Negotiating multiple tensions with others in learning to teach elementary science: The case of bernia

Article
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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine what kinds of tensions, conflicts, and difficulties a prospective elementary teacher paid special attention to in the process of interacting with others to learn to teach elementary science during the internship year, and to describe how the novice teacher responded to and finally negotiated those tensions in response to social and institutional expectations of her university instructor, mentor teacher, field instructor, and peers to establish her own image of a “good science teacher self.” The findings showed that the tensions with others had to do with the beginning teacher’s different values and beliefs about the usefulness of the teacher education program and support from others. Specifically, this study uncovered the particular ways in which the teacher candidate developed her own social aspect of identity through negotiating the tensions generated from her social relationships with the various people involved, and in attempting to meet their expectations. She ended up choosing a way of using her own personal values and beliefs to resolve the tensions by frequently either neglecting or resisting others’ expectations. The findings highlight that the holding of different values and beliefs seemed to create difficulties in nurturing effective communication among the people around the beginning teacher. This especially draws our attention to the need to help teacher candidates realize what can be valuable to pursue in elementary science teaching, and to improve and change their ways of science teaching in an effort to modify their frame of reference toward more effective science teaching.

Keywords

Science Teaching Science Teacher Teacher Candidate Elementary Science Prospective Elementary Teacher 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer 2004

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Teacher Education College of EducationMichigan State UniversityEast Lansing

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