When it comes to preparing prospective teachers who are typically white monolingual middle-class females, some research tends to start with the "problems" to be fixed-the prospective teachers' lack of knowledge and experiences, their problematic mindsets and beliefs-especially when learning to teach minoritized learners, including emergent bilinguals (EBs). This dissertation aims to offer a counter-narrative to the assumption that prospective teachers have limited experiences and competence to teach minoritized learners and to propose a mindset shift of viewing prospective teachers as resourceful and reflective learners. By inviting prospective teachers to share and make sense of their life and learning experiences in and beyond teacher education, this dissertation answers two research questions: what stories did prospective teachers construct about learning to teach (EBs)? How did prospective teachers make sense of their stories in relation to their emerging teacher identity?This dissertation employs narrative inquiry as the research methodology. 15 prospective teachers who were college sophomores, juniors, seniors, and teaching interns from a nationally ranked elementary teacher preparation program participated in the study. Qualitative data were collected, including one narrative interview with each participant about the significant learning moments and events that they identified as influential to them as future teachers, as well as supporting writing artifacts. Following Ollerenshaw and Creswell's (2002) approach of analyzing narrative data and drawing on Clandinin and Connelly's (2000) three-dimensional narrative inquiry space framework as an analytical tool, I streamlined each participant's experiences, looked for themes across experiences, and restoried the representative experiences. The findings are presented in the format of 35 small stories about the experiences of prospective teachers and their sensemaking of those experiences. In stories about early experiences before college, prospective teachers reflected on how the experiences influenced their decision to teach, their visions of good teaching, their subsequent learning experiences, as well as how the early experiences were re-examined after they received formal teaching preparation in college. In stories about current experiences in college, prospective teachers discussed how they developed evolving understandings about themselves, their students, and teaching. In stories about their imagined future, prospective teachers shared their visions on where and how to teach after graduation from college. Conflicts and inconsistencies in the stories, particularly about the experiences of learning to teach EBs, showcased the complexity of learning to teach. Strengths and potential of prospective teachers demonstrated in the stories, however, call for a mindset shift in TE research and practice to employ an asset-based and strengths-focused approach to prepare future educators.
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