TY - JOUR
T1 - Unpacking the "Urban" in Urban Teacher Education
T2 - Making a Case for Context-Specific Preparation
AU - Matsko, Kavita Kapadia
AU - Hammerness, Karen
PY - 2014/3
Y1 - 2014/3
N2 - The literature on preparing teachers for urban schools provides a rationale for helping candidates understand the particular cultures of students. However, research has not sufficiently "unpacked" features of the setting that programs can address; nor has it discussed how programs tailor teaching approaches to their specific contexts. Drawing from program descriptions, syllabi, and interviews, we describe the "context-specific" approach of the University of Chicago Urban Teacher Education Program that prepares teachers for Chicago Public Schools and ways that it helps candidates make meaning of that setting. We present a framework to show how the program defines and then teaches as content essential knowledge about a district and its children-including community and neighborhood histories, district curricula, and policies-that must inform teaching and learning. We include examples of context-specific teacher preparation that illustrate how candidates learn about particularities of Chicago Public Schools and apply this knowledge to develop context-specific understandings and practices.
AB - The literature on preparing teachers for urban schools provides a rationale for helping candidates understand the particular cultures of students. However, research has not sufficiently "unpacked" features of the setting that programs can address; nor has it discussed how programs tailor teaching approaches to their specific contexts. Drawing from program descriptions, syllabi, and interviews, we describe the "context-specific" approach of the University of Chicago Urban Teacher Education Program that prepares teachers for Chicago Public Schools and ways that it helps candidates make meaning of that setting. We present a framework to show how the program defines and then teaches as content essential knowledge about a district and its children-including community and neighborhood histories, district curricula, and policies-that must inform teaching and learning. We include examples of context-specific teacher preparation that illustrate how candidates learn about particularities of Chicago Public Schools and apply this knowledge to develop context-specific understandings and practices.
KW - preservice education
KW - teacher preparation
KW - teaching context
KW - urban teacher education
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84893040921&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1177/0022487113511645
DO - 10.1177/0022487113511645
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84893040921
SN - 0022-4871
VL - 65
SP - 128
EP - 144
JO - Journal of Teacher Education
JF - Journal of Teacher Education
IS - 2
ER -