College A Good Place To Become What You Want To Become By Carol R. Rinke, Melissa E. Arsenie, & Suzanne Bell

Carol R. Rinke, Melissa E. Arsenie, & Suzanne Bell

99

Teacher Education Quarterly, Winter 2012

“College Is a Good Place

to Go to Become

What You Want to Become”:

A Collaboration

between Liberal Arts Undergraduates

and Urban Middle School Students

By Carol R. Rinke, Melissa E. Arsenie, & Suzanne Bell

Carol R. Rinke is

a professor in the

Education Department

at Gettysburg

College, Gettysburg,

Pennsylvania; Melissa

E. Arsenie is with The

Posse Foundation,

Boston, Massachusetts;

and Suzanne Bell is

with the Baltimore City

Public School System,

Baltimore, Maryland.

Introduction

In

the

United

States,

there

is

a

pressing

need

to

bridge

the

divide

between

the

higher

education

institu

-

tions

where

teachers

are

prepared

and

the

school

sites

where

they

work

with

students

(e.g.,

McDiarmid

&

Clevenger-Bright,

2008;

Zeichner,

2003).

Linking

the

theoretical

foundations

of

teacher

education

pro

-

grams

with

practical

experience

in

K-12

classrooms

offers

future

teachers

the

fundamental

opportunity

to

learn

both

in

and

from

practice,

developing

a

stance

of

inquiry

about

their

teaching

(Ball

&

Cohen,

1999;

Cochran-Smith

&

Lytle,

1999).

These

collaborations

are

particularly

critical

for

urban

classrooms

where

the

cultural

backgrounds

and

communication

patterns

of

students

so

often

differ

from

the

predominantly

mono-cultural

body

of

future

educators

(Banks,

et

“College Is a Good Place to Go to Become What You Want to Become”

100

al.,

2005;

Haberman,

1996)

and

where

schools

struggle

...