A Place To Grow: Examining Teachers’ Interactions In An Online Thirdspace

Abstract

CHAPTER I: BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY My desire to become an educator began at a young age when I played school with my sister. We would always fight over who would be the teacher each time we played. My own schooling experiences only furthered my love of learning: I loved school and I admired all my teachers at that time, just as young children often do. In my elementary years, school was easy for me. In high school, I had to work hard and study often, but I was still a good student. I completed my assignments, I earned good grades, and continued to admire many of my teachers. At the same time, I began to recognize that not all teaching practices were effective in supporting my learning. In college, coursework became more challenging, as I was asked to think critically and comprehend deeply. This was something new for me as most of my schooling experiences centered around a banking model (Freire, 1970), in which I was expected to regurgitate information on a test. Since this had been a common part of my experiences as a student, upon entering college, I did not recognize the potential of other possibilities. As an elementary education major in college, I realized there is more to teaching than what I enacted playing school with my sister, what I interpreted as a student, or even what I learned during my undergraduate teacher education which began in 2002. I chose to participate in the Professional Development School (PDS) program during my final year at Illinois State University (ISU). I was excited for the opportunity to work closely with a mentor teacher in a district where technology was prevalent. I had heard many great testimonials from other PDS teacher candidates, I could not have imagined being prepared to teach in another student teaching placement. However, it was also during this time that I began to notice some conflicts between my own teaching and what I learned about during my undergraduate coursework. My perspective on teaching and what it meant to be a teacher continued to evolve as I began working in my