Early childhood teacher preparation programs offer a curriculum that centers the White normative perspective (i.e., devoid of diverse perspectives). Because the young children and families that these teachers will work with are representative of the U.S. demographic, it is important that these programs consider alternate ways of preparing their…

This article addresses the need to uncover and examine implicit biases of early childhood educators through the development of critical consciousness. As a key point of entry to the school system, preschool has the capacity to be an on-ramp to inclusive education, where diversity in its many forms is seen as a benefit to all and a natural part of…

I teach in a multiple subject credential program that requires all preservice teachers to complete a course specifically focused on arts curriculum and instruction. Based on my experiences in other credential programs throughout California, arts curriculum and instruction is often combined with another content area like social studies. My arts…

Education is an act of love. One may argue however, that because it is such a personal act, it is difficult and nearly impossible to achieve it in an authentic manner beyond the face-to-face interaction of teacher and student. Yet, we now live in a time in which education has been transmitted to a virtual platform. This paper highlights how I…

With the advent of COVID-19 and classes moving online, future educators of Color (FEoC) in teacher education programs are susceptible to the same disparities in outcomes and retention that college students of Color experience. As a teacher educator of Color, I drew from "abolitionist teaching," "restorative practices," and…

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented upheaval of the traditional teaching context. Fortunately, disruptions can also catalyze innovations as they cause the field to re-examine its assumptions and practices. Re-thinking how we mentor pre-service and early-service teachers is one area that shows particular promise for improving…

This essay presents a case of collaborative learning and lesson design between general and special education teacher candidates through a synchronous online class during the COVID-19 pandemic. We propose a theoretical framework of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) for inclusive history-social studies teaching and detail how we used the framework…

The COVID-19 pandemic has taught supervisors of teacher candidates some critical lessons. From our time in quarantine, surfaced the disquisition of a focus on personal and professional work-life balance, creative problem solving in the home, and K-12 teacher candidate supervision. The necessity for self-care during the pandemic and in educators'…

Teachers in the US have historically served affective roles of uplift and civic engagement (Fultz, 1995; Gere, 2005), but reforms in the last century privileged technical aspects of the profession (Buchanan, 2015). The COVID-19 crisis, which shifted learning online and isolated students, revealed the limitations of a technical focus in teacher…

A sociocultural context of interruption and instability illuminated our teacher candidates' funds of knowledge and identity (e.g., Esteban-Guitart & Moll, 2014) during the global pandemic of 2020. Their expertise, skills, and self-understandings strengthened both the mentor-teacher candidate relationship and student engagement. Teacher…

In this article, the authors discuss the creation of an Urban Dual Credential Program (UDCP) at a large, comprehensive state university in California, a program meant to prepare dually-certified teachers in general education (California Multiple Subject Credential) and special education (California Education Specialist Credential in mild/moderate…

Effectively engaging students in mathematics discourse is challenging, especially in a language other than the one in which you learned mathematics. Teachers must manage the academic as well as social function of language. In Spanish-English bilingual classrooms in the U.S., changing the language of instruction to Spanish may not be enough to…

Teacher education necessitates rich, generative experiences for up-and-coming teachers in working classrooms. Written by two English Education faculty members, this article discusses efforts to revise the clinical, field-based components of their courses so to more commonly yield such experiences. Specifically, they aimed to infuse fieldwork with…

Learning to teach is a complex intellectual and adaptive performance act. Student engagement is the cornerstone of effective instruction. Current education reform policies, such as Common Core State Standards (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010) and Teacher Effectiveness…

One of the major hurdles in preparing preservice teachers to differentiate instruction has been that they tend not to see much differentiated instruction in actual classrooms (Benjamin, 2002; Tomlinson, 1999). There always may be a contradiction in wanting to promote change in instructional practices while, at the same time, relying on a teacher…