(When) Does Teacher Preparation Work? A Longitudinal Study of Beginning History/Social Studies Teachers' Instructional Development

Abstract

Widespread skepticism exists about preparation programs’ impact on novice teachers’ learning to teach. This is not new. Researchers, practitioners, and policymakers question whether preparation matters. Despite these questions and a growing consensus about the importance of teachers, we have a limited understanding of when, why, and how teacher preparation might impact novice teachers’ instruction (Grossman, 2008; Levine, 2006; Korthagen, 2010). Much literature about novice teacher learning considers only the impacts of a specific course or particular induction contexts. Less work has examined the effects of programs on beginning teachers’ practice. In this study, I sought to further the field’s understanding of teacher development across the continuum of teacher education (Feiman-Nemser, 2001). Considering beginning history and social studies teachers’ experiences as students, time in coursework and clinical placements, and the specific school contexts of their first two years teaching, I investigated what signature pedagogies from preparation “stick.” I ask: how and under what circumstances do novice teachers enact the practices and dispositions advocated during their preparation program? Using longitudinal data, including interviews at multiple points during their early careers and observations of instruction, I identify what aspects of novices’ preparation program are taken up or “washed out” (Zeichner & Tabachnick, 1981) as they entered the classroom. Findings suggest several different factors that are important across the early years of history and social studies teacher development. Teachers in this study entered preparation more or less primed for taking up practices promoted by the programs. Teaching vision and models of instruction, especially a novice’s former K-12 history teachers, teacher educators, and mentor teachers, played a crucial role in legitimizing and demonstrating different methods. These experiences mediated whether teachers wanted to take up signature pedagogies from preparation or if they were more skeptical and rejected said practices. These findings also add evidence for the need to extend conceptions about the apprenticeship of observation into preparation coursework, as participants often indicated that teacher educator pedagogy was instrumental in their decisions to take up or reject signature pedagogies. Once in school contexts, factors began to overlap and stifle or promote ambitious teaching practices promoted in preparation coursework. Findings contribute evidence to theories about the importance of alignment across the continuum. A convergence of factors across the contexts of teacher education did indeed make pedagogies from preparation “stick” for many participants, with the most important being having a manageable workload, aligned curricular materials, teaching in a stable and collaborative school environment, having multiple models of practice to call upon, and personal factors such as individual’s ambition and reflectiveness. Findings also suggest that novice teachers can progress towards more ambitious forms of history and social studies teaching in somewhat predictable ways. These included starting with beginner’s entry-point methods that were familiar and provided participants with structure for lessons, specific steps for execution, and minimized workload while also supporting teachers to maintain control over the class, while providing predictable results. More advanced and student-centered methods generally emerged in the second year. I conclude with a discussion about how history/social studies teachers enter and experience teacher preparation and their early career school contexts. These include implications for revising current theories to incorporate personal resources as an important factor to consider, thinking about general pathways of development of beginning history/social studies teachers, and reexamining the role and structure of student teaching.