Tailoring New Urban Teachers for Character and Activism

Abstract

This two-site, qualitative case study examined how the Chicago and Boston Public School Districts alternatively prepared new teachers through partnerships with private, nonprofit urban teacher residencies. Drawing on urban regime analysis and resource dependence theory, the study asked how the reform partners defined “teacher quality” and how the structure of their partnerships contributed to those meanings. The study produced findings indicating participants’ preferences for varying types of professional dispositions considered essential to teacher quality. The study considered the implications of reform partners “tailoring” teachers to possess specific sets of dispositions in order to fulfill ideal constructions of teacher quality and meet the instructional needs of each district.