A Narrative Case Study Exploring the Preparation Experiences of Novice Teachers in Urban Elementary Schools


Book Description

Literature has shown that qualified, effective, and confident teachers are the number one predictor of student success inside the classroom. Students in urban schools experience a greater number of inexperienced or qualified teachers than their peers, which has and currently is creating a social justice crisis in our nation. The reality of staff shortages and the amount of teacher attrition is extremely alarming, especially for students in urban school contexts. Teachers are leaving the profession because they are unprepared. Research suggests that teacher preparation must focus on preparing teachers through culturally and contextually responsive teaching and building critical competency for effective urban educators (Gay, 2010; Hollins, 2012; Howard & Milner, 2014). The purpose of this narrative case study was to understand novice teachers’ preparation for teaching in an urban elementary school setting. The unit of analysis was the preparation of pre-service teachers’ education experiences. This study examined the question: What stories do novice teachers tell about their preparedness to teach in an urban school? Data were collected from six novice teachers who were within the first three years of their teaching career. Data collection consisted of an initial survey and two face-to-face interviews. The secret, sacred, and cover stories told by participants revealed five major narrative themes, including (a) Field Experiences, (b) Exposure to Culturally Relevant Practices, (c) Reflective Practices, (d) Life Experiences, and (e) Relationships with Faculty. The stories and implications described in this dissertation offer perspective for teacher preparation programs and leadership in urban school contexts.




Urban Teaching


Book Description

This significantly revised edition will help prospective and new city teachers navigate the realities of city teaching. Now the classic introduction to urban teaching, this book explains how global, national, state, and local reforms have impacted what teachers need to know to not only survive, but to do their jobs well. The Third Edition melds new insights and perspectives from Daniel Jerome—New York City teacher, social justice activist, and parent of color—with what Lois Weiner, a seasoned teacher educator, has learned from research and decades of experience working with city teachers and students in a variety of settings. Together, the authors explore how successful teachers deal with the complexity, difficulty, and rewarding challenges of teaching in today’s city schools. Book Features: A highly readable exploration of the moral, pedagogical, and political complexity of teaching in urban schools. Research-based advice combined with real-life examples of the problems city teachers face.Challenges associated with teaching in multi-ethnic and multi-racial settings.Critical examination of how the altered landscape of education has changed teachers’ professional obligations. “FINALLY, a book about urban teaching from two experienced professionals who intimately know and respect the art of educating in urban America!” —Keith Benson, teacher, New Jersey “Professor Weiner helps us understand how to teach in ways that show our concern and do not oppress our students.” —Jeanette Morris, teacher, East Orange New Jersey School District “Dr. Weiner offers an enlightening scope into the lives of urban educators. The author's honest and riveting perspectives on hot-button topics surrounding our profession will be appreciated by veteran educators and student teachers alike.” —Shanika Allen, 8th-grade math teacher, Trenton, NJ “Dr. Weiner skillfully blends experience and theory in this practical A–Z guide for novice and seasoned urban educators alike. A brilliantly captivating read for a new generation of urban-bound teachers navigating the uncertainty of urban public education policies and practices.” —Nevart Nay, veteran teacher, formerly of Union City School District, NJ. “As a teacher of color who has taught for 3 years, in charter and public school settings, I found the advice, anecdotes, and presentation of the realities of urban teaching to be candid and honest.” —Annie Tan, special education teacher, City of Chicago Public School District




What Should I Do? Confronting Dilemmas of Teaching in Urban Schools


Book Description

“Have you ever been waiting for THE book? This is that book. Anna Richert has held on to this book for many years because she wanted it to honor the profession and the work of teaching. It satisfies on two important levels—that of those who study teaching and those who do the teaching. At a time when the profession is suffering from a lack of support and criticism on all fronts, Richert elevates it without valorizing it. These are real dilemmas that real teachers struggle with everyday. We owe Anna Richert a big thank you for What Should I Do?” —Gloria Ladson-Billings, Kellner Family Chair in Urban Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison What Should I Do? is a practical guide to the everyday dilemmas of the urban classroom. It offers a lifeline to both beginning teachers who are struggling to be successful and to the teacher educators who are trying to prepare them for these challenges. The author uses narratives of practice, written by novice teachers, to help readers experience a variety of dilemmas they are likely to encounter in the classroom. By engaging with and analyzing the cases, readers come to see that the “problems” of teaching are actually “dilemmas” that have no clear-cut right or wrong solution, thus reducing the potential for frustration and despair often felt by teachers. This practical resource will empower teachers to transform the unpredictable world of troubled schools into places of learning and hope, for both themselves and their students. As a former teacher said, “I wish I had read this book and realized that I wasn’t expected to have all the answers. I would probably still be teaching.” Anna Ershler Richert is a professor in the School of Education at Mills College in Oakland California where she is Director of the Master of Arts in Education with an Emphasis on Teaching (MEET) Program and Faculty Director of the Mills Teacher Scholars.







The First-Year Urban High School Teacher


Book Description

The First-Year Urban High School Teacher: Holding the Torch, Lighting the Fire tracks co-author Paul Weinberg during his first year of teaching as he is introduced to the daily tribulations of an urban Los Angeles high school. Paul's father, Carl Weinberg, who fifty years earlier himself began his career in education as an urban secondary school teacher, shares his experiences side-by-side with those of his son. Together they reveal parallels between Carl's former problems in the urban classroom and the problems his son faces. Though some things have changed, there have not been nearly as many changes as one would have hoped. Interwoven with the father-son anecdotes of personal experience in teaching is a careful scholarly examination of the areas of social and cultural disorganization that the new teacher confronts with students, teachers, administrators, policy makers, and parents as he or she navigates through the behemoth of urban schooling.




Teach & Thrive


Book Description

Teacher burn out contributes to the epidemic of early career exit. At least half of all new K?12 teachers leave the profession by the time they reach their fifth year of teaching. Conversely, there are urban teachers who survive burn out and thrive as career? long educators. This book results from an in?depth qualitative study that explored one 40?year veteran teacher’s career narrative, analyzing how she not only survived the burn out epidemic, but also thrived as a highly effective career?long urban teacher. Part 1 of this book uses a critical socio?political lens is used to guide readers through the complexities of career thrival. Framed within the story of one new urban teacher’s typical morning, the book begins with an overview of the socio?political forces that lead to urban teacher burn out. In spite of the obstacles, the more hopeful idea of urban teacher thrival is uncovered through narrative methodology. Part 2 is dedicated to the dynamic narrative of a veteran urban teacher career journey. This inspiring story is related to frameworks established in Part 1, as well as painting a picture of how public education has evolved over the last 40 years, and it’s impact on the lives of teachers. Part 3 takes a deeper dive into three salient themes that permeated throughout the participant’s story. First hope springs eternal is the idea that sustaining hope supported the teacher’s career thrival. Next, the extended education family is the notion that familial?like relationships at school nourished her longevity. The third theme, creative autonomy, reveals that by being empowered with opportunities for curriculum development and instructional decision?making the teacher maintained her passion. This book concludes with recommendations for teachers, educational leaders and teacher educators to develop and maintain thriving teachers.




Research on Urban Teacher Learning


Book Description

This book presents a range of evidence-based analyses focused on the role of contextual factors on urban teacher learning. Part I introduces the reader to the conceptual and empirical literature on urban teacher learning. Part II shares eight research studies that examine how, what, and why urban teachers learn in the form of rich longitudinal studies. Part III analyzes the ways federal, state, and local policies affect urban teacher learning and highlights the synergistic relationship between urban teacher learning and context. What makes this collection powerful is not only that it moves research front and center in discussions of urban teacher learning, but also that it recognizes the importance of learning over time and the way urban schools’ contexts and conditions enable and constrain teacher learning.




A Year in the Life of a Third Space Urban Teacher Residency


Book Description

This book weaves together voices of faculty, residents, mentors, administrators, community organizers, and students who have lived together in a third space urban teacher residency program in Newark as they reinvent math and science teaching and teacher education through the lens of inquiry. Each chapter includes narratives from multiple perspectives as well as tools we have used within the program to support and build change, providing readers with both real cases of how an urban teacher residency can impact school systems, and concrete tools and examples to help the reader understand and replicate aspects of the process. Capturing both the successes but also the tensions and challenges, we offer a kaleidoscopic view of the rich, complex, and multi-layered ways in which multiple stakeholders work together to make enduring educational change in urban schools. Our third space NMUTR has been a fragile utopian enterprise, one that has relied on a shared commitment of all involved, and a deep sense of hope that working collaboratively has the potential, even if not perfect, to make a difference.




First Aid for First Year Teachers


Book Description

Everyday urban educators work under greater bureaucratic constraints; they teach more students a day, and do so while lacking basic materials. At the same time their students often bring into the classroom the social problems that plague their inner city communities. New teachers in urban schools leave within the first five years. Often more than not they are frustrated and burned out. First Aid for the First Year Teacher (a practical guide for urban educators) is an interactive book designed to teach new teachers in urban schools how to manage themselves and gain a better understanding of their students.