Tuning to the Language of Relationship in Student Teaching

As a teacher educator of pre-service students, part of my responsibility is to supervise students during their practice teaching rounds. During conversations with associate teachers,’ many questions have been raised about their role in relation to the Practicum. These questions in turn prompted me to consider, how might we understand the nature of the relationship between an associate teacher and a student teacher? As I pondered onmy understanding of this relationship, I wondered about it in terms of what is written in faculty of education handbooks and educational literature. Was there more? How might associate teachers1experiences be listened to and written about differently? Associate teachers speak in terms of personal uncertainty, professional dutyand a feeling of being taken-for-granted (Slocum, 1989). They talk about discovering conflicts in their positions,their concerns and tensions and the pleasure and excitement of experiencing collegiality with the studentteacher (Slocum, 1989). Is this pointed to as part of the associate teachers role and responsibility in practicumhandbooks? In other words, what remains silent and hidden and taken for granted about this relationship? In what way may we enter into this relationship so that the invisible becomes visible?