Drawing on critical literacy as a theoretical framework, this paper explores how a children's book writing assignment designed to center the experiences of underrepresented communities in children's literature contributed to shifts in awareness among predominantly White teacher candidates. The study occurred at a large urban university in…

An increasing number of school districts encourage discussion of current events in classrooms. However, teachers' ability and willingness to manage these conversations may be hampered by concerns about what they are or are not allowed to disclose, especially because their First Amendment speech protections do not fully extend into the classroom.…

As the COVID-19 pandemic invaded our lives in March of 2020, schools were forced to close their doors and urgently transition to remote learning. This action research study is about pre-service elementary teachers (PSTs) in a social justice-focused social studies methods course who used this unprecedented time as valid curricular material. While…

Scholars have long urged teacher educators to engage in policy advocacy and to respond to mounting attacks on the teacher education field. Prior research has shown that teacher educators feel largely unprepared to participate in policy debates. This observation raises the question of how those who do engage in advocacy learn to navigate the…

As teacher preparation programs across the country evolve in response to criticism, declining enrollment, and increasing competition, research is needed to guide and inform their evolution. In response, faculty at one teacher preparation program embarked upon a two-year journey to transform a program to make it more conceptually coherent as well…

Within the teacher education literature, international teaching experiences are lauded as opportunities for teacher candidates to develop multiple perspectives and cultural awareness. The purpose of this study was to understand the experience of 12 teacher candidates who engaged in an international teaching experience in Costa Rica. This…

Teaching mathematics for social justice is a rich research area in which field trips have been under examined. The paucity of literature on math-based field trips for social justice, specifically, warrants further investigation. This action research study aims to improve our practice of empowering elementary preservice teachers to design…

Teachers leave the profession due to many reasons, one of which is difficulty with classroom management skills. A significant part of a well-run classroom is having affirming and positive relationships with students. In this study, teacher caring is explored via a content analysis of preservice teachers' classroom management plans, a required…

Teachers' literacy identities inform how they teach reading. Only about half, however, view themselves as enthusiastic readers, and up to 40% have negative attitudes toward reading. The repercussions are great: not only do teachers who are unenthusiastic about reading produce uninspired students, but they also use fewer research-based reading…

"Emergent teacher leadership" is a new concept that refers to teacher leadership in its earliest forms among teachers at any point in their careers but particularly among teacher candidates and early-career teachers. This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews to investigate how six teacher candidates perceived their own…

In this action research study, we investigated pre-service teachers' (n = 39) perceptions of academic language and strategies in order to support their abilities to plan and teach elementary social studies. Using mixed methods triangulation design, we analyzed edTPA SCORES, pre-assessments, post-assessments, videos of teaching, field notes,…

This autoethnographic cross-case study articulates a set of field-tested strategies, focusing on how White-dominated teacher-preparation programs (TPPs) could recruit a greater number of teacher educators who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) by actively designing, implementing, and modeling equity-conscious recruitment practices.…

This qualitative case study responds to calls for research on the ways critical reflection develops in preservice and novice teachers. While evaluating capacity to reflect is a dominant practice in teacher education, few studies explore empirically how different factors impact teachers' reflection. Building from earlier research that…

This paper describes the findings of a study that examined the questions elementary education teacher candidates (TCs) posed while facilitating a number talk or a discussion about a word problem with elementary school students. The TCs in this study were undergraduates participating in a practice-based mathematics pedagogy/methods course designed…

The purpose of the study is to analyze the role preservice teachers' mental health plays in their development during teacher preparation programs and the role of teacher preparation programs in preservice teachers' mental health journeys. Using an ethic of care theoretical approach, a within-method triangulation design was utilized with…