Learning to be a culturally responsive teacher through international study trips: transformation or tourism?

Recent rapid changes in the ethnic and cultural make-up of school communities have highlighted the need for teacher education to prepare teachers for culturally diverse contexts. International study trips provide direct experience and interaction with culturally diverse ‘others’ as a way to extend pre-service teachers’ understandings of difference and diversity. This paper presents findings from a qualitative study that investigated the experiences of 15 Australian pre-service teachers who attended a short-term study programme in either Korea or India. Drawing on notions of the ‘comfort zone’ and ‘pedagogies of discomfort’, we discuss how the pre-service teachers were challenged to move beyond their comfort zone into new and unfamiliar territory, and into states of dissonance and discomfort. Three interrelated themes emerged from the interview data: (1) dissonance resulting from physical discomfort; (2) dissonance resulting from culturally different communication styles and expectations about appropriate behaviour and interaction and (3) dissonance resulting from incidents/events that challenged the pre-service teachers’ views of themselves and their own cultures. We suggest that many of the participants experienced levels of discomfort and dissonance that hindered effective learning, and limited the transformative potential of the experience. We conclude by discussing some implications for international experience programmes in teacher education.     

Conducting Indigenous research in Western knowledge spaces: aligning theory and methodology

Walking simultaneously in two worlds as an Indigenous researcher, navigating Indigenous and Western epistemologies/methodologies can have its challenges. Indigenous methodologies have become an important element of qualitative research and have been increasingly taken up by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers. Indigenous methodologies seek to ensure that the research is culturally safe and culturally respectful through recognition of Indigenous worldviews, respect, and accountability. It is no longer research on or about Indigenous people, rather it is becoming research for and with Indigenous people. In this paper, we reflect on the experiences of an Indigenous researcher working with a non-Indigenous supervisor within an overarching Western theoretical framework of poststructuralism while also using Indigenous methodologies. We discuss the tensions and points of connection that emerged in the research design process. We suggest that Indigenous and Western epistemologies/methodologies do not have to be used to the exclusion of each other; they can be used effectively to complement and support each other.     

What motivates higher education educators to innovate? Exploring competence,autonomy, and relatedness – and connections with wellbeing

ABSTRACT

Background: High quality tertiary teaching is important for maximising the impact of tertiary education for students, employers and society, as well as for institutional reputation and accountability. Varied interpretations exist regarding what counts as ‘innovative’ tertiary teaching.

Purpose: This study sought to explore the deeper drivers of motivations of tertiary educators to initiate and implement teaching innovations.

Method: Drawing from the data from semi-structured interviews from a wider study into innovative teaching in a tertiary education institution in Aotearoa New Zealand, we analysed the rationale of 13 expert tertiary educators for teaching in novel ways. The framework for analysis was based on Self-Determination Theory: data were analysed in relation to three basic psychological needs known to impact on motivation and wellbeing – competence, autonomy and relatedness.

Findings: Our analysis suggests that tertiary educator motivation to innovate in their teaching is related to feelings of all three needs. Findings suggest that innovative pedagogical change was linked to educators’ need for feelings of competence in relation to subject area content, pedagogy and developing student competence. Enhancing autonomy for the educators themselves, or for their students, was also an important factor motivating innovative practice. Developing relatedness between students, between themselves and students, and between students and society were reported as motivations for innovative teaching. Some teaching innovations were motivated by the educator’s desire for greater personal or student wellbeing.

Conclusions Educators’ motivations for being innovative in their tertiary pedagogical practice encompassed content, pedagogical, personal and social dimensions. None reported that their innovation was motivated by institutional policy or expectations. The reported challenges to innovative teaching practice, including institutional structures and processes, lack of access to specific technologies, and the time needed to develop and implement changed practice, indicate that educators must be strongly committed to making change in their practice to sustain the effort required.     

Exam Scams and Classroom Flimflams: Urban Legends as an Alternative Lens for Viewing the College Classroom Experience

Campus-based urban legends have the potential to convey and construct student culture in higher education. Basic qualitative and humanistic research methods were used to collect, analyze, and interpret legends related to the academic experience of collegiate life.

New verse or the same old chorus?: looking holistically at distance education research

While there continues to be a proliferation in the number of studies conducted on various aspects of distance education, we are often left with little understanding of the holistic planning and effects of it. This paper draws lessons learned from the literature on distance education over the past five years. This review did not seek to be exhaustive in presenting the findings of every study, but instead focuses on specific instruction we can take from past research at the institutional, faculty, and student levels.     

末日颠峰：二战德国银鸟亚轨道轰炸系统

“灰蒙蒙的天空、灰蒙蒙的跑道、一个以时代构形标准而言已经算不上前卫的机体，起落架收起，看来一次司空见惯的平凡飞行又开始了。然而不寻常的是，在大约2万米的对／平流层交界处，飞机却仍在加速，尾流也开始呈现规则的点状分布……接下来的事情在超出人们视线的同时也超出了想像：在不断的加速中，飞机居然突破了十万米的高度（世界运动委员会制定的最低太空高度），     

Comparison of Physical Fitness Scores of White and Black Seventh Grade Boys of Similar Socioeconomic Level

Abstract

Boys (N = 115) in the seventh grade of a junior high school were tested for physical fitness by the AAHPER Youth Fitness Test. In addition, data were collected for age, height, weight, and socioeconomic level of each boy. Two racial groups were formed consisting of 30 white and 30 black students who were matched on age and socioeconomic level. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the physical fitness of white and black students of equal socioeconomic level was significantly different. There were no significant differences between the groups in age, height, weight, and socioeconomic level. The black students exceeded the white students significantly on the shuttle run, 50-yd. dash, 600-yd. run and composite fitness score. It was concluded that black male students of similar socioeconomic level to white students in the seventh grade, have a higher level of physical fitness.