Jl. of Technology and Teacher Education (2012) 20(4), 387-414 Blogging the Field: An Emergent Continuum for Urban Teacher Development VANESSA DOMINE Montclair State University, USA dominev@mail.montclair.edu Preparing teachers to work in urban settings poses unique challenges, as urban communities are complex and require systemic understanding of students and their families, cul- ture, and community. Pre-service teachers often harbor mis- conceptions about what it means to work in urban settings and many bring to their teacher education program minimal irst hand experience. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand pre-service teachers’ use of online journ- aling (or blogging) to contextualize, question, construct and transform their understanding of their initial ield experi- ence within an urban school setting. The study used critical discourse analysis to study 31 undergraduate students’ blogs in an introductory course prerequisite to entering an initial teacher certiication program. The indings suggest transfor- mative shifts in the areas of developing conidence and ob- servation skills, understanding the complexity of schools, de- veloping concern for others, promoting democratic ideals and becoming a professional. INTRODUCTION Over the next decade, the hiring of new public school teachers will in- crease by forty percent in the United States (USDOE, 2011). A large num- ber of teachers are expected to retire and there will also be a need to re- place many new teachers that decide to leave teaching after a year or two employed in poor, urban schools (USDOL, 2010). Attracting and retaining qualiied teachers in urban and inner cities is a steep challenge as these set-