ABSTRACT
If Alberto and I were working at the same institution, we would have already discussed the ideas in his chapter over lunch, and we would be planning ways to redesign our teacher education curriculum. In fact, at Arcadia, where I have been for the last 6 years, we did just that. We have initiated a new curriculum, partly instigated by nagging concerns of the faculty that grew out of our recent experiences, and partly justified by the excuse that the state of Pennsylvania was changing the requirements for certification. One might take his chapter as a form of assessment that would be used to rethink the program. For example, if there is a consistent subgroup of students who are not able to take advantage of experiences and assignments, might we not wonder if they are not “prepared” for them by their previous coursework and life experiences? Like Alberto, I do not mean to suggest a deficit discourse here. Instead, I am wondering if a particular analogy is suitable. If I were teaching abstract algebra and my course expected students to apply concepts such as commutability or inverse-functions, and I noticed that the students became anxious and unable to understand the new concepts of groups and rings, might I not wonder whether it is groups and rings that are making things challenging, or whether it is previous work with commutability and inverse functions? If I were expecting students to interact with Shakespeare’s plays by performing scenes utilizing alternative notions of staging and character development, might I wonder if students who balk at this have not ever read Shakespeare via staging and character study? Suppose the latter students complained that they are not theater majors, and that they prefer not to perform as actors? Suppose further that these students are not convinced by my gentle request that they trust me, that this approach to Shakespeare can be enjoyable, is based on a great deal of research into the pedagogy of Shakespeare, and that my personal experience is that it is a worthwhile approach to take?
