Examining preservice teachers’ sensemaking of teaching children through rigorous and appropriate practices: a case study

Policymakers’ reforms continue to narrow the landscape of early childhood education to a limited set of practices centered on improving children’s academic performance. These changes not only influence the training preservice teachers receive but also impact their sensemaking of how to teach the students in their future classrooms. Such challenges demonstrate a need to understand better how teacher educators and their programs impact preservice teachers’ conceptions of teaching children. This case study begins to address this issue by examining how a sample of preservice teachers’ conceptions of teaching evolved across their teacher education program in relation to what is known about how children learn and develop. Using the teaching construct of RIGOROUS DAP, which consists of 11 principles centered on instructional practices that are academically rigorous and developmentally appropriate, the findings of this case study revealed the evolution in complexity of these preservice teachers’ sensemaking of teaching children and of themselves as teachers. Such findings illuminate at least two opportunities for teacher educators and their programs to support the continued growth and development of preservice teachers as they progress through their programs and enter the ever-changing landscape of publicly funded early childhood programs.