In the United States, over 80% of the teacher workforce identifies as White (U.S. Department of Education, 2016) and, thus, may view the role of education (and their work as teachers) through a White lens (Moore, 2021). In contrast, student populations are increasingly diverse, and it is predicted that by 2024 White students in public schools will make up only 46% of the population (U.S. Department of Education, 2016).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For these reasons, as methods instructors in an elementary education program, we aim to support our primarily White teacher candidates in developing a theoretical lens of critical consciousness while they are learning to teach content. In this space, we guide them in how to teach for equity and justice by developing an inquiry stance to see, understand, and disrupt dominant discourses that misrepresent, omit, or silence youth of color or from lower income communities (Lee, 2008; Love, 2019). Through this humanizing and justice-oriented lens, our teacher candidates move from discussing one\u2019s racialized identity in their foundations courses to learning to walk the talk in methods courses, which is the core of justice-oriented teaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Walking the talk means learning to let go, learning to listen, and learning \u2014 as empowered change agents\u2014to promote more just and equitable student learning. To walk the talk, learning outcomes and associated activities need to be intentional and scaffolded to support teacher candidates who are new to teaching and still developing critical consciousness. This work becomes even more powerful when we, as instructors, collaborate to support teacher candidates in becoming change agents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this paper we describe how Mursion\u2019s\u00ae mixed reality simulations (from here \u201csimulations\u201d), supported teacher candidates in beginning to walk the talk at our midsized university in the Midwest. This work began as a small study situated within our elementary mathematics and social studies methods classes to understand how simulations supplemented field experiences during the global coronavirus pandemic. However, we found lasting benefits that extended beyond an immediate need for field placements. Simulations not only augmented our candidates\u2019 field experience, but they also gave us a window on their developing practice, specifically their development as teachers committed to becoming change agents enacting just and equitable learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This study is significant because it supported us to imagine, or reimagine, our teacher education space as a community of praxis (Schiera, 2021) seeking to converge critical (e.g., Freire, 1970\/2011) and social (e.g., Lave, 1991) learning theories in a practice-oriented way. While much has been written about the importance of weaving issues of diversity, equity, and justice throughout teacher preparation, there are fewer examples of how to support teacher candidates in becoming justice-oriented teachers as they hone core teaching practices during methods coursework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Using the tools of qualitative inquiry, in particular, thematic analysis, this study drew from the words of the teacher candidates as they participated in focus groups, as well as in their written reflections after participating in simulations during their coursework, to understand the role simulations may play in developing their capacity to enact core teaching practices through a justice-oriented lens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This study was informed by three sets of literature that are rarely discussed together: justice-oriented teaching and learning, developing core teaching practices in practice-based teacher education, and the use of simulations in preparing teacher candidates to do the work of teaching. We drew on the literature to describe our approach to preparing justice-oriented teachers within practice-based teacher education and will explain here how we used the learning cycle to frame and inform our teaching. We situated our work within the growing body of simulation literature arguing how simulations provide an ideal (as well as underexamined) learning space for teacher candidates to develop skilled and just teaching practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A large body of research (e.g., Ball & Cohen, 1999; Grossman et al., 2009; McDonald et al., 2013) has asserted that professional learning should provide teacher candidates with the opportunity to inquire into the critical activities of the profession. Across our teacher preparation programs we center justice-oriented teaching and learning (Barton et al., 2020) within practice-based teacher education. As teacher candidates learn in and through practice (Ball & Cohen, 1999), our coursework is designed to intentionally interrogate our worldviews, assumptions, biases, and practices through dialog and intersectional action toward social change at the individual, school, and institutional levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Through this intentional work, our goal is to promote social transformations and alter participation and authority structures that are generally rooted in White supremacy and patriarchal dominance (Birmingham et al., 2017), which is the core of justice-oriented education. Yet, we acknowledge that this work is complex and messy; we are only in the beginning stage of this journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We imagine a teacher education space as a community of praxis (Schiera, 2021). This space seeks convergence between critical (e.g., Freire, 1970\/2011) and social (e.g., Lave, 1991) learning theories (Schiera, 2021). Here, the fundamental critical orientations for teaching \u2014 student learning (understanding the difference between a test measure and learning), cultural competence (understanding diversity in asset-oriented ways), and developing sociopolitical\/critical consciousness (a commitment and skills to act as agents of change) \u2014 are infused with culturally relevant and responsive practices (Ladson-Billings, 2021; Villegas & Lucas, 2002).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These practices include embracing constructivism, learning about students and their communities, and creating learning paths through various instructional activities that build on students\u2019 interests and community resources (Villegas & Lucas, 2002). These critical orientations merge with fundamental social orientations for teaching: attending to situated learning in the context of practice through representations, decompositions, and approximations of practice (Ball & Cohen, 1999; Grossman, 2018; Schiera, 2021).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In our elementary mathematics and social studies methods classes we intentionally seek out a community of praxis as we create opportunities for learners to consider content, practice, and equity issues by scaffolding learning around core practices. We define core practices (e.g., explaining and modeling content; eliciting and interpreting student thinking; and leading a group discussion) as critical practices for students to learn content and skills (e.g., Grossman, 2018). By design, core practices are not intended to be standalone know-how, but they instead guide learners in navigating the complexities of the classroom since they are responsive to context (Kloser, 2014).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet, we realize a potential for core practices to peripheralize equity and justice, since these routines may oversimplify the complexity of teaching (Philip et al., 2018). Therefore, in communities of praxis, we leverage the ways core practices work toward justice-oriented practices with individual and collective impact on classroom culture (Barton et al., 2020).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, consider the practice of eliciting and interpreting student thinking. Eliciting and interpreting student thinking is always cultural and political (Schiera, 2021), in that it requires learners to tap into the conceptual tools that support them in seeing students from an asset-oriented perspective (Villegas & Lucas, 2002). Within an asset-oriented perspective, teacher candidates learn to recognize and value the linguistic, cultural, and socioeconomic diversity of students and consider how attending to core practices involve attending to culture, context, and justice (Schiera, 2021).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To bring core practices to life, teacher candidates\u2019 engagement with these practices are carefully scaffolded so that they shift their lenses from being an observer of the work that teachers do (Lortie, 1975) to becoming a professional educator, gaining practical insight into the work that takes place in schools. We leverage the practice-based pedagogies of investigation to develop teacher candidates\u2019 ability to analyze and critique justice-oriented teaching practices, while also positioning the pedagogies of enactment in ways that support them to do the practices of teaching within the context of coursework (Grossman et al., 2009; Kavanagh & Danielson, 2020; Kazemi et al., 2009).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To scaffold learners\u2019 attention to walking the talk, we use a learning cycle framework to guide our instructional decisions. Within the learning cycle framework, our goal is for learners to have opportunities to implement justice-oriented practices as they explore a unit of instruction, prepare and rehearse an activity to enact with students, enact the activity with students, and analyze the enactment (McDonald et al., 2013).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, as learners investigate the core practice of eliciting and interpreting student thinking, they first explore the practice while engaging with representations of practice such as direct observations of practitioners in the field, case studies, videos of classroom strategies, lesson plans, and PK-12 student work that provide them with opportunities to understand eliciting and interpreting student thinking in practice (Grossman et al., 2009).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next, learners decompose eliciting and interpreting student thinking by breaking down the practice into its component parts as they prepare to enact the practice with students. As learners prepare to elicit and interpret student thinking within the context of their methods coursework, they formulate questions that probe student thinking, consider how to listen and notice specific features of student thinking, as well as learn how to focus on a strategic aspect of a student\u2019s thinking to probe further. Also, in this phase of the learning cycle, learners\u2019 approximate practice as they rehearse the activity.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Approximations of practice are opportunities for learners to enact core practices in ways that are proximal to the practice of teaching. These approximations of practice provide learners with scaffolded opportunities to develop their professional practice as they simulate aspects of core practices through activities such as role-plays (e.g., Schultz et al., 2019), microteaching (e.g., Zhang & Cheng, 2011), coached rehearsals (Kazemi et al., 2015), teaching minilessons or parts of lessons (Davis & Nelson, 2011), or simulations (Murphy et al., 2018). Although approximations of practice are not the real thing, they provide learners with opportunities to experiment with new skills, try on a new role, or develop a new way of thinking while receiving feedback from their instructor, mentor, or peers that support them to refine their instructional practice (Grossman et al., 2009).<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the next phases of the learning cycle, learners enact the activity with PK-12 students and then reflect on the enactment. These phases are a critical part of the learning cycle because it provides novices with the opportunity to improve teaching on a particular topic. As learners teach students, teacher educators (e.g., mentor teachers and university methods instructors) may engage in live, in-the-moment coaching or coteaching to provide in-the-moment modeling (McDonald et al., 2013).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Further, as learners teach, they capture their enactment in concrete ways, such as taking video of their efforts, to receive additional feedback from teacher educators and colleagues. These concrete artifacts of enactments are then used during the analysis phase of the learning cycle to unpack the teaching and learning that happened during the lesson. In sum, the literature illustrates that this final phase of the learning cycle provides learners with the opportunity to compare their initial and current understandings about teaching and learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Practice-based teacher education and, in particular, the learning cycle not only scaffold learners\u2019 instruction within coursework but serves as a framework positioning the pedagogies of investigation and enactment that inform our work as teacher educators. Consequently, we wondered how to best support our students in preparing for and practicing justice-oriented core practices before enacting them in real classrooms with real students, especially since traditional role-plays, where learners present a lesson to a group of their peers, may not authentically represent a classroom environment and present little to no real-world consequences (Storey & Cox, 2015). Because of this wondering, we turned to simulations as a learning space to support novice learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since research indicates that simulations feel like a more authentic form of practice (Dalinger et al., 2020), there is a notable trend in infusing more authentic experiences, assisted by technology, into teacher education coursework. In this space, simulations are designed in ways that connect theory to practice through detailed scenarios intended to portray authentic classroom experiences. The intent of this practice space is to prepare learners for the realities of the classroom because they can practice specific skills, as often as needed, in a fully controlled environment (Brownell et al., 2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here, real and virtual worlds are combined to give learners a sense of immersion with both physical and social presence (Biocca et al., 2003). This means that learners feel that they are in the classroom with the students and that they have a meaningful impact on their learning (Hayes et al., 2013). Hence, learners can practice what they are learning, reflect on it afterward, and practice the skill again (Kaufman & Ireland, 2016). This space may not only provide learners with the opportunity to hone core practices, develop content knowledge, and the pedagogical content knowledge that is needed for teaching, but also to foster the development of teaching dispositions (Kaufman & Ireland, 2016).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because of the potential of this space for honing teaching practices, research on the use of simulations within the field of teacher education is growing across a range of experiences. Although this is not intended to be an exhaustive list of examples, research related to special education coursework is finding that simulations have been used to focus on developing learners\u2019 skills to manage the learning environment (Hudson et al., 2019), implement Discrete Trial Teaching (Fraser et al., 2020), and to navigate multiple collaborative relationships in inclusive settings (Driver et al., 2018).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In science, technology, engineering, and mathematics coursework, simulations focus on facilitating whole class discussions in elementary mathematics and science (e.g., Lee et al., 2018), facilitating argumentation-focused science discussion (Mikeska & Howell, 2019), and leveraging number talks to elicit students\u2019 mathematical thinking while developing professional noticing skills (Woods, 2021). Here, simulations not only provide learners with the opportunity to build their instructional skills, but to interact with students in a way that recognizes the relational work of teaching. Thus, learners share their vulnerabilities as they confront their concerns about not being able to respond to students\u2019 mathematical thinking, while positioning students as sensemakers and noticing missed opportunities to support students\u2019 mathematical reasoning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Research also showcases how simulations provide learners with the opportunity to experiment and grow as they receive ongoing feedback (Landon-Hays et al., 2020; Lee et al., 2021; Woods, 2021). For example, Lee et al. (2021) found that learners who rehearsed and were coached within simulations were less likely to position elementary students as passive participants than those who rehearsed in peer-to-peer settings. Also, they found that learners who participated in simulations, as compared to peer-to-peer rehearsals, may be more comfortable with the level of students\u2019 responses and, therefore, did not revert to more literal types of questioning or repeating. Further, this opportunity to practice within simulations mitigates the risk to others (e.g., students in PK-12 schools and mentor teachers), since learners can learn to carry out core practices in a supervised or coached space before enacting it in the real-world with students (Kaufman & Ireland, 2016).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet, gaps remain in the literature about the role of simulations in field experiences (Hixon & So, 2009), the learning outcomes afforded by simulations (Billingsley & Scheuermann, 2014), and how to foreground justice-oriented core practices meaningfully into simulations. Since there is scant research where learners enact justice-oriented core practices during simulations, this study aimed to build a foundation for the development of such literature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This qualitative study investigated how simulations supported the development of justice-oriented teaching practices among teacher candidates enrolled in our elementary mathematics methods and social studies courses. We turned to qualitative methods because we were interested in knowing how<\/em> individual candidates were (or were not) taking up justice-oriented core practices during simulations that we designed for our classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Within qualitative methodology, thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) allows one to explore patterns and relationships across data sources (Fereday & Muri-Cochrane, 2006) in ways that are central to the description of the phenomenon (Daly et al., 1997). We hoped the themes originating from the words of our teacher candidates that emerged as most salient would help us understand the relationship between theory and practice. More practically, we hoped the study\u2019s findings would inform and guide our use of simulations, as well as our approach to teaching justice-oriented teaching practices. To this end, the research question we explored in this study was as follows: What role did simulations play in developing candidates\u2019 capacity to enact core teaching practices through a justice-oriented lens? <\/p>\n\n\n\n The university-based teacher preparation program used for this study was large and comprehensive, with five pathways to initial certification. The elementary undergraduate program featured in this study, however, is by far the largest with close to 600 students. Our university, located in a predominantly White, wealthy suburb in the midwestern US had a largely White student population, which contributes to our commitment as a faculty to the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Additionally, all three authors identify as White, cisgender females with a commitment to both practice-based teacher preparation and social justice. Dawn teaches the elementary mathematics methods course, Linda teaches the elementary social studies methods courses, while Cindy, as a neutral (noninstructional) observer, assisted by conducting focus groups with study participants after the term ended. All three authors contributed to data analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Study participants, in addition to the two aforementioned faculty instructors, included 29 teacher candidates enrolled in mathematics methods and 32 teacher candidates enrolled in social studies methods. Data were collected during fall 2020, when we taught remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic. Of note, 18 of the 61 consenting candidates were enrolled in both methods courses at the same time. Having already completed all introductory and foundational coursework, these candidates were now one or two terms away from their student teaching semester. Additionally, a smaller group of 13 teacher candidates who had participated in simulations across a wider range of courses, elementary and secondary, shared their experiences in one of three focus groups conducted at the end of the semester. Collectively, from focus group to classroom, these mostly White female teacher candidates mirrored the diversity in our program, thus serving as a representative sample of students (see Table 1).<\/p>\n\n\n\nUsing Simulations to Support Teacher Candidate Learning<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Research Methods<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Participants and Setting<\/h3>\n\n\n\n