Learning to Teach and the False Apprenticeship: Emotion and Identity Development During the Field Experience Placement

Abstract

The field experience placement is an integral part of teacher education programmes. It is ostensibly meant to provide a place for teacher candidates to enact pedagogical theory gained during coursework under the supervision of an experienced host teacher. In reality, the field placement is a source of considerable tension for teacher candidates, as they struggle to reconcile their prior assumptions about teaching and learning and their prior identities as students with the demands of school culture that requires teachers and students to act in particular ways. The field experience is emotional work that has a considerable impact on the development of new teachers’ identities. In this chapter I will focus on how two new teachers learn during the field experience placement, with a particular emphasis on the roles of emotion and the development of professional identity in learning to teach. Cultural–historical activity theory (CHAT) will provide a useful lens to interpret some of the challenges of learning to teach during the field placement.

Citation

Bullock, S.M. (2013), "Learning to Teach and the False Apprenticeship: Emotion and Identity Development During the Field Experience Placement", Newberry, M., Gallant, A. and Riley, P. (Ed.) Emotion and School: Understanding how the Hidden Curriculum Influences Relationships, Leadership, Teaching, and Learning (Advances in Research on Teaching, Vol. 18), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 119-140. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-3687(2013)0000018011