ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses prospective teachers’ work in a non-profit, literacy-focused tutoring program that served homeless youth and families. As part of a teacher education program, this community-based field experience was paired with a content area literacy methods course, thereby promoting the understanding of literacy across in-school and out-of-school contexts. This chapter describes how two particular prospective teachers designed rich literacy learning for the youth while tutoring within the community-based space. Within the “unofficial” school space of the program, these teachers’ orientations to teaching literacy are explored. This chapter considers how teachers’ work within out-of-school spaces, such as the community-based site featured within the chapter, can facilitate a discussion of prospective teachers’ orientations toward authentic literacy learning as well as the relationships between teacher/student and teaching/learning. Furthermore, the chapter considers how prospective teachers were able to work toward a more expansive and creative vision for the role of “teacher”, encompassing aspects of “volunteer”, “tutor”, “mentor”, and “teacher”.
