Learning How to Respond to Current Events: Partner Journals between U. S. Preservice Teachers and Children
This article was published in Teaching and Teacher Education, Vol. 26, Issue 3, Author(s): Steven P. Camicia and Dorothy Dobson, “Learning How to Respond to Current Events: Partner Journals between U. S. Preservice Teachers and Children“, Pages 576-582 ,
Copyright Elsevier (April 2010).
The representation of a variety of stakeholders' voices during the deliberation of public issues is vital for the proper functioning of a liberal democracy.
This qualitative study examined an activity involving deliberation among children and preservice teachers in the United States. In the activity which the authors call partner journals, children were partnered with preservice teachers as pen pals to deliberate shared current events texts.
Data included partner journals, written reflections from preservice teachers, and interviews with the children's teachers.
All students gained perspective consciousness of someone with a different social positioning, a higher-order thinking skill vital to social justice and democratic education. The issues of teacher disclosure and power were particularly important to preservice teachers.
Findings suggest implications for future research on partner journals with other partnerings of different social positionings.