Abstract
As school districts face persistent teacher shortages, paraprofessionals and school staff remain an untapped resource with immense potential. The purpose of this study was to explore the distinct benefits that school employees bring to the teaching profession when transitioning into roles as teachers of record. To deeply understand candidates' stories, this qualitative study employed Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to examine how preservice teacher candidates make sense of their own lived experiences. The findings reveal five key advantages these transitioning educators provide: deep community connections, practical institutional knowledge, resilience in high-need schools, expertise supporting non-traditional learners, and a profound desire to create classrooms of belonging. The study shares four candidate vignettes that demonstrate these core themes in practice while also highlighting their desire to create classrooms of belonging. This focus on educational belonging addresses a critical gap in the literature regarding how preservice teachers’ own retrospective experiences of school inclusion and alienation shape their professional formation. Consequently, the study recommends that teacher preparation programs actively support preservice teachers’ exploration of their own experiences of educational belonging in order to cultivate spaces of belonging and inclusion for their students.
Recommended Citation
Sidarous, Julie Dr. and van Dyke, Douglas Dr.. (). Hidden in Plain Sight: The Role of Belonging in Shaping Pre-Service Teachers’ Motivations & Practices in a Paraprofessional-to-Teacher Pathway. i.e.: inquiry in education: Vol. 18: Iss. 1, Article 14.Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.nl.edu/ie/vol18/iss1/14
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