A Nontraditional Teacher's Experience after Student Teaching: Implications for Early Childhood Teacher Education

Introducing critical pedagogies into undergraduate early childhood teacher education programs may enable working class teachers who work with working class children to better examine assumptions of developmentally and culturally appropriate practices. This study focuses on a Latino assistant teacher who, after having returned from a semester of student teaching, attempted to cultivate an ethos of professional interaction among his peers. His ability to name, challenge and ultimately reject inappropriate ideologies and practices (Bartolomé, 2004 Bartolomé, L. I. 2004. Critical pedagogy and teacher education: Radicalizing perspective teachers. Teacher Education Quarterly, 31(1): 97–122.  Google Scholar]) are coupled with his concern for his children and his community. Illustrating Dahlberg, Moss, and Pence's definitions of “quality” and “meaning making,” (2001) this study also considers ways in which administrators and teacher educators can respond to and support teachers who return to their jobs after their student-teaching experiences.