Becoming an urban science teacher: Teacher learning as the performance of conceptions

Abstract: This qualitative study reports a subset of findings from a larger, ongoing study aimed at exploring interactions between teacher identity, teacher learning, and classroom practices in a social justice teacher education program at a selective liberal arts college in New York. The individual/collective dialectic indicates that individual learning presupposes collective learning and vice versa and that neither individual conceptions, stored in memory, nor the collective performance of a conception, may be reduced to the other. As a result, it appropriate to theorize about conceptions that we might attribute to individuals, while recognizing the role of collective performance. Research has shown that science teachers come with conceptions about science, science pedagogy, how children learn, and schools that may not be in harmony with reform-based teaching methods. Furthermore teachers ‘ conceptions and beliefs may be firmly held and resistant to change. This case-study explores Elena‘s journey towards becoming an urban science teacher. The study traces some of the linkages between her learning in a science methods seminar, what she learns through specific pedagogical interventions in elementary classrooms, and how changes in Elena ‘ schemata, resources, and practices inform her developing instructional goals and teaching practices