Content area
Abstract
This dissertation describes and analyzes the formal and hidden curriculum of a preservice teacher education program at a large comprehensive university. It was conducted over two academic semesters in an undergraduate elementary teacher education program. Data consisted of transcribed interviews, document analysis, and observation field notes obtained within a block of five subject-specific methods courses and within elementary classrooms in which preservice teachers completed a clinical internship.
Analysis of the formal curriculum in the program reveals widespread variation in the conceptual orientations towards teacher education. The strongest case of conceptual coherence is the “naturalist” orientation among three language arts methods courses. The remaining five courses are suggestive, however, of four different orientations. In addition, the university-based and field-based curricula represent very distinct conceptual orientations.
Analysis of the hidden curriculum reveals that students were taught to view knowledge as fragmented into traditional subject matter distinctions. The programmatic structure presented knowledge to students within strict disciplinary boundaries that did not allow for interdisciplinary connections to be made by faculty or by students. This separation among disciplines was underscored by institutional fragmentation that provided little opportunity for dialogue and collaborative planning among, and between, faculty and field-based supervisors.
The program also conveyed messages for students and faculty that superficial demonstrations of compliance with external mandates were more important than authentic intellectual engagement. Program participants frequently made the minimal possible effort to satisfy the requirements of what they saw as routine, bureaucratized tasks.
Finally, analysis of the formal and hidden curriculum is used to interrogate common notions of coherence in teacher education that are characterized by concerns with conceptual alignment. An alternative model of coherence in teacher education programs is described, based on four dimensions: (1) engaging students in the complex realities of teaching and the multiple ways of learning to teach; (2) enabling faculty dialogue and collaboration that underscores collective roles as well as individual course responsibilities; (3) aligning institutional structures with program goals in ways that entice students to challenge their beliefs about teaching; and (4) eliciting sincere intellectual responses from participants to tasks in which they feel engaged.
