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…

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…

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,…

My first year as a tenure-track professor has been nothing short of a jaw-dropping experience. From navigating the social and political environment with colleagues and administrators, to building meaningful relationships with pre-service teachers, the COVID-19 pandemic and all its attendant challenges prompted me to examine common institutional…

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'…

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 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 traces the political, historical, and ideological roots of the Relay Graduate School of Education. Relay represents a more current iteration of alternative teacher preparation programs and emerged from the earlier partnerships between education schools and independent alternative programs (Mungal, 2012). These programs have become…

Place-Based education (PBE) is gaining rapid recognition across the United States. The authors of this article contend that there is an imperative need to re-structure and re-conceptualize teacher education such that it allows for a significant shift in thinking and practice around learning, teaching, and community. They advocate that the PBE…

Education faces a tenuous future, straddling a growing divide between a no-longer-relevant past and an uncertain future, a future that calls into question the future of humanity altogether. In the face of such a future, posthumanism stands as a reminder that the divides we make in education are unstable, that things could and likely will be…