Practising preservice teachers' experiences of learning as synchronous boundary crossing

Practising preservice teachers' experiences of learning as synchronous boundary crossing

Teacher shortages have seen preservice teachers filling paid teaching positions while continuing to complete their teaching qualifications in Australia and internationally. While responding to market logic and addressing teacher supply issues, limited research has occurred on how this impacts these paid practising preservice teachers’ experience of learning. This paper reports on six in-depth interviews with preservice teachers from Queensland, Australia, undertaking Permission to Teach and Turn to Teaching. Framed by boundary crossing and practice architectures, this study revealed cultural-discursive, material-economic, and social-political arrangements that influenced these preservice teachers' synchronous learning experiences across school and university contexts. On one hand, findings showed some practising preservice teachers appreciated the opportunity to enrich their learning experience through the synchronisation of practical-theoretical learning across sites. On the other hand, many deprioritised university learning engagement to manage teaching obligations and, in doing so, privileged discourse of practice-based teacher education. Findings have implications in Australia and internationally for initial teacher education where preservice teachers are employed in schools.