CHANGES IN PRESERVICE TEACHERS PERCEPTIONS OF CONFLICTS AND TENSIONS

This study examined changes in preservice teachers' perceived types of conflicts and tensions, as well as reasons and strategies for coping with those conflicts and tensions during their year-long clinical expe riences and in their first year of leaching. Participants most frequen tly cited conflicts and tensions related to curriculum and instruction , interpersonal relationships, role-definitions, and institutional rel ationships with their program and schools. As conflicts and tensions i ncreased in all of these areas, participants' explanations shifted fro m blaming external factors to focusing more on themselves in relations hip to these factors. Their strategies for coping with conflicts and t ensions shifted from avoidance to expedient survival strategies to int errogation of their personal theories of teaching. Individual particip ants varied considerably in their abilities to reflect on conflicts an d tensions in terms of their emerging personal theories. (C) 1998 Else vier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.