Change,Changing, and Being Changed: A Self-study of a teacher educator's becoming real in the throes of urban school reform

Set against an organized school reform backdrop, this inquiry features four challenges I faced as a result of working alongside teachers and principals whose urban schools were awarded major school research grants for a 5-year period. In addition to teasing out the origins of the dilemmas I encountered and showing how they impacted my teaching practice, I make two knowledge contributions through my public presentation of this self-study. First, I add a new set of partnered narratives—the stories of teacher educators/teacher educators' stories of self. Second, I extend my research niche to reveal the role I played as a living, breathing dimension of the educational conduit.

Rabbit: What is REAL? Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?     

Facilitating Professional Development during International Practicum: Understanding our Work as Teacher Educators through Critical Incidents

This collaborative self-study details the experiences of an Australian teacher educator and a Canadian teacher educator, who led teacher candidates on international practicum placements to the Cook Islands and Kenya respectively. Focusing on critical incidents, they collaboratively analyzed dilemmas that occurred when providing professional development sessions for local teachers during these placements. These dilemmas required the teacher educators to think deeply about their beliefs and practices in these contexts. Findings from the study included the teacher educator’s tendency to make assumptions about good teaching and learning practices that were reflective of their personal pedagogical values and beliefs; their discomfort with their perceptions of some neo‐colonial practices within these international practicum sites and uncertainty about how to navigate the resultant tensions; and, the need to view the work of teacher educators though a new cultural lens when working in transnational contexts. Implications for teacher educators working with local hosting teachers during international placements include the need to understand and acknowledge the complexity of this dimension of teacher educators’ work, and for teacher educators to engage in parallel learning journeys with the teacher candidates they accompany. This involves critically reflecting on the experiences, assumptions, and beliefs that they bring to their new contexts, as well as adopting a global perspective and a deep consciousness of how one is perceived by others who are culturally, racially, or linguistically different.     

Moving between literacy theory and practice with preservice teachers: Listening to their voices

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate two research questions: What literacy learning did preservice teachers experience through a Penpal Project embedded in an early literacy course? What sense did preservice teachers make of the Penpal Project?—with an overarching focus on bridging literacy theory with practice.

Data were gathered in a university classroom setting, situated in a small Western town, over a period of one school semester. Data methods and sources included videotaped participant observation during weekly penpal letter‐sharing, preservice teachers’ reflection journals, focus group interviews, and preservice teachers’ Penpal Project Summaries.

Patterns emerged from the data and were conceptualized under three broad categories: discourse, discovery and dilemmas. In the discourse category, cultivating relationships and learning through collaboration emerged as themes. Discoveries included meaning‐ and skill‐centered interpretations and professional learning. With regard to dilemmas, preservice teachers reported feelings of inadequacy in decoding their penpals’ letters, in finding topics to pique their penpals’ interests, and in making logical speculations.

Conclusions highlighted the importance of including field experiences in teacher education courses in order for preservice teachers to integrate early literacy theory and practice. A focus on forming relationships, working in collaboration with others, and acknowledging and solving challenges revealed added benefits for the preservice teachers, including a deeper understanding of young students’ early literacy development.     

Self-Study as a Means for Urban Teachers to Transform Academics

Our self-study has two main purposes: (1) to understand the value of self-study for credential program graduates to confront in transformative ways the pedagogical challenges of urban schools, and (2) to add to an exploration of self-study for non-teacher educators and strengthen our preparation of candidates to enact such inquiry. To answer these questions, we orchestrated a dialogic exchange with three Master's students who used self-study to research and improve their teaching in urban elementary schools. We analyzed their papers both to see how consistent they were with the characteristics of self-study and to determine the nature of lessons learned in relation to our social justice goals. In addition, in the following year we gathered and analyzed information about their post-study reactions to self-study and its continuing influence. In their self-studies all three examined assumptions guiding their teaching by analyzing pertinent data and functioning as critical friends for each other; their work was consistent with self-study requirements. Written reflections and interviews all mentioned the transformative influence of self-study on their thinking and practice. We also discovered that we should strengthen our guidance with regard to the specifics of self-study methodology, as in the need to look for disconfirming evidence. Although their commitment to the process was maintained, we need to explore whether and how self-study might be engaged more informally. Overall, we found that self-study invites teachers to question discriminatory categories with empirical evidence and empowers them to redefine their profession and question regressive policies.     

Student and novice teachers’ stories about collaborative learning implementation

Despite the research evidence on the effectiveness of collaborative learning (CL), the implementation of this teaching strategy has not yet found a profound place in teaching practice. As a consequence, several studies have investigated teachers’ motives regarding and experiences with the use of CL. Most of these studies concern however senior teachers, whereas new generations of teachers are important actors in the process of educational innovation. Hence, it is crucial to explore novice teachers’ stories about CL implementation: what motivates them to implement this teaching strategy, what hinders them and how do they handle the challenges they are confronted with? The answers to these questions may provide useful information for improving the teacher education curriculum regarding CL. In this respect, the present study intends to study pre-service and beginning teachers’ experiences with CL in classroom practice, after a formal training pertaining to CL as part of their teacher education programme. The aim is to identify the main challenges student and novice teachers encounter when they want to implement CL in their teaching practice, and how they position themselves in these challenges. A qualitative case study design with in-depth interviews in the Flemish context (Belgium) was used to gain access to the particular experiences of each teacher, and to the processes of interpretation and meaning-making that go with those experiences. Participants were interviewed individually one week before graduation (n?=?15). After at least half a year of experience in the teaching profession, 10 participants were interviewed for a second time. In the present study, we present the results from a cross-case analysis, using the method of constant comparative analysis to identify similarities or differences, and to capture recurring patterns within the data. The findings reveal several dilemmas that illustrate the conflicting options teachers are facing in relation to their colleagues, their pupils, the curriculum and in the classroom context when they intend to implement CL. In particular, the following dilemmas were identified: two dilemmas related to professional autonomy (student teachers: teacher autonomy vs. pre-service performance assessment; novice teachers: teacher autonomy vs. institutional conformity), further dilemmas related to teachers’ beliefs about pupils’ readiness for CL vs. evidence about pupils’ readiness for CL, investing in innovation vs. curriculum and job pressure, and pedagogical intentions vs. contextual constraints. In most conflicting situations, student and novice teachers position themselves in the challenge by opting for non-implementation.     

“I am Out of My Comfort Zone”: Self-study of the Struggle of Adapting to the Professional Identity of a Teacher Educator

It is often assumed that graduate students will develop as teacher educators simply by participating in a doctoral program. However, research has shown that doctoral students find the shift from teaching K-12 to preparing teachers to be a difficult transition. Within the context of a doctoral program community of practice established specifically for the purpose of examining this transition through self-study research, we sought to understand the shift in identity of a novice teacher educator working as an early field experience instructor with elementary science and mathematics preservice teachers. Our findings indicate that the process of self-study research, when supported within a community of practice, offered Jared the opportunity to recognize different aspects of his shifting professional identity, the dominance of particular aspects of his identity in certain situations, and the impact this was having on his students’ development as teachers. Developing this awareness of his adapting professional teaching identity from a classroom teacher to a teacher educator should help as he continues to develop his knowledge and skills working with teachers in different contexts and at different grade levels. Implications for how teacher education programs could better support the professional identity development of novice teacher educators through the use of a self-study focused community of practice are discussed.     

Ethical dilemmas on social media: Swedish secondary teachers’ boundary management on Facebook

With the aim of contributing to the research about the educational use of social media, the paper explores teachers’ experiences of ethical dilemmas on Facebook. The paper draws upon focus group interviews with Swedish secondary teachers. Two main categories of ethical dilemmas, related to the border between private and professional, are detected. The dilemmas concern (1) teachers’ moral responsibility for pupils’ actions and (2) how teachers appear on social media. Different boundary work practices created and used by teachers are identified. The main conclusion is that, by having contact with pupils in a virtual social arena originally intended for private use, teachers’ use of social media brings to fore and intensifies deep-rooted ethical questions about what the teacher role is and should be. Teachers’ participation on social media such as Facebook compels them to reflect upon and position their preferred teacher role in these new social arenas.     

Creating a Professional Learning Community through Self-Study

This article describes the use of self-study as a frame for professional learning that grew out of a professional development program for teachers examining their practice in a dual-language K-4 school. Located in the center of the rural state of Iowa, the school's development of a bilingual program for native speakers of both English and Spanish created challenges for the educators involved. The authors reflect the spectrum of collegial partnerships fostered by the experience, representing two classroom teachers, a program coordinator, and two university professors. They present their analysis of the development of a dual language program and the impact of their collegial self-study on how they thought about their practice, how they engaged with others, and how they were able to achieve change within and across their practice.     

Muddying the Waters: Studying Teaching for Social Justice in the Midst of Uncertainty

ABSTRACT

In light of societal pluralism, diverse visions exist for social justice. In this sense, uncertainty is a marker of social justice education and research. This article shares insights into how we came to ask a question about teaching for social justice through cross-cultural collaborative self-study. Eight New Zealand pre-service teachers participated in semi-structured interviews in which they reflected on their six-week social studies methods course. Drawing on pedagogical moments that the pre-service teachers saw as being significant, this article explores the generative and ambiguous ways in which the course ‘muddied the waters’ of their unfolding conceptions and practices of social justice education. The article describes how coming to know ‘teaching for social justice’ through the eyes of these pre-service teachers provided a reflexive surface for our self-study and has shaped its trajectory. In contrast to our initial desire for greater certainty, placing the uncertainties of social justice at the forefront of our practice has become central to our inquiry.     

In Search of Ways to Improve Practicum Learning: Self-Study of the Teacher Educator/Researcher as Responsive Listener

Abstract

Teacher education programs that appear to be more successful work to thread practicum experiences and on-campus courses with an eye to achieving overall program coherence. As part of a funded research project centred on understanding how teacher candidates perceive quality in their practicum experiences and, by extension, in their professional learning, focus groups were recruited for a series of discussions that extended over an academic year. I undertook this self-study in an attempt to examine the conditions for learning that made these focus groups so successful by virtue of participants’ commitment, engagement, focus and drive to become the best teachers they could possibly be. Self-study was an avenue for me to develop insights into my practice and to identify ways to move forward to become a more effective teacher educator who could model and scaffold responsive listening and relationship-building for future teachers. The two questions driving this self-study were “How does adopting and promoting a listening perspective improve participants learning?” And “What is transformative about responsive listening?” Identifying and challenging my assumptions were initial steps in understanding what a listening perspective entails, the importance of authorizing student perspectives and developing their pedagogical voices. Responsive listening became a means to interrogate my practice, to reframe my experience, to work in and from action, and to become more comfortable with the uncertain spaces where deep learning can occur – for myself and for those whom I teach. In so doing, I came closer to appreciating the possibilities for transformation.     

Developing new teacher inquiry and criticality: The role of online discussions

This work concerns the professional development of UK teachers in their first year of teaching. It is interested in how the online discussions (ODs) these teachers undertook as part of the Master of Teaching contributed to this development process. The teachers worked in online tutor groups made up of teachers from different schools, phases (primary and secondary) and subjects. The data used were their accounts of participating in the ODs written towards the end of this first year of teaching and interviews with a selection of these teachers at a later stage in their career. It appeared that the learning gains of the ODs were enabled and fostered by writing for an audience of peers about their professional practice. These new teachers developed an inquiry‐centred collegiality, reflexivity and a critical engagement with wider and longer‐term educational perspectives. The research establishes that the gains from the ODs were the result of careful pedagogic design at many levels. By foregrounding the situated experiences and interests of the teachers, it allowed a “way in” for them to start to understand the complexities, dilemmas and strategies within their own and others' professional practice.     

Learning from dilemmas: teacher professional development through collaborative action and reflection

This article aims at describing and analysing the interpersonal and intrapersonal dilemmas experienced by a group of five university teachers as they engaged in collaborative inquiry, including the ways in which teachers managed these dilemmas and how this contributed to their professional development. The results are based on qualitative data collected through in-depth interviews, working sessions, participant observation and teacher narratives. Our findings illustrate how interpersonal and intrapersonal dilemmas co-occur when teachers engage in collaborative inquiry. Working together towards shared goals brought to the surface differences in beliefs and expectations that generated conflict and tension, which sometimes interfered with teachers’ willingness to work together. At the same time, introducing changes to their teaching practice – a major goal of inquiry communities – challenged teachers to question and revise their personal beliefs about teaching and learning, thereby triggering intrapersonal dilemmas. Our findings also confirm the key role of critical reflection for bringing these dilemmas to the surface and benefiting from the opportunities they provide for learning and change. Areas that warrant further exploration to better understand the dilemmas within inquiry communities and how to support teachers in handling them are discussed.     

Pre-service teachers undertaking classroom research: developing reflection and enquiry skills

This paper reports on the development of reflectiveness and research skills in eight pre-service teachers, through their participation in a funded research project to develop the handwriting of children with literacy problems. The project aimed to analyse the reflections of the trainee teachers participating in an authentic research study and to consider what this reflection on practice might offer to the education of teachers in the current UK training context. The context for the paper was a project which engaged pre-service trainee teachers in researching the proposition that automaticity in handwriting plays a role in facilitating composing processes and that the automaticity of early writers can be trained. Some outcomes of the project for pupils are reported. The focus in the present paper is, however, on the participating trainee teachers and the paper suggests that conducting research was a significant learning event for these pre-service teachers and that, through working together, they were able to analyse their development as researchers and their learning during the research process. At a time when the English government views teacher training as a method of school improvement and the effectiveness of training is measured through its immediate impact on pupil outcomes, this study offers an example of how shared research can offer positive learning outcomes for pupils, develop the reflective thinking of pre-service teachers through researching a real problem, and develop links across a range of school and university settings.     

Challenges in Enacting Core Practices in Language Teacher Education: A Self-Study

In this study, I explore my practices as a teacher educator in one course both before and after returning to the K–12 classroom to teach secondary language learners for one academic year. By examining the intersection of self-study and practice-based teacher education, I illustrate how I used self-study as a mechanism for innovation and change and focus on the challenges I encountered in implementing the use of practice-based education in my work as a teacher educator. Qualitative data analysis revealed that in redesigning my approach to my course, I stopped short of my goals to make the course more practice-centered. Although I provided students with many opportunities to practice planning, I did not provide enough focused opportunities to practice implementation and to participate in giving and receiving feedback. I learned that engaging teachers in practice-based teaching requires teacher educators to be both specific and deliberate in setting their own purposes for establishing the centrality of practice in their courses and to explain these clearly to teacher candidates. Further work in which teacher educators study their use of practice-based pedagogy would benefit from using a self-study lens. Other researchers are urged to add to the limited body of research about the use of practice-based pedagogy with teachers of language learners, particularly English language learners.     

Veteran teachers and technology: change fatigue and knowledge insecurity influence practice

In recent years, a significant problem that has manifested in the quest to capitalise on the pedagogical potential of technology in schools is that veteran teachers are unwilling to integrate these resources into their practices. Given that veteran teachers comprise up to 40% of teachers, their lack of use is important. This paper aims to shed light on the issue of detachment by presenting empirically based findings of a five-year, grounded theory examination of the technology practices of a small group of veteran teachers. Data included classroom observations, teacher interviews and document analysis of teacher and school planning documentation, student focus groups, interviews with teaching colleagues and key school technology personnel observation. Analysis included the application of the teachers’ data to a framework of dilemmas teachers encounter when expected to change their practice. In using this process, change fatigue and knowledge insecurity (brought about by cultural and political changes to their contexts) were prominent factors which contributed to the teachers’ lack of technology use. Identifying their challenges opened scrutiny to the myriad of factors they drew on when making decisions about how and whether to use technology in their practice. The longitudinal analysis of the data showed that as these dilemmas alleviated, the teachers became more committed to educational technology. The findings inform how we can move forward from the issue of veteran teachers’ lack of use of technology to how to support this group in the development of their practices. In particular, the need for a re-imagining of professional learning to one which focuses on reshaping cultural and political aspects of technology practices. This includes changes to the management of technology-related policy changes as well as facilitating learning communities that promote a valuing and sharing of relevant knowledge amongst teachers and students.     

Some Dilemmas in Implementing the Criteria for Continuous Assessment in GCSE English

Using evidence from a two‐year case study of teachers in a comprehensive school who were implementing the new GCSE examination in English, we explore the origins and development of two dilemmas. Opting to join a large consortium of schools using teacher‐based, criterion‐referenced, continuous assessment, the staff faced these different but interrelated questions. (1) As individuals, could they maintain the motivation of their classes if, early in the course, pupils could guess their ultimate grades? (2) As collegiate agents of the grading process, could they standardise their varied, individual assessments in line with GCSE expectations? We argue that the strategies teachers developed reflected the dilemmas they faced. The dilemmas derived from contradictions built into the course.     

Changing Practice,Feeling Good: primary professional development explored

This article uses teachers’ accounts to explore two issues. The first is concerned with the extent to which key events impact on professional growth and practice enhancement. The second is concerned with how classrooms looked and felt to a sample of primary teachers when, in their view, there were optimum opportunities for learning to occur. Links between these two issues are considered. The research sample is too small for generalisations to be claimed. However, common ground across participating teachers is evident and interesting trends have emerged in relation to practice enhancement. Data reveals the teachers as prepared to take risks, indeed risks seemed inevitable if practice was to develop. How they calculated the risks and how they overcame associated uncertainties is revealed in their thoughts and actions and reported here     

浅谈语文教学中学生自学能力的培养

语文教学要重视培养学生的自学能力,要引导学生积极参加听说读写的实践,重视在实践中学习语言、理解语言、运用语言。教给学生一些学习方法,鼓励他们采用适合自己的方法,主动地进行学习,逐步培养学生的自学习惯和自学能力。     

Video production as a tool for raising educator awareness about collaborative teacher–parent partnerships

Background:?This article describes research undertaken with teachers working in a South African township school, where parental involvement is a persistent problematic issue.

Purpose:?The purpose of the study was to explore the use of video production as a tool for assisting teachers to explore their perceptions about parental involvement in education and how these perceptions impact on their relationships with parents.

Sample:?Nine teachers participated voluntarily in the study, seven from two different primary schools and two from the high school in the township. All the teachers were isiXhosa speaking and had grown up in communities similar to the one in which the school was situated.

Design and methods:?Following a participatory research approach, we guided the participating teachers to design and produce short videos about issues that they perceived to impact negatively on their teaching and learning. We then facilitated critical reflection on these videos, specifically exploring how they had portrayed the teacher–parent relationship in each case.

Results:?Through a content analysis of a structured focus group and their written responses to questions, we identified emergent themes that made it apparent that the participating teachers viewed parents in a negative light, indicating a lack of the respect that would be required for the formation and sustainment of co-operative relationships. These themes were then used to facilitate discussion to raise teacher awareness of how the teachers' perceptions of parents could hinder meaningful parental involvement.

Conclusion:?The article offers an example of how visual methodologies can be useful tools for beginning to raise teacher awareness around issues, as a precursor to helping teachers to take action to improve a given situation.