Early career teachers’ emotion and emerging teacher identities

The goal of our project was to develop an understanding of the connections among emotional episodes and emerging professional teacher identities of first year teachers. We interviewed eight first year mathematics and science teachers. We asked them to reflect on emotional episodes and talk about how those emotions informed their teaching identities. Our data yielded a model of ‘identity-work’ that reflected the teachers’ engagement in a reflective process of understanding themselves as it related to those emotional episodes. Our model includes four key processes: (1) Teacher incoming identity beliefs; (2) Teacher identity emotional episodes; (3) Teacher attributions and (4)Identity adjustment. All of our teachers exhibited a form of this process with some teachers elaborating on the ways in which pleasant emotional experiences confirmed their identities and others elaborating on the ways in which unpleasant emotional experiences caused them to confront and/or adjust their emergent identities. Implications for future research and teacher education are discussed.     

Developing identities in the workplace: students’ experiences of distance early childhood teacher education

In Aotearoa New Zealand, many early childhood teachers gain their teaching qualification via distance study while working in an early childhood centre. Early childhood teachers work in a team environment, and it is important to understand more about how distance students negotiate changes in their workplace practice as their professional knowledge develops. This article draws on a study that explores students’ experiences of distance teacher education as a process of changing participation in the workplace. Distance study supported increasingly confident participation as students saw more meaning in their daily work. The students’ identities and their workplace cultures and practices influenced what students paid attention to and the decisions they made when negotiating changes within their teams. Their experiences suggest that strengthening students’ relational agency at work is a useful focus for distance early childhood teacher education programmes.     

Teaching development for doctoral students: what can we learn from activity theory?

This paper explores issues relating to programmes for doctoral students wishing to gain experience of, and develop skills in, teaching. The focus is on “Developing Learning and Teaching” – a new provision at the University of Oxford. The purpose is to exemplify how activity theory can be used to situate particular programmes and individual experiences in a wider systemic setting. The authors explain the concepts of the activity system, and use these to identify systemic tensions (analysing university‐wide survey data), then to assess whether the provision has addressed these tensions (analysing data from interviews with participants).

Cet article explore les questions soulevées par les programmes destinés aux doctorants intéressés à acquérir une expérience d’enseignement et à développer leurs compétences d’enseignement. Le centre d’intérêt est placé sur ? «Developing Learning and Teaching» ? – un nouveau cours offert à l’université d’Oxford. L’objectif est de démontrer comment la théorie de l’activité peut être utilisée de façon à situer des programmes spécifiques et des expériences individuelles dans un contexte systémique plus vaste. Nous expliquons les concepts du système d’activité et utilisons ceux‐ci de façon à identifier des tensions systémiques (par l’analyse de données recueillies par questionnaire à la grandeur de l’université), puis évaluons si le cours cible ces tensions (par l’analyse de données recueillies par entretien auprès des participants).     

What can we do to support reading for young adolescent students?

Young adolescents are at a critical stage in their schooling. They are consolidating and improving their reading skills. By exploring what supports these 11- to 13-year-old students in reading from a wider systemic perspective, educators and policy-makers can better understand the complex factors which support reading development. This article presents a conceptual framework model to illustrate how teachers, principals and wider support agencies can effectively interact with the students and their parents. The framework highlights the impacting roles of ministries of education, governmental policies, and how study at postgraduate level can support reading development for these young adolescents.     

Do we give them a fair chance? Attrition among first-year tertiary students

International research suggests that government policy, institutional culture and learner characteristics influence the attrition rate of first-year tertiary education students. These variables were investigated in relation to a cohort of 21 New Zealand students who failed a core literacy paper. The research utilised questionnaires, interviews with staff and students and observations around a series of workshops designed to review the literacy course. Results align with international findings, but also differ because of site-specific institutional, and student socio-cultural factors. The workshops improved students’ course content knowledge, but did not address deep-seated, literacy and culturally-based impediments that contribute to attrition. Principles of social justice and social contract theory described by Rawls (1958 Rawls, J. 1958. Justice as fairness. Philosophical Review, 67: 164–193. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and Sen (2009 Sen, A. 2009. The idea of justice, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press and London: Allen Lane. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) are used to critique policy and pedagogical and learner characteristics. Based on this critique, the research concluded that some aspects of policy and institutional, cultural and student behaviour were unjust.     

Teaching Latinx students: Do teacher ethnicity and bilingualism matter?

Prior research has indicated that both mainstream (e.g., positive classroom behavior management) and culturally responsive teaching practices (e.g., cultural socialization in the classroom and promoting parent involvement), as well as teacher-student ethnic match, are associated with greater academic achievement for students of color. The purpose of this study was to examine teacher-student ethnic match and culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy as predictors of self-reported teaching practices used with Latinx students. The present study used a sample of 236 teachers (38.6% Spanish-speaking Latinx) of Latinx students in New York City public schools. We found that bilingual Latinx teachers reported using more effective mainstream and culturally responsive teaching practices compared to non-Latinx teachers (who did not speak Spanish). Using structural equation modeling, we found support for a model in which greater reported use of effective teaching practices by bilingual Latinx teachers is mediated by their greater culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy. Taken together, the findings suggest that greater confidence with culturally responsive teaching among Spanish-speaking Latinx teachers contributes to improved classroom environments for Latinx students.     

Stories we live,identities we build: how are elementary teachers’ science identities shaped by their lived experiences?

Cultural Studies of Science Education - The aim of this multiple case study was to uncover a series of critical events and experiences related to the formation of the science identities of four...     

Food insecurity: is it an issue among tertiary students?

Insufficient access to food is known to compromise tertiary studies. Students often belong to groups known to have poor food security such as those renting or relying on government payments. The present study administered a cross-sectional survey incorporating the USDA food security survey module (FSSM) to 810 students at a metropolitan university in Brisbane, Australia. One in four students indicated they were food insecure, this being double that previously reported for tertiary students and five times that previously reported for the general population. Factors associated with food insecurity included low income, reliance on government support and renting. Students from food insecure households were twice as likely to report only fair or poor general health and three times as likely to have deferred their studies due to financial difficulties. Further, at least 80 % of these students reported that their studies were compromised. Strategies to alleviate food insecurity among students could improve retention rates and educational outcomes.     

Growth in mathematical understanding: How can we characterise it and how can we represent it?

There has been a variety of approaches to the study of mathematical understanding, and some of these are reviewed before outlining the background to the model we are proposing for the growth of such understanding. The model is explained in detail and illustrated with reference to the concept of fractions. Key features of the model include don't need boundaries, folding back, and the complementarities of acting and expressing that occur at each level of understanding. The theory is illustrated by examples of pupils' work from a variety of topics and stages. Finally one of the practical applications of the theory, mapping, is explained in some detail.     

“How different can we be?”: Using Tuesdays with Morrie and intergenerational interactions to promote positive views of older adults among college students

ABSTRACT

This article reports the results of an Adult Development course assignment. This assignment required that undergraduate students interact with an older adult on two occasions, provide written reflection on these interactions, and read and review the book, Tuesdays with Morrie. The goals of this assignment were for students to comfortably interact with older adults, to recognize the value of intergenerational interactions, and to recognize ageist or stereotyped ideas that they may have held about older adults. The analyses were primarily qualitative, but indicate that these goals were met. Student reactions to this assignment were overwhelmingly positive and insightful. While a number of students expressed initial concern about these interactions, they unanimously reported them to be positive experiences. Students also indicated that it was a learning experience for them, and sometimes for the older adults as well, and several made note of stereotypes or ageist ideas that they had held. Students completed the Fraboni Scale of Ageism after completing these assignments, and scores were significantly below neutral. While pretest, and additional post-test, measures would make the results of this study stronger, the students’ reports indicate that they perceived positive change within themselves, which suggests that this was an effective means of promoting positive attitudes about older adults.     

Supporting students with impairments in higher education: social inclusion or cold comfort?

This paper uses a discursive analysis to examine the experience of ‘inclusion’ from several stakeholder groups in one university. The research team included disability support staff at the institution, external disability consultants and academic researchers. A critical focus group investigation centred on four groups: students who were identified as having an impairment (SWIs), academic staff (teachers), administrators and students who did not identify as having an impairment (non‐SWIs). Interviews had facilitators with both research and disability expertise. Groups recounted different experiences of inclusion. SWIs, drawing on a rights discourse, emphasised a lack of resourcing and barriers created by the teaching staff. In contrast, teachers, administrators and (to a lesser extent) non‐SWIs emphasised the importance of social inclusion, reflecting discourses around needs and humanist notions of care and support, which largely seemed to miss the core of SWI concerns about recognition of their technical competence. For all groups, questions around disclosure of disability were of greater concern than tensions between needs and rights or the recent publication of a Code of Practice for the higher education sector. The findings challenged some of the researchers’ own assumptions, with unexpected implications for practice.     

A fair game or no contest? Contested identities in teacher education

The narrative of one ethnic minority early childhood student teacher tells of her journey as she (re)constructs her identities as a Cook Island woman and as a pre-service teacher, during a teacher education course in New Zealand. This story conveys her experiences of learning across different pedagogical paradigms. Findings show that teacher education lecturers can significantly enhance the learning experience for ethnic minority pre-service teachers by incorporating existing knowledges and understandings in course content and delivery.     

Teacher turnover: What can we learn from Europe?

Shortages of qualified teachers in primary and secondary education are very common in almost all European countries and in the US. Since high quality teachers are usually the most likely to leave, much attention has been focused on teacher turnover; retaining the best teachers can help to ameliorate teacher shortages. Using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), this paper examines the rates and characteristics of teacher turnover across European countries. Though the numerical rates of teacher turnover have followed similar patterns, countries are very individual in other respects, including the types of positions teachers hold and how they are appraised. Moreover, from the early 1990s, Eastern European countries experienced economic transitions that have influenced teacher mobility in the long term. Thanks to SHARE, we can study the occupational trajectories of respondents in nineteen European countries. By identifying those who changed their occupation, we can learn more about teacher turnover, its characteristics across Europe and how it has been affected by economic and political transition.     

Supporting students’ mental health in schools: what do teachers want and need?

There is a growing expectation in the UK for teachers to have an understanding of common mental health problems in young people. This study aims to identify the training needs of secondary school teachers to enable them to adequately support and educate their students around mental health. Nine focus groups, each with between four to eight participants, were conducted with secondary school teachers in the UK. Discussions were centred on the needs and wants of teachers in terms of mental health training, provision and advice. Participants were also shown three online resources as an example of existing training. Thematic analysis was used to structure the data. Participants wanted training on how to identify and provide early support for students who are struggling, without taking on the perceived role of a therapist. Participants also emphasised the strong need for practical, interactive and expert-led training that provides resources that can be adapted to individual settings. Implications and recommendations are discussed.     

Investigating academic dishonesty among Chinese undergraduate students: does gender matter?

The high rate of academic dishonesty reported among Chinese college students has created challenges for practitioners in both domestic and Western universities. Following two contrasting yet complementary scholarly approaches, this study explored the relative importance of predictors indicative of students’ intention to cheat (moral attitude, subjective norm and penalty enforcement) and of their educational preparedness for academic integrity (integrity engagement) in explaining academic dishonesty, with an emphasis on gender differences. We administered a questionnaire survey to a sample of 2009 Chinese undergraduate students. The results indicated that moral attitude and integrity engagement were the major predictors, that subjective norm accounted for marginal variations of academic dishonesty, and that the influence of penalty enforcement was insignificant. Some gender differences on both the mean score and effect levels of the four predictors were revealed. The effects of grade, year and area of study on academic dishonesty (and particularly their joint effects with gender) were noteworthy. These findings are discussed relative to the results of prior studies and the Chinese context.     

Can we improve how we screen applicants for initial teacher education?

Identifying the best possible candidates for initial teacher education (ITE) programs is one of the first steps in building a strong teacher workforce. We report three phases of development and testing of a contextualized teaching-focused situational judgment test (SJT) designed to screen applicants at a large and competitive ITE program in the U.K. Results showed that the SJT was a reliable and predictive tool that enhanced existing screening methods. We suggest that using state-of-the art methods to help make admissions decisions could improve the reliability, validity, and fairness of selection into ITE.     

Institutional commitment of traditional and non-traditional-aged students: a potential brand measurement?

Currently, 18–21-year-olds account for 60% of university students; mature students represent 40%. Attrition (dropping out) can be related to discordance between a student's perception of the university created through branding and marketing of the institution and the university's actual environment and offerings delivery. This study adds to this research by indicating: (1) retention factors do vary for first-year students, depending on age and (2) academic environment is key to institutional commitment among non-traditional (22–55+ years of age) students whereas university and organizational support features contribute more to traditional (17–21 years of age) students' campus integration.