An Investigation of Preservice Teachers’ Apprenticeship of Observation Through a Lens of Autobiographical Memory

Preservice teachers’ schooling during their “apprenticeship of observation” has long been a focus of attention in teacher education as it is seen as influential in the development of teacher beliefs and in limiting preservice teachers’ openness to alternative conceptions of teaching. Looking through the lens of autobiographical memory, the research engaged 42 preservice teachers in semi-structured interviews exploring their talk about secondary schooling experiences. This research found that the participating preservice teachers agentically constructed nuanced schooling memories. Rather than their experiences of schooling practices imposing conceptions of teaching on them, participants were selective in encoding and recalling practices congruent with their goal of becoming a teacher. While acknowledging the important contribution of the apprenticeship of observation construct, these research findings suggest that when viewed through the lens of autobiographical memory, the construct is more nuanced than commonly presented, and, thus necessitates further consideration by teacher educators.