Chapter 11: Fostering Preservice Teachers’ Transition to Professionals in a Culturally Responsive Field-Based Experience

Recently, the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP, n.d), provided a framework for educator preparation programs to use as a guide in the preparation of teacher candidates. The following two CAEP (n.d.) standards describe teacher characteristics relevant to this chapter:

This chapter, conceptual in nature, extends on previous published work and a research article (Garza, 2010–2011) focused on a culturally responsive field-based model.

My past experiences as a high school teacher, a community college adjunct instructor, and preparing teachers enrolled in an alternative certification program, helped to build a foundation for my teaching assignment at Texas State University. As a teacher educator for the past 12 years, my teaching assignment has consisted of teaching undergraduate classes in a field-based setting and a graduate class, usually at night on the main campus. The focus of the field-based courses included topics such as secondary teaching strategies, assessment, diversity, culturally responsiveness, classroom management, discipline, teacher code of ethics, and legal issues. As a field experience teacher educator, I have the pleasure of preparing aspiring teachers while they learn to build bridges with the high school faculty and administrators, to collaborate with teachers in a professional manner, to experience the classroom while working with students, and to plan, deliver, and reflect on their instruction.