What We Know About Relationships That Develop Between Cooperating And Student Teachers

ABSTRACT  The student teaching practicum is a significant part of the foreign language teacher education program and as such deserves focused attention. In this article we examine six different role relationships that developed between a cohort of cooperating and student teachers of high school Spanish during a ten‐week student teaching practicum. We discuss two dimensions of these relationships that were significant to their development, complementarity and reciprocity, and conclude that student teachers who formed reciprocal relationships perceived their cooperating teachers and practicum experiences more positively than those who formed only complementary relationships. We discuss the role that the university supervisors might have played in the development of these relationships and conclude by suggesting how this study might help other foreign language teacher education programs.