Using Tension as a Resource

Heidi L. Hallman, Ph.D., is Professor of English Education in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching at the University of Kansas. Her research focuses on how prospective teachers are prepared to teach in diverse school contexts.Kristen Pastore-Capuana, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of English Education in the English Department at Buffalo State College. She is the Assistant Director of the Western New York Network of English Teachers (WNYNET). Donna L. Pasternak, Ph.D., is Professor of English Education in the Department of Teaching and Learning at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She directs the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Writing Project.

English teacher educators struggle to resolve tensions between teacher preparation and classroom experience; they help preservice English teachers move toward resolution on those issues as well. This book provides a thoughtful, inspired, and analytical discussion of some of these tensions, and is particularly well situated to assist both new and experienced English teacher educators with this puzzling and difficult work. The book is both a mirror and a ladder: the discussion between chapter authors and respondents mirrors the values placed in our field on discussion and collaboration, while the content of the chapters and responses will provide a helpful assist to English teacher educators. The tensions addressed in our work and in this book are many — the chapters here will provide new direction and ideas for any English teacher educator who takes it up.

• AcknowledgmentsEditors’ IntroductionHeidi L. Hallman, Kristen Pastore-Capuana, and Donna L. PasternakSection I: Frameworks for English EducationChapter 1: Educating Teachers for Critical Pragmatism: Methods as a “Conceptual Home Base”Lauren Gatti, Sarah Thomas, Jessica Masterson, Robert Brooke, and Rachael Wendler-ShahA Response to Chapter 1Melissa SchiebleChapter 2: Enduring Assignments in the Methods Course: Lesson Planning and Micro-Teaching as Trigger Points for Stimulating Social Justice TeachingTerri L. RodriguezA Response to Chapter 2Allison Wynhoff OlsenChapter 3: Exploring Tensions During Critical Conversations about Race in English EducationAmy Vetter and Melissa SchiebleA Response to Chapter 3Lauren GattiSection II: Practices in English EducationChapter 4: Writing in and for the 21st Century: Crossing Digital and Multimodal Thresholds in ELA Methods CoursesAmber JensenA Response to Chapter 4Mike MetzChapter 5: Moving Pre-service English Majors from Egocentric to Sociocentric ReadingsCrag HillA Response to Chapter 5Christopher M. ParsonsChapter 6: Powerful Influence and Absurd Neglect: The Legacy of Louise M. Rosenblatt Sue Ringler PetA Response to Chapter 6Crag HillChapter 7: Teacher Candidates’ Perspectives on Tensions within the Methods-Based Field ExperienceChristopher M. ParsonsA Response to Chapter 7Laura A. RenziSection III: Communities of English EducationChapter 8: English Education Methods Courses as Sites of Induction into English Teacher Communities of PracticeJames Cercone and Kristen Pastore-CapuanaA Response to Chapter 8Amber JensenChapter 9: Tensions in ELA Field Experiences: Service-learning Initiatives in Rural ContextsAllison Wynhoff OlsenA Response to Chapter 9Jamie M. CollinsChapter 10: A Teaching Mythology: Disrupting the Tutor/Teacher DichotomyHeidi L. Hallman and Melanie N. BurdickA Response to Chapter 10Terri L. RodriguezAbout the EditorsAbout the ContributorsIndex