Developing future professionals: Influences of literacy coursework and field experiences

The study was designed to describe changes in preservice teachers’ images and perceptions of teaching and literacy as they engaged in collaborative learning experiences within the college classrooms as peers and in the elementary classrooms working with cooperating teachers and young children. Data were collected from students’ semantic maps of themselves as literacy teachers and accompanying narratives collected at three intervals throughout the course. Descriptive statistics used to analyze the data showed the preservice teachers’ initial images of literacy and literacy teachers and the transformations which took place throughout the semester. Among the findings were changes in their language from general to specific terminology, perceptions of children's influences on literacy teaching, and redefinition of the literacy teacher's role and knowledge base.