Upcoming Learning to Be The Teacher

Pathways to support paraprofessionals to become licensed teachers are a particularly relevant avenue to address the current teacher shortage. Starting from the premise that paraprofessionals differ from traditional undergraduate students in significant ways, we embarked on a process of examining how to prepare paraprofessionals in honorable ways. In this reflective essay, we closely examine and reflect upon the learning experiences of paraprofessionals and the effectiveness of adult learning methods employed in one redesigned course. We share emerging themes from this work and discuss implications for our program and recommendations for teacher preparation programs pursuing similar teacher preparation pathways.