“Honestly, I Think it’s Going Great so Far… I Did Have a Mental Breakdown” Examining the Experiences of Paid Residents in their First Year

This paper examines results from interviews of four undergraduate teacher candidates who participated in the inaugural year of a newly designed paid residency program. A large regional university, in collaboration with its largest partner school district, developed this particular teacher residency model as a potential way to offer diverse clinical experiences for undergraduate students and help combat teacher shortages in high-needs schools. This study explores the experiences of the four undergraduate students who were selected and hired as paid teacher-residents during the pilot year of this program. Each participant had their own classroom in which they served as teacher of record with the same requirements, roles, and responsibilities as the other teachers in the building. Utilizing a constructivist framework, we share results from one-on-one interviews as well as focus group discussions about their experience during pre-planning, school opening, and the first months of this new paid residency. Emerging themes identified candidates’ perceptions of starting the program and perceived issues, candidates’ preparedness for the responsibility of teacher-resident, the role of the mentor teacher in their experience, and candidates’ overall perceptions of the residency experience related to their sense of confidence and preparation for the profession. This research seeks to add to the field of Education and clinical practice and paid residencies. This research contributes to an understanding of the effectiveness of teacher residencies in the preparation of teachers. Keywords: Teacher Preparation, Internship, Preservice Teachers DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-5-01 Publication date: February 28th 2022