Holding Hope, Naming Reality: Faculty Navigating Cognitive Dissonance in PETE

PETE faculty sometimes face a complex challenge: preparing preservice teachers (PSTs) for a profession increasingly characterized by underfunding and unsustainable workloads, while simultaneously inspiring future educators to see teaching as a meaningful and viable career. This tension can create cognitive dissonance for faculty, who must balance fostering enthusiasm with the ethical duty to present an honest view of the teaching landscape. While research has examined preservice teachers’ motivational trajectories, identity formation, and classroom disillusionment, less attention has been paid to faculty’s dilemma. Questions such as, “How do I balance realism with optimism?” and “How do I manage my own emotional labor when mentoring students into a system I know to be flawed?” deserve further exploration, as supporting faculty’s processes is important for sustaining their role and preparing PSTs with purpose and motivation informed by the profession’s systemic realities.