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ERIC Number: EJ1164406
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1090-1027
EISSN: N/A
Going beyond the Gap between Theory and Practice: Rethinking Teacher Reflection with Poststructural Insights
Kim, Koeun; Kim, Jinhee
Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, v38 n4 p289-303 2017
This article aims to formulate and answer the question of how insights from poststructuralism can inform our pedagogy of reflection that is based on the inseparability between theory and practice. To meaningfully situate this discussion in the context of preservice teachers' reflection on their community-based field experience, we draw on our own teaching experiences in the U.S. early childhood teacher education programs. In this article, we provide illustrative examples of several strategies we have found useful in helping preservice teachers engage with poststructurally inspired, theoretical reflection or reflective practice to examine their multiple and competing discourses that shape their understandings, relationships, and interactions with themselves and the children in their field sites such as Head Start programs and homeless shelters. In this process, we highlight how preservice teachers began to rethink their "at risk" discourse concerning children, coming from certain racial/ethnic, language, and social economic class backgrounds. Going beyond instrumental view of practical (ir)relevance of theory in the current evidence-based practice model, this article addresses the needs for providing epistemological diversity in teacher education to allow multiple readings of field experiences and disrupt the legitimacy afforded to dominant discourses in education.
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A