A Practicum Experience in Teacher Education

This book describes a qualitative case study that seeks to understand the nature and development of a professional relationship between a student teacher and a host teacher over the course of a year-long practicum. Artifacts and interviews are used to create a historical account which describes the nature and development of the professional relationship. Power, communication, risk-taking and collaboration are themes that emerge from the detailed historical account and are analyzed according to the ways the student teacher and cooperating teacher perceived the relationship. The study aims to understand the interactions between a student teacher and cooperating teacher and how the developing relationship potentially contributes to a student teachers learning. The book is for teachers, student teachers, researchers and anyone involved and interested in understanding professional supervisory relationships.