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Studies in Philosophy and Education

, Volume 37, Issue 5, pp 499–512 | Cite as

Teaching is Oppositional: On the Importance of Supporting Experimental Teaching During Student Teaching

  • Jeff Frank
Article
First Online:

Abstract

This paper has two interrelated goals. The first is to introduce a framework: oppositional democracy. The second is to use this framework to address what I see as a central problem that occurs when learning to teach: the moment when someone with power tells an aspiring teacher that something she hopes to accomplish is unrealistic. The framework of oppositional democracy helps us understand this problem while also suggesting responses that free an aspiring teacher to experiment in responsible ways, thereby empowering her to work against practices she does not want to be complicit in perpetuating.

Keywords

Teacher education Student teaching Oppositional democracy Egalitarianism Democracy and education edTPA Elizabeth Anderson 
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© Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Nature 2018

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.St. Lawrence UniversityCantonUSA

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