This podcast interview features insights from the article “Developing Teachers as Critical Curators: Investigating Elementary Preservice Teachers’ Inspirations for Lesson Planning” by Amanda G. Sawyer, Katie Dredger, Joy Myers, Susan Barnes, Reece Wilson, Jesse Sullivan, and Daniel Sawyer. The article is published in the November/December 2020 issue of the Journal of Teacher Education.
Article Abstract: Internet resources abound for preservice teacher (PST) use today, but we do not know how they choose and describe their implementation of them. This study investigates 158 elementary PSTs’ lesson plans across eight courses to describe plan inspiration and justification. PSTs reported being inspired by cooperating teachers (CTs), friends and family members, university courses, and Internet resources. In some cases, these PSTs simply followed lesson plans given to them. In other cases, they collected, curated, synthesized, and applied ideas based on inspirations, showing dispositions of New Literacies Theory. This study provides evidence that teacher educators need to engage PSTs in intentionally developing the skills of curation by acknowledging and modeling the depth and breadth of resources, including those that are not necessarily sanctioned. Implications include ways that teacher educators can frame PSTs’ understandings as they critically consume online resources through Critical Curation Theory.
Corresponding Author: Amanda G. Sawyer, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA 22807, USA. Email: sawyerag@jmu.edu
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