ESTABLISHING A COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE FOR COOPERATING TEACHERS

This article reports on a qualitative study examining the establishment of a community of practice among cooperating teachers in secondary mathematics. Data were collected during several semi structured group and individual interviews and analyzed using qualitative coding methods. Results indicated that the cooperating teachers found the community to be helpful and supportive, and revealed what cooperating teachers felt that they needed to be successful, including hard-working student teachers who respond to feedback and clear expectations from the college. This study also found benefits to cooperating teachers, including learning or re-learning innovative approaches, reenergizing their teaching. The study also found that cooperating teachers were more likely to use such approaches when the university supervisor was present, admitting to doing "different things" during observations than on a day-to-day basis. Participants found it difficult to mediate what they referred to as the "idealism" of the college in relation to the realities of the classroom. Implications for the field are shared.