Three quality professional documents to guide teachers for puberty,relationships and sexuality education

Quality school-based sexuality education is important for all children and adolescents. The global trend towards students’ earlier, longer, and technologically connected pubertal experience makes the timely provision of such education particularly significant. Quality international sexuality education documents are available for teachers developing curriculum-based frameworks and pastoral care programmes, and these variously include policy and structural guidance, equity standards, comprehensive content and pedagogical strategies. This paper aims to compare three such documents for their relevance in meeting the educational needs of students, and their usefulness for teachers and educators. The results show that these three documents, produced by global organisations for multi-national application, provide highly professional and sustainable responses to the dire need for improved sexuality education for all children and adolescents, in formats accessible to any curriculum planner or teacher. Inclusive and timely provision of any of these document frameworks would help enhance sexuality teaching and learning in contemporary primary and secondary schools, and they are highly recommended for use by teachers around the world.     

Some sociological contexts for consideration when designing a school puberty/sexuality curriculum

Sociological contexts are key factors in education and schooling. Contemporary contexts of world-view, or Weltanschauungen, such as human rights, public health, demographics, biosocial factors including earlier puberty and a developmentalist approach, and technological connectivity, warrant significant professional consideration by education authorities for children and adolescents. Such sociological contexts encapsulate the impetus for change that is the overwhelming spirit of the age, or Zeitgeist, and so may generate significant positive requirements for school-based teaching and learning. These sociological contexts are particularly relevant in the design of any school puberty/sexuality curriculum. This paper examines a number of these significant sociological contexts, and provides a guide for their consideration in the architecture of global, contemporary puberty/sexuality curricula for primary and secondary school students.     

Primary schools and the delivery of relationships and sexuality education: the experience of Queensland teachers

Primary school provides an appropriate opportunity for children to commence comprehensive relationships and sexuality education (RSE), yet many primary school teachers avoid teaching this subject area. In the absence of teacher confidence and competence, schools have often relied on health promotion professionals, external agencies and/or one-off issue-related presentations rather than cohesive, systematic and meaningful health education. This study examines the implementation of a 10-lesson pilot RSE unit of work and an accompanying assessment task in two primary schools in South-East Queensland, Australia. Drawing predominantly from qualitative data, the research explores the experiences of primary school teachers as they engage with RSE curriculum resources and content delivery. The results show the provision of a high-quality RSE curriculum resource grounded in contemporary educational principles and practices enables teachers to feel more confident to deliver RSE and minimises potential barriers such as parental objections and fear of mishandling sensitive content.     

Coherence,dissonance, and personal style in learning to teach

Concern that practical realities in classrooms will ‘trump’ theories has led some universities to design residency teacher education programs that maximize coherence between university coursework and field experiences. Yet, some research suggests that student teachers can learn from dissonance. This qualitative case study of one cohort in an urban teacher residency program that sought to maximize coherence asks how the apprentice teachers experienced connections between the university and the field. Although apprentices experienced dissonance, they nonetheless expressed coherent philosophies aligned with university values. Coherence was something that individual apprentices constructed for themselves as they developed a personal ‘style’ or way of teaching in a program that welcomed their prior identities. Coherence was achieved through early development of a personal professional identity, not perfect alignment between field and university.     

Examining professional learning and the preparation of professionally competent teachers in initial teacher education

The relative contributions of higher education and schools, and hence the conceptual and practical aspects of ITE, to student teachers’ professional learning have been an issue of concern in teacher education. This article reports a mixed-methods study showing the relationship between student teachers’ engagement with the practical and conceptual aspects of a Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) Programme in Hong Kong and different facets of their perceived professional competence. One hundred and thirty-two student teachers participated in the quantitative survey of whom seven were interviewed. The findings reveal that experiences associated with learning the pragmatic facets of professional practice were more valued by student teachers compared to learning the conceptual aspects of ITE. Yet, in terms of relationship with professional competence, student teachers’ engagement with the practical aspects of ITE was related to competence in classroom teaching, whereas their engagement with the conceptual aspects contributed to their mastery of professional knowledge, competence in classroom teaching and competence in interacting with stakeholders. The study illuminates the distinctive contributions of schools and higher education in ITE. While acknowledging the important role of schools in providing a setting for practical work, this study affirms the distinctive contribution of higher education in equipping student teachers with practical and conceptual tools in the preparation of professionally competent teachers.     

Learning to teach in higher education: how to link theory and practice

In this study the learning process of 12 Dutch novice university teachers was monitored during a five-month induction programme. The teachers were interviewed before and after the programme and were asked to fill in several email logbooks during the programme. A change process was identified, in which experiencing and experimentation played a central role. In particular, modelling by the teacher educator, the observation of video cases, reflection on these with peers and experiencing success in their own practice seemed to be important incentives that encouraged teachers to adopt and eventually implement new pedagogical approaches. On the basis of our data, we think that teachers' conceptions and teaching practice are best developed simultaneously and that the design of induction programmes should support this process.     

(Re)turning to practice in teacher education: embodied knowledge in learning to teach

Contemporary research conversations about the utility of practice theories to professional education support the reconceptualisation of pre-service teacher education in ways that provide strong preparation for continued professional learning. This paper reports on an empirical inquiry that introduced a theoretically informed practice-based intervention in a pre-service teacher education course in order to judge the utility of such an approach for student learning. Innovations within the Study of Teaching programme illustrate the bringing together of pedagogies of observation, pedagogies of enactment, and pedagogies of reflection toward an integrated theory of teacher education that focuses on the teaching body as a central site for research and for the building of preparatory knowledge and skill for ongoing learning. Data was collected from pre-service teachers involved in the programme through video and audio recordings along with individual and focus group interviews, questionnaires and student reflection on video recordings. These were analyzed within an emerging theoretical framework derived from both practice-theoretical literature and international empirical research into core practices. Initial findings suggest that a focus on practice within pre-service teacher education may enhance traditional understandings of ‘practice-based’ approaches that situate the study of practice outside of the university, in school settings. These findings have implications for the ongoing reform of teacher education in increasingly regulated contexts framed in terms of teacher quality.     

The importance of orientation: implications of professional identity on classroom practice and for professional learning

Previous work on new teacher professional identity has focused on identity as a process of negotiation between individual and contextual factors. These negotiations are often filled with a struggle between personal agency and structures that prevent the enactment of an ideal professional self. This study introduces and discusses three teacher professional identity orientations (self, classroom, and dialogic) and the implications of each orientation on a teacher’s professional identity and classroom practice. While each focal teacher featured in the study drew from similar sources of professional identity (experiences as students, classroom practical experience, and theory/research), the teachers varied in the degree of importance accorded to each identity source. This variation led to differences in approach to their roles as teachers as well as differences in their work with students. Using a qualitative, comparative case study methodology to highlight features of each professional identity orientation, this study provides evidence of discourse related to each orientation and discusses implications of identity orientation in each case study teacher’s classroom practice. After the discussion and analysis of the data, the author offers recommendations for teacher educators (pre-service and in-service) and researchers related to understandings of professional identity development and implications for the work of pre-service teacher education and continuing professional development.     

Learning to teach,learning to act: becoming a critical literacy teacher

Critical literacy requires an exploration of privilege and social justice. This includes an exploration of power and action in one’s “inner” and “outer” lives. This qualitative case study illustrates the ways in which Jonah, a preservice teacher, navigates social practices and actions in his roles as a student, activist, and literacy teacher. Through critical discourse analysis, we conceptualize social action in relation to critical literacy teaching, using a framework of discourses of, discourses as, and discourses in action to construct a nuanced understanding of social action in relation to critical literacy. Given the demands of a standardized curriculum on teachers’ autonomy, this is an important illustration of how social action can be enacted and embodied through the act of teaching.     

Expanding computer science education in schools: understanding teacher experiences and challenges

The increased push for teaching computer science (CS) in schools in the United States requires training a large number of new K-12 teachers. The current efforts to increase the number of CS teachers have predominantly focused on training teachers from other content areas. In order to support these beginning CS teachers, we need to better understand their experiences and challenges encountered in the classroom. This study investigated U.S. CS teachers’ perspectives on the demands of teaching computer science and support needed to ensure quality teaching. Results suggested that teachers face a number of challenges, including isolation, lack of adequate computer science background, and limited professional development resources.     

Sexuality and relationship education training to primary and secondary school teachers: an evaluation of provision in Western Australia

This paper describes the formative, process and short term impact evaluation of sexuality and relationships education (SRE) training for teachers in Western Australia (WA) over a three year period. The training represents one component of a broader project, the aims of which are to improve teacher’s confidence and skills in delivering SRE, and to support schools to implement effective comprehensive SRE. Formative evaluation conducted prior to the development of the training, found although most respondents were relatively confident and skilled in facilitating SRE, the need for ongoing professional development was highlighted, especially in areas such as gender diversity, pornography, sexting, violence and working with specific groups. Training focusing on the new Australian Health and Physical Education curriculum and mandatory assessment was identified as a need. Workshop evaluation found statistically significant improvements in attitudes towards SRE and increased comfort in teaching SRE, facilitating discussion and facilitating skills and activities, after the workshop. The evaluation identified the need for an integrated and coordinated whole school approach and efforts to engage teachers with lower levels of confidence in teaching SRE. Changes to the Australian Curriculum provide opportunities to enhance the development of SRE in schools. Longer-term impact evaluation is required to identify whole school changes.     

我国教师专业发展学校:推广的必要性及对策

教师专业发展学校是融职前教师教育、在职教师培训、大学教师发展为一体的教师教育模式,推行广泛并取得了巨大成效。我国教师教育发展模式相对滞后的现状迫切需要我们认真学习国外先进经验,加快发展我国的教师专业发展学校建设。     

Safety,celebration, and risk: educator responses to LGBTQ professional development

Research has explored multicultural teacher education from multiple, sometimes divergent perspectives; yet, these studies agree that what passes for multicultural education fails to address issues of educational inequity. This paper is part of a larger evaluation study of Reduction of Stigma in Schools (RSIS) – a professional development program aiming to empower educators to create affirming environments for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Questioning (LGBTQ) youth. Interview data indicate that though workshops utilized a critical approach, what teachers embraced was a call to understand and “protect” LGBTQ students through the “safety” discourse – a form of understanding and valuing the “cultural other” – and investment in one time “visibility” or “celebration” events as symbols of improved school climate. Further, educators framed LGBTQ issues as “risk” issues rather than as equity issues, which continue to mark LGBTQ students as “victims” or “problems” in need of saving or solving. We posit that responses to RSIS content reflect educators’ understanding of their obligation to “diversity” as presented during their teacher preparation programs and that workshop content which resonated with them was that which they could easily fit into these familiar frameworks.     

Professional experience: learning from the past to build the future

The title of the 2014 Australian Teacher Education Association (ATEA) conference was Teacher Education, An Audit: Building a platform for future engagement. One of the conference themes was Professional Experience: What works? Why? I seized upon this theme and the title of the conference as it afforded me an opportunity to do an audit of my research in professional experience over the last 25 years. This article presents this evidence base and the messages I have taken from this evidence. I have done this in the hope that, by collating some of the insights gained from the past and the present, it will help to “build a platform for future engagement” in professional experience. In preparing this article I was asked by the Editors to reflect also on how I developed my distinctive line of inquiry and expertise in relation to the practicum across an extended period. These reflections are included. I hope they will support university-based teacher educators in enhancing their satisfaction and achievements from working in this stimulating and provocative field of study.     

Up,close and personal: teachers' responses to an individualised professional learning opportunity

This paper provides an account of professional learning in action through documenting the experiences of three upper primary teachers as they engaged in reflection-on-action with the assistance of an academic mentor. Video-stimulated recall was used as a mechanism to encourage productive reflective practice, using video footage of each teacher's numeracy lessons. The results indicated that although it was a powerful medium for stimulating reflection, and the teachers indicated that it was a beneficial process, there was limited evidence to suggest that it resulted in substantial changes to their practices. Reasons for this are hypothesised and recommendations made for personalising professional learning to cater for the needs and context of individual teachers.     

No time to think: policy,pedagogy and professional learning

In this study, we seek to illuminate the effects of the global policy convergence in education through a close study of its enactment within an Australian Teacher Education course. Building on an examination of the changing priorities of a cohort of pre-service teachers over a short space of time, we argue that the enactment of New Public Management approaches to the governance of teaching in Australia is having adverse effects on the professional learning of new teachers, defeating the policy goals. Previous studies have investigated the affective impact of current global policy formations on teachers. Building on that work, this study considers the impacts that the teacher policy emphasis on ‘performance’ has had on professional learning processes, which are understood with reference to Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory. The study is undertaken using an interpretative phenomenographic approach and informed by the related methods of discursive psychology, which positions discourse as a discursive practice to achieve specific goals in specific contexts.     

Dialogue in the support of learning to teach: a case study of a mentor/mentee pair in a teacher education programme

In this paper, we examine the role of reflection in teacher preparation, specifically within a mentoring relationship between cooperating and preservice teacher. We report findings from a case analysis of this pair who engaged in problem-posing dialogue within pre- and post-conferences around practice over one year of their work together in an elementary-level classroom. The context is an innovative programme in which cooperating teachers pursue their Master’s degree while undergraduates (preservice teachers) complete their elementary education degrees. Our analysis of talk about teaching during six coaching cycles as well as supporting documents illustrates how Jane’s mentoring supported reflective practices and disrupted a notion of a field experience as simply a place to ‘practice’ pedagogical knowledge with corrective feedback. Additionally, we explore the tensions in this approach to mentoring. This case study has implications for teacher educators who seek to bolster teacher preparation through the support of mentoring relationships.     

Aspects of the professional identity of preschool teachers in Greece: investigating the role of teacher education and professional experience

In this paper, we present the results of a research programme we developed to investigate the professional identity of preschool education teachers in Greece. Our aim was to investigate parameters affecting not only the creation but also the reform of professional identity and to highlight potential differences in terms of professional identity. Contemporary approaches to professional identity – developed since the 80s – raise issues related primarily to participatory processes, reflection, autonomy and emancipation. Teachers’ professional identity is gradually developed through an ongoing process of three interrelated and complementary steps: (a) pre-service teacher education, (b) vocational integration and (c) exercise of professional duties and in-service training. We interviewed 20 teachers on their professional identity. We chose two categories of teachers based on two criteria: (a) their studies, and (b) their professional experience in the field. Tentative findings showed that professional experience was more important than studies in the construction of their professional identity. Professional identity also relates to both their professional experience and the dominant beliefs about early childhood education.     

Opportunities for professional learning dialogue generated by cross-phase collaboration in languages between primary and secondary initial teacher education students

School partnerships to manage transition between primary and secondary settings are well developed. However, studies show that some aspects of transition in Modern Languages leave much to be desired, as mentioned in a recently published report on KS3 provision ([Office for Standards in Education. 2015. “KS3: The Wasted Years?” https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/key-stage-3-the-wasted-years]), even if the importance of a seamless continuum to manage change effectively is clearly emphasised by policy makers and advocated by research. Addressing transition issues entails considering a myriad of parameters. Government policy and ‘good practice’ cannot be implemented without consideration for school characteristics and teachers’ professional circumstances and areas of expertise. The focus of this article lies on uncovering opportunities for professional learning offered by cross-phase collaboration between primary and secondary students on initial teacher training programmes. Students took part in a small-scale project and they were challenged to work collaboratively and to co-plan and co-teach a lesson to primary school pupils. The project investigated outcomes of collaboration for professional learning. Data, both quantitative and qualitative, were collected through questionnaires. Results showed the impact of collaboration on students’ self-awareness and awareness of their colleagues’ areas of developing expertise as well as implications for professional practice.     

Power and perspective: the discourse of professional development school literature

This paper reports on the results of a study in which the discourse within 75 professional development school (PDS)-related publications was examined to determine where the power, influence, and representation lies in PDS partnerships, as indicated by how those partnerships are described in writing. The results found that while university faculty overwhelmingly wrote the articles, their perspectives and experiences were under-represented in the literature and, moreover, their influence within the partnerships appeared to be negligible. School and university administrators were similarly absent in PDS writing. Significantly, university authors and researchers represented themselves in a way that was highly deferential to practitioners and denigrated the role of theory and research in PDS work. In contrast to the traditional image of university dominance of partnerships, this research suggests that the real power and influence in PDS partnerships are the classroom teachers. The paper concludes with suggestions for creating a new, shared PDS discourse that tries to blur the artificial lines between theory and practice.