“Most of His Teachers Had ‘Given Up’”: Preparing Future Educators to Critically Examine Their Multifaceted Instructional Demands

AbstractThis article presents an approach to teacher education that combines case-based pedagogy, action research, and communities of practice, which ultimately conceptualizes preservice teachers (PSTs) as problem solvers. Eleven PSTs conducted research and authored reports during their student teaching experiences in a large, metropolitan school district. This study examined the PSTs’ reports to better understand how they deepened their understanding of the multifaceted demands of teaching in diverse classrooms. The findings demonstrate how PSTs used their research to navigate their role as students/teachers, identify classroom limitations and resources, and persist through challenges. These findings contribute implications for teacher education and new directions for research, including increasing PSTs’ opportunities to collaborate within a professional learning community, providing spaces to self-reflect on actions and biases, and supporting strategic problem-solving. Ultimately, this approach to teacher education reinforced the idea of teachers as continuous learners who partner with their community of educators to meet the fundamental goal of improving student learning in urban schools. Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).