondary pathways, recruitment and retention efforts for increasing and diversifying the teaching workforce, and implications of education reform. Dr. Weems proudly served as 2013 Louisiana Teacher of the Year.