In teacher education, field work in community-based spaces (including foster homes and programs for homeless youth) is frequently contrasted with "traditional" field experiences in classroom settings, where beginning teachers are immediately introduced to teacher-centered models of instruction. This volume works against such a model, presenting a counter-narrative of new teachers’ understanding of the act of teaching. By exploring their work with at risk youth in community-based sites, the authors uncover how non-traditional spaces for teaching and learning have the potential to open new doors for reimagining the teaching act and teacher identity.

This volume examines how prospective teachers have used writing within unconventional spaces as catalysts for considering what it means to become a teacher, as well as how the work of teaching can be conceptualized. It unites the practical aspects of field work and with theoretical conceptions of teaching, and envisions how the work and the definition of "teaching" can be broadened.


Millennial Teachers

by Heidi L. Hallman

Published 4 October 2016

Drawing on narratives of five beginning teachers, Millennial Teachers explores the tensions in teachers’ young careers and how changing social, economic, and technological conditions of our current era both afford and constrain teachers’ identities and in contexts in which they work. Examining case studies of beginning teachers, Hallman draws a generational portraits of novice teachers and identifies the challenges inherent in transitioning from pre-service teacher to in-service teacher. This book synthesizes these teachers’ views on a range of topics and provides an understanding of the evolving pressures and possibilities of future teachers of the "millennial" generation.