Rachel’s literacy stories: unpacking one preservice teacher’s moral perspectives on literacy teaching

Abstract

While teacher educators agree that teaching is a profoundly moral activity, little attention has been placed on the moral perspectives about teaching and learning of those entering the teaching workforce. As a way of illustrating the importance of helping both future teachers become aware of their own moral compasses and teacher educators to understand ways in which such knowledge can support their students, I use methods of qualitative inquiry to explore the life history of one European American preservice elementary teacher in the USA. In recounting the events of her life, Rachel Rosenberg demonstrates how she uses her own life experiences to frame the moral aspects of her future role as a teacher and especially her perspectives on literacy teaching and learning. The methods used here to elicit and analyse Rachel’s story can be useful to teacher educators who want to understand how the moral perspectives embedded in teachers’ stories influence the ways in which teachers approach and enact the work of teaching.

Keywords:

• narrative
• life history
• literacy
• teacher education
• preservice teachers

Notes

1. That education is ‘a process of changing behavior patterns of people’ (Tyler, 1950, p. 4) is the central premise of Ralph Tyler’s Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction, also known as ‘the Tyler rationale’ of curriculum theory and practice.