The Difficult Conversation: Facilitating Students' Professional Learning and Development

Abstract

This paper reports on student experiences with an interdisciplinary project entitled “The Difficult Conversation”, the aim of which was to develop professional competences linked with parental cooperation in heterogeneous social contexts, ethical reflection, pedagogical tact, and judgment skills. Student experiences with the project were reconstructed by analyzing 43 sets of reflection notes developed by second-year students who participated in the project in February and November 2015, and in January and November 2016. The students argued strongly in favor of the value of “The Difficult Conversation” reporting that it linked theory with practice, permitted them to develop empathy for parents, and provided them with a better understanding of parents from different cultural backgrounds. The conclusions refer to creating conditions for this aspect of professional learning in kindergarten teacher education programs.