Thesis advisor: Marilyn Cochran-Smith / Beginning in 2000, a number of new graduate schools of education (nGSEs) have been established in the U.S. in response to increasing calls for more effective teachers. Among these are programs affiliated with “No Excuses”-style charter schools, which are focused on closing the achievement gap in urban K-12 schools. Teacher education programs at nGSEs affiliated with “No Excuses” schools were designed to prepare teachers specifically for these schools. Although these nGSEs have been applauded by the press and by education reform advocates, there has been almost no independent research about them. Systematic study of the goals, practices and beliefs of teacher educators and candidates at these programs is necessary to understand the impact “No Excuses”-affiliated nGSEs may have on teacher preparation for urban schools. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to analyze teacher preparation from insiders’ perspectives at the Sposato Graduate School of Education, which is connected to the Match Education charter management organization. For this study, the Sposato GSE was regarded as an illustrative and an instrumental case of the nGSE phenomenon. Drawing on multiple data sources and using qualitative data analysis methods, this dissertation found the Sposato mission was to create “jaw-droppingly effective rookie teachers,” and it argues this mission was in large part realized due to the remarkable coherence of the program’s design, curriculum, and vision. However, this dissertation also argues the success of the Sposato teacher education program came at a cost. My analysis shows that Sposato leaders and faculty members zeroed in almost exclusively on two goals: (1) implementing a technical, moves-based epistemology of teaching in their teacher preparation curriculum; and (2) socializing teachers into a gradualist and technically rational vision of equity and justice consistent with the goals of “No Excuses” schools. This study has important implications for the practice of urban teacher preparation, research into the nGSE phenomenon, and policies related to improving teacher education program quality and the goal of closing the achievement gap.

The purpose of this study was to explore the integration of family involvement in the courses and field experiences in an undergraduate special education program. This study also explored preservice teachers’ perceptions about what they learned in their program and the perceptions, and understandings of pre-service teachers regarding collaboration with families based on their past experiences with their families. This study used qualitative research methods to answer questions about perceptions of pre-service teachers’ perceptions of collaborating with families and the extent to which their perceptions are influenced by their own family backgrounds as well as their perceptions about what they learned in their program. In order to address the goals and related research questions of this study, the research design will be a descriptive case study. Interviews with six preservice teachers and two professors and document analysis used in this study as a source of data. Three themes emerged from the data. The themes are as follows: perceptions of preservice teachers about family-school collaboration, preservice teachers’ past experiences when they were at K-12 in terms of family involvement and teacher education program experiences of preservice teachers.

The goal of this study was to explore technology experiences from a preservice teacher preparation program that requires every preservice teachers and instructors to own a laptop. The participants were a) preservice teachers who were in the program and b) novice teachers who are the program graduates. The setting of this study was a preservice teacher preparation program that involves one-to-one computing throughout in a college of education in a large southwestern university. The research conducted a cross sectional case study. Two preservice teachers across the first, second, and third semesters of the program and two novice teachers in the first year of teaching participated in this research. Various data sources were collected with: a) technological skills and attitude survey, b) related documents such as lesson plans, assignments and school documents, c) observation, and d) interviews. Results of this study showed each participant’s learning environment, technology experiences and technology skills, attitudes and knowledge. All preservice teachers mutually had media cart, instructors’ laptops, students’ laptops, and wireless internet in university classes, and had innovation station, teachers’ computers, printer, telephone, students’ computers, headsets and wireless internet in PK-6 school classes. Throughout the program, university instructors mutually required Email, word processing and electronic submission of assignments to the preservice teachers. The instructors mutually modeled using PowerPoint and Learning Management System (LMS). Preservice teachers in the first semester mutually used video creation, preservice teachers in the second semester used Email and LMS, and preservice teachers in the third semester mutually used search engine, PowerPoint and innovation station. All participants’ technology attitudes were overall positive. Most of the preservice teachers’ technology knowledge was rated accepting level, except Neal, one of the preservice teachers in the third semester, who was rated adapting level. Novice teachers mutually had innovation station, web conferencing devices and students’ laptops in their school. Both of the novice teachers experienced barrier of technology integration due to the necessary devices were already checked out. The novice teachers mutually used innovation station, had overall positive technology attitudes and had technology knowledge at the accepting level. The results led six discussion issues, including a) alignment of technological infrastructure, b) accessibility of technologies, c) limited exposure to technological activities, d) preservice teachers’ technology skills, e) technology experiences from the program and preservice teachers’ technology attitudes, and f) programmatic impact on novice teachers. / text

Teacher recruitment and retention challenges facing urban school contexts provided the impetus for this study. High percentages of historically marginalized students, plagued by high poverty rates and low academic performance, as well as substandard facilities and inadequate material resources, serve as causative factors inhibiting recruitment and retention of credentialed teachers in urban schools (Education Commission of the States [ECS], 1999; Guarino et al., 2006; Horng, 2009; USDOE, 2003; 2004; Wirt et al, 2004). Schools and districts attempt to meet chronic teacher shortages in hard-to-staff urban schools by creating innovative teacher preparation schemes, such as the Urban Teaching Academy (UTA). This study focuses on teacher identity formation and prospective efficacy beliefs among a group of students enrolled in UTA. The research questions were examined using interpretive phenomenological inquiry (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009) through case study methodology (Yin, 2009). Findings show that the precollegiate student teachers in this study made meaning primarily from a student perspective, thus adhering to prototypical images of teaching characterized by identity markers. Salient components of definitions of teacher identity for precollegiate student teachers are Self and Care. Less relevant components for precollegiate student teachers were Emotion and Context. These components appear most influenced by the temporal distance between the precollegiate Urban Teaching Academy and actual teaching experiences during internship/practicum and subsequent teaching in a professional capacity, suggesting a need to determine whether it is possible for precollegiate student teachers to meet the emotional and contextual demands of teaching at such an early stage. Additionally, this study proposes to extend on the teacher efficacy construct by offering a model for prospective efficacy as it pertains to individuals in teacher preparation at the precollegiate and preservice levels. This model contends that beginning with the self as influenced by personal, social, cultural, historical and political knowledge sources, precollegiate student teachers begin to develop an epistemological stance towards teaching. Over time, precollegiate student teachers build identity capital grounded in the skills, knowledge and dispositions gained through access to varied knowledge sources, which develop as precollegiate student teachers learn theoretical principals of teaching, obtain and learn from performance information, and combine the theory and practice into an epistemological framework that provides impetus for ongoing synergy between theoretical and practical experiences. The broader the base of identity capital from which the precollegiate student teacher draws, the greater the likelihood that she will develop prospective efficacy, or the belief that she will be capable of fulfilling teaching roles and responsibilities in the future. This study informs the literature on precollegiate and preservice teacher identity and extends the literature on teacher efficacy.

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