This book brings in an international perspective on a much debated area, namely teacher education. Through narrative research, the chapters in this collection provide a wide variety of stories of discovery, transformation and hope in teaching and learning to teach.

How can teacher educators engage pre-service and in-service teachers in learning about and framing their teaching from a critical literacy perspective? What does this mean? Why is it important? To address these questions, this book offers a theoretical framework and detailed examples, pedagogical resources, and insights into ways to build critical literacies with teachers in and out of school. Its unique contribution is to bridge critical literacy theory and teacher education. Participants in teacher education programs and professional development settings are often reminded of the need to build curriculum using children’s inquiry questions, passions and interests but generally this message is delivered only through telling (lectures) or showing (examples from other people’s classrooms). This book advances critical literary by explaining and illustrating how teacher educators can do much more—by creating opportunities for pre-service and in-service teachers to "live critical literacies" through experiencing firsthand what it is like to be a learner where the curriculum is built around teachers’ own inquiry questions, passions, and interests.

Explores how individuals' identity and personal practical knowledge are being formed, shifted or interrupted through moments in teacher education.

'Narratives form the Classroom' introduces the reader to many important classroom issues surrounding the field of teaching. It is a collection of personal accounts and ideas written by the teachers and teacher educators.

This book brings together contributions from various researchers, providing an overview of narrative research approaches and demonstrating how these work in practice. A broad range of approaches are covered, from well-established and well-known thematic analysis (particularly of 'big stories'), to the more recent sociolinguistic discourse analysis of 'small stories', and the innovative analysis and presentation of visual and performance data such as drawings and drama. This overview includes not just an illustration of narrative research, but the methodological processes which underpin it, relating these to relevant narrative theory. The book, therefore, is both a how-to-do narrative research text and a presentation of narrative studies, providing case study examples and ideas for further research.

A collection of personal, contextualized stories of teachers assessing their own experiences in gaining expertise as language teachers. Preservice and inservice teachers will benefit from the insights provided in this book, as will Language Teacher Educators and education researchers.

Explores how individuals' identity and personal practical knowledge are being formed, shifted or interrupted through moments in teacher education.

This book takes a fresh look at 'professional experience' in initial teacher education in Australia. Using collaborative narrative methodologies, the authors critically explore the ways in which one faculty of education engages with schools, industry, the teaching profession and government policy to deliver an innovative professional experience program. It includes chapters offering new perspectives on more traditional practicums in schools, as well as those reporting on exciting partnership initiatives where pre-service teachers, teacher educators and practitioners work together to teach and learn in new and mutually beneficial ways. There is a particular focus on the professional learning of all stakeholders from across the professional experience program. The book allows readers to gain a new understanding of the experiences and learning opportunities available to all stakeholders when a professional experience program makes a priority of boundary work, relational work and identity work. With the critical and creative power of narrative to convey what other research methodologies cannot, it shows how one institution has developed a variety of innovative approaches and structures in response to on-going debates on quality in teacher education, the role of educational partnerships in teacher preparation and the personal and professional insights gained from such opportunities.

This book analyzes equity and diversity in schools and teacher education. Within this broad and necessary context, the book raises some critical issues not previously explored in many multicultural and urban education texts.

What role does narrative play in building teachers' knowledge? In this timely volume, foremost scholars in the field of education not only open, but they deepen the conversation about the uses of narrative in the construction of teachers' knowledge.