Pre-service Teachers ’ Issues in the Relationship With Cooperating Teachers and Their Resolutions

This paper reports part of a larger phenomenological study of 23 participants (eight pre-service teachers, eight university supervisors, and seven cooperating teachers) specifically focusing on pre-service teachers ’ issues in the relationship with cooperating teachers and their resolutions. Two questions were used to guide this paper: (1) What can be pre-service teachers ’ issue with the cooperating teacher? and (2) How can pre-service teachers resolve/avoid issues with the cooperating teacher? Each participant received two semi-in-depth interviews, with each lasting approximately 90 minutes. Using the applied thematic analysis and the constant comparative approach based on grounded theory resulted in five themes in the area of issues and four themes in the area of resolutions. The results of this study may be helpful to teacher educators, especially those who intend to establish rationale in selecting cooperating teachers and to consider providing training to cooperating teachers and pre-service teachers to enhance the field experience