Teacher Education, Preservice Teacher Beliefs, and the Moral Work of Teaching

This article was published in Teaching and Teacher Education, Vol 27 number 3,
Author(s): Matthew N. Sanger and Richard D. Osguthorpe, " Teacher Education, Preservice Teacher Beliefs, and the Moral Work of Teaching", Pages 569-578, Copyright Elsevier
(April 2011).

The current article presents a case for attending to preservice teachers’ beliefs that are relevant to the moral work of teaching within teacher education research and practice.

The case for attending to candidate beliefs is grounded in a learner-centered approach to teacher education and in the literature on the role of beliefs in teacher learning and change.

The authors demonstrate how attending to preservice teacher beliefs is particularly critical for the task of preparing candidates for the moral work of teaching.

The authors argue that the moral work of teaching framework provides a conceptual tool for identifying beliefs relevant to that moral work, and resources that can be used to elicit and address them in the context of teacher education.