Student Teaching: A Journey in Narratives

The journey of becoming a teacher is a complicated, emotional, and often intricate endeavor. Much has been written about pre-service teachers but rarely do we understand the journey through their own voices. Join nine pre-service teachers as they share their experiences, challenges, and victories through a series of powerful narratives. Committed to making the process more transparent for those embarking on a similar journey, the chapter authors share honest, personal, and heartfelt viewpoints about what it means to become a teacher. The nine pre-service teachers in this volume all participated in a yearlong student teaching in the renowned Elementary Holmes Master of Arts in Teaching program at Louisiana State University. Putting to practice critical perspectives about what it means to teach in the 21st century, these authors expose their vulnerabilities with a range of literary approaches including metaphor, reflective journaling, and storytelling. The volume is framed by teacher educator insights about the contexts and complexities of teaching. A must read for anyone preparing to student teach, or for those already student teaching, Student Teaching: A Journey in Narratives deals directly with the realities of learning to teach.
Sometimes poetic, sometimes painful, these compelling personal narratives of novice teachers provide a poignant view of the struggles, fears, and celebrations developing teachers traverse on the journey to induction into the profession. Teacher educators and teacher candidates alike will find much to explore and discuss in these chapters. No stone of learning to teach is left unturned!—Lisa Delpit, Author of Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom and Multiplication is for White People: Raising Expectations for Other People’s Children