Beyond ‘what works’: understanding teacher identity as a practical and political tool

Drawing on previous research that focused upon the formation and mediation of teacher professional identity, this paper develops a model for conceptualising teacher professional identity. Increasingly, technical-rational understandings of teachers’ work and ‘role’ are privileged in policy and public discourse over more nuanced and holistic approaches that seek to understand teacher professional identity – what it is to ‘be’ a teacher. This article seeks to offer an alternative view, presenting the idea that an understanding of the processes by which teacher professional identity is formed and mediated is central to understanding the professional learning and development needs of teachers and advancing a richer, more transformative vision for education. I argue that instrumentalist notions of teachers’ work embedded in neo-liberal educational agendas such as those currently being advanced in many western countries offer an impoverished view of the teaching profession and education more broadly, and suggest that the concept of teacher professional identity holds the potential to work as a practical tool for the teaching profession and those who work to support them in the development of a more generative educational agenda.     

论教师教育研究的发展趋势

教师教育研究是当代中国教育改革研究中的热门话题,也是世界教育改革中的重要课题。我国自20世纪80年代以来倡导“教师教育”的概念替代原来的“师范教育”,然而,与教师教育改革实践相适应,未来教师教育研究的需要关注课程改革等诸多方面。     

Integrating teacher education effectiveness research into educational effectiveness models

The purpose of this article is to review and to connect research about teacher education effectiveness and school effectiveness to arrive at an integrative conceptualization that has the potential of improving empirical research in both fields. Teacher education effectiveness addresses effects of teacher education on outcomes such as teacher knowledge, this knowledge becomes the predictor in teacher effectiveness research with instructional quality and student achievement as outcomes. The two research orientations become united in path-analytic studies. A fuller incorporation leads to an extended educational effectiveness model that enriches a systemic interpretation of key levers of educational effectiveness and opens up black boxes at the system and the classroom level. In such a comprehensive model, teacher policies can be regarded an alternative for educational improvement strategies like school curriculum policies, accountability and evaluation or governance and management. At the same time insights from educational effectiveness research at large suggest inclusion of additional variables in teacher education and teacher effectiveness research, particularly on the institutional level.     

提升师范大学教育力,支撑教育高质量发展

提升"师范大学教育力",是新时代中国经济社会高质量发展对师范大学教育发展提出的更高要求。基于学科视角与方法论视角的概念界定方式,"师范大学教育力"在广义上可以界定为:师范大学所具有的"教育力",即师范大学在文化、制度、资源、科研、教学与课程等方面所形成的对学生的影响力、感召力、吸引力、协同力与整合力。根据师范大学的本体属性,"师范大学教育力"在狭义上可以界定为:师范大学所具有的"教师教育"的"力",即师范大学在教师教育中所表现出的文化引领力、制度保障力、资源提供力、专业投入力与人才培养力。"师范大学教育力"概念的提出是对"教育力"研究的理论深化和对教师教育实践的深刻反思,可进一步厘清新时代师范大学在我国教育体系中的独特地位与价值,为我国教师教育改革与发展提供理论指导与实践引领。     

教师教育课程的实践取向：何为与为何

实践取向是教师教育课程应有的核心理念。实践取向要求教师教育课程必须关注教师的专业实践和教育现实问题,必须支持实践问题的解决和实践能力的发展,必须支持对实践的反思和教育知识的建构。教师教育课程的实践取向是教师专业的实践性本质的要求,是教师知识研究的新进展的要求,更是传统的教师教育课程遭遇困境之后的必然选择。     

Reciprocal learning in teacher education between Canada and China

ABSTRACT

The Preservice Teacher Education Reciprocal Learning Programme has been developed on a vision of bridging the East and West dichotomy by harmonising Eastern learning with Western knowledge. This programme is one of the two foundations for Xu and Connelly’s 7-year Canada-China Reciprocal Learning Partnership in teacher education and school education in 2013-2020. The Programme, ‘provide[s] an exceptional cross-cultural experience with international engagement … to broaden teacher candidates’ horizons for a society of increasing diversity in today’s globalized world’. This article’s purposes are to discuss how reciprocal learning is both a concept and an approach for international and cross-cultural teacher education and school education and to present the learning outcomes and educational significance of the East-West reciprocal learning programme in teacher education. The Programme has created opportunities for both pre-service and in-service teachers to understand and appreciate a culture and educational system different from their own, thereby reciprocally contributing to educational opportunities for those they teach. The research theory and method utilised in this work are found in a companion paper in this special series and are briefly discussed below in the project overview and later in a discussion of student outcomes. This work has implications for other school settings where increasing immigrant student population and cultural diversity have become the norm.     

Beyond the Divide of Teacher Research and Academic Research

Abstract

This paper explores ways to bridge the separation that currently exists between the worlds of teacher research and academic research. Currently, many teachers feel that educational research conducted by those in the academy is largely irrelevant to their lives in schools. On the other hand, many academics dismiss the knowledge produced through teacher research as trivial and inconsequential to their work. In this paper, it is argued that our vision of educational research should include both teacher produced knowledge and knowledge produced by those in the academy, and take the position that the processes of teacher development, school reform, and teacher education can greatly benefit from occasions when academic and teacher knowledge cross the divide that currently separates teacher knowledge from academics and academic knowledge from teachers. Two specific examples are discussed that illustrate instances where academic knowledge and teacher knowledge have improved teaching, together with the assumptions regarding voice, power, ownership and status which make them successful cases. One case deals with the teaching of mathematics in the elementary school and the other is concerned with the teaching of language minority students. Also discussed are several ways in which knowledge produced by teachers and others who work in schools can potentially benefit academic research and teacher education programs in colleges and universities.     

Developing teacher competences for education for sustainable development through reflection: the Environment and School Initiatives approach

The introduction to this paper gives a short overview of the Environment and Schools Initiatives (ENSI) perspective on teaching competences. We argue that as change is one of the key elements of sustainable development, reflection that helps to adapt educational practice to a continuously developing world should be a starting point for every educator dealing with education for sustainable development (ESD). The ENSI perspective is that different competence lists constitute a basis for this continuous reflection. The paper gives two examples from ENSI activities in the field of developing teacher reflection regarding ESD in teacher education. For pre‐service teacher education a one‐year, action research based training course is examined. In in‐service education an analysis of a sequence of project supporting workshops is presented. The paper concludes by identifying some future steps, which are necessary if teacher competences are to be used in ESD.     

Responding to the challenge of providing stronger research base for teacher education: research discourses in the Norwegian national research school for teacher education

Background and purpose: The purpose of this article is to shed light on how the research projects of 140 PhD candidates in the National Research School for Teacher Education in Norway (NAFOL) respond to the challenges faced by Norwegian teacher education regarding the demand for higher competence and a stronger research base. The concept of NAFOL is of interest from an international perspective because of its focus on facilitating teacher educators to achieve a PhD. Since 2001, Norwegian educational policy has had a strong focus on strengthening teacher education and making it more research-based than before. From 2017, all new teachers in Norway are expected to take a master’s degree. In order to accomplish this, there is a need for many new supervisors with a PhD in teacher education institutions. NAFOL is a unique project: a consortium of 23 participating network institutions within teacher education. The research school includes 140 research fellows, all of whom wish to achieve a PhD suitable for work in teacher education. The research school is funded by the Norwegian Research Council, originally for a project period from 2010 to 2016. The research school has had a positive external midway evaluation, and the project period has been extended with four cohorts of students to the end of 2021. However, this study is the first one looking into the research projects of this young generation of teacher education researchers. The research question posed in this article is: how do the research projects of the NAFOL PhD candidates contribute to the research base in teacher education? Main argument: The main argument in this article is that the potential impact of this research school is dependent on the quality of the large number of PhD projects connected to teacher education and education in general developed within the research school. The quality is likely to be good because, among other reasons, these projects are scrutinised by the research school community. The challenges these research projects face, located as they are between solidarity regarding grants from the funds financing the PhD candidates, solidarity with the aims of education, and the wish to contribute to innovation, might prove to be able to be met. These research projects have the potential to create innovation in teacher education research through ‘border crossing’ between different educational discourses, as well as through creating new knowledge in meta-studies based on the results from several projects. Sources of evidence and method: In this article, project abstracts from 140 PhD candidates participating in NAFOL are analysed in terms of their theme and problem formulation. The analysis is inspired by discourse analytical thinking – namely that in a certain situation, several conditions for action exist. In this study, these conditions for action are made apparent in the choice of theme and problem formulation in the research projects. The content analysis is focused on ‘signal words’, because these words might signal positioning in different educational discourses. Results: In the study, three main discourses can be seen as influencing the choice of topic and the problem formulation in the projects: a goal-oriented educational discourse, a ‘Bildung’ (i.e. character formation, or personal growth – ‘danning’ in Norwegian) and democracy discourse, and a critical knowledge-producing discourse. These discourses are constituted when the PhD candidates start their research projects but the conditions for action are ever-changing and, hence, the findings in this study cannot, of course, be considered as ‘final’. The development of these discourses within the research community of NAFOL is one way of scrutinising the research projects in order to make a contribution to qualified teacher education research. Conclusion: ‘Border crossing’ between discourses in research projects concerned with what might be, and what can make a difference in a knowledge society could be a key way of enhancing the future for a young generation of researchers in teacher education. The research projects carried out by the PhD candidates in NAFOL have the potential to develop both new knowledge and new discourses of importance for Norwegian teacher education, as well as for a broader international context regarding professional development in teacher education and education in general. The view of the teacher education profession – and on what a teacher educator can be – could become more fully informed than before the candidates’ participation in the research school.     

以提升文化自信为导向的艺术类课程思政教育策略研究

课程思政是全国高校思想政治工作会议召开以来的系列举措中的思政课程向课程思政教学改革的方向所指,目标是要让所有课程都与思政教育目标相吻合,让教师承担起思政教育的使命,而各门课程都有自身的内容特点和教学目标,文章在分析艺术类课程本体目标基础上,提出将提升文化自信作为艺术类课程思政教育的总导向,力求明确艺术类课程思政教育的总思路,为具体的教学提供参考。     

Co-Researching the Concept of 'Noticing and Adjusting' in Monitoring Literacy Learning

The present article describes the rationale, development and initial evaluation of a framework for enquiry that enabled a team of educational psychologists from four local education authorities to co-research the concept of 'noticing and adjusting' in relation to children's literacy progress. The work is based on reflective practice where psychologists and teachers considered the usefulness of the framework in developing interactive assessment and teaching approaches in the classroom. The collaborative work helped us to focus on teacher practice and innovative thinking rather than child, teacher or resource/environmental deficits.     

Emotion in online college classrooms: examining the influence of perceived teacher communication behaviour on students’ emotional experiences

This research focused on teacher communication behaviour as an influential factor in students’ educational experiences. This study examined students’ perceptions of emotion (involving teachers’ emotional support, students’ emotional work and students’ positive emotional valence toward class and teacher) as influenced by a variety of predicting variables: perceptions of teacher affinity-seeking as well as teachers’ positive behaviour alteration techniques, verbal immediacy and teacher online presence (involving the three factors of instructional design, organisation facilitating discourse and direct instruction). Relying on survey data collected from undergraduate and graduate students across disciplines enrolled in course offerings at a large public university, quantitative analysis examined relationships among existing factors previously studied in educational and communication research. Although this study uncovered multiple significant relationships between variables in the data set, students’ perceptions of their teachers’ verbal immediacy and presence in their instructional design were found to be most predictive relative to students’ emotions in online classrooms. Ultimately this project addresses and emphasises the need to more fully examine students’ emotions and related social experiences with virtual teachers and course content in higher education.     

Concepts,policies and practices of teacher education: an analysis of studies on teacher education in Portugal

Education policies, and in particular those related to teacher education, are central to the construction of Europe as a knowledge society and for facing the social and economic challenges that European countries must respond to in this millennium. This article presents an analysis of studies on the evaluation of in-service teacher education conducted in Portugal since 1992. Based on the results of this analysis, the study develops a reflection on the concepts, policies and practices of in-service teacher education, contextualising it within a wider equation related to teachers’ education in Europe. The study consisted of content analyses of scientific articles, research reports, studies of evaluation and legal documents that provide the guidelines for in-service teacher education in Portugal. At the end, a final reflection and some general recommendations for teacher education are presented. There is a focus on the importance of placing in-service teacher education at the centre of educational contexts and on the problems that this causes in teachers’ work, emphasising its importance for social justice in Europe.     

Minds and more: Extending the scholarship of Graham Nuthall

Graham Nuthall described research findings from his recent classroom studies as educationally transformative, analogous to the shift to a Copernican universe. In honouring this assertion, we focus on two aspects of Graham's work: the role of theory in his scholarship, and the relationship between his scholarship and the pursuit of educational equity. In each case, we speak to why these aspects of his work are important and how each facet of his work is poised to advance the enterprise of education. Finally, we address some of the transformative implications of these two aspects of Graham's work for educational research and teacher education.     

Teacher Education: A Focus on Action

The educational community has, in recent times, abandoned a quantitative approach to research on teaching, characterized by process-product research, for a focus on naturalistic inquiry and the use of qualitative research methods. Major changes in research directions are accompanied in time by an integration process, that is, attempts to assimilate new knowledge with an already existing knowledge base. Attempts to integrate process-product research on teaching with more recent work have been impeded by major assumptions in research paradigms that have made the two directions seeming antagonists in the pursuit of knowledge. This paper explores the potential of integrating the results of earlier research on teaching with recent work stemming from both naturalistic inquiry and theoretical work in cognitive science. Major directions and issues are examined for their compatibility and ability to contribute to a broader perspective of the teaching/leaming process and teacher education.     

教师教学的教育重建模式

PCK是学科教学知识(Pedagogical Content Know ledge)的简称,是教师知识范畴中使教学最有效的知识。为了研究PCK产生了一种新的研究模式。这种模式被称为"教师教学的教育重建"(ERTE)模式,它代表了研究科学教师PCK的结构框架,它是一个庞大但是之前又未涉及的研究领域。基于此,从PCK的定义到ERTE模式作介绍,以期进一步促进教师教学的有效性,提高教学质量。     

对外汉语教师教育研究综述

教学质量提高的关键在于教师,教学理论研究的重心在于教师教育.近年来,对外汉语教学界开始关注教师的培训和发展,对外汉语教师教育研究逐步走向深入.通过文献检索,对20余年来的研究进行了综述和评析.从研究时间上看,最早的发端源于1989年,但直到2006年才出现骤增趋势.整体而言,对外汉语教师教育研究经历了萌芽、酝酿阶段后,目前正逐步向纵深发展.     

Trauma narratives and nomos in teacher education

The present article draws on data from a three-year study of pedagogy in teacher education that attempts to disrupt normative structures of reading and being in the teacher education classroom. The author uses Bourdieu’s work to emphasize the ways in which academic fields become ruled by unspoken rules and practices – “nomos” – and demonstrates a use of trauma narratives in teacher education that can disrupt such unspoken rules and practices. The article challenges taken-for-granted assumptions in teacher education that students must be positioned as future teachers; that reading educational research and texts should be a priority; that writing assignments should be privileged; and that a cognitive approach to learning in teacher education should be privileged.     

Teacher researchers in action research in a heavily centralized education system

Action research is characterized by a new paradigm of empowering teachers to monitor their own practices in a more autonomous manner with a vision of challenging and improving their own techniques of teaching through their own participatory research. Yet in spite of this apparently radical shift in the function of the teacher from the constant consumer of scientific theories to a researcher, as envisioned, the concept of action research as an in-service teacher education strategy has not received due attention in practice. For this reason, the presented case study was undertaken to examine whether the notion of action research by teachers was a viable option for in-service teacher development in a highly centralized education system. More specifically, this paper sought to answer whether teachers have any vision of what they can achieve with action research, whether there is scepticism on the part of teachers about the effectiveness and feasibility of action research as practice-based undertaking, and whether there are inherent structural problems that preclude teachers from undertaking such a role. Three English Language Teaching teachers were involved in this action research. The findings indicate that teachers, being capable of carrying out action research, were quite positive about action research and hopeful for overcoming some inadequacies in their educational environment, making it an asset for personal-professional development despite a highly centralized education system.