Abstract:The present article discusses the importance of community-based field experiences as a feature of teacher education programs. Through a qualitative case study, prospective teachers' work with homeless youth in an after-school initiative is presented. Framing community-based field experiences in teacher education through "third space" theory, the article discusses the value that such experiences have for prospective teachers' learning. The goals of the article align with the commitment to preparing a future teaching force for the diverse educational settings that they will encounter in the twenty-first century. (Darling-Hammond, 2006;Feiman-Nemser & Buchman, 1987;Sleeter, 2008;Zeichner, 2010). Holistically, such field experiences exist to promote teacher candidates' understanding and practice of culturally responsive pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 2001), as well as bridge beginning teachers' reflection on the constructs of theory and practice present in the teaching act (Shulman, 2005). Though field experiences have been acknowledged as an important component of teacher education programs, little work has explored the unique qualities of community-based settings as potential sites for teachers' learning (see Coffey, 2010). Coffey (2010) suggests that community-based settings have the power to transform the ways that beginning teachers think about the effects of schooling in their students' lives, as well as the extent to which social factors influence students' success in school. Communitybased settings offer sites for beginning teachers to consider how schools reside in the greater context of a community, and this can potentially broaden beginning teachers' understandings of where learning takes place (Rogers, Marshall, & Tyson, 2006). Community-Based Field Experiences in Teacher Education Community-Based Field Experiences in Teacher Education 2Extending teacher education programs' commitment to preparing teacher candidates for environments that are not only part of schools, but situated within communities, becomes a commitment to preparing beginning teachers for understanding that teaching and schooling extend beyond the walls of the classroom and into the world.In this article, I discuss the importance of community-based field experiences as a feature of teacher education programs. I explore, through a qualitative case study (Merriam, 1998;Stake, 1995Stake, , 2000, teacher candidates' work with homeless youth in an after-school initiative. Drawing on the literature in teacher education that proposes community-based field experiences as potential sites for beginning teachers' learning, especially as these experiences relate to beginning teachers' understandings of teaching diverse students, I explore how such settings align theoretically with teacher education programs and articulate the value that such experiences bring to teacher candidates' learning. I build on Zeichner's (2010) proposal of framing field experiences through "third space" theory (Bhabha, 1990), and show how tenets of third space theory ...

Electronic portfolio use within the context of a teacher education program is explored in this article. Although the use of e‐portfolios has emerged as a topic that integrates new technologies and the education of preservice teachers, little work thus far has documented the complexities involved in the authoring process of e‐portfolios. To address this gap, this article focuses on two preservice teachers' processes of crafting e‐portfolios. Specifically, the article documents the realities of presenting oneself to multiple audiences through the vehicle of the electronic teaching portfolio. The term teacher identity is introduced as a way to describe preservice teachers' need to present themselves through the e‐portfolio as both “competent beginning teachers” and “inquisitive college students.” The author analyzes interviews with preservice teachers, concluding that e‐portfolios can be viewed as potential spaces for important talk about teacher identity.

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