Introducing Co-Teaching and Co-Generative Dialogues in a Pre-Service Teaching Practicum: Stepping in and Remaining Contradictions

Abstract

This article reports on collaborative teaching practices and co-generative dialogues incorporated into a Master of Arts (MA) in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) practicum at a large northeastern U.S. university with a focus on uncovering the processes associated with learning-to-teach. The paper describes the contents of the existing pre-service teaching practicum as well as the supplementary activities that were introduced. The article presents two main findings: (1) Co-teaching opportunities provided critical support to the pre-service teachers as they began teaching, and (2) Although the co-generative dialogues were set up to mediate a reflexive dialogue around the nature of teaching, we found that the pre-service teachers retained some teaching beliefs that were in conflict with those of the mentors even at the end of the practicum. Despite the extended opportunities to discuss their respective teaching beliefs, the mentors were not prepared to deal with the pre-service teachers' unresolved concerns, which bears important implications for how to prepare mentors to work with novices in the context of an MA TESL practicum.