Dialogic narratives of literacy, teaching, and schooling: Preparing literacy teachers for diverse settings

In this study, we focus on the "dialogic narratives" (Bakhtin, 1981, 1986) of selected preservice teachers within an innovative teacher education program in the Midwestern U.S. that included community-based internships. In particular, we examine how these students author their identities as literacy teachers within the context of a mediated seminar setting. Drawing on Bakhtin's theory of discourse, we analyzed students' dialogic narratives as a way to understand the construction of their professional identities within particular discursive moments. Our analyses illustrate how the students negotiated authoritative and internally persuasive discourses as they authored their own narratives, revealing the complexity of preparing teachers to become flexible cultural practitioners in diverse settings. We argue that immersing students in community based environments and providing spaces for dialogue offer promising strategies for complicating and deepening preservice teachers' understandings of, and approaches to, language and literacy education in relation to issues of cultural diversity and social justice.