Teacher Education
A short video clip explaining how to get stakeholders on board with alternative teacher pathway programs
Hear how faculty from East Tennessee State University ensures program success with intentional partnerships and constant communication.
Jessica Hurdley:
For you both, how do you address or resistance to non-traditional pathways? I know you’ve used the word flexibility here, but how are you really addressing that skepticism or resistance?
Megan Krupa:
I think it comes down to mindset and the culture that you build. And not just the university, but the partnerships with the districts and having very individualized conversations sometimes with faculty members and stating this is an alternative licensure pathway. It’s a different pathway. It doesn’t mean that it’s better or worse, it’s just someone else’s. And I think if you can look at the student profile and you recognize that you might have an art teacher who has been an artist for 25 years but doesn’t have any of that pedagogical training, that there is some value there and that the pathway looks different. And once again, just capitalizing on that field experience and really considering it as learning. Oftentimes we have courses that have field components built in, but with the job embedded students, this is their life. This is their day to day, so what more valuable experience can you have than trying to reflect on that? So those that are skeptical, I think it’s just unfamiliarity, just lack of knowledge. And I think once you start having those conversations and you start seeing that it’s different and it can be different, we’ve had great success in that route.
Jessica Hurdley:
Awesome. Angela, anything else you want to add or Megan kind of covered it.
Angela Shelton:
So I will just add that for those who are very used to a more traditional pathway, it is a mindset change. And one thing that we’ve really been intentional with in our programs is the relationship between ETSU and the partner schools so that we are not just putting a candidate out there without supports. And so we employ amazing field supervisors who go out into the field and really build those relationships with the mentor teachers, the administrators and the school district themselves. And it’s a constant back and forth communication, so no one feels like they’re just hanging out there. And so we’ve been very intentional in how do we set up these partnerships, how do we explain the alternative pathway that this particular candidate is on and the supports that we offer throughout their journey, I think really helps to shift that mindset.