Strategic Compromise a Student Teacher's Design of Kindergarten Mathematics Instruction in a High-Stakes Testing Climate

Abstract

This report describes one preservice teacher's development of mathematics instruction during her student-teaching internship in a kindergarten classroom at a low-performing, urban elementary school. A framework of social strategies was used to describe the student teacher's use of strategic compromise as a way to deal with competing pressures and goals related to kindergarten mathematics instruction at her placement school. As she designed her mathematics instruction, she found ways of adapting to the school climate that allowed room for her own interests and goals, while also accepting some modifications to those interests and goals. The student teacher's resulting mixed instructional practice has implications for and raises questions about the preparation of teachers in the current high-stakes accountability climate in the United States.

Tactical Negotiations and Creative Adaptations: The Discursive Production of Literacy Curriculum and Teacher Identities Across Space‐Times

“…We view these particulars as a warrant for microlevel analyses of interactions and classroom practice to better understand how curricular negotiations occur and how they are intertwined with teachers' identities. Although accounts of how teacher identities are constructed through the negotiation of multiple curricular demands have been reported in the broader teacher education literature (Clayton, 2007;Jackson, 2001;Kostogriz & Peeler, 2007;Smagorinsky, Cook, Moore, Jackson, & Fry, 2004) or other content areas (Leander & Osborne, 2008;Lloyd, 2007), research in this area is thin, particularly in literacy studies (cf. Gatto, 2004, andRogers, Marshall, &Tyson, 2006).…”

Preservice teachers’ beliefs about high-stakes testing and their working environments

“…Data suggest that the pressures to get students to pass tests-especially when working with students who struggle to pass them-present incentives to engage in undesirable instructional practices. For example, teachers report the enduring pressures to get students to pass tests encourages them to teach to the test, engage in boring repetitive drills and lower-level cognitive tasks, and create classroom climates steeped in extrinsic motivational control (e.g., "learn this so you can pass the test") (Lloyd, 2007;Simzar, Martinez, Rutherford, Domina, & Conley, 2015;Valli & Buese, 2007). Students feel this.…”

“…Many of his teacher candidates worried about the anticipated future conflict between helping students to develop critical thinking skills and the pressures of getting them to pass the New York Regents exam-goals they saw to be in direct conflict with one another. Early on in the institution of NCLB requirements, preservice teachers already worried about the role high-stakes testing would play in their future profession (Brown, 2010;Lloyd, 2007;Ng, 2006;White, Sturtevant, & Dunlap, 2003). Lloyd (2007) conducted an in-depth qualitative analysis of one kindergarten preschool teacher's development of mathematics instruction during her student-teaching internship in an urban school setting.…”

“…Early on in the institution of NCLB requirements, preservice teachers already worried about the role high-stakes testing would play in their future profession (Brown, 2010;Lloyd, 2007;Ng, 2006;White, Sturtevant, & Dunlap, 2003). Lloyd (2007) conducted an in-depth qualitative analysis of one kindergarten preschool teacher's development of mathematics instruction during her student-teaching internship in an urban school setting. Drawing from data from eight classroom observations of her classroom and semi-structured interviews conducted before and after each observation period, Lloyd (2007) found that even though kindergarteners would not face high-stakes testing until the third grade, student teachers received strong messages about expectations for preparing their kindergarteners for future success in math.…”

Helping Preservice Teachers Learn to Teach for Understanding in this Era of High-stakes Early Education Reform

“…However, a key finding from this study was that the students struggled to see how they could implement these practices in the classroom. While PSTs experiencing a disconnect between their field placements and their university courses is not a new finding (e.g., Lloyd 2007), unpacking these PSTs' experiences of disconnect across the NRC's model of teaching for understanding offers an opportunity for teacher educators to consider how they might build off their students' experiences to help them implement effective instructional strategies in their classrooms.…”