Selected Papers by Nathan Brubaker
In this chapter, I examine how my interactions with graduate-level pre-service teacher candidates... more In this chapter, I examine how my interactions with graduate-level pre-service teacher candidates in an elective course on teaching for critical thinking helped shape my pedagogy of teacher education concerning diversity and democratic citizenship. Specifically, I deconstruct a class discussion in which a particularly outspoken student, as the facilitator of the session, encouraged participants to critically question their assumptions about classroom discourse, civil rights teaching, and diverse perspectives about the topic of freedom. In analyzing specific examples of discourse from class, I illuminate the complexities of learning to teach through dialogical pedagogies that simultaneously construct and are constructed by diversity content. From highlighting the multiple challenges to authority embedded in our interactions, I provide insights into the pedagogical journey I experienced, involving the following questions: Of what value was a classroom community of inquiry to furthering students’ development as teachers? What should I have done differently to help students more effectively transition from the role of student to facilitator? What were some developmental dynamics of learning about and through a participatory and (allegedly) non-indoctrinating approach? Such insights are important for constructing pedagogical practices congruent with democratic aims and preparing teachers who are democratically-minded and embrace diversity.
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In this study, I explore the process of building more democratic communities where all learners h... more In this study, I explore the process of building more democratic communities where all learners help construct a sense of place by preparing teachers to navigate political complexity in schools. Specifically, I examine the micropolitical dimensions of beginning teachers’ experiences in light of competing pressures to traverse informal networks of power and control, and to negotiate multiple layers of authority in school contexts. Through illuminating the complexity of preparing teachers to help create and sustain more democratic relations amongst colleagues and pupils, I discern implications for helping novices manage conflict, gain cultural support, and raise their own and others’ academic and professional engagement in school environments. Such insights are important for understanding and shaping the political climate of local life while enacting pedagogical practices—in both teaching and teacher education, internationally—concerned with forging a constructive attachment to place for all members of school classrooms and communities in twenty-first century schools.
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Professional Learning Through Transitions and Transformations: Teacher Educators' Journeys of Becoming, eds Judy Williams and Mike Hayler, Springer, Cham Switzerland, pp. 151-165, 2016
Narratives of teacher educators fostering active participation in democratic life are of particul... more Narratives of teacher educators fostering active participation in democratic life are of particular relevance to educators interested in teaching democratically and actualizing Dewey’s pedagogical vision. Specifically, fostering facilitative relationships between teachers and students, in which teacher educators interpret knowledge of teaching as an outgrowth of students’ interests and experiences, is necessary for constructing authority relationships from community life. Doing so is important for helping students more fully maximize their growth, fulfill their potential as future teachers, and humanize learners in ways authoritarian practices cannot—thereby expanding and enacting the pedagogical possibilities of democratic teacher education. In this chapter, I highlight my journey of becoming a democratic teacher educator. My quest, as a beginning teacher educator, to learn the skills and knowledge necessary for making students’ interests central to my teaching—transforming my pedagogical practice from transmission to dialogue—proved pivotal to my knowledge and identity as a teacher educator. Such a shift constituted the central defining transition of my professional career. From my successes and failures at responding to students’ expressed interests in my first semester of pedagogical transformation, I illuminate the challenges of acting on one’s pedagogical vision, balancing ideals with institutional and cultural constraints, and envisioning possible selves of relevance to expanding pedagogical possibilities in teacher education. In undergoing similar transitions—away from authoritarian practice and towards dialogue—teacher educators can courageously counter authoritarian assumptions in teaching and help future teachers construct pedagogical identities congruent with democratic aims.
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Self-studies in Rural Teacher Education, eds Ann K. Schulte and Bernadette Walker-Gibbs, Springer, Cham Switzerland, pp. 101-122, 2016
Helping youth understand and shape what happens in local life as a means of constructing attachme... more Helping youth understand and shape what happens in local life as a means of constructing attachment to place and prioritizing knowledge production over consumption is of increasing importance to educators interested in democracy. Promoting such aims in the face of competing pressures to conform to informal networks of power and control in schools can be challenging for any teacher, particularly novices. In this chapter, I examine how my past experiences as a beginning teacher in a rural elementary school in the Northeast USA, where I pioneered curricular and pedagogical innovations in a small rural community, helped inform my efforts to navigate political complexity as a teacher educator. Drawing from personal journals and documents from my years as a beginning teacher, alongside transcripts of recent conversations with former colleagues who helped shape the political climate of my rural context, I illuminate multiple realities of rural school politics. Fifteen years later, how do I un/knowingly re-experience the realities of marginalization, values, and place as a teacher educator? How have they influenced my pedagogical purposes, practices, and priorities? What is their broader relevance to rural teacher education, internationally, today?
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This article examines the learning by a dean of education through the process of executive coachi... more This article examines the learning by a dean of education through the process of executive coaching. In adopting a self-study approach to explore the experience of executive coaching, we draw on the notion of critical friendship as a way of interrogating the experience and the response to that experience in terms of leadership development and professional growth. We used data from audio-recordings of
individual coaching sessions to construct vignettes designed to capture the essence of particular themes and issues germane to the learning through the coaching experiences. The major findings pertain to the notion of default behaviours and show how recognition of one’s own default behaviours is important in shifting personal practice. The study opens up for scrutiny important aspects of the nature of the personal side of
leading a faculty of education and offers insights into what it means to be a learner as a leader and how productive self-study can be in facilitating that learning process.
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Understanding teacher educators’ reasoning about critical moments in negotiating authority can in... more Understanding teacher educators’ reasoning about critical moments in negotiating authority can inform efforts to foster democratic teacher education practices and prepare future teachers to teach democratically. We know very little, however,
about critical moments in negotiating authority, particularly in teacher educators’ practices. The purpose of this study was to examine, using self-study methodology, a teacher educator’s assumptions and perspectives about purposefully and explicitly negotiating authority through grading and accountability processes in an undergraduate teacher education course. From a critical pedagogical lens –
concerning the intersection of classroom power relations, democratic citizenship, and student growth – the findings suggest that seeking legitimacy through consensual
acceptance, responding to students’ expressed interests, and constructing knowledge through continual questioning present potential frameworks for constructing purposeful pedagogical partnerships consistent with democratic aims in teacher education.
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Brubaker, N.D. (2014). Gendered discourse in the Evangelical South: Fashioning a conservatively critical pedagogy of teacher education. In M. Taylor & L. Coia (Eds.), Gender, Feminism, and Queer Theory in the Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices (pp. 111-125). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
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Brubaker, N.D. (2013). Teaching teachers to teach for critical thinking: Enacting a pedagogy of teacher education. In B. Griffith & D.J. Loveless (Eds.), The Interdependence of Teaching and Learning (pp. 149-167). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
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Brubaker, N.D. (2012). Multiple layers of self in an evolving pedagogy of teacher education: Conflict and compromise in a quest for classroom democracy. Studying Teacher Education: A Journal of Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices, 8(1), 3-18.
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Brubaker, N.D. (2012). Negotiating authority through cultivating a classroom community of inquiry. Teaching and Teacher Education: An International Journal of Research and Studies, 28(2), 240-250.
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Brubaker, N.D. (2012). Negotiating authority through jointly constructing the course curriculum. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 18(2), 159-180.
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Brubaker, N.D. (2010). Negotiating authority by designing individualized grading contracts. Studying Teacher Education: A Journal of Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices, 6(3), 257-267.
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Brubaker, N.D. (2009). Negotiating authority in an undergraduate teacher education course: A qualitative investigation. Teacher Education Quarterly, 36(4), 99-118.
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Fernandez-Balboa, J.M. & Brubaker, N. (2012). Positioning yourself as a researcher: Four dimensions for self-reflection. In K. Armour & D. Macdonald (Eds.), Research methods in physical education and youth sport (pp. 29-39). New York: Routledge.
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Selected Links by Nathan Brubaker
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Selected Papers by Nathan Brubaker
individual coaching sessions to construct vignettes designed to capture the essence of particular themes and issues germane to the learning through the coaching experiences. The major findings pertain to the notion of default behaviours and show how recognition of one’s own default behaviours is important in shifting personal practice. The study opens up for scrutiny important aspects of the nature of the personal side of
leading a faculty of education and offers insights into what it means to be a learner as a leader and how productive self-study can be in facilitating that learning process.
about critical moments in negotiating authority, particularly in teacher educators’ practices. The purpose of this study was to examine, using self-study methodology, a teacher educator’s assumptions and perspectives about purposefully and explicitly negotiating authority through grading and accountability processes in an undergraduate teacher education course. From a critical pedagogical lens –
concerning the intersection of classroom power relations, democratic citizenship, and student growth – the findings suggest that seeking legitimacy through consensual
acceptance, responding to students’ expressed interests, and constructing knowledge through continual questioning present potential frameworks for constructing purposeful pedagogical partnerships consistent with democratic aims in teacher education.
Selected Links by Nathan Brubaker
individual coaching sessions to construct vignettes designed to capture the essence of particular themes and issues germane to the learning through the coaching experiences. The major findings pertain to the notion of default behaviours and show how recognition of one’s own default behaviours is important in shifting personal practice. The study opens up for scrutiny important aspects of the nature of the personal side of
leading a faculty of education and offers insights into what it means to be a learner as a leader and how productive self-study can be in facilitating that learning process.
about critical moments in negotiating authority, particularly in teacher educators’ practices. The purpose of this study was to examine, using self-study methodology, a teacher educator’s assumptions and perspectives about purposefully and explicitly negotiating authority through grading and accountability processes in an undergraduate teacher education course. From a critical pedagogical lens –
concerning the intersection of classroom power relations, democratic citizenship, and student growth – the findings suggest that seeking legitimacy through consensual
acceptance, responding to students’ expressed interests, and constructing knowledge through continual questioning present potential frameworks for constructing purposeful pedagogical partnerships consistent with democratic aims in teacher education.