Teacher education programs help shape pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) knowledge, skills, and dispositions. PSTs do not, however, begin their formal teacher education as blank slates; their life experiences already have influenced how and what they think about teaching. For example, PSTs’ own experiences as primary and secondary school students affect their understanding of educators’ work. Lortie (1975) wrote, “There are ways in which being a student is like serving an apprenticeship in teaching” (p. 61), and he coined the apprenticeship of observation phrase to describe this phenomenon. However, PSTs’ primary and secondary school years include other experiences that also present teaching-related ideas, resources, and narratives. For instance, PSTs may learn about the profession from relatives who are teachers (Hong et al., 2018), and others are exposed to teaching-related content via social media (Authors, 2023). Many PSTs thus bring to their teacher education programs understandings of teaching related to how they were taught, and ideas tied to other life experiences. While teacher education programs commonly give some attention to helping PSTs reflect upon how their primary and secondary school experiences have shaped their thinking about teaching, PSTs could also benefit from unpacking how other experiences may have influenced their education philosophy. This study’s purpose was to explore how PSTs describe what has contributed to their emerging understanding of teaching. Accordingly, we addressed the following research questions:

RQ1. What do PSTs learn about teaching prior to their teacher education program experiences?

RQ2. What are the opportunities and challenges associated with PSTs learning about teaching prior to their teacher education program experiences?

Theoretical Framework

Our understanding of PSTs’ pre-teacher education experiences pertaining to teaching is framed by the apprenticeship of observation concept. In contrast to traditional conceptions of apprenticeships as being hands-on and mentored, Lortie (1975) depicted students’ observation of teaching as a very limited apprenticeship. Pupils see only a small percentage of teachers’ work and rarely have access to the reasoning behind the teacher actions. Rather than engaging in reflective and measured analysis of teaching quality, many students react to teaching based on their individual preferences. Lortie also portrayed the apprenticeship of observation as limiting, suggesting that it can lead many educators to teach in ways that simply replicate their student experiences. Although Lortie’s research was based in the U.S., the apprenticeship of observation has been studied in European contexts (e.g., Crowe & McGarr, 2023; Furlong, 2013). A consistent concern across contexts is that PSTs may in theory embrace innovative education ideas introduced by their teacher education programs, but then fall back on teaching as they were taught when faced with the pressures of in-service teaching. This primarily negative perspective is reflected in literature that emphasizes the need to “mitigate” (Gray, 2020, p. 404), or “overcome” (Grossman, 1991, p. 345) the apprenticeship of observation. Some scholarship has countered entirely negative portrayals of the apprenticeship of observation, and the notion that it determines so much of early career teachers’ practices. Knapp (2012) suggested that EPPs could make “constructive use” (p. 323) of the apprenticeship of observation by guiding PSTs’ reflection on their student experiences. The apprenticeship of observation may therefore bring with it a complex cocktail of opportunities, challenges, and tradeoffs for teacher development.

We conducted semi-structured interviews with 28 PSTs to address our research questions. Informed by studies of the apprenticeship of observation (e.g., Crowe & McGarr, 2023; Smagorinksy & Barnes, 2014) and teacher social media use (e.g., Hartung et al., 2023; Marcelo et al., 2023), an initial interview protocol was developed by the research team, and pilot-tested with two individuals. The finalized protocol featured 18 prompts, grouped under four topics: good teaching, teaching role models, social media use related to teaching, and field experiences. We employed an open, inductive coding process to analyze the data (Saldaña, 2021). We engaged in cycles of independent, line-by-line coding, in which research team members first read and coded individual transcripts, and then met for group discussions of initial responses to and interpretations of the data. Through these cycles, we deliberated on emerging themes, refined the coding structure, and reconciled differences of interpretation. Representative quotes for each code were gathered in a spreadsheet in order to identify strong examples and confirm the definition of the codes. Given the interpretive character of our coding, we relied upon intensive discussion and group consensus to reach agreement upon codes, rather than an interrater reliability statistic (Saldaña, 2021). To increase credibility and trustworthiness, we employed investigator triangulation by including at least two research team members in all data analyses A convenience sample of 28 PSTs were interviewed individually using Zoom. Interviews took between 25-60 minutes, and were recorded and subsequently transcribed. Participants were students from four EPP programs in the United States, and all were pursuing initial teacher licensure. The four EPPs were in two states and included two public universities and two private universities. The participants hailed from 11 US states, and included one student who was a US citizen with a K-12 international school background. They were preparing to become early childhood, primary, and/or secondary school teachers in a variety of content areas. These individuals ranged from 18 to 24 years old. Broadly speaking, our sample matched the demographics of the US teacher workforce in that White females comprised the majority.

Preliminary Findings: When asked to describe what factors had contributed to their definition of good teaching, all participants mentioned teachers that they had while in primary or secondary school. Very few participants acknowledged limitations associated with relying upon their own individual student experiences to define good teaching, and instead appeared to trust that what worked for them would work for others. Most participants spoke about their student experiences with teachers in affective and/or interpersonal terms, rather than in cognitive or knowledge terms (Fajet et al., 2005). All of the participants identified one or more other kinds of experience that contributed to their understanding of teaching prior to starting their EPP. First, 22 participants described times in their primary and/or secondary school years when they were able to enact educator-like roles, such as being a camp counselor, dance studio coach, or peer tutor. Second, 20 participants gained insights into teaching by observing teachers on social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube (Hartung et al., 2023). Third, 12 participants mentioned the impact of having family members who were teachers. All participants mentioned positive learning opportunities related to teaching that had occurred prior to their teacher education program enrollment. Such learning opportunities were linked to the PSTs’ apprenticeships of observation, but also the other varieties of apprenticeships noted above. For instance, several participants spoke about appreciating the access social media provided them to teachers’ perspectives and experiences from beyond their local region. All participants also noted at least one challenge and/or limitation associated with the different kinds of learning about teaching that they had experienced during their school years. For instance, many participants grappled with encountering social media content that portrayed teaching or education in a negative light, and with social comparisons that arose from consuming teachers’ highly curated content.

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