Expectations of a pre-service teacher: implications of encountering the unexpected

Abstract

This paper explores the expectations of a group of site-based teacher educators as each attempted to support a pre-service teacher who struggled to achieve satisfactory outcomes on their professional placement. Discourse analysis of teachers' narratives provided my personal, partial and dynamic (Mauthner & Doucet, 2003) interpretation of what occurred in these typically emotionally painful events. Literature related to emotion, power, ‘non-traditional’ students and Hargreaves' (2001) ‘emotional geographies’ aided my attempts to make sense of teachers’ stories when viewed through a post-structuralist lens. The paper is concerned with the bases for strong emotional experiences and raises questions in relation to how we can support teachers make sense of discourses that shape their lives and their emotions, particularly with respect to site-based teacher educators’ expectations of their pre-service teacher. This paper also raises questions for university staff and site-based teacher educators in addressing issues raised by this interpretation and I provide suggestions to consider for both when working together to develop quality site-based programs for all the participants.

Keywords:

• preservice teacher education
• post-structuralist
• discourse analysis

Acknowledgement

I wish to acknowledge the support of colleagues who provided valuable feedback in the development of this paper.

Notes

1. I refer to the teacher in the school who works with a pre-service teacher – somebody engaged in a tertiary initial teacher education program as a site-based teacher educator. Different countries adopt the term ‘cooperating teacher’, supervising teacher; teaching associate, mentor etc.

2. Unfortunately, the Australian Bureau of Statistics is unable to provide data indicating the demographics of teacher education students on a national level. However, anecdotally staff in Australian universities suggest this is consistent with their situation.