What does a history teacher do? Knowing, understanding, and enacting the work of teaching history

This study considers the questions, "How do teacher candidates conceptualize the relationship among historians, history teachers, and history students?" and "How is this understanding revealed in candidates' representation of the work they do in classrooms as history teachers?" Using a case study approach, researchers gathered data from fifteen teacher candidates in a teacher preparation program in the Midwestern United States. The data consisted of participants' responses to three questions (What do historians do? What do history teachers do? What do history students do?) and their selections of and rationale for including artifacts in a portfolio designed to showcase "who they are" as history teachers as represented by their developing pedagogical content knowledge in history. The researchers' findings reveal a discrepancy exists between teacher candidates' emerging beliefs about their responsibilities as teachers and the work that they chose to highlight after having completed clinical experiences. Specifically, the findings suggest a critical disconnect exists between what teacher candidates are taught about teaching history, what they believe about teaching history, and the opportunities that they have in clinical experiences to enact these ideas. This research highlights the central yet often unexamined role of emerging teachers' epistemic understandings in shaping opportunities for pedagogical reform in history.