The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which the mission of preparing teachers to teach for social justice is operationalized within the methods courses in teacher preparation programs that assert a social justice mission. A qualitative content analysis was conducted of course syllabi for English/Language Arts courses, using a…

During the past decade, there has been more than an adequate amount of research addressing issues regarding social studies methods courses. However, the apparent void is that there is no clear understanding of what pedagogical content knowledge or understanding of pedagogical approaches teacher candidates bring with them to social studies methods…

The purpose of this pragmatic action research study was to explore our re-conceptualization efforts in preparing pre-service teachers to guide the inquiry process with formative assessment and subsequently use the understandings to improve our teacher preparation program. The process was guided by two questions: to what extent did course…

The purpose of this content analysis study was to examine how reading comprehension was addressed in professional literacy texts used with preservice teachers at five universities in Texas. The universities for the study were selected based on the number of teachers graduating with their initial EC-4 teaching certificate between September 1, 2007…

I investigated eight preservice teachers' understandings about culturally responsive pedagogy as they participated in a writing methods course in which they tutored children from different ethnic, socioeconomic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds in an afterschool program at a local community center. I also investigated how these preservice…

Through the completion of a questionnaire-rating scale, three juries composed of authorities in education and English, of communication arts coordinators, and of outstanding English teachers helped to identify and rank common competencies and concepts that all prospective English teachers should acquire in their English methods courses, and…