ERIC Number: EJ1177543
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0951-8398
EISSN: N/A
Transforming the Embodied Dispositions of Pre-Service Special Education Teachers
Fellner, Gene; Kwah, Helen
International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (QSE), v31 n6 p520-534 2018
Teacher education programs seek to foster dispositions that welcome student differences in race, culture, language and ability. However, pre-service teachers' dispositions are difficult to transform because they tend to be aligned with the field of schooling where differences are punished or excluded. This study examines an activity for transforming pre-service teachers' communicative habitus that was inspired by Bourdieu's theory that habitus or dispositions are unconsciously embodied and therefore require a bodily counter-training for change. The activity instructed 17 pre-service Special Education teachers to communicate an experience through sound alone rather than words in order to challenge teachers' deeply embodied communicative norms and open them up to the possibilities of non-normative communication. Follow up discussions, written reflections and videotaped think-alouds provided opportunities for explicit pedagogy and reflection. In this article, we discuss findings and implications from a recent implementation of this activity.
Descriptors: Preservice Teachers, Preservice Teacher Education, Special Education, Student Teacher Attitudes, Attitude Change, Learning Activities, Communication Strategies, Masters Degrees, Protocol Analysis, Protocol Materials, Nonverbal Communication, Teaching Methods
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: New York
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A