Teacher residencies offer a promising approach to enhancing the recruitment, preparation, and retention of educators by addressing barriers to entering and succeeding in the teaching profession, especially among educators of color. In this paper, we examine strategies residencies might use to overcome the obstacles faced by Black educators. We…

A university in the California Central Valley and three rural district partners designed and implemented a rural teacher residency (RTR) to address the urgent need to prepare and increase retention of qualified educators serving students in rural communities. The RTR program prioritized building partnerships through data use and continuous…

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…

In this article, we share preliminary data of our small pilot study utilizing Democratic Queer Theory framework (Camicia, 2016) and mixed methods data collection sought to understand if teachers are implementing LGBTQ+ curriculum in elementary schools. When evaluating the data collected, we found that California credential candidates are not…

Practice-based teacher education (PBTE), an approach to teacher education that privileges authentic experiences and is centered around the acquisition of a set of core practices, has seen an increase in popularity in recent years. The goal of PBTE is to cultivate preservice teachers (PSTs) who are 'advanced beginners' in a variety of pedagogical…

In response to increased accountability demands placed on teacher preparation programs across the United States, some programs are using standardized teacher performance assessments, such as edTPA. In our elementary teacher preparation program, a recent state mandate stipulated that teacher candidates had to successfully complete edTPA in order to…

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…

The Covid-19 pandemic has influenced all levels of education, including higher education. School closures have impacted teacher credentialing course work, research projects, assessments, and student teaching placements. The challenges currently facing teacher candidates necessitate a review of how we support their needs for connection, support,…

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…

Anzaldúa's borderlands loom large in the experiences of a first-year, assistant professor in a rural, predominantly working-class Mexican community near the United States/Mexico border. Tensions and dislocations, along race, class, immigrant background, and language in a transborder teacher education program, were exacerbated by the COVID-19…

In March, our on-campus tutoring program for credential candidates and local students was shut down by the pandemic. This signature program had served families and the community for many years and provided essential fieldwork experience for credential candidates in our elementary and secondary reading methods courses. Most importantly, it provided…

This article addresses the importance of highlighting teachers' emotional labor within teacher education programs. Given the changing landscape of schools in the 21st century, teachers' emotional labor now includes participating in annual safety drills and lockdown trainings, in addition to responses to violence (threatened or actual). This study…

This study examines preservice teacher coursework and interview data related to encountering student trauma, secondary trauma, and the role of self-care during clinical placement experiences. A thematic analysis of the data led to the identification of four main themes: the power of student stories, recognition of the many forms of trauma,…

Teaching writing requires explicit pedagogical training. Often pre-service English teachers are not only unprepared to teach writing, but they are also unprepared to provide effective writing feedback. Effective writing feedback: (1) prepares young writers to make sound and thorough writing choices; (2) positively impacts learning; and (3)…