www.jsser.org Journal of Social Studies Education Research Sosyal Bilgiler Eğitimi Araştırmaları Dergisi 2021:12 (3), 47-78 Forming School and University Partnerships to Learn and Teach with Primary Sources Stewart Waters 1, Anthony Pellegrino2 , Matt Hensley,3 & Joshua Kenna4 Abstract What makes a successful student teaching experience? The purpose of this 18-month long project was to improve social science educator preparation through embedding skills and practices of teaching with primary sources into teacher preparation coursework associated clinical experiences. This project involved professional development opportunities for school-based mentor teachers and prospective social studies teachers in our teacher preparation program. Concurrently, we sought to examine a variety of factors that may impact the relationships between partnering schools and universities, as well as mentors and pre-service teachers. Participants in this study were pre-service secondary social studies teachers from a large Research-1 university in the Southeast United States, as well as their corresponding mentor teachers. Grounded in historical thinking, teaching with primary sources, and the C3 framework, the researchers in this study employed a qualitative case study design to answer the research questions. Findings suggest that explicit alignment between university coursework and clinical experiences has promising impact, but the relationship between mentor and pre-service teacher remains critical to the implementation of high impact strategies. Keywords: Teacher Preparation, Social Studies Education, Clinical Experiences, Historical Thinking, Introduction (I) just wanted to shoot you a quick email and let you know that Cassidy (all names are pseudonyms) had a great first week! We got her out in front of the students a lot, trained her on (the district’s software applications), had her make her first parent phone calls, and spent a lot of time getting to know the students and planning for future (lessons). She also observed multiple teachers last week and will observe several more this week. I want to get her out in front of different teachers as much as possible before her (university) classes start back up. I think this has been valuable for her and she has already gotten a lot of ideas based on what she has observed. (Bradley, Mentor Teacher, 08/09/2019) 1 Assoc. Prof., University of Tennessee, kswaters@utk.edu 2 Assoc. Prof., University of Tennessee, apellegrino@utk.edu 3 Assist. Prof., University of South Alabama, mhensley@southalabama.edu 4 Assoc. Prof., University of Tennessee, jkenna@utk.edu mailto:kswaters@utk.edu mailto:apellegrino@utk.edu mailto:mhensley@southalabama.edu mailto:jkenna@utk.edu Journal of Social Studies Education Research 2021: 12 (3), 47-78 Since our meeting, my initial intuition that I could and should trust my mentor teacher has been proven somewhat incorrect…. it has become clear that my mentor teacher is a trouble maker. (Sarah, Intern Reflection, 09/05/2018) The above quotations are from a research project that developed out of the U.S. Library of Congress “Teaching with Primary Sources” (TPS) program involving two cohorts of mentor teachers and teacher candidates before and during their yearlong clinical experience in a secondary social studies educator preparation program. The mentor teacher quoted here was working with their first intern during the 2019-2020 academic year. The intern from the second quotation was early in their internship, working with an experienced mentor and program alumna during the 2018-2019 academic year. Our research project evaluated changes made to several program components designed to foster school/university partnerships grounded in teaching with primary sources and historical thinking. As such, these partnerships included collaborative learning and practice experiences between teacher candidates and their mentors, as well as sustained reflection opportunities designed to positively affect the clinical experiences of participants. As part of the project, the aforementioned intern and mentor had recently completed a pre-internship workshop, where they discussed effective models of social studies pedagogies and practiced mentoring, collaboration, and communication skills. This workshop was designed to facilitate better mentor/intern collaboration, improve the internship experience overall, and foster partnerships between the educator preparation program and area schools where interns are placed. In addition to the workshop, the project also included a newly developed pre-internship methods course focused on historical thinking practices, questionnaires given twice per year, and quarterly reflection reflections completed by mentors and candidates during internship. Candidates were also required to design and deliver a curricular project in which primary sources were integral. Together, these were the functional elements of a program re-visioning where teaching with primary sources and clinical experiences anchored interns’ and mentors’ experiences. We open the paper with these two vastly different experiences from the program not to demonstrate its failure, but to highlight the wide range of experiences participants had in this clinical experience project. We share findings of the 18-month project including how project activities supported intern and mentor collaborations when planning primary source-based lessons, as well as the ways an enhanced professional development partnership emerged from this project. The principal goal Waters et al. 49 for this project was to improve social science educator preparation through embedding skills and practices of teaching with primary sources into teacher preparation coursework associated clinical experiences. We hope that our findings inform teacher educators, teacher candidates, mentor teachers, and others interested in this important work as we seek to continually improve social studies educator preparation. Research Question Our research objective was to explore the implementation of this project by studying intern and mentor perceptions of their participation and its impact on their practice. Thus, the research question for this study was: 1. In what ways do university and school partnerships grounded in teaching and learning with primary sources and historical thinking influence social studies clinical experiences? In the following sections, we introduce the theoretical frameworks that guided our study, namely historical thinking and cognitive apprenticeship. Additionally, we review scholarship related to social studies teacher preparation, curricular frameworks to support social studies teaching and learning, clinical practice, and university and school partnerships. This knowledge allowed us to situate our study to purposefully tease a part the complexities associated with the teaching and learning of historical thinking skills as a result of establishing robust school and university partnerships that leverage the clinical experience as its cornerstone. Theoretical Frameworks Historical Thinking As the name implies, historical thinking is a practice that asks students to think like a historian; eschewing the traditional knowledge and memorization-based learning often found in social studies classrooms (Bohan & Davis, 1998). Rather than a static chronicle of names, events, and dates that often permeate students’ history classroom experiences, thinking historically is a different approach to learning about the past; one that includes purposeful reading, analysis, and interpretation of a variety of pertinent primary sources that offer evidence about past events, people, and perspectives (Drake & Nelson, 2005; VanSledright, 2011). Thinking historically is a Journal of Social Studies Education Research 2021: 12 (3), 47-78 process; a dynamic way of thinking that asks learners to seek truth while taking perspective of others. The raw material of historical thinking are primary sources. Using primary sources allows learners a way to get closer to understanding the experiences of other people; to better understand the decisions and actions they made; and to explore the motives and values that led to those decisions (Brooks, 2011; Endacott, 2014). The work to employ primary sources in the service of historical thinking is both challenging and exciting, as it requires students to interpret and corroborate evidence and make decisions about bias and truth in ways offered in few other school experiences (Barton, 2011; Wineburg, 2001). The eight elements of Whitehouse’s (2015) Historical Thinking theoretical framework; asking historical questions, establishing historical significance, using sources as evidence, identifying continuity and change, analyzing cause and consequence, exploring historical perspectives, examining ethical dimensions of history, and constructing historical arguments mirror the core dimensions in the NCSS’s C3 Framework’s Inquiry Arc and align with the NCSS social studies teacher preparation competencies mentioned above. Both frameworks task students to engage in highly skillful work, which places the onus on the teacher to be highly-trained and experienced with historical thinking and the associated skills to coach students along their inquiry-based learning journeys. We sought to explicitly draw on historical thinking and C3 Framework in our project’s design and activities, but we needed additional support from a framework to support our focus on the relationships we were fostering with the mentor teachers and teacher candidates. Cognitive Apprenticeship To help us connect the various strands of teaching and learning occurring in these mentoring relationships with teacher candidates, we also drew on cognitive apprenticeship to better articulate the transference of historical thinking within the partnership. Cognitive apprenticeship is defined as “learning through guided experience on cognitive and metacognitive, rather than physical, skills and processes” (Collins, Brown, & Newman, 1989, p. 456). This theory emphasizes that for a skill to be learned, tacit processes associated with the skill should be made visible to the learner for observation and practice (Collins et. al, 1989; Ghefaili, 2003; Spector, 2008). For a teacher candidate and mentor relationship, success requires establishing trust, employing effective Waters et al. 51 communication skills, and both parties actively collaborating (Collins et. al, 1989; Ghefaili, 2003; Spector, 2008); all of which were explicitly included in this project. Uniting Historical thinking and Cognitive Apprenticeship. By including the frameworks of historical thinking and cognitive apprenticeship together, we were better able to understand the collaboration and support between the mentor and candidate as they ultimately worked together to learn and teach historical thinking skills to their students. Our conceptualization situated the two frameworks to work in tandem like gears. Specifically, when cognitive apprenticeship practices are employed, historical thinking skills can more effectively become part of classroom practice. And as lessons incorporate historical thinking, mentors become facilitators to allow candidates opportunities to further explore and reflect on their practice. Therefore, amalgamating the frameworks in this way helped us conceive and build our project objective of preparing social studies teacher candidates within a school/university partnership. We hope that by studying this framework and the participants, we can inform our own and other social studies education programs looking for more purposeful clinical practices for their interns. Literature Review Preparing Social Studies Teachers Calkins, Yoder, & Wiens (2021) report findings that concur with other extant research studies that social studies teachers do not feel prepared to meet the needs of their diverse learners (Yoder & van Hover, 2018; Jimenez-Silva et al., 2013; O’Brien, 2011). Thus, these corroborated finding signals a need for EPP programs to evaluate the extent to which they are preparing pre-service social studies teachers to meet the needs of diverse learners (Yoder et al., 2016; 2019). In 2017, the National Council for the Social Studies released standards for the preparation of social studies teachers, which presented “five core competencies for social studies teacher education” (NCSS, 2017, p. 10). The competencies included: content knowledge, application of content through planning, design and implementation of instruction and assessment, social studies learners and learning, and professional responsibility and informed action (NCSS, 2017). Each of the competencies is grounded in “explicit and implicit declarations about the purposes of social studies education in a democratic society and the kinds of knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed for teachers to accomplish these purposes” (NCSS, 2017, pp. 7-8) These core competencies relate to Journal of Social Studies Education Research 2021: 12 (3), 47-78 the 2013 College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework, a pedagogical framework which positions social studies disciplines toward a common goal of fostering inquiry and preparing students to take informed action (NCSS, 2013). Together, these frameworks provide an opportunity to think purposefully about ensuring robust connections between teacher preparation program coursework and authentic teacher practices in clinical experiences (NCSS, 2017). In this project, we drew upon both frameworks to design and implement the collaborative opportunities interns and mentor teachers would have to support their development. To help situate the project under study, some additional context for facets of this study is warranted. Application of the C3 Framework The C3 Framework follows a four-dimension Inquiry Arc designed to engage students in an inductive thinking process scaffolding them as they transition from making initial inquiries to taking informed action (NCSS, 2013). The dimensions include “developing questions and planning inquiries; applying disciplinary concepts (i.e. Civics, Economics, Geography, and History) and tools; evaluating sources and using evidence; and communicating conclusions and taking informed action” (NCSS, 2013, p.12). One area in social studies that emulates the principles of the C3 Framework is the teaching and learning of history using primary sources and historical thinking skills. The process of making inquiries, searching for primary sources that present multiple perspectives, analyzing the sources critically, then synthesizing and constructing narratives from analyses to answer initial inquiries is highly skillful work. Historical thinking, like any other skill, takes time to learn and requires the teacher to model and coach students until they become proficient at it and can work independently. Practices associated with historical thinking development were central to the educator preparation program in this study. Given the complexity of youth engagement in history, social studies teacher candidates must be adequately prepared with the skills, dispositions, and tools necessary to engage and support students in this type learning grounded in critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making (NCSS, 2017). For example, King (2016) studied pre-service social studies teachers’ conceptualization of racial literacy in history and posits that, “Knowledge influences action, frameworks, and interpretations that teachers will bring into the history classroom. With that, teacher educators will need to be able to help scaffold this new knowledge and help provide a nexus to pedagogical approaches in the classroom (p. 1315).” Moreover, these skills and Waters et al. 53 pedagogical approaches should be practiced and refined under the guidance and support of both university faculty and school-based mentors to ensure continuity into the intern’s clinical practice (Grossman, Hammerness & Mcdonald, 2009). Clinical Practice in Social Studies Clinical practice is a fundamental part of a teacher candidate’s preparation (Cochran-Smith, 2008). These experiences are opportunities for prospective teachers to apply their knowledge, skills, and other competencies in their practice with support from faculty, from their educator preparation program, their school-based mentors, and the school community in which they work (Grossman, Hammerness & Mcdonald, 2009). For candidates in social studies education programs, clinical experiences include short-term practica and typically a student-teaching or internship experience that may last for one semester or an entire school year. Each of these experiences should allow future teachers to see effective practices and employ practices aligned with research (Cochran- Smith et al., 2015). A challenge for those invested in clinical experiences is to ensure that candidates in clinical experiences receive complementary support that comes from collaboration between program faculty and school-based mentors (Doppen, 2007; Heafner et al., 2014). Heafner et al. (2014), for example, found inconsistencies and lack of coordination regarding policies and practices between these entities. And data from a program evaluation in our social science education teacher preparation program concurred with extant research such as this; highlighting a lack of sufficient and purposeful clinical experience for interns. Much of the data from internal surveys from previous cohorts of teacher candidates revealed frustration with differing expectations and ideas about teaching social studies between program faculty and mentor teachers working with them in schools. Additionally, we found discrepancies in perceptions of the ways mentors and interns should collaborate to build historical thinking with the middle and high school students with whom they work. Disconnections such as these can result in interns receiving mixed-messages regarding best practices and struggling to meet the expectations from their program and their school placement simultaneously (Doppen, 2007; Heafner, et. al, 2014). Journal of Social Studies Education Research 2021: 12 (3), 47-78 University & School Partnerships One way to mitigate the disconnections candidates feel between their clinical practice and university coursework is through the development of school/university partnerships where clinical experiences are enjoined as concurrent professional development opportunities for the triad of interns, school-based mentors, and university faculty. As such, Yoder & van Hover (2018) posit that professional development opportunities should promote relevant and theoretically grounded practices that highlight disciplinary skills, inquiry, and making connections with students’ personal experiences. Such an orientation may result in more effective execution of research-based practices developed in coursework into authentic classroom settings. In an attempt to establish such a partnership, we developed and enacted a professional development framework of teacher preparation and clinical-based practice that was built on teaching with primary sources and fostering historical thinking in social studies classrooms. The framework was designed and implemented to purposefully align social science education coursework and clinical experience with school-based mentors around the practice of teaching with primary sources. Methods As aforementioned at the beginning of this paper, the principal goal for this project was to improve social science educator preparation through embedding skills and practices of teaching with primary sources into teacher preparation coursework associated clinical experiences. Accordingly, we sought to explore the implementation of this project by studying intern and mentor perceptions of their participation and its impact on their practice. Case Study Design We employed a qualitative case study research design to answer our two research questions (King, 2016; Stake, 1995). Case study has been defined as “the study of the particularity and complexity of a single case and coming to understand its activity within important circumstances” (Stake, 1995, p. xi). In one instance, King (2016) used a case study approach to investigate pre-service social studies teachers’ perceptions of black history and leveraging racial literacy practices after participating in summer reading program associated with their teaching methods course. Similarly, we used case study research design to conceptualize the pedagogy, professional learning, and collaboration processes among interns and mentors as they navigated expectations and challenges Waters et al. 55 of the restructured teacher preparation program. The data collected over the 18-month duration of the project articulating the interns’ and mentors’ perceptions of these program components are the case that we are investigating in this study. Context The case study began with an evaluation of the current program for prospective middle and high school social studies teachers offered at our university, where we prepare approximately 15 candidates annually. The evaluation focused on course requirements, clinical practice opportunities, and state licensure expectations. The researchers involved in this study all have experience with this program and teach/have taught courses as well as supervise(d) interns in their yearlong internships. Evidence from surveys, course grades, program-related standardized assessments, including an action research project and edTPA, and observation assessments related to clinical practice indicated several areas where our program could improve to better support the development of our interns in the current program structure. One notable finding was that the primary social studies methods course was done during the first semester of a yearlong internship. While this structure has offered some benefits for clinical practice, we found some areas in which our interns are underprepared, including understanding theoretical bases for historical thinking and practical applications thereof. Moreover, we learned about mismatches between university and school-based expectations and challenges interns felt in addressing both entities. Pre-internship Course In order to address these challenges with our interns, we developed several changes to the program structure and used this opportunity to study these changes to discern the extent to which they have worked for our interns and to share our findings with a wider audience of social studies teacher educators. Our first, and most substantial change was the addition of a new pre-internship course, completed at the undergraduate level as part of the secondary education minor in the spring semester prior to the internship year in the fall. This new course focused on methods of teaching history and social studies, with explicit attention focused to the incorporating the C3 Framework and the use of primary sources to develop historical thinking skills. We also added a formal professional development workshop for all pairs (mentors/interns) entering the internship year. In this case, we are looking at the ways these related program changes have affected intern and mentor Journal of Social Studies Education Research 2021: 12 (3), 47-78 experiences, beginning with an added pre-internship methods course. Historical thinking along with resources and practices related to teaching with primary sources framed this course. Specifically, candidates in this course addressed tenets of historical thinking including multiple perspectives and interpretation of evidence (Barton, 2011) to ground lessons and activities. From this course, we examined course activities and artifacts (Hatch, 2002), where candidates addressed the importance of primary sources to learning history and lessons and activities using primary sources. To complement learning about theoretical perspectives of historical thinking and application strategies of using primary sources, this new methods course also included a clinical component where candidates engaged in project-based clinical experiences (Zenkov et al., 2017). This aspect of the course included candidate creation of a standards-based, content-informed learning experiences integrating primary sources and emphasizing inquiry-based and student-centered instructional practices using primary sources. Each project was tailored to the curricular needs and intentions of the mentor teacher and focused on historical thinking using primary sources that the mentor and the interns implemented together during the clinical experience. Projects, reviewed for content alignment to course expectations and meeting the needs of mentor teachers, included authentic assessment activities, also co-developed by mentors and candidates, as practice opportunities to assess historical thinking. Professional Development Program The third aspect of the project plan was a professional development program designed to address mentor teachers, who work with candidates in both short-term and full internship clinical experiences, and their potential mentees. This professional development included a summer face- to-face workshop and follow-up activities over the course of a school year that targeted the evidence-based principles and practices from the methods coursework. The professional development was modeled on the hybrid graduate-level history course, Teaching Hidden History, which challenged students to discover a unique primary source and seek to uncover the “hidden” story behind it through other primary sources. Together, the resources, and annotations thereof, became a module designed for secondary history students (Schrum et al., 2018). One graduate student in the course, for example, began with images of a historic boundary marker near Waters et al. 57 Washington DC and found other primary resources to tell the story of the tensions of the slave trade between the District and neighboring Virginia. Another used an image of a Charlie Chaplin lookalike contest to explore 20th century celebrity culture. Using this model for our project, mentors and interns worked together, focusing on Library of Congress resources, to co-develop their digital hidden history module to be used during the internship year with secondary social studies students. Participants We employed criterion-based sampling (deMarrias, 2004) to recruit potential participants at a large state university in the Southeast United States. Participants in this study were pre-service social studies teachers preparing to begin their year-long clinical internship in the following semester, as well as their corresponding mentor teachers. We extended an invitation to participate in the study to both interns and mentors during the 2018 and 2019 face-to-face summer workshops. There were five intern/mentor pairings from the first cohort and nine intern/mentor pairings from the second cohort who expressed interest in participating in the study. In total we had 14 interns and 11 mentors (some mentors supervised interns in both cohorts). Informed consent forms approved by our university’s IRB were collected from each participant interested in participating in the research study at the end of the face-to-face summer workshops. Data Collection Data sources included questionnaires regarding mentor and intern perceptions of and experiences with using primary sources, as well as quarterly reflections written by both mentors and interns regarding their experiences and their co-developed primary source-based projects. The reflections were written expressions to following prompts:  Describe how you have approached successes and challenges with your intern/mentor.  As a mentor/intern, what has been your strategy to celebrate the successes and work through the challenges?  How receptive/supportive has your intern/mentor been to learning from both successes and challenges? Journal of Social Studies Education Research 2021: 12 (3), 47-78 As mentioned earlier, data from the program components are the case that we are investigating, which "consists of a detailed investigation...with data collected over a period of time, of phenomena, within their context," with the aim of providing “an analysis of the context and processes which illuminate the theoretical issues being studied" (Hartley, 2004, p. 323). Data collection spanned over 18 months during the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 academic years. The questionnaires were collected from participants in-person during the summer workshops and the quarterly reflections were collected via email. Data Analysis Following the work of King (2016), our data analysis consisted of three steps: organizing the data, reducing the data into themes and sub themes, and representing the data in tables (Creswell, 2002). We leveraged this inductive approach by bringing together various sources to explain the complex phenomena of interns and mentors navigating the restructured teacher preparation program built on teaching and learning with primary sources and fostering historical thinking in social studies classrooms (Yin, 2003). Our analysis involved open coding to analyze the mentors’ and interns’ reflections and questionnaires (King, 2016). We categorized the codes into coherent themes and subthemes based on similarities as they pertained to the research questions (Demoiny, 2017; King, 2016). Additionally, we engaged in memo writing (Charmaz, 2014), which allowed us to develop descriptions for each theme that were grounded in the participant data and come to a consensus regarding the common themes and subthemes to ensure reliability. Findings This 18-month project emerged from an opportunity to re-imagine one social studies teacher preparation program with historical thinking practices and clinical experiences more central to its mission. To that end, we added a clinical-based methods course for candidates in the spring semester prior to their yearlong internship beginning each fall. We also included a mentor/intern professional development workshop focused on historical thinking and teaching with primary sources in the weeks before the internship began. This workshop emphasized skills, practices, and knowledge coming from social studies education research, as well as effective mentoring, collaboration, and communication practices from the framework of cognitive apprenticeship. The Waters et al. 59 workshop was followed by questionnaires, quarterly reflections and artifacts from a co-planned, inquiry-based project launched during the internship. As mentioned above, our research objective was to explore the implementation of this project by studying intern and mentor perceptions of their participation and its impact on their practice. The research question was 1. In what ways do university and school partnerships grounded in teaching and learning with primary sources and historical thinking influence social studies clinical experiences? We present our findings from the analysis of the questionnaires and reflections of this project by framing them into the three principal themes: 1) teaching with primary sources and applications of practice; 2) relationship development between intern and mentor, and 3) the relationship between coursework and clinical practice. These three themes emphasized the importance of establishing robust university and school partnerships that leverage the interns’ clinical experience in ways that support the application of theory and practice to ultimately support young learners in history. Additionally, we draw upon these themes and sub-themes to support several implications related to school/university partnerships and the social studies teacher preparation clinical experience at the conclusion of this article. Theme #1 Teaching with Primary Sources and Applications of Practices One primary goal of this project was to ensure that program graduates and the mentor teachers with whom they work recognized the importance of using primary sources in their instruction to support student learning. The theme, Teaching with Primary Sources and Applications of Practice addresses the interns’ and mentors’ willingness, comfortability, and knowledge of appropriately and effectively leveraging primary sources in the classroom. Table 1 and Table 2 highlight major sub-themes that emerged from the data analysis of mentor/intern questionnaires and reflections related to this project. Also, in the tables we provide descriptions and examples for sub-themes to support and conceptualize the connections across the sub-themes and to the Teaching with Primary Sources and Applications of Practice theme. Journal of Social Studies Education Research 2021: 12 (3), 47-78 Table 1 Intern Sub-themes for Teaching with Primary Sources SUB-THEMES DESCRIPTION EXAMPLE HISTORICAL THINKING SKILLS Refers to a number of skills interns wanted their students to learn by using and working with primary source documents. These include sourcing artifacts, critical analysis, inferencing, and evaluating. They hoped that the skills would help them reconstruct the past by highlighting diverse narratives based on the primary sources used to interpret it.  “Utilizing this inquiry-based project allowed for my students to develop key content specific skills, specifically analysis. We were able to cover writing, presenting, analyzing, and examine bias in different historical perspectives. From this, I have noticed my students are developing into greater historical thinkers and questioning on the following unit of imperialism. They are keying in to supporting their claims in class discussion and questioning where information is coming from. They were able to gain the content information, just as my students last semester did, but they did the inquiry and constructed the knowledge.” (Alexis, Intern, Reflection, 10/05/2019) BROADER UNDERSTANDING OF PRIMARY SOURCES Refers to the sharing of broader definitions (better understanding) and interest in using multiple formats of primary source sources in classrooms (maybe as a result of the SSCE 454 course). Interns were interested in using the multiple forms, which in turn delivered multiple perspectives to better analyze and interpret history. They also express using primary sources as building blocks (raw materials) to contextualize, reshape, and construct new narratives that may not be highlighted in the average history textbook.  “A source that originates from the time period in which an event happened.” (Alyssa, Intern, Questionnaire, 2018)  “Material from the time period being studied.” (John, Intern, Questionnaire, 2018)  “Any artifact that was created at the time & place in history during which the event occurred.” (Jesse, Intern, Questionnaire, 2019)  “Historians use primary sources to craft something bigger, with more meaning and something that has more use than its raw purpose” (John, Intern, Questionnaire, 201)  “Primary sources often need just as much critique and investigation than another source. Even if the source originates from the time/place, that doesn’t mean it’s infallible.” (Alyssa, Intern, Questionnaire, 2018) Waters et al. 61 Table 2 Mentor Themes for Teaching with Primary Sources SUB-THEMES DESCRIPTION EXAMPLE LIMITED UNDERSTANDING OF PRIMARY SOURCES Refers to the sharing of limited definitions and understanding of what constitutes a primary source. Most mentors describe primary sources mainly as documents. Perhaps, this is because those are the forms, they are most familiar/comfortable with implementing (e.g. tangible paper copies of documents, images of art and physical objects), with the exception of videos, which they may be able to more easily access online. Mentors were asked what is meant by primary sources being the “raw material’ of history, most just saw that as a synonym for the source to be “first-hand” account rather than it referring to being used to build something, such as an explanation of a past event. Thus, mentors largely see primary sources as ways to inform rather than ways to build understanding of historical narratives.  “Historical document” (Carl, Mentor, Questionnaire, 2019)  “Documents created by someone at the time of the event being described.” (Belle, Mentor, Questionnaire, 2019)  “Document created during the time period of study.” (Dora, Mentor, Questionnaire, 2019)  “Original document” (Aaron, Mentor, Questionnaire, 10/05/2019)  “Raw as in first hand.” (Rachel, Mentor, Questionnaire, 2018)  “They are real- the bones. Each source has a story and tells a story.” (Kim, Mentor, Questionnaire, 2018) SPECIFIC FORMS OF PRIMARY SOURCES USED IN SOCIAL STUDIES Refers to the limited forms of primary sources mentors reported using in every or almost every lesson. They most often used primary sources like newspapers, speech excerpts, political cartoons, or photographs. They noted sources like museum artifacts and lengthy sources like full memoirs as less used. Additionally, there was some misunderstanding that primary sources were less prone to bias.  “I always enjoy watching and hearing kids analyze political cartoons because not only are they learning, but I am too.” (Kim, Mentor, Questionnaire, 2018)  “Photos of Abraham along with his family making the journey from the fertile crescent to the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. Analyze emotions, family, status, and any sacrifices.” (Raya, Mentor, Questionnaire, 2018)  “I use a Consensus Map activity on Truman's use of the bomb. I pull sources from the Truman, Eisenhower, survivor account, army stats. New vs. Old immigrant cartoon, The Jungle excerpts, Dust Bowl photos.” (Brad, Mentor, Questionnaire, 2019) Journal of Social Studies Education Research 2021: 12 (3), 47-78 We opted to couple Teaching with Primary Sources and Applications of Practices as one principal theme because, in our analysis, these ideas worked together in service of the two theoretical frameworks (historical thinking and cognitive apprenticeship) that guided the project. Critical and historical thinking skills are not inherent skills. Rather, educators must help students develop these skills within their students through effective modeling and scaffolding of instructional strategies. Interns, as well as their mentors have the ability to effectively teach their students to analyze, interpret, and evaluate primary source evidence only if they have a deep understanding of this specific set of critical literacy skill themselves. We glean from this section how and if interns and mentors put theory (historical thinking) into practice by employing various historical thinking skills that align with the C3 framework. For example, when reflecting on students’ inquiry-based projects, Alexis noted, “Utilizing this inquiry-based project allowed for my students to develop key content specific skills, specifically analysis. We were able to cover writing, presenting, analyzing, and examine bias in different historical perspectives. From this, I have noticed my students are developing into greater historical thinkers and questioning on the following unit of imperialism. They are keying in to supporting their claims in class discussion and questioning where information is coming from. They were able to gain the content information, just as my students last semester did, but they did the inquiry and constructed the knowledge.” (Alexis, Intern, Reflection, 10/05/2019) Alexis’ description of the inquiry-based projects she and her mentor teacher facilitated with their students emulates the tenets of the C3 Framework’s Inquiry Arc. These projects required students to ask questions, develop and apply content-specific skills to investigate their queries, and then reconstruct the past by highlighting diverse narratives based on the primary sources used to interpret it. More importantly, it is clear that the skills necessary for this project were not ephemeral but sustained moving forward. Alexis reports that she noticed some students began transferring the learned historical thinking skills applied during the inquiry-based projects in their following unit on Imperialism. Thus, this affirms the reflexive and recursive nature of learning guided by the C3 Framework’s Inquiry Arc. Additionally, we gleaned from this section that if there is an underdeveloped or misunderstanding of the of the importance and nature of teaching with primary sources, then execution and delivery Waters et al. 63 of the practice will be ineffective. For example, on the pre-internship/workshop questionnaire, mentors were asked what a primary source was. Several referred to primary sources as, “historical documents”; ‘original documents”; “documents created during the time period of study.” Another question asked what they thought was meant by primary sources being described as “raw materials.” One mentor stated, “Because they provide the most insight into historical events” (Dedra, Mentor, Questionnaire, 2019). Lastly, mentors were asked to share an effective primary source and to describe the lesson in which it was used. One mentor stated, “I don’t know the best – but – I’ll pick one. Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech. Play the clip, use the text etc.” (Julie, Mentor, Questionnaire, 2018). From these data, we determined that the mentors’ initial limited understanding of the intricacy and types of primary sources, as well as how they can be used demonstrate that they largely see primary sources as ways to inform rather than ways to build understanding. Throughout the duration of this project, mentors and interns were situated to strengthen their own understanding of primary sources, while also given the opportunity to collaborate and support one another as they work to successfully execute and facilitate these highly skillful pedagogical practices related to the historical thinking process. Theme #2 Developing a Collaborative Relationship Between Interns and Mentors While understanding the value and nature of historical thinking and using primary sources, and effectively applying them to social studies pedagogical practice is paramount, we found that this complex work is much more robust when the intern and mentor establish and develop a collaborative working relationship. The theme, Collaborative Relationships addresses the interns’ and mentors’ acknowledging communication, trust, and respect as necessary virtues that should characterize these collaborations to prevent an unbalanced power dynamic between the intern and the mentor. Likewise, these relationships are necessary to rethink clinical experiences to emulate rudiments of professional collaboration and learning. Table 3 and Table 4 present major sub- themes that emerged from the data analysis of mentor/intern questionnaires and reflections from this project. As before, we provide descriptions and examples for each sub-theme to support and conceptualize the connections between the sub-themes and the Developing Collaborative Relationships between Interns and Mentors theme. Journal of Social Studies Education Research 2021: 12 (3), 47-78 Table 3 Intern Themes for Developing Collaborative Relationships SUB-THEMES DESCRIPTION EXAMPLE COMMUNICATION Refers to the tools and strategies necessary to effectively communicate needs and concerns during the clinical experience.  “I began the first day by speaking with my mentor about having an open and honest relationship so we could both communicate effectively with each other.” (Karly, Intern, Reflection, 11/21/2019)  “Every week, we have a meeting to discuss what is going well in our relationship and what we need to work on. Though a point of this meeting is to also focus on what I need to work on in the next week and what my personal teaching goals are, I enjoy the communication and bluntness that we share during these Friday talks.” (Krista, Intern, Reflection, 02/13/2020) TRUST Refers to the intern’s expressed feeling of importance to establish and develop a relationship built on trust Establish trust with mentor, students, and other colleagues in placement school.  “By being honest with our strengths at the beginning of the year, we have established a well working system in order to facilitate our work.” (Krista, Intern, Reflection, 11/21/2019)  “The biggest strategy that my mentor and I use when we face our successes and challenges is honesty.” (April, Intern, Reflection, 02/24/2020)  “I am very pleased with establishing this trust at the beginning of the year. I feel that it has allowed me to focus more on working on my teaching practices.” (Krista, Intern, Reflection, 11/21/2019) COLLABORATION Refers to the need to carve out time to plan, reflect, talk; taking time to co-teach; breaking through barriers that come with increased expectations.  “The collaboration with the mentor was valuable and to see a big project through from the beginning to end was hard to fathom at first. Mentor helped me break it down.” (Alexis, Intern, Reflection, 04/12/2019)  “Collaborative research and student choice used in the project were eye-opening. I will trust my students to do this kind of work more.” (Alexis, Intern, Reflection, 04/12/2019) Waters et al. 65 Table 4 Mentor Themes for Developing Collaborative Relationships SUB-THEMES DESCRIPTION EXAMPLE MODEL OF PRACTICE AND PROFESSIONALISM Refers to the mentors’ feeling and expectation that they are models of practice and professionalism.  “I try to set the right example for her. For instance, being to work on time, planning ahead, maintaining high expectations, having strong relationships with fellow teachers, and of course taking a genuine interest in the learning and welfare of our kids.” (Brad, Mentor, Reflection, 11/27/2019)  “I think being able to see me day to day and the energy and commitment I put in has a strong impact on her and lets her know that I am in this for the right reasons. The same goes for her as well. I see the professionalism and dedication she displays. As both of us approach each day that way it creates mutual trust and solidarity.” (Brad, Mentor, Reflection, 11/27/2019) EXPECTATIONS AND TRUST Refers to the characteristics of building trust; establishing routines, establishing communication plans; navigating new school year and intern’s needs simultaneously.  “The most successful aspect of our mentor/intern relationship so far has been treating my intern the same as I would treat any other teacher in the building. I try to communicate my trust that she is capable and can do a good job by not micromanaging what she is doing, and by actively involving her in every aspect of teaching, including planning, grading, PLCS, student discipline follow up, communicating with parents, parent-teacher conferences, horizontal teaming meetings, and S-Team/504/IEP meetings.” (Reba, Mentor, Reflection, 11/21/2019) IDENTIFYING SHARED RHYTHM FOR TEACHING Refers to initially identifying the intern’s comfort level. Then, throughout the duration of the clinical experience, gradually easing them more and more into the teaching process.  “I would like to identify some teachers who excel in areas in which my intern has room for improvement so she can get new ideas of how to improve her own practice. My hope is that this would continue to build trust as she sees that I am actively working to provide her more opportunities for continued growth.” (Reba, Mentor, Reflection, 11/21/2019)  “I have vowed to treat my interns differently. It’s a relationship built on mutual respect and safe independence. I will not stand in the way of effective teaching strategies that may not be in my repertoire, but I will not allow the intern to harm their experience or my students’ education.” (Sally, Mentor, Reflection, 11/26/2019) Journal of Social Studies Education Research 2021: 12 (3), 47-78 It was evident from our data that the intern/mentor relationship was a key indicator of the overall potency and effectiveness of the skills associated with the historical thinking process and teaching with primary sources. Establishing collaborative and productive relationships early on helped situate the mentor to identify a shared rhythm for teaching that assuaged both them and their intern. When intern/mentor relationships are not characterized by communication, trust, expectations, and respect, they may run the risk of not being non-mutually beneficial relationships rather than symbiotic. The interns in this study entered their clinical experience with rich but developing knowledge of teaching with primary sources by leveraging the historical thinking process. On the other hand, the mentors in this study viewed their role in the relationship to be a model of practice and professionalism aligned with a cognitive apprenticeship approach (Dennan & Burner, 2008). We found that these relationships thrived when the interns had the opportunity to share and practice these valuable and impactful pedagogies, in concert with their mentors’ willingness to learn and incorporate them into their own repertoire of practices. Relatedly, once the mentors learned pedagogies to foster historical thinking, they could then model (for their intern) the historical thinking skills, while also taking into account various contextual elements that impact learning, such as school culture, classroom management, need for differentiated instruction, and diverse learners. The theme of Developing Collaborative Relationships directly relates to our theoretical frameworks as it is dependent on both parties to contribute their knowledge (i.e. mentors contributing knowledge and pedagogy from years of experience and interns contributing in-depth knowledge of teaching and learning with primary sources from their pre-internship course experience). In this relationship, both the intern and mentor are benefiting from one another view one another as a valuable asset. A collaborative relationship may lead to a more harmonious facilitation of these highly complex critical literacy skills, thus setting the foundation for students to receive the most robust and consistent social studies instruction possible. If the intern/mentor relationship is not collaborative, the dissonance may disrupt other elements of social studies clinical experience, which was demonstrated with the quotes used to open this paper. Theme #3 Moving Forward with Clinical Practice in Social Studies Moving Forward with Clinical Practice in Social Studies speaks to another principal goal of this project, which was to create a sustained professional development partnership program in which Waters et al. 67 candidates are placed with effective mentors and mentor teachers find value in their interns’ knowledge and skill set for working with primary sources. Moreover, we hoped that mentor teachers would see value in learning to use LoC resources and apply TPS practices in their own teaching and in support of the teacher candidates they mentor. Data surrounding this theme are indicators of how mentors and interns were impacted by this partnership, as well as how they will use the clinical experience to shape their practice of integrating historical thinking skills and teaching and learning with primary sources moving forward. Table 5 and Table 6 present major sub-themes that emerged from the data analysis of mentor/intern questionnaires and reflections from this project. Again, we provide descriptions and examples for each sub-theme to support and conceptualize the connections between the sub-themes and the Moving Forward with Clinical Practices theme. Table 5 Intern Sub-themes for Forward with Clinical Practice SUB-THEMES DESCRIPTION EXAMPLE NEED FOR OPPORTUNITIES TO GROW AND COLLABORATE Refers to the interns’ need for less support in discerning the utility of primary sources. They understand how and why they are used and what to do with them. What they need are experiences using primary sources in classroom situation to figure out the pedagogy. Moreover, they need mentors that are open and willing to provide these opportunities.  “I have learned that mistakes are proof of learning.” (Alexis, Intern, Reflection, 04/12/2019)  “This internship has allowed me to improve my collaboration skills as well as critical thinking and learning skills. I trust that my mentor has and continues to guide me in the right direction towards having my own successful classroom in the future.” (Mila, Intern, Reflection, 12/19/2019)  “I really enjoy being thrown in and seeing how I react to things and then being told how I can improve upon my actions. My mentor has let me take control of the class from the very first day and after about two weeks completely let me have the class. She will help me any time I ask but also gives me my space to figure out my teaching style.” (Bella, Intern, Reflection, 02/19/2019) “CONSISTENCY” Refers to the interns grappling to align expectations of EPP and mentor; feeling  “Overall, I think to develop a mentor/intern relationship built on trust rests on openness, Journal of Social Studies Education Research 2021: 12 (3), 47-78 unsupported; balancing “doing our own thing” with maintaining connection and support from mentor. dependability, and consistency. I think consistency is huge because it is difficult to get along with someone or predict what they may do if they are inconsistent with their moods and teaching styles." (Karly, Intern, Reflection, 11/21/2019)  “Some things that have not been extremely successful are that he gives sporadic advice, or we have sporadic sit-downs about my lessons. In the beginning, we would talk about once a week or every other day about my lessons, but now we do not really talk about them unless he has to write up something about my teaching for his Mentors Matters meetings.” (Molly, Intern, Reflection, 11/25/2019) Table 6 Mentor Sub-themes for Moving Forward with Clinical Practice SUB-THEME DESCRIPTION EXAMPLE WILLINGNESS TO LEARN FROM INTERNS Refers to the recognition by mentors that they could learn from their interns. For example, they could learn how primary sources can/should be used to engender historical thinking, not just as sources of information. Additionally, they could learn new practices, strategies, and learn to “bring back the joy of teaching.”  “I learned from my intern to not get bogged down in the minutia of teaching and bring back the joy.” (Jody, Mentor, Reflection, 04/24/2019)  “I never do the same lesson twice anymore.” (Carl, Mentor, Reflection, 04/24/2019)  “This young woman is going to be AMAZING next year!!! She is one of the strongest, most graceful people I know. She is an intelligent, caring, collaborative partner that my students and I treasure beyond measure. I have become a better teacher and person because of her.” (Belle, Mentor, Reflection, 03/12/2020) LETTING GO OF THE REIGNS Refers to the transfer of classroom authority; introducing interns to ancillary work that comes with teaching (e.g. committees, parents); allowing them the space to grow and refine their craft.  “I want to protect my intern from taking on too much too soon.” (Carl, Mentor, Reflection, 04/24/2019)  “I try and help my intern fit into the variable roles of being a teacher.” (Jody, Mentor, Reflection, 04/24/2019) Waters et al. 69  “In some ways for myself, it’s been difficult to relinquish control of some things. I don’t consider myself a ‘control freak’, but I can sometimes be a ‘quality control freak’ when it comes to some of my own lessons and activities- especially in a tested subject like US History. However, through this process, I myself learned a lot by letting Megan do more of ‘her thing’. I guess by this I mean that I’ve tried act in more of an advisory capacity (not in every instance, however). I feel as if this helps teacher candidates to do a better job and develop into better educators when they’re not as constrained their mentoring teachers and they can teach to / develop their own strengths.” (Jen, Mentor, Reflection, 11/26/2019)  “She has completely taken over the class she is teaching, with input from me in the form of co- planning, lesson/assessment/material ideas, and post-lesson reflection. However, the plans and delivery of lessons are entirely hers. I have seen her confidence build over the course of the semester as she gains experience in every aspect of teaching.” (Sally, Mentor, Reflection, 11/26/2019) The emerging sub-themes from these data suggest several considerations for moving forward with embedding Teaching with Primary Sources skills and practices into teacher preparation coursework, school-based mentoring, and associated clinical experiences. Specifically, we gleaned that interns needed opportunities to grow and develop their skills. While their theoretical knowledge of teaching with primary sources may be robust, they need to practice their craft in contextually diverse and specific classroom environments. In order for this to happen, the mentor must be willing to let go of the reigns, in other words, they must be willing to share classroom authority with the intern so that are given the space they need to grow. While this may be daunting and difficult for some mentors, the data support that the transfer of authority can be more seamless if and when open communication and collaboration happen regularly between the intern and the mentor. For example, when reflecting on their mentoring relationship with their intern, Jen noted, Journal of Social Studies Education Research 2021: 12 (3), 47-78 “In some ways for myself, it’s been difficult to relinquish control of some things. I don’t consider myself a ‘control freak’, but I can sometimes be a ‘quality control freak’ when it comes to some of my own lessons and activities- especially in a tested subject like US History. However, through this process, I myself learned a lot by letting Megan do more of ‘her thing’. I guess by this I mean that I’ve tried act in more of an advisory capacity (not in every instance, however). I feel as if this helps teacher candidates to do a better job and develop into better educators when they’re not as constrained their mentoring teachers and they can teach to / develop their own strengths.” (Jen, Mentor, Reflection, 11/26/2019) Drawing on cognitive apprenticeship, this relationship provides the situatedness, peripheral participation, guided participation, and membership in a community of practice needed for candidates’ success (Dennen & Burner, 2008). Likewise, with historical thinking skills, collaboration and communications skills are not inherent, but must be learned and constantly developed. As a response to the findings in this study, we developed a pre-internship graduate level course focused on applying collaboration skills in social studies. This collaboration course complements the interns’ knowledge of historical thinking and the associated skills by preparing them with the communication tools to effectively engage in dialogues with their mentors and school-based PLCs in regard to curriculum and other pedagogical decision-making. Lastly, while the data suggest that interns need the space to “do their own thing” in regard to employing historical thinking, they also need the modeling, coaching, scaffolding, reflection, articulation, and exploration that more naturally comes from collaboration and communication with their mentor. For example, when reflecting on their relationship with their mentor, Molly noted, “Some things that have not been extremely successful are that he gives sporadic advice, or we have sporadic sit-downs about my lessons. In the beginning, we would talk about once a week or every other day about my lessons, but now we do not really talk about them unless he has to write up something about my teaching for his Mentors Matters meetings” (Molly, Intern, Reflection, 11/25/2019) Molly describes her relationship with her mentor as lacking some of the vital characteristics of collaboration and communication, namely; scaffolding, reflection, and articulation. When Waters et al. 71 coaching did happen, feedback was sporadic. This can sometimes lead to inconsistencies and difficulty in identifying a clear trajectory for refinement from lesson to lesson. While interns entered their internship with a strong understanding of the historical thinking process and the highly skillful work associated therein, they still yearn for and benefit from consistent actionable feedback from their mentors to develop their craft knowledge and overall pedagogical practice. Relatedly, the data also suggest that mentors may be better able to support their teacher candidates, if they are willing to learn from them. For example, when reflecting on her relationship with her intern, Belle noted, “This young woman is going to be AMAZING next year!!! She is one of the strongest, most graceful people I know. She is an intelligent, caring, collaborative partner that my students and I treasure beyond measure. I have become a better teacher and person because of her.” (Belle, Mentor, Reflection, 03/12/2020) Belle highlights one of the fundamental purposes of this project, which was to cultivate mutually beneficial relationships between interns and their mentors centered on teaching and learning with primary sources and historical thinking. It is evident from Belle’s reflection that she found value in her intern as a collaborative partner. If a mentor is willing to learn and apply TPS practices in their own teaching and invest in their relationships with their interns as collaboration opportunities, they can take advantage of these robust skills and practices to refine and reinforce their own teaching. This keeps our project objective of preparing interns and supporting mentor teachers parallel, while also hopefully narrowing the dissonance that has long existed between research theory and teacher’s practice in the field of education. Discussion and Implications This study sought to explore our efforts to improve one social studies educator preparation program by establishing more explicit connection between program curriculum and clinical experiences through a series of curricular reforms coupled with mentor and candidate professional development. After evaluating the impact of the restructuring, we believe that our study has implications for social science educator preparation programs more broadly. The theoretical frameworks we drew upon helped us re-imagine the program in ways that addressed both areas. Grounding a new methods course in historical thinking, for example, allowed candidates to Journal of Social Studies Education Research 2021: 12 (3), 47-78 become familiar with a unique approach to learning about the past with the use of primary source material and bring that experience to their clinical practices in purposeful ways. Likewise, cognitive apprenticeship provided the structure of clinical practice that enabled us to give form to the school/university partnerships we hoped to foster to give candidates optimal school-based experiences that complemented their coursework. The following paragraphs include our interpretation of the findings with respect to teaching and learning social studies and clinical practices in social studies education. Teaching and Learning Social Studies Two major considerations related to teaching and learning social studies stemmed from this project’s findings. First, we found that placing emphasis on the preparing students with historical thinking skills and teaching and learning with primary sources empowered candidates in their internships. They entered their clinical experience with a tool kit of disciplinary skills to engage young learners in the teaching and learning of history using primary sources and employing critical thinking skills. Secondly, we found that mentors benefit from the embedded professional development of this partnership as well. Specifically, they were able to garner a deeper understanding of what primary sources are and how they can be used to foster higher order thinking in their social studies lessons, which in some cases resulted in the development of new materials and activities that integrated more student choice, collaborative historical thinking and historical research opportunities (Drake & Nelson, 2005). From this, we assert that through purposeful teaching with primary sources, social studies teachers can equip youth with the knowledge base and historical thinking skills necessary to engage in sophisticated study of the past. Moreover, the skills learned from engaging in the historical thinking process are transferable and may be employed to other disciplines within the federation of social studies, such as addressing public issues facing society, civic engagement, and overall societal participation (Barton & Levstik, 2004; NCSS, 2013; 2016; 2017). From these data, we found that integrating primary sources and historical thinking practices into social studies teacher preparation coursework, school-based mentoring, and associated clinical experiences set the foundation for interns and mentors to align their social studies curriculum with the NCSS C3 Framework. The student projects required students to engage in historical thinking by analyzing primary sources. However, as with any new form of professional development or Waters et al. 73 curriculum integration, the overall success of this project boils down to the interns’ and mentors’ willingness, comfortability, and knowledge of appropriately and effectively leveraging primary sources in the social studies classroom. As mentioned previously, if teachers do not understand the value and nature of historical thinking and using primary sources, they run the risk of weak application of the NCSS C3 framework practices. Clinical Practice The end goal of preparing teachers who challenge their students to think historically is further complicated by the need for teacher preparation coursework to align with school-based practices that support evidence-based pedagogies related to historical thinking. In regard to clinical practice, we found that by establishing a robust partnership between universities and schools that leverage the clinical experience as professional development opportunity is extremely beneficial. Specifically, we find that during the internship, interns need space to practice and refine their freshly attained historical thinking skills with young learners with the support of not only university faculty, but their school-based mentors, also. Relatedly, we found that mentors can benefit from this unique partnership because they will not only be gaining an asset to their classroom, but they will also receive professional development to help them grow in their pedagogical practice (Dennan & Burner, 2008; Ghefaili, 2003). Through this partnership and framework there is an opportunity to transform the clinical internship into a collaborative experience that is beneficial for the triad of interns, mentor teachers, and university faculty (Doppen, 2007). Thus, we assert that authentic partnerships hinge upon the ability of the mentor and intern to feel like they are both contributing to the relationship by learning from one another and drawing upon the principles of cognitive apprenticeship (Collins, et al., 1989). To that end, we found that collaboration, communication, trust, and consistency were noted by candidates and mentors as key elements present in successful intern/mentor relationships. These elements were found lacking in those unsuccessful relationships. In practice, fostering successful clinical practices may involve carving out more time to co-plan, co-teach, and reflect. Doing so may lead to the development of more effective teaching practices that appropriately challenge learners to think historically. Restructuring clinical practice and mentor/intern relationships this way situates the mentor to better monitor and assess the candidate’s progress based on expectations that are concurrent with Journal of Social Studies Education Research 2021: 12 (3), 47-78 the EPP program. Such consistency may be one more solution to reduce the dissonance between theory and practice in the secondary social studies clinical practice experience where the candidate feels supported by both their school-based mentor and their university faculty/supervisors. Limitations While this study produced several findings and implications for social science educator preparation programs to consider, there were also some limitations of this study that should be highlighted. First, this study relied heavily on the researcher’s analysis of the interns’ and mentor’ questionnaires and quarterly reflections and did not utilize interview data. Including interviews from the particiapnts would have allowed the researchers to triangulate the data sources (Carter et al., 2014) to develop a more comprehensive understanding of interns’ and mentors’ perceptions of embedding skills and practices of teaching with primary sources into teacher preparation clinical experiences. Specifically, by interviewing the interns and mentors directly, we would have had the opportunity to ask more direct questions to perhaps glean some of the relational aspects between the interns and their mentors as they incorporated primary sources into their pedagogical practice. Also, while the findings from this study are not meant to be generalizable, we recognize the limitations of our small sample size. Perhaps, the findings and data could have been expanded further had the sample size been larger. Lastly, further research from other social science EPPs that are considering redesigning their programs to purposefully align social science education coursework and clinical experience with school-based mentors around the practice of teaching with primary sources would be beneficial. Conclusion The findings from this project revealed benefits and challenges of restructuring a social studies education preparation program. Ultimate success of this project was determined by whether candidates and mentor developed better connection between teacher preparation coursework and clinical experiences. Specifically, these data helped us learn about the preparation of our teacher candidates as they enter into schools for clinical experiences as well as the extent to which our mentors have the ability to support our candidates in teaching with primary sources. While this project yielded an enhanced professional development partnership with our local school systems that focused on embedding C3 framework practices and historical thinking skills, a greater Waters et al. 75 understanding of the complexity of the mentor/intern relationship emerged. We found that the mentor/intern relationship was of significant importance as it is a strong indicator as to whether the historical thinking framework practices and strategies would be implemented with fidelity with their social studies students. Specifically, social studies teacher educators and scholars interested in fostering school/university partnerships grounded in these highly skillful frameworks and pedagogies should consider placing emphasis on ways they can support their interns and mentors develop collaborative relationships. If mentors and interns do not cultivate and maintain strong relationships that engender the characteristics of collaboration, communication, trust, and consistency, they ultimately run the risk of weak application of the historical thinking process in their pedagogical practice. References Bain, R. (2000). Into the breach: Using research and theory to shape history instruction. In P. N. Stearns, P. Seixas, & S. Wineburg (Eds.). Knowing, teaching, and learning history. National and international perspectives (pp. 331-352). New York, NY: New York University Press. Barr, R.D. , Barth, J.L. , & Shermis, S.S. (1977). Defining the social studies [Bulletin No. 51]. 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