Pedagogical Purgatory

Abstract

Identity formation in undergraduate teacher preparation programs is often challenging for teacher candidates. Future teachers sometimes find themselves in tension-filled situations where university preparation program practices contradict expectations of elementary school internships or their beliefs about teaching children. Often, teacher candidates are relegated to two choices: conform to the internship context, survive, or resist and risk potential denial to the system towards which they feel dissonance . This chapter shows how two teacher candidates in a two-year full-time teacher residency preparation program felt dissonance towards their internship setting mentor teachers and how they leveraged the structure of their university program to advance their teaching status in those contexts. Through scapegoating the literacy content coach and coaching cycle, Megan and Natalie impacted children's learning experiences and their teacher identities.