Andrew L. Hostetler

Self-study of Practice as a Framework to Promote Growth in the Student Teaching Experience

As teachers and teacher educators, we hope to model an inquiry stance. Our prior experiences suggested an educative value in collaborative self-study for graduate students who were also practicing teachers. To build on this, we invited social studies teacher candidates to learn about taking an inquiry stance through self-study. This collaborative self-study of teaching practice took place in varied school contexts and within a student teaching seminar course. Our goal was for the preservice teachers to engage in systematic inquiry into their practice. As teacher educators, we hoped to learn about our own practices and the ways we encourage an inquiry stance during student teaching. Learning outcomes for six of the preservice teachers and the three teacher educators are presented in this article.

I Love It When a Plan Comes Together: Collaborative Self-Study in Graduate School as a Space to Reframe Thinking About Social Studies Teaching and Teacher Education

This chapter explores the development of, and research findings generated from, a self-study collaborative consisting of four social studies education graduate students and two social studies education faculty members. Conceived as a way to explore graduate education as a space for thinking differently about social studies teaching and learning, each member chose to engage in her/his own self-study on specific connections between their work as graduate students and classroom teachers. The collective acted as a place to both support and push members in the planning and implementation of their studies from inception to public presentation of findings.

Self-Study as an Emergent Methodology in Career and Technical Education, Adult Education and Technology: An Invitation to Inquiry

In this manuscript, the authors explore self-study as an emerging research methodology with the potential to open up spaces of inquiry for researchers, graduate students, and teachers in a broad array of fields. They argue that the fields of career and technical education CTE, adult education and technology can leverage self-study methodology in similar ways. They argue that self-study has a great deal to offer both theoretically and practically to those interested in improving their practices as researchers, and for those involved in shaping adult vocational educational experiences. After reviewing the history of self-study as a research methodology, they provide examples of self-study research that have direct implications for those in CTE and adult education and technology. They conclude the manuscript by providing practical guidance to those researching and/or working in schools, community centers and workplaces.

Learning in and Through Practice: A Case Study of a Design-Based Residency Program

This chapter is a case study report of program data related to our secondary social studies education program, the experiences of those involved, as well as considerations for program design moving forward. Here I describe the secondary social studies teacher education program and school partnerships supporting a design-based residency program. Conclusions are drawn from systematic data analysis of teacher candidate interviews, course observations, course materials, teacher candidate work samples, and from observations of teacher candidates in the residency program. As a result of this work I argue that teacher education programs that value learning in and through practice are beneficial for all stakeholders – they prepare pre-service teachers for licensure, they provide good professional development for in-service teachers, and student needs can be addressed more efficiently and productively.

Historicizing Mathematics and Mathematizing Social Studies for Social Justice: A Call for Integration

Researchers and theorists in education have offered persuasive arguments and evidence documenting the need for, and benefits of, education for social justice. Despite these efforts the intersection of social justice with interdisciplinary curricular designs remains underexplored. This article argues that social justice education is enriched through interdisciplinary curricula, in that it holds the potential for students to develop deeper conceptions of social justice and experience deeper learning outcomes related to content knowledge across subject matter areas. Central to this argument is the notion that situating disciplinary relationships explicitly within social justice perspectives encourages an emphasis on broader and richer sociopolitical consciousness among learners. We draw on historical and contemporary narratives to position social justice in mathematics and social studies education. As researchers in these two fields, we envision greater possibilities for the advancement of knowledge, and we envision learning from inequalities and resisting oppression by nurturing deeper, more explicit connections between mathematics and social studies. We conclude this article with three overviews of learning segments as potential representations of interdisciplinary mathematics-social studies for social justice work in secondary school contexts.

Substantial Integration of Typical Educational Games Into Extended Curricula

Much research focuses on what might be possible with digital games in the classroom. This study focuses on what is currently probable and typical. It uses a controlled quasi-experimental design to compare outcomes for students of 13 teachers in 10 diverse urban, suburban, and rural schools. The teachers integrated a set of 55 typical educational games into their curricula on Jacksonian democracy. Teachers reported strong engagement benefits for the game condition and a strong interest in using games of this type in the future in their surveys and interviews. Each teacher taught at least one classroom with the games and at least one classroom without the games. When the one teacher who reported a failed implementation was dropped from the analysis, the results showed significantly higher gains for the game condition in terms of multiple-choice factual outcomes, open-response factual outcomes, evidentiary depth, and student engagement outcomes. When the failed implementation was included, the game condition demonstrated improved scores for all outcomes, but only student engagement and evidentiary depth remained significant. Moderator analyses highlighted the role of teacher experience and student engagement in the efficacy of the game condition, indicating that game instruction was particularly beneficial for special education students.