ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how a professional teacher preparation program in a rural university in the Upper Midwest of the United States has engaged with the local community. The authors describe how the teacher education department established and has maintained a 14-year partnership with a local housing development, based on income. They further discuss how teacher educators collaborated with staff at the housing development to develop a field experience early on in the program. This early field experience is reciprocal in that it provides benefits for the community and the university. In the chapter, the authors describe how this field experience relates to literacy in three areas: (1) how teacher candidates’ community experiences have affected our teacher education programs, (2) the impact a 14-year partnership has had on the community, and (3) how interacting with children and youth has affected our teacher candidates’ evolving views of themselves as educators.
