Shifting power relations in innovative learning environments: implications for initial teacher education and practicum

Abstract

Internationally, a dearth of literature exists on how preservice teachers (PSTs) should be prepared to engage in Innovative Learning Environments (ILE) while on practicum. These environments progress open physical designs, and particular pedagogies and discourses favouring student agency and teacher collaboration. Differing conceptions of power coalesce in these new designs. This case study research in Aotearoa|New Zealand illustrates a set of power dynamics produced in ILE practicum and the pedagogical practices PSTs deploy to respond. Our findings suggest that, despite progressive ideals, student agency, a key pedagogical commitment of ILE, remains mired in zero-sum notions of power, and visions of autonomous teachers linger in collaborative teaching arrangements, setting up considerable tension within practicum. We examine power relations in our case study through Foucault’s mechanisms of power. This framework lets us see how practicum requirements, images of the student/teacher relationship and changes in views of teaching are associated with ILE but are responded to in both contradictory and productive ways by PSTs. Our findings will be of interest to teacher educators and to teachers who supervise PSTs in practicum contexts to maximise the potential of ILE for learning and teaching.