ABSTRACT

In teacher education, field work in community-based spaces (including foster homes and programs for homeless youth) is frequently contrasted with "traditional" field experiences in classroom settings, where beginning teachers are immediately introduced to teacher-centered models of instruction. This volume works against such a model, presenting a counter-narrative of new teachers’ understanding of the act of teaching. By exploring their work with at risk youth in community-based sites, the authors uncover how non-traditional spaces for teaching and learning have the potential to open new doors for reimagining the teaching act and teacher identity.

This volume examines how prospective teachers have used writing within unconventional spaces as catalysts for considering what it means to become a teacher, as well as how the work of teaching can be conceptualized. It unites the practical aspects of field work and with theoretical conceptions of teaching, and envisions how the work and the definition of "teaching" can be broadened.

chapter |13 pages

Introduction

Beginning at the Margins

chapter |17 pages

Questioning through Writing

Writing as Dialogic Response

chapter |18 pages

Questioning Teaching

Disrupting a Teaching Mythology

chapter |15 pages

Questioning Curriculum

Reenvisioning Assumptions about Curricular Control and Expectations

chapter |15 pages

Questioning Normal

Composing Ethical Representations of At-Risk Youth

chapter |13 pages

The Promise of Work at the Margins

Community Fieldwork in Teacher Education