Critical Reflection for Transformative Learning Understanding e-Portfolios in Teacher Education

This book provides a research-based guide to using ePortfolios to develop critically reflective teachers capable of transformative learning for educational equity. It begins with a conceptualization of critical reflection in teacher education, then analyzes the social discourse of prospective teachers' teaching practice through their ePortfolio reflections, triangulated by classroom teaching observations and interviews. The results of the research show that prospective teachers’ reflections are performative and do not typically trigger transformative learning, in large part because of discrepancies in the structures of the ePortfolio, the goals of the teacher education program, and the mentoring and supervisory practices. With this analysis in hand, the book turns to practical questions, providing a transformative framework along with examples and tips for teacher educators to use the author’s methods to understand and analyze prospective teachers’ reflection and support their transformative learning. 

Introduction.- Four prospective teachers and their programs.- Critical reflections struggle to emerge.- Performative but not transformative.- Problematizing the performance.- Prospective teachers' understanding of critical reflection.- Prospective teachers attitudes towards the e-portfolio.- Performing to the audience.- Disjuncture between performance and action.- Missed opportunities for transformative learning.- Supporting prospective teachers' critical reflections for transformative learning: data based frameworks, e-portfolio design and processes, creative activities and assignments, classroom observation and supervision, toward a community of critically reflective practitioners.- Coding and analyzing narratives to encourage transformative learning: open, axial and selective coding; hand coding; computer-assisted coding; multi-rater coding; data triangulation.- Putting it all together: creating a teacher preparation program utilizing e-portfolios for critical reflection and transformative learning.- To the future.- Appendix 1: Methodological Strategies.- Appendix 2: Codes and coding samples.