English as a Second Language and English as a Foreign Language Preservice Teacher Cognitions: Research Insights from around the World (2005-2021)

This review examined English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) preservice teacher cognition studies spanning a 17-year period (2005 to 2021). The main objective was to explore the nature and development of preservice ESL and EFL teacher cognitions as they relate to their teacher-education coursework and teaching practice. Findings indicate that preservice ESL/EFL teacher cognitions are complex, multifaceted, recursive, and frequently related to their experiences as language learners. Although studies included in this review were conducted in different international contexts, the findings were consistent: there is a need for supportive and comprehensive preservice-teacher preparation that accounts for three factors. (1) Valuing preservice teachers’ beliefs as language learners, (2) facilitating preservice teachers’ negotiation of newer beliefs resulting from teacher education coursework, and (3) preparing them to negotiate tensions in their interactions with their mentors in field placements. This paper concludes by discussing pedagogical implications for teacher education programs.

Where the Translingual Rubber Hits the Road: Ideological Frictions, Mixtificaciones y Potentialities in Bilingual Teacher Preparation Programs

Translanguaging has become a particularly relevant (and controversial) concept for the field of bilingual education, with concrete implications for teacher preparation programs serving teacher candidates (TCs) who may identify as heritage speakers of Spanish. However, the regard and understanding of translanguaging, its pedagogical potential, and the positionality to implement it are not evenly distributed among stakeholders involved in the teacher preparation process. This article explores the relationship among California public teacher preparation programs, their bilingual teacher candidates, and the districts that host their field placements that ultimately hire them. Building on the metaphorical concepts of ideological and implementational spaces (Flores & Schissel, 2014), the space between and encompassing the overlap between credentialing programs and school districts is characterized as a friction space beset by tensions between monoglossic and heteroglossic stances and the pragmatism of “entering the workforce.” The dynamics of this space are illustrated in five retratos constructed on qualitative data obtained through semistructured interviews. Based on the author's localized experiences, the article concludes by proposing approaches to navigate the friction space, reinforce the bilingual candidates' counterideological stances, and advance a much-needed productive dialogue in the teacher preparation ecology.

English as a Second Language and English as a Foreign Language Preservice Teacher Cognitions: Research Insights from around the World (2005-2021)

This review examined English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) preservice teacher cognition studies spanning a 17-year period (2005 to 2021). The main objective was to explore the nature and development of preservice ESL and EFL teacher cognitions as they relate to their teacher-education coursework and teaching practice. Findings indicate that preservice ESL/EFL teacher cognitions are complex, multifaceted, recursive, and frequently related to their experiences as language learners. Although studies included in this review were conducted in different international contexts, the findings were consistent: there is a need for supportive and comprehensive preservice-teacher preparation that accounts for three factors. (1) Valuing preservice teachers’ beliefs as language learners, (2) facilitating preservice teachers’ negotiation of newer beliefs resulting from teacher education coursework, and (3) preparing them to negotiate tensions in their interactions with their mentors in field placements. This paper concludes by discussing pedagogical implications for teacher education programs.

Using a Transdiagnostic Perspective to Disrupt White Supremacist Applications of the DSM

White supremacist applications of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) result in the disproportionate labeling of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color as violent or severely mentally ill. Racial diagnostic disparities and misdiagnoses are endemic in social work practice, in part because of the DSM’s categorical classification system, which encourages reductive thinking and reinforces implicit racial biases. While courses on psychopathology are common requirements for clinical field placements, the mental health field’s reliance on the DSM often contradicts antiracist curricula. In an effort to address this paradox, we utilize pedagogical approaches that seek to critique and deconstruct White Supremacist applications of the DSM while simultaneously preparing students to enter a field that relies so heavily on diagnostic labels. This is done in part by teaching students to shirk the DSM’s categorical perspective in favor of a transdiagnostic perspective—identifying symptoms or traits underlying human suffering that occur across diagnostic categories and are informed by macro systems of privilege and oppression. Teaching students to adopt a transdiagnostic perspective may disrupt White Supremacist practices in diagnostics by encouraging an acknowledgement of multisystem factors underlying human suffering without relying on discrete diagnostic categories that are prone to racial interpretations.

Interrupting White Supremacy in Field Education

As social work’s signature pedagogy, field education socializes students into their professional roles as practitioners. However, for students and field instructors of color, racial microaggressions add another dimension to the practice experience. Utilizing findings from a qualitative study exploring the experiences of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) social work students and agency-based field instructors, this paper highlights experiences of microaggressions in field placement settings. Specifically, BIPOC students and field instructors described being tokenized in agencies, feeling invisible in placement settings, experiencing microaggressions from service users or students, and witnessing microaggressions. Experiences of microaggressions had emotional impacts, and affected participants’ sense of professional identity and confidence. Based on findings, we share recommendations for addressing racial microaggressions within social work field education in order to promote racial equity, including: grounding microaggressions in an ecological approach, unpacking the concept of professionalism, and building capacity of field instructors and agencies to respond to racism and microaggressions. Addressing microaggressions in field education is necessary to support BIPOC students in field placements, honor the work and well-being of racialized social workers who serve as field instructors, disrupt white supremacy, and move the social work field forward in regard to anti-racist practice.

“I Didn’t Want to Be Ignorant”: An Exploration of Why Preservice Teachers Sometimes Choose Silence in Critical Conversations About Texts With Elementary Children

Discussions about texts can offer valuable opportunities for critical conversations about power and privilege. While we know such conversations are important to have in school, many teachers report feeling unprepared to facilitate them. In an effort to understand the in-the-moment decisions preservice teachers (PSTs) make in response to children’s contributions during critical conversations about texts, this qualitative, design-based study examines how PSTs responded to elementary-age children while facilitating discussions about texts in their field placements. Although various kinds of responses were made (e.g., eliciting children’s thinking, orienting children’s contributions to one another), in this analysis, we examine the moments where PSTs identified their silence as salient. Findings reveal that (1) some PSTs developing an understanding of the role of talk and desire to efficiently accomplish the task did not seem to set them up to see critical conversations about texts as a space for sensemaking, and (2) other PSTs did see critical conversations about texts as spaces to engage in sensemaking but felt discomfort grappling with unanticipated issues that arose. We discuss implications for literacy researchers and teacher educators committed to supporting critical conversations with children in schools.

Teaching as Improvising: Preservice Music Teacher Field Experience With 21st-Century Skills Activities

The purpose of this study was to examine how preservice music teachers navigate 21st-century skills in their lesson planning and field experiences. Among the various skills, we focused on the Partnership for 21st Century learning and innovation skills. Over 8 weeks, 10 preservice music teachers designed lesson plans focused on creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration, and peer taught their lessons in an elementary music methods class as well as in their field placements. Our data sources included participants’ post-field teaching self-evaluations and post-project reflective essays, as well as instructor and supervisor field notes and face-to-face participant interviews. Through the data analysis, we identified three central concepts: (a) Curriculum-as-lived: Teaching like improvising, (b) Balanced in-betweenness: Structure and freedom, and (c) Collective efforts: Stepping away from comfort zones.

The Dynamics of the Social Worker-Client Relationship

While the effectiveness of direct social work practice always requires one’s competence in providing a variety of intervention modalities, outcomes are also dependent on the social worker’s ability to develop and maintain constructive relationships with clients. This book describes in depth the many ways that such relationships can be developed with clients who display a wide range of presenting problems in many types of social service agencies. Each chapter focuses on a particular challenge that social workers may encounter in that process, including the benefits and limitations of theory selection, boundaries, the use of self, the working alliance, relationship ruptures, special issues presented by children and adolescents, terminations and transfers, clients about whom a social worker experiences highly positive or negative feelings, the uses of touch and humor, working with psychotic clients, and the uses of technology. The book is filled with case studies written by students to illustrate how relationships can be formed and challenges can be resolved. The book is targeted to social work students in their field placements, although it can also be useful for practicing professionals.

Mixed-Reality Simulation With Preservice Teacher Candidates: A Conceptual Replication

Given the critical importance of discrete instructional practices in special education, teacher candidates must be prepared to implement them upon entering the classroom. In preservice teacher education programs, field placements and clinical experiences rarely provide enough opportunities for preservice teachers to gain the proficiency needed to provide effective instruction. In this study, a randomized control research design was used to investigate the effects of a mixed-reality simulation experience compared with traditional classroom practice in the implementation of a system of least prompts. Results suggest that mixed-reality simulation with additional coaching supports significantly improved preservice teachers’ implementation of the prompting sequence. Social validity data collected offer insights into the use of mixed-reality simulation in practice with preservice teachers. Limitations and suggestions for future work are discussed.