ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the theoretical foundations of the Teaching, Learning, and Leading With Schools and Communities (TLLSC) teacher preparation program, rooted in sociocultural theory. Unlike cognitive theories that conceptualize learning as the acquisition of knowledge and skills within individuals, sociocultural theory posits that every cognitive function appears first on a social level between individuals and later on an individual level, within the person’s mind. With origins in the writings of Russian psychologist L. S. Vygotsky, the sociocultural theory of mind rejects a reductionist framing of mental development as a purely individual property in favor of situating it within the broader social milieu where “mind extends the skin”. The TLLSC undergraduate teacher preparation program is a 4-year experience, providing candidates with sustained interaction in communities of teaching and learning. Teacher candidates’ development of scientific concepts through mediation in authentic sites of teaching and learning is inevitably shaped by a variety of personal and contextual features.
