Research has demonstrated supportive teachers' importance in the success and safety of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) students. However, few researchers study the degrees to which sociocultural factors and actors shape teachers' efforts to build LGBTQ-positive classrooms. This article is part of a larger longitudinal study…

This study takes a fine-grained look at the inaugural implementation of a high-stakes teacher performance assessment (the edTPA) from multiple perspectives and chronicles how participants used the reading, writing, and discussion of poetry to cope with and sometimes critique the edTPA. Teacher researchers sought to understand multiple perspectives…

This article examines student teachers' investigations of issues related to writing pedagogy, response, and evaluation in an English methods course, including their use of descriptive review of student writing (Carini, 2001) to analyze adolescents' work collaboratively. Beginning with an examination of prevailing understandings of writing…

Research on writing tasks suggests that cognitively demanding tasks are important for student learning. Though a great deal is known about high-quality writing instruction, less is known about how teachers, through their instruction, support students to complete tasks at a high level. This qualitative study examines three preservice teachers'…

This case study follows a teacher candidate through her semester of student teaching English in a suburban high school in the U.S. Southeast. The study is part of a line of inquiry that investigates the factors that contribute to teachers' development of "concepts" to guide their instruction. In particular, this research focuses on the…

Joseph O. Milner explores a narrowing of differences between English teacher educators and classroom teachers. Using North Carolina as a national barometer for his action research, Milner cites the shifting attitudes of classroom teachers toward the shared values of English teacher educators, and he opens the door for similar research projects in…

This study examined the complexities of mentoring discourse and agentive teacher preparation. I argue that such an examination is necessary to better prepare student teachers to engage agentively with the powerful status quo in schools. I begin by discussing the intersections of current thinking about mentoring and dialogue, and I describe how…

This case reflects a yearlong project I, as the instructor of an Advanced Methods course, conducted with my students to help them plan and implement critical literacy units in their high school and middle school student teaching placements. To do so, I assigned student teachers to explore notions of critical literacy (including resistant reading,…

Student teachers often find themselves in a dilemma when leading classroom discussions about texts. These conflicts may not necessarily be a reflection of student behavior or classroom management. Instead, they may be a sign of active engagement and students taking the challenge beyond their current knowledge level. Two kinds of conflicts were…

Examines the dialogue journals of a student teacher and her cooperating teacher. Notes that dialogue journals provide a means of (1) discovering and reinforcing knowledge; (2) initiating students into the professional community; and (3) allowing both teacher and student teacher to assess and affect their experience. (MM)

One of the most important requirements of an effective student teaching experience is good communication between the teacher and the student intern. (MM)

Presents an approach to evaluating the classroom interactions of student teachers and demonstrates how the approach works in a specific situation. (DD)

Proposes that teacher education programs are considerably weakened by faculty unwillingness to supervise student teachers in the field. Enumerates reasons why education faculty lack enthusiasm in supervision, and suggests the importance and potential advantages to be gained by increased involvement in the supervision process. (KEH)

Analyzes the relationships between student teachers and their cooperating teachers. Describes in detail the semester-long field experience of one student/cooperating teacher pair. (HB)

The author discusses the advantages of both the analytic and the anecdotal methods of evaluating and instructing the student teacher. (MM)