Multiple Layers of Self in an Evolving Pedagogy of Teacher Education: Conflict and compromise in a quest for classroom democracy

Abstract

This study examines how my practice changed over three semesters as a beginning teacher educator. Teaching the undergraduate course, Diversity in Elementary Education, I worked to uphold and maintain my democratic ideals while more fully accounting for the larger context of authoritarian teaching to which my students were accustomed. The findings suggest that seeking few solutions to the problems being negotiated, prescribing purposes regardless of mutually perceived relevance, and imposing predetermined experiences and outcomes helped to construct a class climate that was more directly aligned with what students were ready to experience while compromising with the larger educational context. By making less discernible the differences between my practice and those with which my students were familiar, I reframed my underlying focus from clashing tales of triumph and tragedy to a complex tapestry of interwoven layers of self informing my evolving pedagogy of teacher education. Doing so helped illuminate the personal, pedagogical, and philosophical challenges of cultivating classroom democracy in an era of increased emphasis on high-stakes testing, standardization, and transmission-based teaching. Such knowledge is important for expanding our understanding of democratic teacher education practices and informing efforts to cultivate democratic dispositions in teachers.

Keywords:

• democratic teacher education
• negotiation
• authority
• pedagogy

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to Doris Martin, Marie Huxtable, Jack Whitehead, and to two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and constructive feedback on earlier versions of this article.