Informing Teaching Through Community Engagement: A New Zealand Approach

Supporting Preservice Teachers Dispositional Development And Cultural Competence Through Community-Based Service Learning

Contrary to popular opinion, teaching is complex and “unnatural” work (Ball & Forzani, 2011, p. 41). Rather than arising naturally from one’s interest in either children, or a subject matter area, teaching is reliant on specialist knowledge and proficiency in a range of disciplines related to learning, development, and subject matter. Moreover, it requires unique aptitudes, such as recognizing and using multiple perspectives, and understanding how to work with both individuals and large groups. In addition, the acquisition of skills and the ability to deconstruct knowledge and reframe it in such a way as to enable the specific learning of others is crucial (Ball & Forzani, 2011; Hashweh, 2005; Shulman, 1986, 1987). Perhaps most importantly, it demands the capacity to cultivate supportive and responsive relationships (Bishop, Ladwig, & Berryman, 2013) that enable a teacher to work with many learners, who have a diversity of life experiences and cultural backgrounds, at the same time as overseeing inclusive, safe, and productive learning environments (Ball & Forzani, 2011). Thus, a key task for teacher education is developing preservice teachers’ capacity to undertake this unnatural work as they learn to navigate the complexity of early childhood centers and classrooms.