Through the Fire – From Intake to Credential: Teacher Candidates Share Their Experiences through Narrative(18 Constructing Knowledge: Curriculum Studies in Action)

By applying an auto-ethnographic approach in this volume to share and explore the experiences of prospective teachers as they navigate the preparation and credentialing processes of teacher education, we – as those who have gone before the future educators in this text and those who will come behind them, gain first hand insights from these young women and men about what it means and how to better prepare prospective educators to become a teacher against a backdrop of historical inequities in schooling and prepared for the multi-culturally diverse classrooms of today. Teacher educators, school and community leaders, and others committed to pushing toward more equitable social domains and forms of living and learning hence would do well to take up the opportunity provided in this text to learn from the narratives included in this volume and those of other teacher candidates; indeed, the narratives of teacher candidates herein and elsewhere are, in part, reflections of ourselves as teacher educators and evaluations of our work in teacher education and the professional preparation of those who will carry on our professions after us and for rising generations. What we as teacher educators teach, or think we are teaching, in teacher preparation courses may, or may not, be what prospective teachers are learning about being a teacher and successful teaching and learning for all learners, particularly those students historically underserved. Each of the prospective educators who share their narratives in this volume are striving to become critical educators capable of promoting equitable educational and social opportunities, outcomes, and experiences for all learners. While their journeys are each distinctive and unique to them personally, the teacher candidates who share their narratives in this volume highlight some of the challenges and opportunities they have encountered in teacher preparation courses to learn about the functioning of social structures that sustain society’s existing hierarchies and develop the skills and knowledge requisite to identify, implement, and assess critical learning strategies aimed at challenging inequities and promoting more inclusive forms of education. Specifically, these future teachers included in this volume are sharing with us, their readers, their attempts at learning to unhook from Whiteness and to disrupt the pernicious and historical school-to-prison pipeline that has long existed in the US between the nation’s prison system and schools serving learners and their families and communities identified as racially not White, economically poor, and otherwise not members of the White, middle-class, primary English speaking, heterosexual, patriarchal mainstream.

Table of Contents:
Foreword  Brenda G. Harris An Example of Critical Teaching Enacted in the Classroom of Luis-Genro Garcia Notes on the Authors 1 What Is Going on in Teacher Education in the United States  An Introduction  The Educational Testing Complex  A Tale of Two Schools  Through the Fire: This Book Project  The Importance of This Volume  Reading This Book 2 Tried and True Geoffrey Jaynes 3 Bianca: New Footprints on the Well-Trodden Path  The Authorsf Response to Bianca 4 Cecilia: Wisdom Is Earned through Experience 5 Covington: A Journey through the Hundred Acre Wood  The Credential Program: A Journey through the Process  Education and Common Core  Words of Wisdom  Moving through Difficult Situations  The Credential Program and My Ability to Teach  Why I Teach  My Teaching Philosophy: Then and Now  My Experiences: A Learning Curve  My Future Classroom  My Goal as a Teacher: A Conclusion 6 George: The Last 100 Meters  The History Teacher  The Ever-Evolving School  Beginning the Race  Life as a Teacher Candidate  Finishing the Race 7 Hillary: Teaching Is a Lifestyle 8 Jasmime: What Teacher Educators Can Learn from Teacher Candidates 9 Ximaroa: All Things Considered 10 Miquel: The Great Emancipator of Education 11 Owen: Is Math that Terrible? 12 Vijay: Education and the Pursuit of Happiness 13 Wade: A Teacherfs Last Step Before Game Time  14 Mary: The Bell Rings c The Journey Begins 15 Kaitlyn: Three Things I Learned During My Student Teaching Experience  Student Teaching Is Like Living with a Roommate  Learn to Emulate or Do the Opposite of Your Mentor  The Toughest Experiences Present You with the Greatest Learning Opportunities  What It Is All about 16 Lauren and Patricia: An Elementary Prison 17 Jordan and Catherine: Realizations about Classroom Environment  Introduction  Stacy  Mark  John  Jayden  Sean  Marcy  Conclusion 18 Through the Fire: A Critical Race Perspective toward Preparing Critical Educators  Educational Slavery Today  The Good News Afterword References

About the Author :
Cleveland Hayes, Ph.D., is a Professor of Education Foundations at Indiana University Indianapolis. At Indiana University – Indianapolis, Dr. Hayes teaches science in the elementary school, education foundations and qualitative studies in education. He is also affiliated with Africana studies and teaches various courses. Kenneth J. Fasching-Varner, Ph.D., is the Shirley B. Barton Endowed Associate Professor at Louisiana State University. Varner’s areas of scholarly expertise and interest center on the intersections of identity in globalized contexts. Varner examines the nature of White Racial Identity (WRI), Critical Race Theory (CRT), and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy. Hillary Eisworth received her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from The University of Texas at Austin in 2007. She is currently an instructor of early childhood education at Louisiana State University. Her research interests include teacher preparation and multicultural education. Kimberly White-Smith, Ed.D., is Professor of Education and Dean at the University of La Verne’s LaFetra College of Education (LFCE). University of Southern California (Ed.D, Learning and Instruction, 2004), Teachers College, Columbia University (M.A., Curriculum and Instruction, 1995) and the University of California at Berkeley (B.A., Psychology, 1994).