Disablist bullying in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: an investigation of student teachers’ knowledge,experience and confidence

This study explored the knowledge, experience and confidence of student teachers from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in relation to disablist bullying. Adopting a mixed methodological approach of four focus groups (N = 18) and a pencil-and-paper questionnaire (N = 257), the study explored the students knowledge, experience and confidence in relation to disablist bullying. Results highlight that none of the participants, in either jurisdiction, had received guidance in relation to disablist bullying as part of their Initial Teacher Education (ITE). Results highlight the need for practical, solution-focused and evidence-based input at the level of ITE and Continuing Professional Development in both jurisdictions.     

Teachers’ perceptions of professional identity: an exploratory study from a personal knowledge perspective

The purpose of this study was to investigate experienced secondary school teachers’ (N=80) current and prior perceptions of their professional identity. A questionnaire was used to explore the way teachers see (and saw) themselves as subject matter experts, didactical experts, and pedagogical experts. The teachers currently see their professional identity as consisting of a combination of the distinct aspects of expertise. Most teachers’ current perceptions of their professional identity reportedly differ significantly from their prior perceptions of this identity during their period as beginning teachers. On the basis of their current perceptions of their professional identity, five groups of teachers could be distinguished. These groups had different learning experiences throughout their careers for each aspect of expertise. Also, teachers from different subject areas did not undergo the same changes in their perceptions of their professional identity. The differences among the groups in teachers’ current perceptions of professional identity were not related to contextual, experiential, and biographical factors that might influence these perceptions.     

Relational analysis of prospective teachers’ emotions about teaching,emotional styles,and professional plans about teaching

The present study examined the mediating roles of prospective teachers’ emotional styles in the relationships between their emotions about teaching and professional plans about teaching. A total of 684 prospective teachers, majoring in computer education and instructional technology teaching, mathematics teaching, preschool teaching, special education teaching, and English language teaching, voluntarily participated in the study. Correlation and structural equation modeling analyses were conducted in order to examine the mediating roles of emotional styles. Results showed that the prospective teachers expected to experience enjoyment more than anger and anxiety regarding their future teaching. Results also showed that the prospective teachers’ attention style and social intuition style played significant mediating roles in the relationships between their emotions about teaching (i.e. enjoyment and anger) and professional plans about teaching (i.e. planned effort and professional development aspirations). Overall results of the study suggest that PTs’ emotions about teaching should be taken into account together with their emotional styles in order to understand their teaching-related future plans more comprehensively and accurately. Implications for teacher education and directions for future studies were also discussed in the present study.     

Subject knowledge for primary teaching: the influence of the personal dimension on beginning primary teachers’ conceptualisations and interpretations

This paper argues that professional discourse relating to subject knowledge for primary teaching is less than coherent in the context of initial teacher training (ITT). This study explored the ways in which the term subject knowledge was conceptualised and interpreted by beginning primary teachers. The research was conducted across two ITT partnerships with final-year undergraduate trainees. Data were collected via questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and participatory visual methods. The findings indicated that conceptualisations of subject knowledge were highly individualised and dependent on personal factors, rather than reflecting a shared understanding of a critically distinct concept.     

Learning for Everyday Life: Pupils’ conceptions of hearing and knowledge about tinnitus from a teaching–learning sequence

As a result of young people frequently exposing themselves to loud sounds, researchers are advocating education about the risks of contracting tinnitus. However, how pupils conceive of and learn about the biological aspects of hearing has not been extensively investigated. Consequently, the aim of the present study is to explore pupils’ learning about hearing and tinnitus. Pupils in Grades 4, 7, and 8 (aged 10–11, n = 48; aged 12–13, n = 71; aged 13–14, n = 80) were studied. The pupils’ learning was evaluated in connection with a teaching intervention based on a teaching–learning sequence (TLS) about sound, hearing, and health. In pre‐, post‐, and delayed post‐tests, pupils were asked to use drawing and writing to express their answer to the question: ‘What happens to a sound that has reached your ear?’ A questionnaire concerning tinnitus, experiences of tinnitus, and listening behaviour was also given. The results show that the pupils’ knowledge of hearing and tinnitus had increased as a result of the intervention and that this knowledge was well retained one year later. The pupils in Grade 4 learned just as much as the older pupils, although it was more difficult for them to understand cell structures and causal chains. To conclude, pupils are capable of learning about hearing and tinnitus already at the age of 10–11. Knowledge of hearing and tinnitus may be an important prerequisite for conceptualizing the risk of being exposed to loud sounds.     

Hello from the other side: museum educators’ perspectives on teaching the Holocaust

Museums often cite supporting teachers and schools as a goal, and museum educators frequently create resources or provide professional development for this audience, though the two entities have little contact. This qualitative study sought to examine the perspectives of museum educators at a regional Holocaust museum as they planned and presented two-week-long professional development workshops for educators. Pre-workshop and post-workshop interviews were conducted with three museum educators responsible for the workshops, which were also observed in their entirety. Findings indicate that all three museum educators believed the Holocaust to be difficult knowledge. However, each approached the topic in a different manner based on their personal experience and understanding of Holocaust education, resulting in three vastly different presentation styles. These varied presentations resulted in an uneven focus on content, with few concrete classroom connections. The article concludes by discussing implications for museum-initiated professional development and avenues for further research.     

The teaching of the philosophy of science in secondary classrooms: case studies of teachers’ personal theories

This study examines teachers’ philosophies of science and describes how these philosophies influence their classroom instruction. Three science teachers with very diverse views of science were interviewed and observed in their classrooms for several months. These teachers’ philosophies were found to influence laboratory instruction, the manner in which demonstrations were used, the teaching of evolution, science‐technology‐society (STS) instruction, word usage, and instructional goals. The findings are relevant to issues in teacher education as well as the institutional environment of teaching.     

Giving children space to express themselves: exploring children’s views and perspectives of contact programmes in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Macedonia

This paper presents the perspectives of 10–11-year-old children from conflict-affected areas in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Macedonia. By drawing upon Bronfennbrenner’s ecological theory and Bourdieu’s notion of habitus, the main aim of the paper is to show different reactions to intergroup contact based on the children’s previous experiences and their habitus. The findings reveal children’s competency in interpreting information connected to the intergroup relations gathered through various systems they belong to. Moreover, the paper shows how children connect their previous experiences with contact encounters. Therefore the paper suggests the development and implementation of contact programmes that will pay attention to the broader context and children’s perspectives, so that the quality of contact can be improved and planned contact interventions can lead to positive change.     

Teacher learning and policy intention: selected findings from an evaluation of a large‐scale programme of professional development in the Republic of Ireland

The study reported on in this paper is set in the context of a national programme of professional development for primary teachers in the Republic of Ireland which has been in operation since 1999 and finished in 2008. The paper explores the acquisition and interpretation by teachers of the elements of the reform. The authors consider the extent to which the professional development experiences facilitated change in teachers’ knowledge and if the teachers interpreted this in the way expected by policy‐makers. The theoretical basis to the study draws on previous research that conceptualises teacher learning/knowledge acquisition and the change process as being dependant on an interwoven mix of factors, including teacher, school and policy‐level contexts and characteristics. To a large degree the findings of this study do not deviate wildly from this prior work, which suggests that policy‐makers and planners of CPD programmes, despite their best intentions, still need to be cognisant of such factors.     

The Relationship between Understanding of the Nature of Science and Practice: The influence of teachers’ beliefs about education,teaching and learning

This paper reports the relationship between four English primary teachers’ understanding of the nature of science and their practice. Action research was included as a major part of the research design in order to explore the dialectical interplay between various factors at work in the teachers’ practice. The influences of both tacit and espoused understandings of the nature of science were considered alongside the teachers’ beliefs about education, teaching, and learning. These beliefs were found to be the determining factor in the teachers’ decisions about classroom strategies. In arguing for a dialectical perspective on teachers’ practice, the research suggests that teachers’ espoused understanding of the nature of science may also be at least partially formed by the influence of these beliefs, raising the possibility that influence may run from teaching to theoretical understanding and not the other way round.     

Does undergraduate education influence teachers’ perceptions of learning and teaching? The case of the Republic of Slovenia

In the first part of the paper, different models of teacher education are presented and analysed: the pre‐technocratic model or the model of training master craftsmen; the technocratic model or the model of applied science; and the post‐technocratic model or the reflexive model. In the second part of the paper, the results of the empirical research are presented. The aim of the empirical research was to determine the influence of undergraduate teacher education on teachers’ perceptions of learning and teaching and, consequently, on teachers’ actions. In Slovenia, teachers’ education was carried out following two main models: the pre‐technocratic model or model of training master craftsmen, which was typical for the Academy of Education, and the technocratic model or the so‐called model of applied science, which is used at the education faculties nowadays. Because of this dualism in teachers’ education models, there exist differences between teachers and their perception and actions as well.     

The challenges of internationalization from foreign and local students’ perspectives: The case of management school

The purpose of this qualitative case study is to discern the issues pertaining to different dimensions of internationalization from the perspectives of both foreign and local students. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 foreign, and 13 local students. The results show that there is a dissonance between policy makers and implementers, and the students themselves on “what a truly international higher education organization” in fact is. Moreover, the results suggest that asymmetrical aims of local and foreign students endanger fulfillment of the academic, social, and cultural rationales behind internationalization. Fulfilling the rationales of internationalization depends not only the adaptability of foreign students to local conditions but also on the priorities, choices and level of commitment of local students, administrative staff, and faculty members to the imperatives of internationalization.     

Hindu,Muslim and Sikh religious education teachers’ use of personal life knowledge: the relationship between biographies,professional beliefs and practice

The article reports the findings of a qualitative study of Hindu, Muslim and Sikh teachers of religious education and the relationship between their biographies, professional beliefs and use of personal life knowledge in English, secondary school classrooms. This relationship was explored through a study of five beginning teachers and provided evidence of the role that their personal knowledge played in enabling them to support the learning of pupils in white majority and Muslim majority state schools. It also indicated the need for teacher education courses to provide opportunities for teachers to explore the relationship between their personal and professional lives and the potential dilemmas and dangers of sharing their personal knowledge and experiences with pupils. In the context of international concern to identify criteria for selecting beginning teachers, the article highlights the importance of initiatives aimed at increasing the ethnic/religious diversity of the teaching force.     

Structural embeddedness of students’ professional expectations: the Czech Republic and Taiwan in comparative perspective

Abstract

We compare the role of gender, socioeconomic background and measured ability on students’ secondary school placement and professional expectations in Taiwan and the Czech Republic, two countries that have experienced substantial reforms in their educational systems in the context of political change and economic development. Using data from the international PISA 2006 survey of 15-year-olds, our analysis reveals that Czech academic upper-secondary schools are much more selective in terms of socioeconomic background and gender than comparable Taiwanese senior high schools. Controlling for measured ability and other factors, students’ professional expectations are also more closely linked to socioeconomic background and gender in the Czech Republic than in Taiwan.     

Politicising the ‘personal’: the resistant potential of creative pedagogies in teaching and learning ‘sensitive’ issues

Drawing upon student narratives gleaned through qualitative interviews, this paper argues that teaching and learning ‘sensitive’ issues surrounding gender and sexualities through ‘creative’ pedagogies can be a mode of resistance against the reproduction of problematic social discourses, and to the negative impacts of neoliberalism on student’s learning within higher education. The findings point to the importance of speaking about sensitive issues; the value of creative approaches for enhancing learning; and that together these can enable students to articulate an agenda for social change. Students saw the ‘personal as political’ – of sharing personal journeys around sensitive issues as important. They further spoke of ‘apathy’ in an neoliberal era of student ‘consumers’ and how this could curtail ‘creative’ teaching and jeopardise learning. Overall, it is argued that creative approaches to teaching and learning sensitive issues can invoke a resistant potentiality which exposes the ‘hidden injuries’ (Gill, 2010) of the neoliberal university.     

Analyzing the relationship between principals’ learning-centered leadership and teacher professional learning: The mediation role of trust and knowledge sharing behavior

This study tested the relationship between principals’ learning-centered leadership and teacher professional learning in Iranian primary schools, with a focus on the mediating role of trust and knowledge sharing behavior. Survey data collected from 886 teachers in 121 primary schools, representing a range of socioeconomic status, distributed across three districts in the city of Mashhad. Data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The results illustrate significant path relationships between the constructs, linking learning-centered leadership with teacher professional learning. Learning-centered leadership directly influenced the professional learning of teachers, and such a relationship was fully mediated by the teachers’ trust and knowledge-based sharing behavior in these Iranian primary schools. These results provide evidence that principals can enhance teacher learning by emphasizing teaching and learning to develop trust among teachers and foster knowledge sharing.