Pre-Service Teacher Supports in Urban Schools

ABSTRACT

Research highlights the challenges of teacher preparation programs in adequately preparing teachers to meet the needs of diverse students often served in high-needs urban schools. Teacher preparation programs that include culturally relevant pedagogy, coursework specifically related to school-community interaction, and most importantly, internships with mentorship in urban schools, have demonstrated that teachers specifically trained to teach in urban schools are better prepared and stay in teaching longer. This study examined the perceptions of 11 clinical supervising teachers and nine pre-service teachers that received flexible University mentoring supports during student teaching in two high-need, urban schools. The findings illustrate that urban student teaching experiences, when supported by additional collaborative mentorship, have the potential to improve experiences for both pre-service teachers and supervising teachers. Further, collaboration with schools to link teacher preparation program course content to urban teaching experiences can improve the theory-to-practice gap.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher preparation
• mentoring
• urban education

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Wendy Cavendish

Wendy Cavendish is a professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at the University of Miami. Her research focuses on perspectives of students and teachers in urban settings.

Xuchilt Perez

Xuchilt Perez served as an assistant professor in adolescent special education at Hunter College, City University of New York. Her research interests include effective teacher preparation for diverse settings.

Margarette Mahotiere

Margarette Mahotiere is a postdoctoral research associate at Florida International University. Her current work is focused on family and community engagement for culturally and linguistically diverse families and students.