CHARTING STAGES OF PRESERVICE TEACHER DEVELOPMENT AND REFLECTION IN A MULTICULTURAL COMMUNITY THROUGH DIALOG JOURNAL ANALYSIS

The purpose of this study was to examine programmatic and personal dimensions that interact to shape a future teacher's beliefs and practices. The study charted stages of preservice teacher development through dialogue journal case study analysis of eight students representing divergent academic disciplines and cultural biographies. These students kept dialogue journals with their professors throughout their program. The preservice teachers passed through three discernible stages: (a) introductory, (b) intermediate, and (c) immersion. Dialogue journals written at these three stages demonstrated that preservice teachers' personal biographies interact with the other dimensions that influence preservice teachers including discipline subculture and the quality of preservice experience in the classroom to help or impede their ability to negotiate and then to reflect on the competing demands of becoming a teacher. Implications for teacher education programs and future research emerged from the case study analyses.