Telling Stories of Our Teaching, Reflecting on Our Practices

Abstract

This article explores how one teacher educator developed contexts in which White, middle-class prospective teachers told teaching stories to one another in a weekly, on-campus, student-teaching seminar. The goal of the seminar was for the student teachers to consider alternative ways to think about and to behave toward children different from themselves in race, social class, and language backgrounds. Through storytelling, the prospective teachers saw the strengths of children whom others wished to label as deficient. By sharing stories, the prospective teachers engaged in collaborative critique regarding classroom events, took greater control over their own development as teachers, and developed plans for future action that support all children.