Crafting Teaching Practices

This thesis sought to identify how four alternative- route-to-certification teacher candidates developed their teaching practices. The study explored the perceptions of various stakeholders -- teacher candidates, mentor teachers, school principals, and teacher educators -- in a collaborative urban alternative-route-to- certification program about the successes and challenges of teacher candidates in the program. Findings showed that the teacher candidates and their support providers thought that the teacher candidates prior knowledge, skills, and dispositions were the most important contributors to their success. They also showed, however, that the combination of teacher preparation courses and teaching in the classroom were perceived as a very effective way to learn about the craft of teaching. This study proposed to make contributions to the fields of induction and mentoring in an area that increasingly needs to be studied - issues of teacher candidates in urban alternative-route-to- certification programs - especially in light of the increase in hiring of such candidates in urban school districts.