The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe middle level prepared teachers’ perceptions of their practices after completing an Ohio Middle Childhood: Grades 4–9 teacher education program. Using the National Middle School Association/ National Council of Accreditation of Teacher Education Initial Level Teacher Preparation Standards (2001) as the organizing framework for the interview protocols, the researchers interviewed middle level teachers, their administrator, and their students. The researchers in this study wanted to explore the perceptions of teachers in their implementation and understandings of the middle school concept as articulated in the teacher education program, even if the middle level schools in which they were employed did not fully implement practices consistent with these middle level practices. The findings that emerged from these analyses provide insights for middle level teacher educators about how middle level teachers construct a philosophy arising out of middle level ideals and, therefore, how they implement their understandings with young adolescents.

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Published in Research in Middle Level Education Online, 2013