Becoming Ambitious: How a Practice-Based Methods Course and 'Macroteaching' Shaped Beginning Teachers' Critical Pedagogical Discourses

This study reports on eleven second-year teachers who were all students in the same practice-based secondary science methods courses framed around ambitious science teaching. In this qualitative embedded single case study, we examined if, how, and why novice teachers linked their current critical pedagogical discourses and instruction back to any practice-based learning opportunities from the methods courses, especially an opportunity termed "macroteaching." We found that ten out of the eleven participants expressed similar critical discourses about what counts as good teaching, positioned themselves as "becoming ambitious," and linked such critical discourses back to the shared methods class. One participant provides counter-examples. We conclude with lingering questions and research suggestions for the field.