Browsing by Subject "Teach For America"

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    Learning to Teach In Teach For America: A Case Study
    (2014-12) Covert, Louise
    There is a gap in research examining teacher candidates' perspectives of learning to teach in alternative certification programs and, in particular, Teach For America's (TFA) program. This interview case study used critical discourse studies (Gee, 2005) and examined how one TFA corps member (CM) learned to teach through TFA's training model and its influence on her early teacher development. The study participant was Josephina, a 23-year-old upper-middle-class White woman. Her TFA placement was in a small urban charter high school, where 100% of students were English learners, recent immigrants and refugees, and everyone qualified for free and reduced lunch. Josephina's case was one of six study participants. She was selected because her CM profile most closely aligned with media and research claims about CM identity and how CMs fared as teachers of record in United States' under-resourced public schools. The study sought to look beyond generalized characterizations about how TFA CMs learn to teach. Findings supported research claims that CMs were underprepared to teach. Concurrently, study findings countered claims that CM teachers of record indisputably complied with TFA's program expectations, were uniquely harmful or successful as teachers of record, entered education intending to be temporary teachers, and were unilaterally ineffective as teachers of record in relation to alternative and traditional certification programs at large.