What is Secondary Teacher Candidates

In this chapter, two teacher educators share a research study designed to examine asset-orientation and deficit-gaze among secondary teacher candidates across a one-year graduate teacher education program. Applying a sociocultural lens to teacher candidate learning and centering language as a semiotic tool, the researchers foreground the discourse teacher candidates use to describe and discuss students and families. Teacher candidate discourse is examined for evidence of asset and deficit orientations at three timepoints. The authors offer a tool that teacher educators can use to assess dispositional change over time. Highlighted in this chapter are processes for identifying dispositional biases of teacher candidates, how these biases can change throughout the preparation program, and ways coursework and clinical experiences support an asset-orientation toward students. The chapter concludes with recommendations that educator preparation programs can use to support the development of preservice teacher dispositional development.