Facilitating productive mathematical discussions is considered a core practice of mathematics education. The complexity of this teaching practice presents the need for pedagogical tools to provide structure for preservice teachers (PST) developing their practice, yet little is known about "how" PSTs use these tools. This multiple case…

Worldwide crises, including a global pandemic, have exposed deep divisions, democracy's fragility, and humanity's vulnerability. Educators are called upon to help students grapple with these crises and strengthen democracy through teaching controversial issues. How can teachers be prepared for this highly demanding, often avoided set of practices,…

This multi-case study examines how three elementary mathematics methods instructors, in the same teacher education program, provide their prospective teachers with learning opportunities. Qualitative data were collected through interviews, classroom observations, and artifacts. The findings suggest that the instructors' beliefs associated with…

Reform-based approaches to teaching mathematics are proven to be most effective for students' learning, yet many novice secondary mathematics teachers still use traditional approaches. One reason for this is that novice teachers tend to teach the way that they experienced mathematics as students themselves. There is thus an onus on teacher…

This qualitative case study presents findings from research focused on the preparation of elementary teacher candidates (TCs) and the instruction of English learners (ELs) in the general education classroom. Set within the context of a literacy methods course on second language acquisition, this inquiry goes on to explore the influence of such…

Worldwide, teacher educators and policy makers have called for teacher preparation that is more deeply linked to practice. Yet we know little about how such linkages are achieved within different international programs. We examine the degree to which programs provide opportunities to learn that are grounded in practice, during university…

Recognizing that teaching efficacy beliefs influence pedagogical content knowledge, this study assesses the impact of a general methods course on preservice teachers' efficacy beliefs and instructional planning of environmental education content. The course used explicit and visible strategies to support pedagogical and content knowledge…

Preparing students with 21st Century Skills through STEM related teaching is needed, especially at the elementary level. However, most teacher education preparation programs do not focus on STEM education. To provide an exemplary STEM unit, we transformed an inquiry-based unit on moon phases from a traditional science activity into a…

This case study explores the impact of an English language Arts Secondary methods class that focused on learning with and from Indigenous people. By participating in a number of in-class activities, taking a field trip, and engaging in a critical service-learning project that helped decentre the learner/teacher relationship, many non-Indigenous…

Drawing on raciolinguistics and critical pedagogies, this article discusses critical approaches to Spanish language teacher education. Previous research highlights how racialized, monolingual, and native speaker language ideologies underlie Spanish language instruction and subsequently influence teachers' impressions of themselves and of their…

There is an urgent need for primary and secondary students to develop awareness, knowledge, attitudes, and an environmental ethic necessary to undertake environmental issues and problems. The need to adequately prepare teachers to teach about the environment, and the challenges the field of environmental education (EE) faces lead us to the…

Plurilingual approaches to pre-service teacher education hold promise for critical engagement with linguistic, cultural, and racial diversity in equity-supportive ways. Employing critical action research, we as teacher educators implemented an equity-oriented plurilingual approach across three literacy methods courses for pre-service elementary…

Contextualized in the critical pedagogies of universal design for learning (UDL) and social justice education, our study aimed to equip teacher candidates (TCs) to provide students with equitable access to learning social studies content knowledge, skills, and processes as a way to equally empower all students to be civically engaged, and thus to…

Teach For America (TFA), a widespread and well-known route into the teaching profession, frequently partners with university-based education programs to prepare and certify its corps members. However, university-based teacher education programs frequently emphasize very different understandings of socially just education and priorities for…

Teacher candidates experience a variety of school settings when enrolled in teacher education methods courses. Candidates report varied experiences when in public school classrooms. This dissertation investigated clinical experiences of teacher candidates when placed in two different environments for clinical teaching. The two environments were a…