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Katrina Liu

Critical Reflection
for Transformative
Learning
Understanding ePortfolios in Teacher
Education
Critical Reflection for Transformative Learning
Katrina Liu

Critical Reflection for

Transformative Learning
Understanding ePortfolios in Teacher
Education
Katrina Liu
Department of Teaching and Learning
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Las Vegas, NV, USA

ISBN 978-3-319-01954-3    ISBN 978-3-319-01955-0 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01955-0

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of
the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,
broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information
storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the
editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
This book is dedicated to:
Ada Liu Miller
Kai Liu Miller
Foreword

One of the characteristics of teacher education around the world has been the con-
tinual emergence of slogans that gain popularity within the teacher education com-
munity and then receive funding from governments and philanthropists. These
slogans begin with specific meanings that are attached to them by their initial advo-
cates, and then over time, they begin to broaden and blur until the meaning becomes
unclear and almost everything comes reside under these umbrella terms. Partnerships,
teacher education for social justice, and evidence-based teacher education are a few
of these slogans.
Reflection has been one of the most popular slogans in teacher education inter-
nationally during the last fifty years. It has come to the point now, where it is almost
impossible to know what someone means by the term in a teacher education context
until it is examined more deeply. Often though, there is no “more deeply,” no clear
articulation of what exactly is meant by reflection. Reflection has been often used as
a label to give the illusion that a program is being innovative and that important
changes have been made when in fact they have not (Zeichner & Liston, 2014).
The terms reflective teaching and reflective teachers have been used in the teacher
education community in the USA since John Dewey (1933) introduced it in his clas-
sic book “How We Think.” Over the years , many teacher educators have claimed
that their programs have emphasized the preparation of teachers who are reflective
or critically reflective in ways that have suggested a more professional and agentive
view of teachers than the view of teachers as civil servants who passively carry out
the dictates of their administrators. However, much research has shown that the term
reflective teaching has been used in teacher education to describe both professional
and technical conceptions of teachers, and that when used by itself without suffi-
cient elaboration, the term reflective teaching does not provide any greater under-
standing of teachers’ motives and practices than the term teacher (e.g., Zeichner &
Liu, 2010).
This book focuses on critical reflection for transformative learning, and unlike
much of the literature which has promoted a vague and superficial conception of
reflection, it presents a very clear and specific framework for conceptualizing criti-
cal teacher reflection that pays attention to both the substance and quality of

vii
viii Foreword

teachers’ reflections. This book also provides unusual clarity and specificity about
the concept of transformative learning that is the goal of critical reflection in the
teacher education program examined in this book. The transformative learning that
is sought in the teacher education program studied is aimed at preparing teachers
who teach in culturally responsive ways. Importantly, Dr. Liu situates her analysis
of the struggles and successes of four prospective teachers in this program to become
reflective teachers within the multiple layers of context in which their teacher learn-
ing was embedded.
The learning of the four teacher education students studied in this book was
impacted by a variety of factors inside and outside the program. This book focuses
on the role of electronic portfolios (ePortfolios) that were required in the program
on their learning. Dr. Liu’s analysis of the learning of the four prospective teachers
captures both the successes and struggles of their learning and to what extent their
learning was translated into their teaching practices while they were in the program.
Her analysis also links their learning to the characteristics of the specific teacher
education program in which they were enrolled such as when she discusses the ten-
sions between assessment and teacher learning that were experienced by the pro-
spective teachers when preparing and presenting their ePortfolios to their teacher
educators.
Finally, after presenting and discussing both her conceptual framing of critical
reflection and transformative learning and presenting and contextualizing her study
of the four prospective teachers’ learning, Dr. Liu offers a vision for the future
where more teachers are prepared to teach in programs that focus on critical reflec-
tion for transformative learning. She summarizes the lessons that she learned from
the study that is presented in this book and offers advice to other teacher educators
about how they might adapt what was learned here to other program contexts. This
is a refreshingly hopeful book that does not gloss over the complexity of the task
and manages to provide hope and guidance for the future.

Seattle, WA Ken Zeichner

July 2020

References

Dewey, J. (1933). How we think. Chicago, IL: Regnery.

Zeichner, K. & Liston, D. (2014). Reflective teaching: An introduction. (2nd edition) New York:
Routledge.
Zeichner, K. & Liu, K. (2010). An analysis of reflection as a goal for teacher education. In N. Lyons
(Ed). Handbook of reflection and reflective inquiry. (pp. 67-84). New York: Springer.
Acknowledgments

As Henry Giroux urged us, teachers should portray themselves as transformative

intellectuals who combine scholarly reflection and practice to educate students to be
responsible citizens. Growing up in a small village in South Central China with my
parents working on rice paddies for a living, I didn’t know I would become a teacher
and I especially didn’t know I would one day become a teacher educator. This was
not a journey that I could have even imagined as that little girl who always wandered
around the little roads between the patches of green coming out of the small, kidney-­
bean-­shaped rice paddies on spring days were it not for so many people who encour-
aged and inspired me to become a transformative intellectual. I am especially
grateful for my middle school head teacher Guo Qinghe Laoshi who guided me to
take up of the charge to be his aide and my high school head teacher Li Wuoxiang
Laoshi who instilled in me the enthusiasm of teaching. More importantly, you both
provided me with tremendous inspiration, care, and trust that paved the path for me
to become a teacher.
My choice to become a teacher educator was accidental. As a former English
teacher, I only planned to pursue my doctorate in English as a Second Language or
Linguistics when I was in my master’s program at Beijing Normal University, but
Dr. Ken Zeichner made a lifelong impact on me. When he delivered a lecture at
Beijing Normal University, I happened to be in the lecture where I first heard about
teacher education and how teacher educators can have powerful impact on teachers
by preparing them to be reflective intellectuals rather than knowledge recipients.
After the lecture, Ken encouraged me to apply to the Curriculum and Instruction
doctoral program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where later I started my
path to be a teacher educator under Ken’s supervision, a path that I will never regret.
Part of the research in this book comes from the dissertation project I completed for
my doctoral study in that program. Throughout my study and the writing of this
book, I owed tremendous amount of thanks to so many people. First and foremost,
I am deeply indebted to my advisor and mentor, Professor Ken Zeichner. From the
initial stages of my research to completion of this book, Ken has continued to give
me scholarly advice, critique, and emotional support. Your broad knowledge in the
field of education, your deep understanding of the complexity of classrooms and

ix
x Acknowledgments

communities, your respect for teachers, and your endless enthusiasm and tireless
effort in advocating for the importance of public education as an endeavor for a
more just and equitable society motivated me to carry out this project and will con-
tinue to enlighten my future career.
I owed heartfelt thanks to the members of my dissertation committee who have
all assisted my work and have continued to support and inspire me: Professors
Gloria Ladson-Billings, Michael Thomas, Richard Halverson, and Maggie Hawkins.
I cannot thank more for all the professors in the School of Education who gave me
great amount of support, among them Professors Michael Apple, Bernadette
Baker, Catherine Compton-Lilly, Carl Grant, Diana Hess, Nancy
Kendall, Tom Popkewitz, Gary Price, Paula Wolfe and the list can go on and on. I
would also like to thank Marilyn Fearn, Diane Falkner, and Joyce Zander in the
Office of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction for all the support they
provided.
I cannot begin to thank enough my four major participants, the university-based
teacher educators, and the cooperating teachers who participated in my research.
Though I will not name you explicitly because I have promised you anonymity, I
wish to thank you, Ella, Karla, Doug, and Judy, for sharing with me your ePortfolio
reflection and opening your classrooms to me, showing the trust to share your joys
and concerns throughout the course of this study. I would also like to thank my
teacher education students at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and the
University of Nevada, Las Vegas. I have gained much knowledge in supporting pro-
spective teachers’ critical reflection through working with you in methods courses
and classroom observations.
I must offer my warmest thanks to Arnetha Ball, for your tireless mentoring,
encouragement, care, and friendship. I greatly appreciate the joyful and educational
moments when we co-taught teacher education courses, co-presented our work at
conferences, and co-authored several research papers. You not only modeled for me
how to become a transformative and generative intellectual but also a human being
with a beautiful mind. My sincere appreciation also goes to Curt Bonk and Xun Ge
for your guidance and encouragement since I was a doctoral student.
I would be remiss not to shout out to my many colleagues and friends at the
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The
list is long and I would like to single out among them, Chia-Liang Dai, Robin Fox,
Howard Gordon, Iesha Jackson, Katy Hayning, Margarita Huerta, Edric Johnson,
Beth King, Emily Lin, Jane McCarthy, Sharolyn Pollard-Durodola, PG Schrader,
Jeff Shih, Annie Stinson, Xue Xing, John Zbikowski, and Shaoan Zhang. I am
appreciative of the leadership of my current College of Education Deans, Kim
Metcalf, Danica Hayes, and Gwen Marchand for your support. I also want to thank
Denise Davila, Sharon Tettegah, and Jian Wang for your endless encouragement
and intellectual inspiration.
My sincere appreciation is extended to Melissa James, Editor, at Springer, for
your enthusiastic support and patience throughout this project. Thank you,
Hemalatha Velarasu, Pearly Percy, and the entire production team at Springer, for
your fine guidance during the production process. The theoretical framework of
Acknowledgments xi

critical reflection for transformative learning guided my analysis in this book and
my own teaching practice as a teacher educator was published in the Journal of
Educational Review. I would like to extend my heartfelt appreciation to Dr. Gary
Thomas, then editor of the journal, for your constructive feedback and insightful
suggestions to strengthen this piece.
I am who I am today because of my first teacher—my late mother Lei Laying.
You instilled in me the courage and strengths to set up goals and pursue them with
zeal. I will never forget what you constantly told me: Go ahead and you can make
changes. You are a role model for my whole life: persevering, hardworking, and a
loving heart, qualities necessary to make transformation happen. I owe millions of
thanks to my father Liu Bingjun, my brother Liu Wei, and my sister-in-law Zhou
Shiwei for your unconditional love and support. My grateful thanks go to my family
in the United States: thank you very much, Louise O’Donnell, Richard U. Miller,
and Elizabeth Miller for your love, patience, and support. To my wonderful hus-
band, Richard Miller, thank you for your intellectual and emotional support over the
long process of making this book a reality. You acted as a listener, critical friend,
and editor for my work. This book is a special treat to celebrate our 7th wedding
anniversary. Last but not least, I would like to dedicate the book to our children, Ada
and Kai, who, as all other children in the world, deserve an equitable and just
education.
Contents

1 Introduction����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    1
1.1 Introduction��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    1
1.2 Reflection and Critical Reflection����������������������������������������������������    4
1.3 Social Context in Teacher Education������������������������������������������������    7
1.4 ePortfolios and Prospective Teacher Reflection��������������������������������    9
1.5 About the Research ��������������������������������������������������������������������������   11
1.6 About this Book��������������������������������������������������������������������������������   14
References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   16
2 Who Celebrates Kwanzaa? The Struggle for Critical
Reflection and Transformative Learning����������������������������������������������   21
2.1 Tales of Success: Avoiding Critical Reflection with Positive
Description of Technical Procedures������������������������������������������������   22
2.2 Absence of Evidence, Not Evidence of Absence������������������������������   26
2.3 Critical Reflections Struggle to Emerge�������������������������������������������   29
Languages Spoken at Home are Comforts��������������������������������������    29
The Principle of Equity Is What I Strive to Achieve In and Out
of My Classroom����������������������������������������������������������������������������    32
2.4 Performative but Not Transformative ����������������������������������������������   36
Even Johnny, Who Should Not be Included, Worked Well!�����������    36
I Think That’s Her Culture��������������������������������������������������������������    37
2.5 Problematizing the Performance������������������������������������������������������   39
2.6 Epilogue: Fading Memories��������������������������������������������������������������   42
References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   43
3 Looking Back on What Was Good and What Was Bad:
Prospective Teachers’ Understanding of Critical Reflection ��������������   45
3.1 Looking Back on What Was Good and What Was Bad��������������������   46
3.2 Reflection as an “Assignment Term”������������������������������������������������   48
3.3 Where You Go from Here ����������������������������������������������������������������   48
3.4 Epilogue: The Goal of Preparing Reflective Teachers����������������������   51
References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   53

xiii
xiv Contents

4 It’s Me Doing Work for Someone Else: Prospective Teachers’

Attitudes Toward the ePortfolio Reflection Requirements������������������   55
4.1 The Place of the ePortfolio in the Teacher Education Program��������   56
4.2 We Get Mixed Views������������������������������������������������������������������������   58
4.3 It’s a Good Form of Accountability��������������������������������������������������   60
4.4 Epilogue: I Actually Benefit From It������������������������������������������������   61
References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   64
5 I Want to be Seen as the Best I Can: How the Teacher Education
Program Conditions Prospective Teachers’ Reflection Strategies������   67
5.1 Cherry-Picking����������������������������������������������������������������������������������   68
5.2 I Know Who My Audience Is ����������������������������������������������������������   69
5.3 I Want to be seen as the Best I Can for My Job��������������������������������   71
5.4 I Present It in the Way to Meet Expectations of the Teacher������������   72
5.5 Disjuncture Between Performance and Program Expectations��������   74
5.6 Epilogue: The Performance of Reflection����������������������������������������   75
References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   77
6 Awesome, Awesome: Missed Opportunities for Transformative
Learning����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   79
6.1 Awesome, Awesome, You Guys Did a Great Job������������������������������   80
6.2 I Don’t Really Have Anything for You to Focus on:
Influences by Cooperating Teachers ������������������������������������������������   83
6.3 I Think We Are Just Similar: Forming Conformity to
Defend the “Outsider”����������������������������������������������������������������������   85
6.4 Teacher Educators Push for Transformative Learning����������������������   88
Transformative Learning Outside of the ePortfolio������������������������    88
Critical Reflection Through Reading and Discussion��������������������    91
6.5 Epilogue: Program Fragmentation and Lack of Support
for Teacher Educators ����������������������������������������������������������������������   92
References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   95
7 Supporting Prospective Teachers’ Critical Reflection for
Transformative Learning������������������������������������������������������������������������   97
7.1 The Five Factors Affecting Prospective Teachers’
Reflection and Teaching��������������������������������������������������������������������   98
7.2 A Data-Driven Approach to Teacher Education ������������������������������ 101
Build Consistency Within the Teacher Education Programs����������   101
Facilitate Critical Reflection among Prospective Teachers ������������   103
Ongoing Data-Based ePortfolio Design and Modification ������������   108
Creative Activities and Assignments����������������������������������������������   110
7.3 Conclusion���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 115
References�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 116
Contents xv

8 Coding and Analyzing Narratives to Foster Critical

Reflection for Transformative Learning������������������������������������������������ 119
8.1 Narrative Analysis in Teacher Education������������������������������������������ 119
8.2 Thematic Coding: A Priori and Grounded Theory
Approaches �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 120
A Priori Coding ������������������������������������������������������������������������������   122
Open Coding ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������   123
8.3 Transformative Protocols Through Data Triangulation�������������������� 125
8.4 Conclusion���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 127
References�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 128
9 Toward a Transformative Teacher Education Community������������������ 129
9.1 A Framework for a Transformative Teacher Education
Community �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 130
9.2 A Potential to Achieve���������������������������������������������������������������������� 132
References�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 134

Appendix: Multiple Sources of Data�������������������������������������������������������������� 137

Index������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 141
Chapter 1
Introduction

1.1 Introduction

As important is it is to teach facts and learning tools to students, it is equally important to

help encourage and support their growth as individuals. I hope to teach for social reform in
this world; there are many disparities too entrenched in our society that need to be changed.
Developing strong positive individuals that will stand up for what is right and wrong in this
world and then have the capability to enact change where they see fit is the ideal outcome
of the social reconstruction movement. Too many children are turned off by the education
process and schooling in general, my goal is to provide them with a positive academic
experience where they can be exposed to the joy of learning and growing in a nurturing
environment. This in and of itself should help inspire youth to pursue further positive scho-
lastic experiences and lead them to create a brighter future for us all. (Doug, Educational
Philosophy).1

This is an excerpt from Doug’s educational philosophy, “To a Brighter Future,”

part of his ePortfolio reflection. Doug was a prospective teacher in the elementary
teacher education program at Midwest University. Like his peers in the program,
and many other prospective teachers across the country, Doug was expected to dem-
onstrate commitment throughout his five-semester teacher education program to
teach all children, especially those from nondominant and marginalized communi-
ties. This expectation is based on the demographic imperative (Banks, 1993, p. 24),
the fact that the student body in U.S. public schools has become increasingly more
diverse over time. As of 2014–2015, White students are now a minority in number
in K–12 public schools, with students of color comprising the majority (Institute of
Education Sciences, 2016, Table 7, p. 48). Meantime, the number of students who
are English language learners (ELLs) or speakers of nonstandard variants of English

1
As with the names of all participants in this book, Doug is a pseudonym adopted to protect the
identity of the participant and preserve the confidentiality of the information they provided.

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 1

K. Liu, Critical Reflection for Transformative Learning,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01955-0_1
2 1 Introduction

is significant and growing (9.6%, or about five million nationwide in 2016 (NCES,
2016), as is the number of students living in poverty. Many scholars have argued
that student diversity can be funds of knowledge for academic success (Moll,
Amanti, Neff, & González, 1992; Rios-Aguilar, 2010; Rios-Aguilar & Kiyama,
2012) and that the voices of people of color can fuel counternarratives to benefit
every group of students and teachers in the classroom (Cammarota, 2014; Ladson-­
Billings & Tate, 1995; Miller, Liu, & Ball, 2020; Milner, 2008; Solórzano & Yosso,
2002). Unfortunately, the reality has been far less positive, with long-standing, ineq-
uities for marginalized students in terms of low achievement and graduation rates
(Ford & Moore, 2013; Ladson-Billings, 2006; Milner, 2012a), high suspension and
expulsion rates (Carter, Skiba, Arredondo, & Pollock, 2017; Skiba et al., 2011;
Skiba, Michael, Nardo, & Peterson, 2002), limited access to highly qualified teach-
ers (Zeichner, 2014), and overrepresentation in the school-to-prison pipeline (Skiba,
Arredondo, & Williams, 2014; Wilson, 2014).
In this context, many teacher education programs have committed to prepare
future teachers able to conduct high-quality, culturally responsive instruction that
serves all students, especially those in the neediest schools. For example, to be
admitted to Doug’s program at Midwest University, students had to declare a com-
mitment to multicultural education and reflective practice in their admission materi-
als. Once in the program, there were many opportunities to study multicultural
education and culturally responsive teaching and to put those ideas into practice
through field experiences. In keeping with the teacher education programs as a
whole, the elementary education program focused on reflective teaching, emphasiz-
ing the ability to foster learning among all students from different groups as well as
a commitment to teaching for social justice and equity. The following overview
from an introduction to the program lays out the expectations of prospective
teachers.
Teacher education students learn to recognize how their own background and experience
shape their thinking and actions, to reflect on their practices, and to develop and adapt prac-
tices that serve the needs of their students. Through their preparation, students gain aware-
ness of how schools reflect both the strengths and inequities of our increasingly multicultural
society and become more committed to advancing social justice and equity through their
classroom practice and community interactions.

The ePortfolio system was developed by the teacher education program to support
preparing reflective practitioners prior to the appearance of edTPA; as such, submis-
sion of an ePortfolio is one of the requirements for prospective teachers’ graduation.
The major purpose of the ePortfolio, according to the designers such as John (a
senior professor in the teacher education program) and Allen (the ePortfolio project
director), was to support prospective teacher learning through critical reflection.
The following is an example of ePortfolio reflection from Ella, Doug’s peer in the
elementary teacher education program.
I had each shape name translated into the languages of the students that are in my class-
room. Each shape was in English, Spanish, Khmer (Cambodian), Arabic and Albanian. The
students’ eyes lit up when they heard my voice coming out of the computer and I watched
their faces as each language was spoken. I could tell that they felt a genuine connection in
1.1 Introduction 3

the classroom. The ability to affirm these students’ identities was so fulfilling. One of my
Spanish speaking students said to me, “My mom and dad speak this at home!” Another
student, realized that his father had done the translation for me in Khmer and he said,
“That’s my Dad!!” (Ella Third Semester Reflection)

As teacher educators, how do we interpret Ella’s reflection and decide whether or

not the reflection is critical? Zeichner and Wray (2001) contend that most prospec-
tive teachers (and teachers) who have constructed a teaching portfolio claim that the
portfolios have caused them to reflect more about their teaching than they would
have otherwise. Nevertheless, teacher educators and researchers need to conduct
closer study of the nature and quality of these reflections, because “if the reflection
stimulated by teaching portfolios does not help challenge student teacher perspec-
tives that help maintain the gap between the poor and others in U. S. schooling, then
its value is problematic” (p. 619). At the same time, as Brookfield (1995) argues,
“reflection in and of itself is not enough; it must be linked to how the world can be
changed” (p. 217). One of the duties of teacher educators, then, is providing pro-
spective teachers with a way to go from reflection to change—helping them develop
what Mezirow (1990) calls a “praxis” for transformative learning (p. 354). Therefore,
teacher educators should ask deeper questions, such as how does Ella’s reflection
affect her learning to teach? What transformative actions, if any, resulted from her
reflection?
Although many teacher educators believe that ePortfolio reflection can enhance
learning, are prospective teachers on the same page? I first met Ella at the end of her
third semester in the teacher education program. When asked about her opinion of
the ePortfolio reflection requirement and why she reflected the way she did, Ella
gave me a long response:
I think we get very mixed views on the ePortfolio. Because I understand the people who
work for it and support it in the school of education. They see a different thing from we see
as students. They see it as a reflective tool. And it is something we all kind of struggle with
it, because as we heard many times, principals look at it, they use it for hiring and see what
is in your ePortfolio, but then we hear from former students and we hear even from princi-
pals, that [they] don’t really use the ePortfolio. So I feel like we are kind of given two dif-
ferent stories on the portfolio…. It’s really like who the audience is…. [The ePortfolio is] a
professional piece that’s going to be shown to professional people who kind of hold your
career in their hands, and so sometimes I wonder are we really putting who we are down in
that ePortfolio because I want to be looked as the best I can for my job, rather than nitty–
gritty, what’s really shaping me. (Ella Interview #1)

Ella’s response shows that many factors impacted her understanding of the ePortfo-
lio reflection requirement and her selection of what went into her ePortfolio.
Researchers have long demonstrated the effect of the sociocultural context on pro-
spective teacher learning (Grossman, Smgorinsky, & Valencia, 1999; Zeichner,
2006; Zeichner & Conklin, 2008). As such, the nature and quality of prospective
teachers’ ePortfolio reflection should not be treated as a simple and unchanging
phenomenon, resulting from just their own thinking or beliefs, but as the result of a
constellation of internal and external factors, including their educational and life
experiences, the curriculum, culture, and policy of their teacher education programs
4 1 Introduction

and field placement schools, and the interactions of these different factors. With
these thoughts in mind, I have written this book to delve deeper into the following
questions:
• What do prospective teachers reflect on and to what extent is their reflection
critical?
• To what extent does their reflection transform their teaching practice?
• How does the teacher education program foster or inhibit their critical reflection
and transformative learning?
• How can teacher educators support prospective teachers’ critical reflection for
transformative learning?
In the rest of this chapter, I will lay out the theoretical foundations of critical
reflection, the sociocultural context of prospective teacher learning, and ePortfolio
reflection research in teacher education. I continue with a brief description of the
research itself and conclude with a chapter-by-chapter overview of the book.

1.2 Reflection and Critical Reflection

The primary title of this book, Critical Reflection for Transformative Learning,
refers to the core theoretical model I have used for both research on teacher educa-
tion and for my own teacher education pedagogy. I have been working with this
framework for more than 10 years now, and although my conception and implemen-
tation of it have evolved over the decade, it remains focused on the intersection of
self and society, contemplation, and action. I fully expect to continue to use the
framework and to continue developing it as I learn more and experience more in
research and teaching. Because of the importance of this theoretical framework,
both to the understanding, I have developed of prospective teacher learning, and to
the pedagogy, I have developed to stimulate prospective teacher reflection and
action in the classroom, I will briefly explain the roots of critical reflection for trans-
formative learning in education research and practice, paying particular attention to
those historical strands that have been formative for the model.
It will come as no surprise that John Dewey first proposed the idea that good
teachers are reflective. In his influential book How We Think (Dewey, 1933), Dewey
suggests that good teachers engage in “active, persistent and careful consideration
of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support
it, and further conclusions to which it leads” (p. 188). This kind of thought is reflec-
tive, meaning it is more directed than simply accepting a belief with little attempt to
examine the evidence for it. What is surprising is that the idea was not seriously
taken up and moved into teacher education until Donald Schön’s Reflective
Practitioner (Schon, 1983), a full 50 years after Dewey. In the nearly four decades
now since Donald Schon’s work was first published, teacher education programs
around the world have recognized reflection as a vital skill for teachers, and taken
on the goal of developing reflective teachers (Handal & Lauvas, 1987; Hatton &
1.2 Reflection and Critical Reflection 5

Smith, 1995; Valli, 1992; Zeichner, 1996; Zeichner & Liston, 1996). This move-
ment in teacher education took strength in no small part from the desire to prepare
teachers able to adapt their teaching to particular students in particular social, cul-
tural, and political contexts (Darling-Hammond, 2006; Hammerness, Darling-­
Hammond, & Bransford, 2005; Zeichner, 2006), especially students who are
culturally, ethnically, and racially different from the majority of the society and the
majority of the teacher corps (Au, 2009; Ball & Ladson-Billings, 2020; Ball &
Tyson, 2011; Cochran-Smith, 2011, 2020; Ladson-Billings, 2001, 2009; Ladson-­
Billings & Tate, 1995; Sleeter, 2001; Valenzuela, 2017; Zeichner, 2020).
Within this reflective teaching movement, the specific term “critical reflection”
has gradually taken precedence (Carr & Kemmis, 1986; Mezirow, 1990, 2000;
Smyth, 1989; van Manen, 1977). However, there are multiple definitions of critical
reflection (notably Cherubini, 2009a, 2009b; Dinkelman, 1999, 2000; Howard,
2003; van Manen, 1977) which, while certainly related in their linkage to social sci-
ence critical theory (notably Habermas), contain enough variation to confuse teacher
educators and teacher education students. For example, Howard (2003) offers a
framework of culturally relevant pedagogy as an ingredient of critical reflection
without articulating a formal definition, while Dinkelman (1999) draws from the
work of van Manen (1977) and Liston and Zeichner’s (1991) social reconstruction-
ist perspective, to define critical reflection as:
deliberation about wider social, historical, political, and cultural contexts of education, and
deliberation about relationships between educational practice and the construction of a
more equitable, justice, and democratic society” (p. 332).

Note that, in keeping with social science critical theory, this conception of critical
reflection emphasizes the social, political, cultural, and demonstrates an interest in
social justice both within education and in larger society. However, these critical
concerns are presented as the content for reflection, but neither the reasoning for
their selection nor the potential to move beyond thinking is addressed. Zeichner and
Liston argue (Zeichner & Liston, 1996) that not all thinking about teaching can be
considered as “reflective,” saying that “if a teacher never questions the goals and the
values that guide his or her work, the context in which he or she teaches, or never
examines his or her assumptions, then this individual is not engaged in reflective
teaching” (p. 1). The next step, then is for teacher educators to guide prospective
teachers in taking action upon the analysis of their assumptions.
If we grant the importance of reflective teaching and agree with Zeichner and
Liston that this reflection must question the goals and values guiding teaching, then
we must go beyond the notion of reflective teaching in general and consider how to
foster critical reflection among prospective teachers. This requirement, in turn,
means that we need to understand how prospective teachers learn to reflect, and to
what extent that reflection is critical, and not just “thinking about teaching.” For
example, the research on reflective teaching reviewed by Zeichner as early as 1992
shows that there is quite a bit of study on preparing reflective teachers. However, his
review also shows that most of that research focuses on prospective teachers’ per-
ceptions and self-reported results, with few taking a closer look at their reflections
6 1 Introduction

in terms of process or its critical nature. In order to be sure, we are preparing pro-
spective teachers to be reflective practitioners, we need to understand how they
learn reflection, and to what extent they learn to be critical.
I will take this critique one step further before turning to the social context of
teacher education. In addition to preparing prospective teachers to reflect critically,
we need to prepare them to make use of that reflection in their classrooms, schools,
and communities. In other words, it is not enough to identify distorted assumptions
or educational equities: the point is to do something about them. To address this
need, my framework employs the concept of transformative learning, “the process
of making a new or revised interpretation of the meaning of an experience, which
guides subsequent understanding, appreciation, and action” (Mezirow, 1990, p. 1,
emphasis mine). Mezirow insists that the end result of reflection should be action
that transforms the teacher and the learner, and in so doing, transforms the institu-
tion. Therefore, the ultimate goal of critical reflection for transformative learning in
teacher education is to prepare teachers who can recognize and understand socially,
culturally, and politically grounded injustice in education and then take actions to
change it. With this goal in mind, I developed the following definition:
Critical reflection is a process of constantly analyzing, questioning, and critiquing estab-
lished assumptions of oneself, schools, and the society about teaching and learning, and the
social and political implications of schooling, and implementing changes to previous
actions that have been supported by those established assumptions for the purpose of sup-
porting student learning and a better schooling and more just[ice] society for all children.
(Liu, 2015, pp. 10–11)

This definition highlights the three core aspects of critical reflection for transforma-
tive learning: the process (analyzing, questioning, critiquing, and implementing
changes), the content (assumptions relevant to both classroom teaching and the
larger society), and the goal (educational equity for a more just society). I use this
framework to guide both the research presented in this book and my pedagogy for
teacher education, and which I will elucidate in the succeeding chapters of this
book. Here I will briefly outline the way in which I put this framework in terms of
stages in a hermeneutic that teacher educators can use both to inculcate habits of
reflection in prospective teachers and quickly gauge where they are in learning to
reflect (Liu & Ball, 2019; see Fig. 1.1).
In this framework, I use a modified version of critical reflection proposed and
elaborated by Brookfield (1987, 1988, 1995) to explain how teachers learn to reflect
on problems in teaching, learning, and schooling. His original model included four
aspects that he sometimes described as “components” and at other times “stages” to
reflect the fact that they do depend upon each other and may be learned sequentially,
but do not have to occur as fixed, discrete. In this book, I use the word “stage” to
reinforce the necessity of scaffolding prospective teacher learning. Because I also
incorporate Mezirow’s transformative learning into my framework, I have added
two more stages (or components) in which the teacher acts upon their reflection and
then reflects upon the results of those actions. Table 1.1 summarizes the six stages
of critical reflection for transformative learning.
1.3 Social Context in Teacher Education 7

Assumption
Analysis

Reflection on
the effect of
Contextual
reflection-
Awareness
based
Actions

Reflection-
Imaginative
based
Speculation
Actions

Reflective
Skepticism

Fig. 1.1 The hermeneutic cycle of critical reflection for transformative learning

It is important to reiterate that these stages of critical reflection for transformative

learning, although performed by expert reflective teachers in any sequence (or, in
fact, several stages simultaneously), prospective teachers need to learn them delib-
erately and with proper scaffolding. This scaffolding must be done within the social
context of teach education, including the ways in which the field experience social-
izes prospective teachers into the local details of teaching and schooling. Therefore,
I briefly discuss the social context of teacher education before laying out the struc-
ture of this book.

1.3 Social Context in Teacher Education

Ken Zeichner once suggested to me in a personal conversation that “you need to

look at the portfolio in the way it is existing in the program that exists in the depart-
ment and within the institution and state policy context; you can’t understand any
part of the teacher education program without situating it ecologically.” The social
8 1 Introduction

Table 1.1 Stages of critical reflection for transformative learning (modified from Brookfield,
1987; Liu, 2015)
Stages Explanation
1. Assumption Teachers identify the assumptions about schooling and the society that
analysis underlie the ideas, beliefs, values, and actions that they and others take for
granted, and then compare those assumptions against their lived
experience and that of their students.
2. Contextual Teachers recognize that their assumptions are created in a specific social,
awareness historical, political, and cultural context, so what they regard as
appropriate ways of organizing schooling and society are not context free.
3. Imaginative Teachers explore alternative ways to current ways of thinking and living in
speculation order to provide an opportunity to challenge prevailing ways of knowing
and imagine more rational or just alternatives.
4. Reflective Teachers develop a critical cast of mind to doubt the claims made for the
skepticism universal validity or truth of an idea, practice, or institution. They call into
question the belief that simply because some idea or social structure has
existed unchanged for a period of time that it must be right and the best
possible arrangement.
5. Reflection-based Teachers take actions to change or improve their teaching, or schooling in
actions general, on the basis of their reflection. They do this with an awareness of
the context and a generalized skepticism toward universalist solutions
6. Reflection on the Teachers analyze the effect of the reflection-based actions on student
effect of reflection-­ learning, upon which to make further decisions for future teaching. This
based actions may trigger another cycle of critical reflection.

context of prospective teachers’ teaching and learning to which I pay close attention
has six dimensions:
1. the state licensure requirements or external teacher education standards
2. goals and structure of the elementary teacher education program
3. the different reflection requirements for prospective teachers in different courses
4. the goals and design of the ePortfolio
5. the role of prospective teachers as teachers and
6. the effect of cooperating teachers and school policies on prospective teachers’ concepts and
practices
The state standards, in tandem with the structure and goals of the elementary
teacher education program, influence the program’s admission process, curriculum,
instruction, and evaluation of prospective teachers. Each semesters’ requirements
for prospective teachers to learn and reflect vary from course to course and from
teacher educator to teacher educator, leading to different approaches to ePortfolio
reflection assignments. The technical affordances of the tools prospective teachers
use to construct their reflections, and the staff support (some professional, some
peer) on campus combine to set limits on what can be accomplished in the system.
The prospective teachers’ prior education experiences and their social–cultural
backgrounds—what Lortie (1975) famously described as their “apprenticeship of
observation”—obviously condition their values and beliefs about teaching, learn-
ing, students, and schooling, and shape their writing about their teaching practice.
Finally, the cooperating teachers, especially those who work intensively with the
1.4 ePortfolios and Prospective Teacher Reflection 9

prospective teachers during the student teaching semester, have a strong impact on
the teaching and thinking of prospective teachers in part because of the amount of
time they spend together but also because of their nearly unchallenged authority as
experts in the classroom. Their understanding of critical reflection and their notions
of good teaching, as well as their interpretation of school policies and curricula, has
a direct influence on the prospective teachers.
In the past decades, significant research on teacher education from a sociocul-
tural standpoint has focused on the importance of building learning communities for
teacher learning and professional development (e.g., Barab, McKinster, & Scheckler,
2006; Grossman, Wineburg, & Woolworth, 2001; Little, 2002; Liu, 2012; Liu,
Miller, & Jahng, 2016; McLaughlin & Talbert, 2001), and on socialization, the
impact of social context on preservice teacher learning (Bausell & Glazier, 2018;
Grossman et al., 1999; Köybasi & Ugurlu, 2019; Tan, 2015; Zeichner & Conklin,
2008; Zeichner & Gore, 1990). As Grossman et al. (1999) comment, “prospective
teachers often find themselves tugged in different directions, with university faculty,
supervisors, mentor teachers, and school systems encouraging different approaches
to teaching” (p. 5). Thus, to understand their thinking, teacher educators must
understand the social context in which teaching and reflection are situated and inter-
pret the context of teaching and reflection within the social and cultural structures
of the present society.
However, there has been a lack of community building in the practice of prepar-
ing reflective teachers in teacher education programs. Much of the work on reflec-
tive teaching maintains a focus on facilitating reflection by individual teachers who
are to think by themselves about their work. There is still very little emphasis on
reflection as a social practice that takes place within communities of teachers who
support and sustain each other’s growth (Zeichner & Liu, 2010). Similarly, research
on prospective teacher reflections and ePortfolios tends to neglect the social and
cultural context that may exert an influence on prospective teachers’ reflections or
the impact of the ePortfolio environment itself on what prospective teachers decide
to upload as reflection artifacts. Prospective teachers’ reflections, constituting a part
of their learning process, should not be regarded as the simple result of decisions
made by prospective teachers themselves.

1.4 ePortfolios and Prospective Teacher Reflection

In recent years, the portfolios have come into wide use in the United States with the
introduction of performance-based assessment into most state requirements for
teacher education programs, although states still require basic skill and content
knowledge exams. Portfolios are able to demonstrate, in a more holistic and con-
tinuous way, the complex skills that prospective teachers must develop in order to
become full-time teachers. One approach to portfolio assessment is the use of the
electronic portfolio or ePortfolio. Although there is a general understanding of what
10 1 Introduction

an ePortfolio is and what it is able to do, there is no consensus within the teacher
education field about its definitions, purposes, and platforms.
Since the early 1990s, ePortfolios have emerged as a tool for “encouraging
deeper learning through the use of multimedia artifacts as richer forms of literacy to
express understanding” (Lambert, DePaepe, Lambert, & Anderson, 2007, p. 76)
that “can provide a dynamic, living space where ongoing professional statements
and reflections are accessible to a full professional learning community” (Samaras
& Fox, 2012, p. 20). Despite the apparently limitless potential of ePortfolios to sup-
port teacher learning, the reality in the field is less exciting. Although there is a body
of literature on the ePortfolio reporting that they enhance prospective teachers’
reflections (Borko, Michalec, Timmons, & Siddle, 1997; Davies & Willis, 2001;
Lyons, 1998; Milman, 2005; Slepcevic-Zach & Stock, 2018), research documenting
in-depth studies of the content and quality of the reflections is sparse, and efforts to
triangulate prospective teachers’ ePortfolio reflections with classroom observations
practically nonexistent. Moreover, the tendency for teacher education programs to
maintain an assessment purpose to ePortfolios has proven rather problematic. As
Ross (2014) observes, the understanding that their ePortfolios will be assessed
makes prospective teachers “extremely audience-aware” (p. 219), which can
encourage prospective teachers to avoid serious reflection (Wilson, Wright, &
Stallworth, 2003) and a tendency toward repeating the preset standards (Delandshere
& Arens, 2003). Instead, they attempt to ensure high assessment through rhetorical
strategies such as sunshining (reporting only positive information and avoiding self-­
criticism) and would-spiking (proclaiming what the prospective teacher would do
differently in the future, without conceding any problems in the present), which
forestall criticism by evaluators (Thomas & Liu, 2012).
This is not to say that the promise of the ePortfolio is unachievable. For example,
Oner and Adadan (2011) designed ePortfolio reflections so that prospective teachers
were able to access each other’s portfolios and share feedback on the artifacts they
posted, which allowed them to reflect on their teaching practice from multiple per-
spectives. Elsewhere (Liu, 2017) I found that with elucidation of the multiple voices
and texts from prospective teachers’ field experience, the ePortfolio can create a
dialogic space for prospective teachers, cooperating teachers, and supervisors dur-
ing field experiences, enabling teacher educators to stimulate deep reflection and
springboard transformative learning. However, I also found that absent systematic
observation and careful follow-up, the potential to move from multiple voices to
real transformative learning is limited. As Dewey (1933) advocated almost a cen-
tury ago, the habit of critical inquiry needs to be cultivated; both studies highlight
that in order to help prospective teachers engage in meaningful reflection, teacher
educators have to provide carefully designed tasks and an easily accessed platform
in the ePortfolio that can function as a medium to support multiple voices and
perspectives.
In short, ePortfolios provide great promise for encouraging serious reflection by
prospective teachers and therefore also show potential for enabling transformative
learning. However, research suggests that potential has been limited by a wide range
of factors, not least of which is an incomplete understanding of how prospective
1.5 About the Research 11

teachers learn to reflect, how deep that reflection is, and whether or not there are
transformative results of that reflection in their teaching and learning. I therefore
developed and conducted research with the aim of finding some answers for these
questions and developing ways to better teach both critical reflection and transfor-
mative learning.

1.5 About the Research

The study from which I drew this book was situated in the undergraduate elemen-
tary education program of a large university in the Midwestern United States—
“Midwest University.” The city (and therefore the school district in which my
participants were placed) is a city of over 250,000 people, making it an “urban
emergent district,” one located in a city with fewer than one million residents
(Milner, 2012b). Milner points out that, although schools in urban emergent dis-
tricts are located in smaller cities, they still mirror the diversity of student demo-
graphics found in larger, “urban intensive” districts. In this case, students of color
comprise 53% of the total student population in the district. However, the teacher
corps, as is typical in the United States, is overwhelmingly White.
Midwest University’s elementary teacher education program was founded in
1951 with the vision of preparing quality teachers, rather than on producing a large
number of teachers, even though there was a shortage in the state at the time. This
vision, valuing democracy and education, the school and community, and the child
and their development, was deeply influenced by educators such as John Dewey and
Ralph Tyler. Over a half century, the program adopted the structure of five semesters
beginning with students admitted as juniors, resulting in an undergraduate degree
with certification that typically took 5 (and in some cases more) years to complete.
The five semesters included four practicum semesters with specific focus each
semester from community and early childhood, to literacy, math and arts, and social
studies, science, physical education, and music, culminating into the final semester
of student teaching. To be admitted to the program, candidates were expected to
declare their dedication to multicultural and interpersonal competence in working
with diverse races, cultures, language backgrounds, family forms, sexual orienta-
tions, economic, gender, and ability groups, and also to develop reflective compe-
tence. After entering one of the two cohorts in the elementary education program
(early childhood through middle childhood and middle childhood through early
adolescence), students spent four semesters in practicum and one semester student
teaching. In addition to 40 credits in liberal studies that prospective teachers could
complete before or after being admitted to the teacher education program, there
were 57–60 credits of professional education including methods courses and field
placement seminars and 27 credits in other requirements such as courses on human
development, educational psychology, and foundations of the profession.
12 1 Introduction

One of the goals of all the teacher education programs at Midwest University
was to prepare reflective educators. The website for the program defined being
reflective as:
Educators must be prepared to search for the meanings and consequences of their own
knowledge and beliefs, of their teaching, of schooling; they must be prepared to use the
resulting understanding to choose among professional alternatives, continually re-­
examining professional goals and professional actions.

Aligning itself with the goal of the teacher education program as a whole, the ele-
mentary education program highlighted reflective teaching, emphasizing the ability
to foster learning of all students from different identity groups as well as the com-
mitment to teaching for social justice and equity.
When the study was conducted, the teacher education program at Midwest
University had used two models for organizing and placing prospective teachers in
practicum and student teaching schools, the Professional Development School
(PDS) model, and the non-PDS model since the late 1990s. One major purpose of
the PDS program was to prepare teachers who can be successful in culturally diverse
urban schools. After prospective teachers were selected for the PDS program, those
who sought elementary certification were placed in two of four elementary partner
schools, and those who were in the secondary certification program were placed in
one partner high school and one middle school. The elementary teacher education
students completed all of their practicum teaching and student teaching experiences
in one of the two pairs of elementary and middle Professional Development schools.
One of the unique features of the PDS partnership was the presence of an on-site
university supervisor in each PDS who supervised the prospective teachers from
practicum II through the student teaching semester.
Faculty and staff in the teacher education program developed the ePortfolio proj-
ect to support preparing reflective practitioners; as such, submission of an ePortfolio
was one of the requirements for prospective teachers’ graduation.2 Each elementary
prospective teacher’s ePortfolio was structured for them into five areas: autobiogra-
phy, educational philosophy, teaching and learning, teaching for diversity, and the
standards. Starting from the first semester of the five-semester professional pro-
gram, prospective teachers were expected to upload designated work for each
semester, such as an educational philosophy statement from their introductory edu-
cation course, lesson plans, and reflections on the lessons they taught, goals for their
practicum teaching, and several reflections on that experience. At the end of their
(final) student teaching semester, prospective teachers provided “artifacts” to show
that they met all 15 university teacher education standards, such as teaching videos,
classroom photos and materials, and further reflections.

2
At the time I began my research, Midwest University did not participate in edTPA. However, not
long after I completed my data collection, the state Department of Public Instruction mandated a
gradual switch to use edTPA assessment of the ePortfolio as one of the elements leading to licen-
sure. Chapter 7 provides a brief discussion of the implication of edTPA for the use of ePortfolio for
student learning.
1.5 About the Research 13

This book is based on qualitative research involving the collecting and analysis
of prospective teachers’ ePortfolio reflections in three semesters (third and fourth
practicum semesters and the final student teaching semester) triangulated with my
observations in field placement classrooms and interviews in two semesters (fourth
practicum semester and final student teaching semester). Primary participants
included four prospective teachers in the elementary teacher education program:
Ella, Doug, Judy, and Karla. Ella grew up in a small town in the state where Midwest
University is located. With both parents being education professionals, Ella inher-
ited from them a strong passion for teaching. Ella’s educational philosophy centered
around relationships of trust and respect with students and parents. Therefore, one
important element of Ella’s educational philosophy was the three-way communica-
tion between the parents and the community, the child, and the teacher. In terms of
teacher behaviors and attitudes, Ella believed that, in order to become effective, a
teacher must reflect on their teaching at multiples stages of the process. The skill of
reflection was, in her opinion, one of the most important ones that a teacher could
possess because it takes courage to look at oneself and admit that something went
wrong or was not good for the students. Doug, one of a handful of prospective
teachers of color in his cohort, also stated in his educational philosophy that his
teaching was strongly embedded in social reconstructionism. As an African
American male, he felt that his previous school experiences were not always pleas-
ant or helpful because he went through occasions of unjust and wrong judgment of
him, such as accusations of plagiarism and cheating, which gave him a passion to
work with minority students to help bring change to their lives. Therefore, his goal
in teaching was to build a positive environment to nurture students’ learning, espe-
cially for those who were not given enough attention or support. He strongly articu-
lated the idea of teaching for social change: “I hope to teach for social reform in this
world; there are many disparities too entrenched in our society that needs to be
changed” (Doug Reflection). Doug requested to be assigned to diverse classrooms
during his practicum and student teaching semesters.
Judy grew up in the north part of the state where Midwest University is located.
Both of her parents were educators as well. Writing in her educational philosophy,
Judy stated that growing up with “white privilege” she had a pretty easy upbringing:
always having a roof over her head and enough money for trips and never having to
worry about food. During her freshman year, she took a trip to New Orleans, which
she stated gave her a glimpse of social injustice and discrimination against the poor.
She indicated that she wanted to work with a diverse population and teach in a cul-
turally relevant manner so children could learn about and respect differences. She
believed in education and the power it has to influence and change lives. Judy was
the only participant in this study who was in the Professional Development School
Program.
Karla grew up attending a private school in which she felt the teacher/parent/
student relationship was very strong. Due to this experience, Karla wanted to form
relationships with both her students and their parents before she expected to be able
to teach them valuable academic knowledge. She intended to pass on the skills of
social interaction in order to achieve a more progressive society of critical thinkers
14 1 Introduction

and communicators. Karla stated in her educational philosophy that her beliefs were
rooted in social reconstructionism. She explained that on the one hand, the teacher
must relate to her students on a social level as an equal, with age and wisdom as her
only strengths over them. On the other hand, the teacher must stress that her style
and knowledge surpass her students because of academic experience and training
(and not because of simple social superiority).
I selected these four participants for several compelling reasons. First, Ella, Judy,
and Karla were all White, female prospective teachers, native to the state in which
they planned to teach, and thus representative of the graduates of many teacher
education programs in the United States (US Department of Education, 2016).
Second, Doug represented a rare case of prospective teachers of color, which
research links to the low representation of African American teachers in K–12
schools and an even lower representation in teacher education research
(Milner, 2012a).
In addition to the four primary participants, I interviewed teacher educators
involved in the four participants’ education, including five teacher education faculty
members, four methods course instructors in the third and fourth semesters, six
supervisors in the third through fifth semesters, and six cooperating teachers in the
fourth and fifth semesters (see Table 1.2). For details regarding data sources and
data analysis, please see Chap. 8 and the Appendix.

1.6 About this Book

This book has two goals. One is to delve into the answers to the questions that moti-
vated my research in prospective teachers and their struggles to learn to become
transformative practitioners. The other is to draw upon my experiences, and those of
my research participants, to provide some guidance for teacher educators who wish
to develop the capacity for critical reflection among their own prospective teachers,
and to enable that reflection to lead to transformation of teaching, schooling, and
communities. As such, I have structured the book into nine chapters, each of which
can be read separately but which, taken together, provide both an analysis of pro-
spective teacher reflection and suggestions for its improvement.

Table 1.2 Research participants

Name/position Ella Karla Judy Doug
Methods instructor Social studies Cathy Laura Cathy Cathy
PE Lizz Lizz Lizz
Music Pam
Supervisor 4th semester Paul Roy Maggie Paul
5th semester Beth Juan Maggie Beth
Cooperating 4th semester Jane N/A Sue Anne
Teacher 5th semester Kate Katy Sue Tom
1.6 About this Book 15

After this brief introduction, Chap. 2, “Who Celebrates Kwanzaa?” employs key
stories of the four primary participants to lay out the efforts they made to engage in
reflective practice. Triangulating their written reflections with classroom observa-
tions and interviews reveals different actions when it comes to transformation of
their teaching and their students’ learning. The focus of the stories is the struggle for
inclusive education in the context of cultural, linguistic, and racial diversity in the
K–12 student body that is not reflected in the teacher corps.
Chapter 3, “We Look Back on What Is Good and What Is Bad,” turns to the insti-
tutional experiences prospective teachers have with reflection and the conceptions
of reflection they develop as a result of those experiences. Those conceptions lean
strongly toward what Zeichner and Liston (1996) call “generic reflection,” and typi-
cally narrate a simple vision of teaching that avoids details and criticism in favor of
self-praise.
Chapter 4, “It’s Me Doing Work for Someone Else,” steps back from the field
classroom and looks at how prospective teachers think about reflection and the
teacher education program’s demand that they become reflective practitioners. As
the chapter title suggests, much of the attitude prospective teachers have toward the
ePortfolio reflection—and toward reflection assignments in general—is shaped by
the fact that they are required tasks within a general regime of assessment. This real-
ity has serious implications for the use of ePortfolios and reflection assignments as
learning tools within teacher education programs.
Chapter 5, “I Want to be Seen as the Best as I Can,” considers prospective teach-
ers’ acts of reflection on their classroom teaching as a performance for an audience.
Again considering the overarching regime of assessment within which prospective
teachers report their success in meeting the state and university standards. Here,
their desire to be seen as always already professional, high-quality teachers override
any impulse to critically analyze their assumptions and teaching practices, and thus
undermines transformative learning that might have occurred.
Chapter 6, “Awesome, Awesome,” turns to the relationship prospective teachers
develop with the cooperating teachers and university-based supervisors—the super-
vision triad of teacher education. This relationship is found at the intersection of
assessment and affirmation—the sense that the supervisor is assessing both pro-
spective and cooperating teachers, and the general culture of affirmation that has
become inescapable in U.S. education. As a result, the potential for collaborative
reflection regarding the puzzles and concerns naturally arising in prospective teach-
ers’ field experiences goes unfulfilled and opportunities for critical reflection
are missed.
Chapters 2 through 6 provide the bulk of the prospective teachers’ stories and my
analysis of their stories from the lens of critical reflection for transformative learn-
ing. The next two chapters are more forward-looking and intended to help other
teacher educators work with the implications of the previous chapters to improve
teacher education in general. Chapter 7 revisits the theoretical framework for criti-
cal reflection for transformative learning, then turns to a data-driven approach to
implementing that framework in teacher education. Although this chapter assumes
a teacher education program structured like the one studied for this book, the sug-
16 1 Introduction

gestions and recommendations are applicable to other sorts of programs.

Chapter 8 then briefly explains how to use the procedures of narrative coding to
tailor the suggestions in Chap. 7 to the teacher education program and, most impor-
tantly, to the pool of prospective teachers in a given program, conforming to the idea
that teacher educators should do as they demand of prospective teachers and begin
where their students are.
The final chapter, “Toward a Transformative Teacher Education Community,”
proposes more radical changes to teacher education in the United States. Rather
than thinking of the findings and suggestions of the previous chapters as palliatives
for a system that must be preserved, Chap. 9 argues for a new generation of teacher
education programs that centers on critical reflection for transformative learning in
a holistic context of prospective teachers, university-based teacher educators,
school-based cooperating teachers, and the parents and community members the
schools serve. This approach builds upon previous models, including community-­
based teacher education (Murrell, 2001; Zygmunt & Clark, 2016) and teacher prep
3.0 (Kretchmar & Zeichner, 2016; Zeichner, 2016), which hold great promise not
only to encourage the production of high-quality teachers, but to enable them, with
their colleagues and community partners, to move our schools closer to paying off
the education debt (Ladson-Billings, 2006) and providing equitable education
for all.

References

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cultural foundations of learning (pp. 387–403). New York, NY: Routledge.
Ball, A. F., & Tyson, C. (Eds.). (2011). Studying diversity in teacher education. Lanham, MD:
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University Press.
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Another random document with
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 — Bien, ma fille, dit Mme Voraud. Nous attendrons ton bon plaisir.
Nous irons voir Mme Stibel quand tu seras disposée à
m’accompagner.
Daniel se leva brusquement.
— Mademoiselle, dit-il à Berthe, vous m’excuserez de vous
quitter. Il faut que je rentre pour travailler.
— Pourquoi vous en allez-vous ? dit vivement Berthe. Ce n’est
pas vous qui nous empêchez de sortir.
— Je vous assure, répéta Daniel avec beaucoup de dignité, que
je suis obligé de rentrer chez moi.
— Si M. Daniel a des occupations… dit Mme Voraud. Pourquoi le
retiens-tu ? Tu es indiscrète.
— Au revoir, madame, dit Daniel en allant saluer Mme Voraud.
Mme Voraud répondit par un sourire aimable, qui semblait comme
rapporté sur son visage froid. Puis, elle baissa les yeux sur son
ouvrage. Berthe, à qui Daniel tendit la main, ne la prit pas. Louise
Loison sortit dans l’antichambre avec Daniel.
— Vous êtes fou de faire des scènes pareilles.
— Ça ne peut pas durer, répondit-il. Je ne veux pas qu’on me
fasse toujours des affronts. Je ne veux pas qu’on me tolère ici ; je
veux qu’on me reçoive. Je vais dire à papa, dès ce soir, qu’il vienne,
demain, voir M. Voraud, pour lui demander la main de Berthe. Si on
me la refuse, je verrai ce que j’aurai à faire.
— Attendez, dit Louise intéressée, je vais vous conduire jusqu’à
la porte du jardin.
Ils s’arrêtèrent ensemble devant la grille. Un petit ruisseau de
pluie courait le long du mur. Avec le bout de son parapluie, Daniel
faisait des petits trous dans le sable, entre les pierres ; ce qui
troublait l’eau d’amusants petits floconnements.
— Si j’ai hésité jusqu’ici, dit-il gravement à Louise, c’est que les
parents de Berthe me paraissent plus riches que les miens.
— Quelle fortune ont vos parents, sans indiscrétion ?
 — Je ne l’ai jamais su, dit Daniel. Ils ne m’en ont jamais parlé. Un
jour, j’avais à peu près dix ans, papa est entré dans la chambre de
maman. Je savais qu’il était resté tard au magasin pour terminer son
inventaire. Il a dit à maman : C’est bien à peu près ce que je disais.
— Deux cent trente ? a dit maman. — Deux cent dix-sept, a dit papa.
— Maman a dit : Je croyais que c’était davantage… Depuis ce
temps, je n’ai plus rien su. Seulement, papa a dû faire de très
bonnes années. On a déménagé. Le magasin s’est agrandi. On a
deux voyageurs en plus. Mes parents auraient maintenant plus de
cinq cent mille francs que ça ne m’étonnerait pas… Mais qu’est-ce
que c’est que cinq cent mille francs auprès de la fortune de M.
Voraud ?
— Combien a-t-il, M. Voraud ? demanda Louise Loison.
— Trois millions, m’a-t-on dit.
— Papa dit beaucoup moins que ça, dit Louise. Papa m’a dit qu’il
devait avoir de douze à quinze cent mille francs, et que ce n’était
pas une fortune très sûre. Il y a des jours où M. Voraud a l’air
ennuyé. En tout cas, je sais ce qu’il donne à sa fille : quinze mille
francs de rente et le logement.
— Est-ce que c’est beaucoup ? dit Daniel.
— Il me semble, dit Louise. J’ai cent mille francs de dot, et tout le
monde dit que c’est très joli. Or, quinze mille francs de rente, c’est
certainement beaucoup plus… Mais vous n’avez pas besoin d’être
gêné parce que Berthe est plus riche que vous. Elle sait bien que
vous l’épouserez par amour.
— Oh ! ce n’est pas ça qui me gêne, dit Daniel, d’autant plus que
je suis bien sûr qu’un jour je serai très riche, et que je gagnerai
beaucoup d’argent. Mais c’est pour ses parents : est-ce qu’ils
voudront de moi ?
— Faites toujours faire la demande par votre père. C’est le seul
moyen de le savoir.
— Dites à Berthe, dit Daniel, qu’elle ne m’en veuille pas de ce qui
s’est passé aujourd’hui. Dites-lui que je ne l’ai jamais tant aimée.
 XVIII
DÉMARCHES OFFICIELLES

Daniel, d’un pas joyeux, rentra au chalet Pilou ; il allait parler à sa

mère de ses projets de mariage. Heureux et fier de ses graves
résolutions, il se sentait si grand garçon qu’il n’avait plus le droit
d’être timide. Il s’avança d’un pas ferme jusqu’auprès de sa mère :
— Maman ?
— Eh bien ?
— Je vais te parler d’une chose très sérieuse… Sais-tu ce que je
vais demander à papa tout à l’heure ? Je vais lui demander d’aller
dès demain prier M. Voraud de m’accorder la main de sa fille.
Mme Henry leva les yeux et le regarda.
— C’est une grande faute, dit-elle enfin, de laisser les jeunes
gens dans le désœuvrement. Sous prétexte d’examen de droit, tu ne
vas pas au magasin, tu restes à la campagne, et, au bout du
compte, tu ne fais rien. N’essaie pas de me faire croire que tu
travailles. Quand on entre dans ta chambre, on te trouve étendu sur
ton lit. Il y a un livre sur ta table, oh ! je sais bien. Il était ouvert à la
page 32, il y a quinze jours. Il est maintenant à la page 40. Voilà ce
que tu appelles travailler.
— Bien, dit Daniel, bien. Je parlerai tout de même à papa tout à
l’heure.
 — Ton père t’enverra promener avec tes bêtises. Un garçon de
vingt ans qui veut se marier. Un beau monsieur, vraiment ! Je te vois
père de famille et élevant des petits garçons.
— Si je t’ai parlé de ça, dit Daniel nerveusement, c’est que j’y ai
mûrement réfléchi. Je ne suis plus un enfant.
Il monta dans sa chambre, le visage assombri d’énergie. Il
entendit de son lit, où il s’était allongé pour réfléchir, le crachement
sauvage du train de 6 heures 30, qui entrait en gare et qui, peu
après, repartit en haletant. Quelques minutes se passèrent, et la
sonnette de la grille tinta. C’était M. Henry qui rentrait dîner.
En ce moment, les parents de Daniel habitaient seuls la villa ;
l’oncle Émile était parti avec la tante Amélie, pour une ville d’eaux
magnifiquement située dans les montagnes et d’où il devait
rapporter deux fortes sensations : celle d’avoir réussi à occuper, à
l’aller et retour, un compartiment réservé et celle encore d’avoir
obtenu, à l’hôtel des Bains, des conditions de prix exceptionnelles.
Après un assez long temps, employé par M. Henry à se
débarbouiller et à revêtir le molleton des villégiatures, Daniel
entendit la bonne qui frappait à la porte de sa chambre. Mais il
répondit qu’il n’avait pas faim, autant pour apitoyer ses parents que
pour obéir à cette tradition rigoureuse qui veut que les jeunes
hommes, contrariés dans leurs amours, en perdent le boire et le
manger.
Un peu avant huit heures, la femme de chambre remonta :
— Monsieur fait dire à M. Daniel de descendre.
Il descendit, très énervé. Ses parents avaient fini de dîner. Mais il
remarqua, non sans satisfaction, qu’on n’avait pas enlevé son
couvert, et qu’on lui avait gardé une aile de poulet et des légumes. Il
feignit de ne pas voir ces préparatifs, vint embrasser son père, puis
alla se poster devant la fenêtre, et regarda sans rien voir, au dehors.
— Qu’est-ce que maman vient de me raconter ? Il paraît que tu
es devenu fou : tu veux te marier ?
 Daniel, de plus en plus énervé, sentit un sanglot lui monter à la
gorge, et ne le retint pas. Il se mit à pleurer sourdement entre ses
dents. Pendant qu’il se désolait, une voix intérieure l’approuvait,
l’encourageait et lui disait en substance : « Pleure, mon vieux,
pleure. Ça fait bien, ça fait très bien. » Ne trouve pas qui veut des
larmes sincères pour attester victorieusement l’importance de sa
douleur…
— Oh ! oh ! Il paraît que c’est grave, dit, en effet, M. Henry. Mais
qu’est-ce que tu veux que je fasse ? Moi, ça m’est égal. Si tu tiens à
ce que j’aille voir M. Voraud, j’irai le voir. Il me mettra à la porte pour
lui faire une proposition pareille. Je ne risque jamais que ça.
Le muscle aux sanglots s’étant arrêté, Daniel le ranima, et
poussa quelques sanglots supplémentaires, plus artificiels.
— Eh ! bien, j’irai le voir demain. Assieds-toi là, et mange ta
soupe, imbécile.
Le potage qu’on venait d’apporter était fumant ; ce qui permit à
Daniel de ne pas mettre à l’avaler un empressement de mauvais
goût.
— Où veux-tu que j’aille le voir, ce M. Voraud ?
Daniel eut alors cette impression obscure, que son père n’était
pas fâché de tenter cette démarche sous le couvert des vœux
inconsidérés de son jeune garçon.
— Va le prévenir, ce soir, que j’irai le voir, demain, à son bureau.
Demande-lui son heure.
Daniel, après les démonstrations fâcheuses de Mme Voraud, ne
serait peut-être pas facilement retourné chez Berthe, le soir même.
Mais du moment qu’il avait une commission, qu’il venait voir M.
Voraud, il n’était plus un intrus. Du plus loin qu’il aperçut la famille,
qui prenait le frais sur le perron, il s’écria : « C’est M. Voraud que je
viens voir ce soir ! » Et il répéta encore, quand il fut arrivé près du
groupe : « J’ai quelque chose à dire à M. Voraud. »
— Monsieur, mon père désirerait aller vous parler à votre bureau,
demain. Il m’a chargé de vous demander votre heure.
 — L’heure qui lui conviendra, dit M. Voraud. De préférence après
la Bourse, à quatre heures, quatre heures et demie.
Louise Loison, presque ostensiblement, tirait le bras de Daniel.
Elle lui fit descendre le perron.
— Quoi de nouveau ?
— Mon père fera la demande demain.
Les deux jeunes filles l’accompagnèrent jusqu’à la grille. La
grande porte était fermée. On faisait un petit détour dans le feuillage
pour arriver à la petite porte. L’endroit était excellent, protégé tout à
fait contre les regards de l’ennemi. Daniel embrassa Berthe.
— Vous serez contente d’être ma femme ?
— Oui, Daniel.
— Et moi je serai bien heureux d’être votre mari !
Ce terme de mari avait encore pour lui beaucoup de prestige. Il
évoquait à ses yeux une sorte de personnage barbu, de forte
carrure, et très écouté dans les réunions de famille. A vingt ans, il
serait déjà ce personnage-là. Il en était heureux, comme d’un
avancement rapide.
Tout en rentrant chez lui, il essayait d’examiner sérieusement la
situation.
A l’idée que M. Voraud dirait : oui, il ressentait un enchantement,
d’ailleurs assez vague : un mariage avec des fleurs, une nuit de
noce, un voyage en Italie.
D’autre part, l’idée que M. Voraud refuserait lui était presque
aussi agréable. C’était du nouveau encore, du mouvement, une
occasion de rébellion.
Il n’envisageait que ces deux hypothèses. Il n’imaginait pas que
les résolutions de M. Voraud ne fussent pas arrêtées d’avance. Il fut
très longtemps à supposer chez ses semblables une indécision
semblable à la sienne. Il préférait les croire sûrs d’eux-mêmes, afin
de s’épargner la peine de modifier leurs résolutions. Car il n’aimait
pas les discussions, les combats, les efforts. Il n’attendait de la vie
que des aubaines, et non des salaires.
 Son père lui dit, quand il revint :
— Quel train est-ce que tu prendras demain ?
— Comment, dit Daniel, est-ce que je vais avec toi ?
— Alors, tu supposais que j’irais tout seul chez M. Voraud ?
— Ah ! dit Daniel, très ennuyé, et qui espérait rester
tranquillement chez lui à attendre le résultat.
Le lendemain, il quitta Bernainvilliers après déjeuner, et vint
chercher son père rue Lafayette, au magasin. Tous deux, ayant pris
un fiacre, se dirigèrent vers le bureau de M. Voraud, rue de Rivoli.
Bien qu’on fût au mois d’août, Daniel avait froid dans la voiture et
serrait les dents. Le fiacre inexorable, après avoir laissé derrière lui
toute la rue Drouot, avait entamé la rue Richelieu, qui diminuait à
vue d’œil. Il s’arrêtait une seconde au croisement des rues, mais
c’était pour repartir aussitôt. Daniel avait mal au cœur. Il eût changé
son sort contre celui de n’importe lequel de ces gens qui passaient,
et qui n’avaient probablement rien d’urgent ni de décisif à accomplir
ce jour-là.
Ils attendirent M. Voraud, dans une salle boisée, où il y avait des
guichets et des employés indifférents. Puis, le banquier,
reconduisant quelqu’un et parlant affaires, apparut sur le seuil de
son cabinet. Mon Dieu ! comme il paraissait loin de ce qu’on allait lui
dire ?
Quand il entra dans un vaste cabinet, éclairé par deux fenêtres,
Daniel n’avait qu’un parapluie et qu’un chapeau, mais il sembla avoir
la charge de trois chapeaux et de quatre parapluies quand il s’agit
de tendre la main à M. Voraud. M. Henry, avec une assurance bien
enviable, prit un fauteuil à côté du bureau. Il y avait à l’autre bout de
la pièce, une monstrueuse chaise de cuir, qui, lorsque Daniel essaya
de la déplacer, se cramponna de ses quatre pieds au sol et menaça
d’entraîner le tapis. De guerre lasse, il s’assit tout au bord. De cet
endroit, en prêtant l’oreille, il suivit la conversation de son père et de
M. Voraud.
— Eh bien, Monsieur Henry, qu’y a-t-il pour votre service ?
 — Monsieur Voraud, mon fils me charge pour vous d’une drôle
de commission. Vous ne pouvez pas vous douter de ce que ça peut
être.
M. Voraud chercha un instant par politesse et dit : Non, non, avec
un aimable sourire.
— Eh bien, Daniel, il ne te reste plus qu’à le dire ! Parle, puisque
c’est toi que ça regarde… Il n’osera pas vous le dire, Monsieur
Voraud… C’est moi qui vais être obligé de prendre la parole…
Figurez-vous que monsieur mon fils s’est mis dans la tête que je
vienne vous demander la main de votre demoiselle !
M. Voraud, qui examinait le jeune homme, regarda un instant M.
Henry. Puis il tourna de nouveau les yeux vers Daniel.
— Quel âge a-t-il donc ce jeune homme ? Vingt-deux, vingt-trois
ans ?
— Pas même, dit M. Henry.
— Et il songe déjà à se marier ?
— Il n’y songeait pas, dit M. Henry. Mais il faut croire que votre
demoiselle lui a plu… Des histoires de jeune homme enfin !
— Écoutez, dit M. Voraud. Vous comprenez que je ne puis guère
vous répondre sans en parler à ma femme. Elle pensera comme moi
que votre fils est un peu jeune. En tout cas, s’il était question de
quelque chose, ce ne pourrait pas être pour tout de suite. Qu’est-ce
qu’il fait votre jeune homme ? demanda M. Voraud, comme s’il voyait
Daniel pour la première fois. Qu’est-ce que vous faites, jeune
homme ?
Daniel voulut parler, mais ses cordes vocales fonctionnaient
difficilement, dans les circonstances solennelles.
M. Henry dut dire à sa place :
— Il fait son doctorat. Il entrera au barreau. Et s’il n’y réussit pas
comme nous voulons, je l’intéresserai dans ma maison.
— Eh bien, dit M. Voraud, nous reparlerons de tout cela.
Ils se quittèrent avec des politesses excessives.
 Daniel, en sortant de là, était heureux d’être débarrassé de cette
visite, mais un peu désappointé de n’avoir pas reçu une réponse
ferme. Il avait prévu le refus, l’acceptation, mais l’hypothèse de
l’ajournement lui avait échappé.
Après le dîner, comme ils étaient tous trois dans le salon du
chalet Pilou, qu’ornaient à profusion les miniatures de la propriétaire,
on sonna à la grille. C’était M. Voraud. On l’installa dans un fauteuil,
et on l’accabla d’offres de liqueurs. Il dut alléguer un mal de gorge
pour refuser le cigare médiocre que M. Henry lui tendait d’un air
engageant.
On parla du train de six heures, toujours en retard, du plus court
chemin pour aller de la maison Voraud au chalet Pilou, de Mme Pilou
elle-même, dont M. Voraud connaissait les excentricités. M. Henry,
Mme Henry et Daniel l’écoutaient parler avec un intérêt prodigieux.
Enfin, d’un accord tacite, on laissa la conversation tomber. M.
Voraud dit gravement : J’ai parlé à ma femme.
Le silence se fit plus grand.
— Eh bien ! Elle est de mon avis. Nous ne disons pas non, loin
de là. Nous trouvons, et je crois que vous pensez de même, qu’il est
un peu prématuré d’en causer. M. Daniel est un brave garçon, un
jeune homme instruit et intelligent. Mais ne croyez-vous pas qu’il
convienne, en raison de son jeune âge, d’ajourner la conversation à
un an, non pour s’assurer de la solidité de ses sentiments, que je ne
mets pas en doute, mais surtout pour voir de quel côté il s’orientera
dans la vie ? Qu’en pensez-vous ?
— Je suis absolument de votre avis, dit la sage Mme Henry.
— D’ici là, je ne vois aucun inconvénient à ce que ces jeunes
gens continuent à se voir. Je tiens à faire savoir à M. Daniel qu’il
sera toujours le bienvenu à la maison.
Le lendemain, vers onze heures, Louise Loison passa au chalet
Pilou. Daniel la mit au courant des incidents de la veille. Elle se
déclara satisfaite.
 — Ils ont dit oui. C’est l’important. Attendre un an ? C’est de la
bêtise. Vous vous marierez vers le nouvel an. Nous nous
occuperons de choisir un jour.
 XIX
FLEURS ET PRÉSENTS

Louise Loison quitta Daniel en lui disant encore :

— Vos parents à tous deux ne vous laisseront pas fiancés
pendant un an. Ce serait absurde… Vous allez venir voir Berthe
après déjeuner ?
— Je pense bien !
— Est-ce que vous avez songé à lui apporter un bouquet ?
Apportez-lui un bouquet. Ce sera très gentil.
Daniel se mit à la recherche de sa mère pour lui demander de
l’argent, de l’argent à lui. Depuis qu’il était à la campagne, il ne
touchait qu’un louis par semaine sur les deux louis de ses
appointements de fils de famille. Mme Henry avait donc mis de côté
près de trois cents francs dans une petite boîte en acajou. C’était
Daniel lui-même qui, pour faire le jeune homme économe, avait
proposé cette combinaison. Il la regrettait d’ailleurs, car Mme Henry
lui donnait aussi difficilement de cet argent à lui que si c’eût été de
l’argent à elle.
Elle était partie faire son marché avec la cuisinière. Daniel la
trouva dans la grande rue, devant l’étal de la poissonnerie. Elle
examinait d’un air dégoûté un petit brochet qu’elle se proposait
d’acquérir pour le repas du soir.
 — Maman, je voudrais que tu me remettes vingt francs sur
l’argent que tu me dois. C’est pour acheter un bouquet à… C’est
pour lui acheter un bouquet…
— Tu es fou ? Il n’y a encore rien d’officiel entre toi et cette jeune
fille. Est-ce que tu vas maintenant commencer à lui donner des
bouquets ?
— Maman, je t’assure que ça me fait plaisir de lui apporter un
bouquet aujourd’hui. Et d’ailleurs, ajouta-t-il avec une politesse un
peu froide, sois assez gentille pour me remettre les vingt francs que
je te demande, puisque cet argent est à moi.
— A toi ! à toi !… Je vais te donner dix francs. Si tu veux un
bouquet, tu en trouveras de magnifiques à dix francs chez le
pépiniériste. Tu lui en demanderais un de vingt francs qu’il ne
pourrait pas te le donner plus beau… Tiens, voilà dix francs… Mais
attends-moi. Nous allons passer ensemble chez le pépiniériste,
puisque c’est notre chemin.
Quand elle eut négocié l’achat du petit brochet, Mme Henry laissa
à la cuisinière le soin d’acheter toute seule un bouquet de persil, qui
complétait le ravitaillement et ne pouvait pas, en raison de sa faible
valeur marchande, être l’objet de prévarications trop graves.
— Je trouve, dit-elle à Daniel, que ton père et toi vous êtes aussi
fous l’un que l’autre. Maintenant, je me demande quand tu vas finir
ton doctorat. Tu ne faisais pas grand’chose. Avec ces idées de
mariage que tu as maintenant dans la tête, tu ne travailleras plus du
tout. Mais, je te préviens que, moi, je ne donnerai jamais mon
consentement avant que tu aies une position. Donc, mon ami, tâche
d’en chercher une, si tu tiens à te marier.
— Sois tranquille, dit virilement Daniel, j’aurai une position avant
six mois.
Son visage eut cette expression énergique qu’il avait toujours,
lorsqu’il s’agissait de prendre une résolution et qu’il n’était pas
nécessaire qu’elle fût immédiate. Il se mit gravement à rêver à des
positions superbes. Un riche Américain, encore inconnu, le prenait
en amitié et le choisissait pour son homme de confiance, aux
appointements de quatre-vingt mille francs par an. Il montrait alors
dans la Banque de soudaines capacités, si bien qu’au bout d’un an il
était associé avec son patron.
Ses affaires allaient si bien, au moment où il arriva chez le
pépiniériste, qu’il eût refusé l’offre sérieuse d’une place à cinq cents
francs par mois. Et pourtant, c’eût été là une position fort convenable
pour un jeune homme de son âge. Mais Daniel n’avait que faire des
positions simplement suffisantes. Élevé à une école héroïque, il lui
fallait des coups de maître pour ses coups d’essai. Toute idée
d’apprentissage lui était odieuse.
Après avoir longtemps souhaité d’être un enfant prodige, il voulait
être un jeune homme phénomène. Il n’aimait entreprendre que ce
qui semblait manifestement au-dessus de ses forces, afin que la
victoire fût plus glorieuse (et peut être aussi la défaite plus
excusable).
Quand il jouait aux cartes, le soir, en famille, il perdait
généralement, parce qu’il ne lui suffisait pas de gagner : il voulait
gagner avec des jeux magnifiques.
Mme Henry, pour la première fois, parla du mariage de son fils :
ce fut pour faire espérer nombre de commandes prochaines au
pépiniériste, qu’elle décida, grâce à ces promesses, à leur laisser à
sept francs une gerbe de roses blanches. Daniel vint la prendre
après déjeuner pour l’apporter avec lui chez Berthe Voraud. Il se
dirigea vers la maison de sa bien-aimée avec d’autant plus de hâte
de lui remettre ces fleurs, si doucement symboliques, que les larges
feuilles de papier blanc, lâchées par leurs épingles, commençaient à
se déployer inconsidérément et à se froisser.
Mme Voraud n’était pas sur le perron. Mais elle allait descendre.
« Il faut que vous disiez quelque chose d’aimable à maman, dit
Berthe. Elle a été très bonne, hier soir. Elle m’a demandé si je vous
aimais. Je me suis mise à pleurer et je lui ai dit que oui. Elle m’a dit
alors une chose qui m’a fait bien plaisir : c’est qu’elle vous trouvait
très gentil. »
 Il fut décidé que Daniel serrerait très longuement la main de Mme
Voraud et qu’il lui dirait : « Merci, madame. » Ce programme fut
exécuté en conscience ; Daniel broya dans un étau les doigts fins et
les bagues de Mme Voraud ; ce qui lui arracha un petit cri. Daniel fut
si confus qu’il sentit qu’il s’excuserait maladroitement et ne s’excusa
pas.
Il fut très heureux pendant quelques jours. Le grade de fiancé a
été assez longtemps glorifié par la chromolithographie, pour donner
au moins une semaine de joie attendrie et vaniteuse au nouveau
promu.
Un après-midi, Louise prit Daniel à part, et lui dit :
— Berthe voudrait vous demander quelque chose ; mais c’est
une imbécile, elle n’ose pas. Je lui ai bien dit qu’elle n’avait pas
besoin de se gêner avec vous. Elle voudrait que vous lui donniez
tout de suite sa bague de fiançailles. Vous comprenez : c’est très
agréable pour une jeune fille de montrer qu’elle est fiancée. Quand
on va chez le pâtissier, et qu’on se dégante pour prendre un gâteau,
les demoiselles de magasin disent entre elles : « Voilà une jeune fille
qui est fiancée. » Parce que les jeunes filles qui ne sont pas fiancées
ne portent généralement pas de bagues en brillants.
— Mais oui, dit Daniel, mais oui. Berthe est une méchante de ne
m’avoir pas dit ça plus tôt. Ou plutôt c’est moi qui ai tort de n’y avoir
pas songé… Je croyais qu’on ne donnait la bague qu’après la fête
des fiançailles.
— Oui, dit Louise, c’est l’usage. Mais Berthe est une enfant. Elle
voudrait avoir sa bague tout de suite.
Daniel, un peu gêné pour parler de la chose à ses parents,
imagina de leur proposer une combinaison. Il abandonnerait ses
trois cents francs d’économie et s’engagerait à se contenter de vingt
francs pendant encore trente-cinq semaines, pour arriver à un total
de mille francs, nécessaire, selon lui, à l’achat d’une jolie bague.
Mais son père était de bonne humeur, et il ne rencontra pas les
résistances qu’il craignait. M. Henry refusa même noblement son
concours.
 — Ça n’est pas, ajouta-t-il, à trois jours près. Maman va chercher
une occasion. Et quand elle aura trouvé quelque chose de joli, elle
l’achètera. Qu’elle y mette le prix qu’il faudra.
Et il fit un geste large, comme pour ouvrir à la prodigalité de Mme
Henry un crédit illimité.
Le surlendemain, Mme Henry rapporta de Paris un écrin de
velours bleu.
— J’ai fait une vraie folie, dit-elle à Daniel. Tu vas m’en dire des
nouvelles.
Elle ouvrit l’écrin. Daniel aperçut un brillant assez petit. Il le
considéra en silence.
— Elle est très belle, alors ? demanda-t-il.
— Tu ne la vois donc pas ?
— Oui, elle est belle… Mais je trouve que le diamant n’est pas
très gros.
— C’est une bague de jeune fille, dit Mme Henry. Le diamant n’est
pas un bouchon de carafe. Mais regarde-moi un peu cette eau et cet
éclat ! Tu la lui porteras, demain, après déjeuner. Le brillant est
assez blanc pour que tu puisses le montrer le jour.
Le lendemain, Daniel, en se rendant chez les Voraud, ne
marchait pas trop vite. Il présenta ses compliments, parla de
diverses choses. Puis il se décida à sortir l’écrin de sa poche et à le
tendre à sa fiancée.
— Ah ! j’espère, dit-elle… Elle est vraiment très jolie… Maman,
regarde la jolie bague que Daniel m’a apportée.
— Très jolie, dit Mme Voraud après un instant d’examen.
— Je trouvais que le diamant n’était pas gros, dit Daniel,
attendant que l’on se récriât sur son éclat.
Mais ce fut une autre qualité compensatrice que lui trouva Mme
Voraud : « Il est très bien taillé », dit-elle.
Berthe mit la bague à son doigt. Ils allèrent faire un tour dans le
jardin. Daniel ne parlait pas.
 — Qu’est-ce que vous avez ? demanda la jeune fille.
— Je suis ennuyé à cause de la bague, dit Daniel. Vous ne la
trouvez pas belle.
— Qu’est-ce que vous racontez là ? Je la trouve très belle, et je
suis enchantée.
— Non, dit Daniel, non, vous n’êtes pas enchantée. Vous vous
réjouissiez parce que vous pensiez que j’allais vous apporter une
jolie bague, et voilà que je vous en apporte une qui ne vous plaît pas
du tout !
— Je vous promets que je la trouve très belle.
— Jurez-le-moi.
— Je vous ferai tous les serments que vous voudrez.
— Mais vous ne les faites pas. Et vous ne les feriez que pour me
faire plaisir. Sincèrement, ma petite Berthe aimée, dites-moi que
vous vous attendiez à une plus jolie bague ?
— Celle-ci est exquise. Elle ne peut pas être plus jolie. Et
d’ailleurs, ça n’a aucune importance. Quand nous serons mariés,
vous m’en donnerez de bien plus belles. Embrassez-moi.
 XX
UN AMI VÉRITABLE

Un des premiers jours de septembre, Daniel apprit par un tiers

que son ami Julius était revenu d’Allemagne, où il était allé passer
trois mois chez un industriel de Francfort.
Pendant ces trois mois de séparation, les deux amis ne s’étaient
point écrit. Ils ne correspondaient que pour les besoins de leur
commerce intellectuel, qui n’avait pas marché très fort, pendant le
cours de l’été.
Ils étaient liés l’un à l’autre beaucoup moins par des sentiments
que par des intérêts moraux. Ils apportaient dans leurs relations un
égoïsme très franc. Si l’un d’eux était venu à mourir, l’autre aurait
moins vivement souffert de cette grande perte que de la mort d’un
parent ou d’une maîtresse : peut-être parce qu’aucune convenance
mondaine précise ne l’eût obligé à souffrir.
Ils éprouvaient un grand bien-être à causer ensemble, une vive
allégresse à se retrouver. Mais, ils pouvaient rester séparés six mois
sans désirer se revoir. Parfois Daniel voulait raconter une histoire à
Julius. Mais l’encrier n’était pas à sa portée ; il renonçait à écrire à
son ami, alors qu’il n’aurait pu se dispenser de souhaiter la fête d’un
oncle complètement indifférent. Cette amitié, qui ne comportait
aucune obligation, avait un grand charme pour ces âmes
paresseuses.
 Un attrait encore venait de ce que Julius était un jeune homme
un peu sauvage, très franc, sans condescendance, et dont la
conquête n’était jamais définitive. Daniel savait bien que Julius
l’estimait, mais il sentait aussi qu’il ne l’estimait pas aveuglément. Un
ami sympathique est celui qui vous exalte. Mais l’ami le plus cher est
celui que l’on surprend toujours.
Après une séparation, chacun d’eux se réjouissait, en pensant
qu’il allait étonner l’autre par tout ce qu’il avait acquis en son
absence. Mais l’autre mettait une grande résistance à se laisser
étonner.
Daniel avait télégraphié à son ami de se trouver à deux heures à
la terrasse d’un café du faubourg Montmartre. Il aperçut le maigre
Julius à son poste, devant un petit verre de cognac, qu’il s’était
dépêché de boire, pour en être débarrassé. Il avait les jambes
croisées, le coude appuyé sur le marbre de la table et sollicitait l’un
après l’autre, du pouce et de l’index, les poils de sa faible
moustache. Il portait, ce jour-là, une cravate horriblement neuve, un
plastron de soie orangée, qui faisait un effet étrange avec sa
jaquette étroite et son pantalon fatigué. Selon son habitude, il parlait
à un interlocuteur invisible avec une certaine animation.
Daniel fut heureux de revoir cette bonne figure.
Comme ils ne s’étaient pas vus depuis trois mois, ils
échangèrent, par exception, quelques formules de bienvenue.
— Bonjour, dit Julius, tu vas bien ?
— Et toi ? dit Daniel. Comment va-t-on chez toi ?
— Tu t’en fous, dit Julius.
Daniel s’assit et demanda : « Tu connais la nouvelle ? »
— Tu vas te marier, dit paisiblement Julius. Quand est-ce que tu
te maries ?
— D’ici trois mois.
— Et à part ça, dit Julius, as-tu fait des femmes pendant les
vacances ?
— Non, dit Daniel. Je ne pense pas à ça.
 Il arrivait ce qu’il avait craint : cette aventure capitale de sa vie ne
faisait aucun effet sur Julius. Si bien qu’influencé lui-même par cette
indifférence, il lui semblait que tous les graves événements de l’été
avaient considérablement perdu de leur importance. Autant pour les
relever dans son propre esprit que pour produire une impression sur
son ami, il se mit à faire l’article pour son bonheur.
— Tu ne peux pas t’imaginer comme c’est chic, une jeune fille.
C’est quelque chose dont tu ne te doutes pas… Elle m’aime
beaucoup… Et, à propos, tout ce que tu m’avais raconté au sujet
d’elle et d’André Bardot, c’est faux, c’est complètement faux…
Julius ne répondait pas. Daniel résolut alors de lui parler de la
fortune de Berthe. Lui-même n’y avait jamais beaucoup songé. Mais
devant ce Julius impassible, il fallait, pour arriver à produire un effet,
faire flèche de tout bois. Il ajouta donc :
— Et ce qui n’est pas mal non plus, c’est que le père Voraud est
riche.
— Non, dit tranquillement Julius.
— Comment ? non !
— Non. Je sais qu’il n’est pas riche. Et non seulement il n’est pas
riche, mais il est très embarrassé dans ses affaires. Et veux-tu que
je te dise ? Papa, qui est en relations avec les clients de Voraud, sait
à quoi s’en tenir sur sa fortune. Il a même dit aujourd’hui, à déjeuner,
qu’il fallait vraiment que ton père ne connaisse pas la situation de
Voraud, pour avoir donné son consentement à ce mariage.
— Mais qu’est-ce qu’elle a de grave, cette situation ?
— Elle est très embarrassée, dit Julius. Voraud est dans des
affaires difficiles et, l’année dernière, on a dit qu’il allait suspendre
ses paiements.
— Et puis après ? Je m’en fiche, dit Daniel, dont le visage
n’exprimait d’ailleurs pas une parfaite insouciance.
— Tu ne t’en ficheras pas toujours, dit Julius. Si ton beau-père
saute, ce sera sérieusement, et tu seras obligé de payer pour lui.
 — Tu es bête à la fin, dit Daniel. Tu parles de tout ça et tu ne
connais rien aux affaires.
— Avec ça que tu y connais grand’chose, dit Julius.
Daniel, très assombri, ne disait rien.
— Tu ne me demandes pas, dit Julius, si j’ai fait des femmes
pendant les vacances.
— As-tu fait des femmes pendant les vacances ? dit Daniel
docile, et tristement.
— Veux-tu avoir l’obligeance de ne pas faire une gueule comme
ça ? dit Julius, et de m’écouter avec plus d’intérêt ! Tu n’es qu’un
veau, et tu n’avais qu’à t’informer de ce que je viens de t’apprendre
aujourd’hui.
— Ça n’aurait pas changé mes projets, dit Daniel avec énergie.
Berthe m’aime, et je l’aime. Je l’épouserai malgré tout… Mais je suis
embêté à cause de mes parents. On va leur dire tôt ou tard ce que
tu m’as dit aujourd’hui. Alors, ça fera des histoires terribles… Ah ! je
suis embêté, je suis embêté.
— Tu es surtout embêtant, dit Julius. Si j’avais su, je ne serais
pas venu aujourd’hui. Je voulais aller à Saint-Ouen. Le coiffeur
m’avait donné deux tuyaux. C’est toi qui m’as fait manquer ça.
— Je me demande, dit Daniel, si je ne ferais pas bien de parler à
papa tout de suite, et de lui dire avec des ménagements, tout
doucement, que les affaires de M. Voraud ne sont pas aussi bonnes
qu’il croyait. Afin qu’il ne reçoive pas un coup quand on lui racontera
ce que tu m’as raconté.
— Ce serait idiot, dit Julius. Il est très peu probable que
quelqu’un ait l’idée d’aller lui raconter ça. Ça ne regarde pas les
gens. Et puis on suppose qu’il a pris ses renseignements.
— Oui, dit Daniel. Mais est-ce que ce n’est pas une
responsabilité pour moi de savoir ça et de ne pas le lui dire ?
— Mais non, répondit arbitrairement Julius. D’abord, ce que je t’ai
dit n’est peut-être pas exact. Il y a toujours des mauvais bruits qui