Teach as I Say, Not as I Do: How Preservice Teachers Made Sense of the Mismatch between How They Were Expected to Teach and How They Were Taught in Their Professional Training Program

Abstract

A challenge for teacher educators is providing preservice teachers with the opportunity to develop the confidence and efficacy required to address their future students’ sociocultural, academic, and social-emotional needs in this era of standardization, accountability, and limited resources. This case study investigated this issue by examining how a sample of preservice teachers made sense of how their coursework supported them in becoming teachers who center their practices on the needs and interests of their current and future students while attending to policymakers’ reforms. By analyzing the findings of this study, it becomes apparent that these preservice teachers questioned whether the coursework in their program supported their development in becoming classroom teachers in a manner that reflected how their instructors expected them to teach their students. Interpreting these findings provides insight into how teacher educators and their programs can better support preservice teachers’ confidence and efficacy as they enter their future classrooms.

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank the editors of this journal and the reviewers for their thoughtful suggestions for improving this article. They would also like to thank the teachers who participated in their research project.

Notes

1 The lead author would like to thank Dr. Lisa Goldstein for her assistance in understanding Dewey’s (1938/1998) conceptions of teacher responsibility, balance, continuity, quality, and direction.

2 This idea comes from Hatch’s (2002) notion of accountability shovedown.