Making Sense of Classroom Diversity: How can field instruction practices support interns' learning?

Because many American teacher education internships take place in suburban schools that are adjacent to large teacher education programs in need of many practicum placements, it is critical to consider what messages about diverse student populations are perceived in what may appear to be relatively homogeneous contexts. This yearlong self-study of field instruction practices, grounded in a sociocultural perspective, investigated how five interns in a suburban school understood diversity, how their conceptions influenced their relationships with students and their curricular and instructional choices, as well as the strategies a field instructor used to support interns' learning to respond to student diversity. Suggestions are offered for reframing how supervisory work is approached and areas for future research.