Dedicated teachers who had and overcame academic challenges in their youth offer valuable insights into how to support students who struggle. This article presents a qualitative study of 46 teachers from across the United Stated who faced academic challenges as elementary, middle, and/or secondary students. Their memories of academic struggles lead them to use teaching practices that are grounded in the professional disposition that all children can learn. The findings suggest a positive interrelationship between a biography (Knowles, 1992) that includes academic struggles, the theoretical constructs of grit (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007) and self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977), and current educational practices and provide implications for theory, teacher education, and induction. c I began teaching sixth grade, I was initially overwhelmed by the challenge of meeting the needs of my students who struggled. As I attempted to understand their confusions and challenges better and learned how to respond effectively, I was mentored by veteran colleagues who were successful, dedicated teachers. One colleague was particularly helpful: Michael (pseudonyms are used throughout this article). One day, Michael told me he did not really learn to read until sixth grade. How, I wondered, could a successful veteran reading teacher with a master’s degree in literacy not have been able to read until he was 12? As my respect for Michael’s skills as a teacher deepened, I wondered if having and overcoming academic challenges helped Michael succeed when teaching students who struggled. My wondering tapped into a significant issue: responding effectively and persevering when students struggle with academics and/or are disengaged in school are essential teacher characteristics. As Darling-Hammond (2005) explained, teacher education is at the heart of helping educators learn to “teach powerfully—that is, to teach in ways that all children can learn” (p. 1, emphasis in the original). Darling-Hammond (2005) further underscored the need for enhancing teaching and teacher education given the complex demands of life in the 21st century. As teacher educators endeavor to respond, it follows that dedicated and successful teachers like Michael who overcame academic challenges in youth might have valuable insights. For such teachers, the belief that all children can learn is more than a professional disposition (National 628 SARA WINSTEAD FRY Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education [NCATE], 2008): it is reality grounded in what Knowles (1992) called biography. Therefore, 15 years after meeting Michael, I undertook an investigation of the nature of academic struggles that 46 dedicated teachers from across the United States faced as K–12 students. I sought to identify how those struggles influence their current educational practices and ascertain how their experiences might inform teacher education. Two theoretical perspectives informed this study: (1) teacher biography and (2) behaviors and characteristics associated with effective teaching. Theoretical Perspectives
This article uses a narrative approach to start a dialogue about the challenges of teaching blended methods classes that contain traditional and alternative licensure students. Many alternative licensure students enter their methods classes as lateral-entry teachers who must balance their licensure requirements with the demands associated with full-time teaching. However, the needs of these students are often considerably different from those of traditional undergraduate teacher education students, which creates formidable challenges for instructors of blended classes. After reflecting on our experiences in teaching these types of blended classes, we offer recommendations for methods professors who find themselves in similar contexts.
