...But I Love Children: Changing Elementary Teacher Candidates' Conceptions of the Qualities of Effective Teachers.

Effective teaching, as endorsed by the current standards movement, describes an effective teacher as one who is "highly-qualified. " No Child Left Behind (2001) defines a highly qualified teacher as one who possesses a bachelor's degree, full state certification or licensure, and prove that they know each subject they teach. Essentially, policymakers have defined the qualities of effective teachers only in terms of the teachers' academic abilities. In contrast, research suggests that teacher candidates' conceptions of the characteristics of effective teachers may vary greatly from the teacher quality definitions provided by current high stakes policies (Book, Byers & Freeman, 1983; Reeves & Kazelskis, 1985). As early as the 1980s, Lasley (1980) identified a fundamental belief held by teacher candidates regarding the characteristics of a good teacher is that of "liking children. " Moreover, Laskey claimed that teacher candidates indicated that liking children is a sufficient condition to be an effective teacher. Since that time, other researchers have consistently supported the notion that prospective elementary teachers identify effective teachers in terms of interpersonal skills such as "caring" and "loves children" (Walls, Nardi, Von Minden & Hoffman, 2002; Witcher, Onwuegbuzie, & Minor, 2001). These commonly held perceptions visualize the elementary teacher as the warm, fuzzy female who nurtures the child through the learning and growing process. This familiar understanding of the attributes of a quality teacher, in contrast to the standards movement description, creates a contradiction for teacher candidates. On the one hand, teacher candidates are informed in teacher preparation courses that knowledge is paramount, yet they conceive of personal attributes as critical to becoming a good teacher. To reconcile these seeming conflicts, we propose that critical reflection combined with public discourse and broader definitions of quality teaching are needed in teacher education coursework. The Teaching Commission (2004) released the report, Teaching at Risk: A Call to Action, stating that our nation's most valuable profession is teaching. The Commission's report includes high standards for teacher performance and student achievement. Lest we rely solely on the public view and definition of teacher quality, it is time we address teacher candidates' personal conceptions, assisting them in joining the personal with the public. Teacher candidates must give up dimensions of their personal selves as they conform to public expectations of 'teacher' in forming their professional identity (Britzman, 1991). We define professional identity as a connection between the perceived external requirements for the role of teacher and the self-conceptualization associated with that role. Our goal is to assist teacher candidates in developing richer professional identities that include active pursuit of new knowledge, high quality teaching practices along with their ingrained notion of a caring teacher. Teachers' conceptions of the characteristics of a quality teacher are well-formed before they enter teacher preparation programs (Brown, 2003; Lortie, 1975; Pajares, 1992). In fact, there is agreement in the literature that teacher candidates enter teacher education programs with predetermined conceptions, visual images, and beliefs about teaching (Danielewicz, 2001; Kagen, 1992; Knowles, 1992; Mahlios & Maxson, 1995). Lortie (1975) contended that teacher candidates develop images about teaching during their "apprenticeship of observation" which occurs throughout their earlier school experiences. Lortie does acknowledge that there are important limitations to the apprenticeship of observation in that the student only sees the teacher from their own vantage point. Subsequently, students are not aware of the decision making process of the teacher, nor are they aware of the professional identity the teacher has developed over time (Alsup, 2006). …