UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ It’s Not About That Anymore: An ecological examination of the theory-practice divide in contemporary teacher education A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In EDUCATION! By Rebecca Buchanan June 2017 The Dissertation of Rebecca Buchanan is approved: _______________________________ Professor Brad Olsen, Chair _______________________________ Professor Emeritus Rod Ogawa _______________________________ Professor Emerita Lucinda Pease-Alvarez _______________________________ Professor Emerita Christine Sleeter _____________________________! Tyrus Miller! Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Copyright © Rebecca Buchanan 2017 Table of Contents Table of Contents iii List of Figures vi Abstract vii Acknowledgements ix Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Attempting to Solve the Divide 9 Study Description 13 Chapter 2: Theoretical Framework 17 Institutional Theory 17 Learning as Identity Development 21 Chapter 3: Methodology 26 Ecological Systems Theory 26 Symbolic Interactionism 29 Research Design 33 Case Study Sites 33 Embedded Units 38 Participant Selection 38 Data 40 Program Level Data 42 Embedded Unit Data 45 Data Analysis 52 Limitations 56 Chapter 4: Apprenticeship in Teacher Education 57 Historical Master-Apprentice Model 58 Apprenticeship as a Site for Investigating Learning 62 Apprenticeship and PBTE 64 Teacher Education Programs’ Goals and Apprenticeship 66 Ecological Factors that Maintain the Master-Apprentice Model 77 Student teaching practicum 77 Solo days 79 Gradual release guidelines 81 Role of the cooperating teacher 83 PK-12 demands 85 Program length 89 Marginalized coursework 92 CCTC requirements 97 Loose coupling of teacher educators 98 Need to maintain relationships with cooperating teachers 107 iii Chapter 5: Learning to Teach as Performance 114 Privileging Overt Behavior 119 Performative Technologies in Teacher Education 124 Macro Level Performative Technologies: Discourse and Policies 125 Accountability discourses 126 Teacher performance expectations 127 PACT/CAT 129 Meso Level Performative Technologies 137 Planning assignments 137 Solo days 140 Micro Level Performative Technologies 146 1:1 feedback 146 Performance in teacher educators’ visions 152 Conclusion 156 Chapter 6: Bricolage and Teacher Identity 161 Grant 164 Incoming Identity 164 Coursework Influences 165 Practicum Tensions 168 Post Program 176 Scott 180 Incoming Identity 180 Coursework Influences 181 Practicum Tensions 184 Post Program 195 Conclusion 199 Chapter 7: Teacher Thinking 202 Student Teacher Thinking 203 Decision Making as the Teacher of Record 212 Jamie 212 Manu 216 David 219 Social Justice Continuum 224 Chapter 8: Conclusions and Implications 232 Changing the Core Technology of Teacher Education 234 Supporting Professional Theorizing 235 Following student thinking 236 Social justice continuum 237 Making the Divide a Pedagogical Object 237 Learning to teach as bricolage 238 Reframing the role of cooperating teachers 239 Closing 240 iv Appendix 242 Appendix A: Study Participant Survey 242 Appendix B: Complete Data Set 243 Appendix C: Data Collection Timeline 246 Appendix D: Coding Categories 247 Appendix E: Teacher Supervisor- Pre-service teacher Debrief 250 Appendix F: Cooperating Teacher and Pre-Service Teacher Debrief 252 References 254 v List of Figures Figure 1: Conceptual Framework 33 Table 1: Focal Participants 40 Table 2: Coastal Academy Program Level Data 43 Table 3: Midlands Program Level Data 44 Table 4: Midlands Coursework and Practicum Hours 80 Table 5: Coastal Academy Coursework and Practicum Hours 80 Figure 2: Fraction Image from Worksheet 205 Figure 3: Social Justice Continuum 224 Figure 4: Ecological Model of Teacher Development 233 vi Abstract It’s Not About That Anymore: An ecological examination of the theory-practice divide in contemporary teacher education Rebecca Buchanan This dissertation investigates a perennial problem in teacher education: the theory-practice divide. There has always been a rift between theory and practice; however, this gap and the responses to it take on different shapes and meanings based on the reforms, politics, and structures of the time. For example, in the 1980s and 90s Professional Development Schools sought to close this gap (Darling-Hammond, 1994). In the 2000s, this gap became a flashpoint for targeted attacks on university teacher education on the one side, and on eased-entry teacher preparation alternatives on the other (Cochran-Smith & Fries, 2005a). Currently, many reform circles are trying to address the theory-practice divide (and the various concerns it engenders) by advocating what is called a Residency Model (Berry. Montgomery, & Snyder 2008). This study investigates how two teacher education programs, both with social justice agendas, navigated this divide. I identified two teacher education programs in California, one residency and one traditional, and using stratified random sampling selected several pre-service teachers, practicing teacher educators, and cooperating teachers from each site, and then collected longitudinal data over the course of one year. I employed an ethnographic, ecological analysis of program structure, teacher educator practice, and pre-service teacher development as sets of intertwined learning processes. vii My findings illustrate how the historical structure of apprenticeship made it difficult for both of the teacher education programs to meet their goals of developing social justice, change agents. The combination of the apprenticeship structure and a climate of accountability privileged the performance aspects of teaching, encouraging pre-service teachers to attend to the technical and visible aspects of teaching, rather than the more complex and nuanced aspects of teaching. Pre-service teachers experienced their training as fragmented, and pieced together a their teacher identity through a process of bricolage, which made it difficult to develop cohesive teaching philosophy aligned with the program’s constructivists and social justice goals. These findings complicate the hyper-practice-oriented emphasis of recent teacher education scholarship by demonstrating how a practice-based program, in fact, marginalizes coursework and professional thought and may inadvertently make it difficult for the field to develop critical-minded, social justice educators. Instead, this research suggests that teacher education should centralize the institutional divide between university and school and use it as a pedagogical object. This could support pre-service teachers in developing a cohesive set of teaching principles, which they can use to evaluate the efficacy of their own developing practice as well as the many mandates, reforms, and strategies they will encounter as PK-12 educators. viii Acknowledgements This dissertation would not have been possible without the extensive support I received over the past several years from my committee members. Rod Ogawa provided me with his expertise on organizations and institutional theory. Christine Sleeter provided incredible insight and support on preparing critical, multi-cultural educators teachers, and Lucinda Pease-Alvarez has consistently pushed my thinking language, literacy, and teacher development. Brad Olsen has been an incredible advisor, supporting my work as a scholar, researcher, and teacher for the past six years. Working with him has shaped my understanding of how learning happens, the way society is constructed, and how methodologically rigorous research can help us investigate those phenomena. I have also had the opportunity to work closely with a community other faculty members and doctoral students who have supported my thinking about teaching, learning, and research. I am particularly grateful of having the opportunity to work with Judy Scott, Cynthia Coburn, Maggie Clark, Alisun Thompson, Heather Schlaman, and Nora Lang. I am also incredibly indebted to the focal teachers who participated in this study. They opened up their lives and shared their experiences with me during a significant transition in their lives. Finally, I am extremely grateful for the unwavering support of my partner, Amber Munoz. This quite literally would not have been possible without her. ix Chapter 1: Introduction Teacher preparation is a contentious field. Debates concerning who should be teaching, how they should be selected, what knowledge new teachers need, what program models are best, and how new teachers learn to teach are not mere questions of fact, but are rooted in political and ideological positions regarding the processes of teaching and learning and the purposes of schooling (Berliner & Biddle, 1996; Kozol, 2005; Rhee, 2013; Ravitch, 2010). Over the last 100 years, teacher education has been in a nearly constant state of reform, pulled in multiple directions by competing agendas (Clifford & Guthrie, 1988; Cochran-Smith & Fries, 2005a; Cuban, 1993; Kliebard, 2004). The history of teacher education is a story primarily characterized by the tension between the various attempts to professionalize and deregulate the profession of teaching. Wrapped up in these debates, which are carried out in the realm of teacher education programs and policies, are differing conceptions of what teachers need to know, what quality teaching looks like, who is best suited to teach, and who should be responsible for making decisions about professional entry and preparation. Over the last 30 years teacher education has been the subject