Feedback sessions as mediation spaces: empowering teacher candidates to deepen instructional knowledge and engage in the construction and transformation of theory in practice Sarina Chugani Molina and Joi A. Spencer TESOL, Literacy, & Culture Program, Department of Learning and Teaching, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA ABSTRACT The process of engaging in classroom research provides teacher candidates with opportunities to enter into the kind of deep, self- refective work that we believe is an important capacity to build in teachers as they begin to engage in the construction and trans- formation of theory and knowledge within their own unique con- texts. Our Action Research (AR) process involves multiple opportunities throughout their coursework, advising, and feed- back sessions to try to promote the development of this capacity. These opportunities serve as a holding space where candidates are both supported and challenged through interactions with their research advisors, other faculty members, their peers, and pane- lists consisting of educators from the feld. In this paper, we present what we believe to be important elements of AR that emerged from our fnal feedback sessions with 13 teacher candi- dates in our program as they prepared for the professional pre- sentations. We found that considering these feedback sessions as mediation spaces (1) empowers teacher candidates to externalize and deepen� personal understandings of their research through dialogical discourse w � ith expert others, and (2) negotiate their power and emerging practitioner researcher identities. This feed- back practice not only transforms the teacher candidates’ under- standing of themselves and their practice but also opens up opportunities for internal and external evaluation for all those involved alongside them in the process. � ARTICLE HISTORY Received 8 January 2018 Accepted 10 December 2018 KEYWORDS Action research; teacher education; teacher development; reflective practice; practitioner research; developmental feedback I. Introduction In our department, teacher candidates with access to classrooms are highly encouraged to select Action Research (AR) as their capstone projects. We believe that if our goal is to prepare candidates to be thoughtful practitioners, then the experience provided by AR for engaging in iterative cycles of practice as informed by student needs is a valuable aspect of their preparation. In addition to this, it may also be the only opportunity that they might have for the kind of sustained coaching and insight into their thinking process and teaching practice before they exit the program. The process for engaging in the cyclical process of assessing, teaching, refecting and sharing each of these CONTACT Sarina Chugani Molina sarina@sandiego.edu EDUCATIONAL ACTION RESEARCH https://doi.org/10.1080/09650792.2018.1564685 © 2018 Educational Action Research C/e: xx C/e QA: xx