Despite the emphasis on practice-based experiences in educator preparation programs (EPPs), the work of supervision continues to be valued less than traditional teaching and scholarship in higher education. Common practices across EPPs that perpetuate this marginalization include: assigning supervision to graduate students and contingent faculty; perceiving supervision as purely evaluative and administrative; and assigning large numbers of teacher candidates (TCs) to supervisors. These practices work to obscure the labor required to “support student learning with inclusive and equitable teaching practices” (ISATT, 2025 CfP).

This paper shares data from a larger collaborative self-study examining how experienced supervisors’ practices aligned with Cuenca’s (2010) framework of care, thoughtfulness, and tact. While analyzing our data, we encountered evidence of supervisors engaging in emotional labor. Generally, emotional labor is labor expended to alter the emotions of oneself or others (Hackman, 2023; Hochschild, 1979). Our data demonstrates that field supervisors engaged in emotional labor similar to other feminized professions. For example, Allison described being frustrated with TCs but performed patience and encouragement to foster their feelings of self-efficacy rather than defeat. Ralph refers to “harmonizing” and modulating his own emotions in anticipated response to TCs, knowingly altering how he provided feedback, in an effort to manage TCs’ emotions.

We position this paper within the subtheme of “reconciling tensions for a new social contract in education.” Reconciling tensions between supervision and the EPP must begin by recognizing its value and importance and acknowledging the invisible labor of the role. As supervisors expend time and energy attending to the emotional needs of multiple adults across contexts, they risk succumbing to compassion fatigue and burn out (Figley, 1995). Thus, we aim to showcase engaged field supervision, offering suggestions toward reconciliation that both recognize the labor of field supervisors while also addressing challenges of educator preparation.

In this study, Adam and Tracey engaged in collaborative self-study with the help of three critical friends, Kevin, Kasey, and Spencer, who each offered unique levels of critical friendship as co-collaborators. Adam and Tracey are both first generation college students with rural, working-class backgrounds who now find themselves as the associate department chair and department chair, respectively, of a teacher education program at a university in the southeastern United States. This study focused primarily on the question, "In what ways do class and social background impact leadership decisions?" Additionally, this study considered the question, "In what ways do class and social background appear as facilitators of and/or barriers to critical departmental decision making?" Data included notes from weekly conversations with each critical friend with varying foci. Kevin, the associate dean of the same department, offered analysis as a fellow departmental leader invested in departmental outcomes. Spencer, the office manager for the department, offered analysis and insight from the perspective of a department member directly impacted by leadership decisions. Kasey, a colleague and program leader from another department, as well as Adam's wife, offered analysis from the perspective of a different department as well as insight into Adam's longitudinal development as a leader and decision maker in higher education. Additional data included digital communications and reflections from monthly meetings of the entire group. Data analysis and collection are ongoing, rooted in methods common to constructivist grounded theory. Preliminary analyses consider the possibility of self-perceived class incongruence between working class upbringings and the cultures of the academy. These incongruences possibly act as sources of insecurity. However, as a facilitator, the working-class value of consistent work ethic potentially serves to promote perseverance through difficult tasks. Findings are relevant to teacher education leaders considering the role of class in diversification efforts.

Global citizenship education (GCE) has become a pivotal element of initial teacher education (ITE) in Ireland, urging educators to foster self-awareness and social responsibility among learners. This longitudinal study investigates the development, process, and scaffolding of an international Community of Practice (CoP) focused on enhancing teacher educators' (TEs) self-awareness for GCE. The research question driving this inquiry is: How do TEs experience professional learning aimed at fostering self-awareness in the context of critical GCE and social justice education? This question underscores the need for TEs to engage in reflective practices that illuminate their capacities and challenges in integrating critical GCE into their pedagogical repertoire.

The international CoP consisted of six participants: four teacher educators (from primary and post-primary education), one academic practice developer, and an external critical friend who works in psychotherapy. The CoP intention was to engage in collaborative self-study with individuals from different disciplines and professions who have a common interest in understanding the ‘self’ in ‘practice’ with regards to fostering self-awareness in teacher education. Data were collected through cyclical CoP meetings (n=15) and written reflections (n=35).

The findings highlight: (1) an in-depth understanding of the self-awareness development process among TEs as they engage with GCE principles, (2) the identification of effective pedagogical strategies that facilitate self-awareness and its integration into teaching practices, and (3) insights into the cyclical process of reflective practice. Taken together, the three outcomes listed here inform the development of a model of professional learning for cultivating self-awareness in the contexts of critical GCE and social justice education that can be replicated in other educational contexts. The self-study approach sheds light on the importance of providing a space for vulnerability. Drawing on this, we also address themes of safety, belonging, and imposter syndrome, which are vital considerations for TEs navigating the complexities of self-study.

Our study aims to elucidate a self-reflective structure for increasing student engagement and equitable classroom practices as well as assessing teacher and curricular effectiveness. Two researchers with classroom experience from pre-K through college graduates explore their journey of meaningful play and TASK parties in their classrooms. We use our parallel and intersecting experiences and ongoing conversations to make meaning of how productive and consequential TASK experiences can be for assessing effective teaching and learning. This work addresses a gap in play research as it specifically investigates a secondary (high school) context alongside a post-secondary teacher education context, using both the visual art and teacher education curriculum to engage and assess learners. Additionally, we layer our own intersecting experiences as participants in TASK to complicate and deepen our conversation toward curricular change.

Utilizing Herring’s TASK structure (Herring, (2011) as a framework for gathering data on teaching and learning and reflecting as critical friends (Schuck & Russell, 2005), we ruminate through and identify connections in praxis, reflection, assessment, and envisioning curricular structures at all levels to engage play, innovation, and equity at the center. Data sources include individual, collaborative, and student reflections, student feedback and evolving curriculum and teaching identities.

Findings follow trends in art education that highlight the need for more and deeper play experiences in the learning context, especially at the secondary and post-secondary levels. Student and researcher reflections indicate a continuing need for curricular openings where student voice and autonomy are possible, inviting more equity into all classroom spaces. Our layered and varied experiences allowed us to identify broader learner needs like community, authenticity, creativity, and agency. We also uncover various ways to approach assessment within and for play-based structures in the classroom that not only invited learner and teacher reflection, but reimagined assessment to value creative process over product.