Sexuality,schooling, and teacher identity formation: A critical pedagogy for teacher education

Offering an alternative to normative teacher education that excludes meaningful sexuality and gender education from its curriculum, this article presents a critical teacher education multicultural curriculum based in the United States that included an autoethnographic narrative assignment as reflective space for teacher candidates to consider their identities as shaped by lived experiences with gender and sexuality. Using a categorical analysis of a cohort of 38 teacher candidate autoethnographies, discussed are insights revealed about their lived histories. Patterns included gender identification, heteronormativity, patriarchy, sex education, schooling experiences, teacher complicity, and teacher identity effects and sense of agency along with implications for educating future teachers.     

Service-learning in early childhood teacher education: Using service to put meaning back into learning

Service-learning is defined as a teaching/learning method that connects meaningful community service with academic learning, personal growth, and civic responsibility. In this study, conducted at an American University, we describe a cascading model of integrating early childhood teacher education and service-learning for preservice teachers who then implemented the combined model in their field classrooms with young children. Examples of the projects from the two cohorts of 25 and 26 undergraduate students are provided. We demonstrate that service-learning projects provide an instructional avenue for preservice students to teach in an integrated and/or experiential manner in their field classrooms and discuss why service-learning is an appropriate and meaningful strategy to use with preservice teachers and children.     

An alternative model of special education teacher education socialization

The process of organizational socialization sheds light on the difficulty of a university program to effectively socialize its special education teacher candidates into believing and acting on theories of inclusion for students with disabilities in public schools. In general, people are socialized by prior experiences, then the university, then the workplace. In this case, the workplace socialization exists prior to participation in the university setting and in conjunction with it potentially complicating traditional university socialization. This study explores how prospective special education teachers in a moderate/severe special education teacher credential program adopt, adapt, and redefine the concept of inclusion. An analysis of their use of the term “inclusion” in semi-structured interviews draws attention to the degree to which they have or have not been socialized into believing and acting on inclusion at their schools.     

Teachers’ professional identity: Contributions of a critical EFL teacher education course in Iran

This paper is a report on contributions of a critical EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teacher education course to Iranian teachers’ professional identity reconstruction.² Pre-course and post-course interviews with seven teachers, their reflective journals, class discussions, and the teacher educator’s reflective journals were analyzed as guided by grounded theory. Three major shifts were observed in their professional identities: from conformity to and romanticization of dominant ideologies to critical autonomy, from no orientation or an instrumentalist orientation to a critical/transformative orientation of teaching, and from a linguistic and technical view to an educational view of second language education.     

Supporting presence in teacher education: The connection between the personal and professional aspects of teaching

This study follows one individual student teacher during a period of one single school year in which she was supported in developing ‘presence’ while teaching. The notion of ‘presence’ was formulated by the teacher herself, and coincides with the growing interest in this aspect in psychology, and in theories about becoming a teacher. In her supervision, the so-called core reflection approach was used, which strongly builds on the concept of presence and on positive psychology. Based on analyses of audio taped supervisory sessions, six stages were identified in the teacher's development. These stages are described and related to theories about positive psychology and core reflection. The supervisor's interventions leading to the transitions between the stages were identified, analysed, and related to key principles of core reflection. It appeared that the teacher's growth not only led to experiencing ‘presence’ while teaching, but also to a greater use of her personal qualities. Taken together, it appeared that after the supervision the teacher was much more ‘in flow’, and that she was more effective as a teacher. In this article, both the teacher's growth and the supervisor's interventions are described in detail, and illustrated using quotations from supervisory sessions, logbooks, and interviews. A case is made for connecting professional and personal aspects in supervising student teachers.     

Web-enhanced case-based activity in teacher education: a case study

Recent work in case-based reasoning (CBR) reinforces the importance of situated learning, expert cases, and authentic tasks and activities for novice learners. As novices engage CBR environments, they apprentice in the experts’ practices while developing the understanding, knowledge and skill of a given community. This study examined how prospective teachers, as novices in a semester-long course, engaged and developed expert-like practices using the case knowledge of experienced teachers who teach with technology. By engaging experienced teachers’ knowledge and skill via Web-enhanced cases, prospective teachers refined their understanding of teaching culture and teaching with technology as they transitioned to the teaching community.     

关于我国残疾人高等教育师资培训的构想

本文客观的分析了当前我国高等教育迅速发展 ,而高等教育师资却远远不能满足需要的现象。针对需要与满足之间的矛盾 ,根据高等特殊教育教师资格与基本要求 ,尝试提出高等教育教师的培养目标、内容、途径、与注意事项 ,为规划我国高等特殊教育师资培训提供参考。     

Building a framework for determining the authenticity of instructional tasks within teacher education programs

We propose a framework for evaluating the degree of authenticity of instructional tasks used within a teacher education program. First, we provide a defense for authenticity as an exemplary aspect of education. Second, we synthesize the theoretical literature on authenticity into conceptual codes. Using these codes, we build our authenticity framework around five criteria: the instructional task (1) is routinely performed by teachers, (2) involves students in a classroom, (3) promotes knowledge of practice, (4) involves self-reflection, and (5) serves formative purposes. We then discuss potential applications of our framework for the individual teacher educator and for program evaluation.     

主体性教师：教师教育的反思与变革

确立主体性的教师教育观念,建立一体化的教师教育体制,创建主体性的教师教育过程,实行主体性的教育管理方式,是主体性教师素质的培养要求。本通过主体性教师的概念界说、教师教育的现实反思和改革构想,旨在探寻我国教师教育改革与发展的途径与方法。     

Integrating technology into teacher education: How online discussion can be used to develop informed and critical literacy teachers

This paper reports findings from 6 years of investigation of the use of online discussions with large cohorts of preservice literacy teachers (approximately 150 each year). The report outlines essential components for effective online discussion, noting the challenges involved when aiming for informed and critical literacy discussion among large groups of novice educators. It elaborates on the most successful approach to this undertaking which involved the use of case study scenarios as the focus of discussion. The report argues that the case study discussions were most effective in promoting professional discussion because they allowed a more effective expert role for the instructors.     

Views on using portfolio in teacher education

The usage of portfolio methods to document professional development in teaching is increasing in Germany, but despite its proliferation, the issue of how the effects of portfolio methods can be determined has received little attention. This paper investigates the acceptance of portfolio by the pre-service teachers (N = 144, 112 female) and the effects of portfolio on their professional attitudes and competences. In addition, N = 15 teacher educators were interviewed on their assessment of the portfolio method. Results suggest that the efficiency of the portfolio method depends both on personal competences and on the framing within the training program.     

基于反思的英语教师教育

近年来,源于北美大陆的反思型教师教育理论日益受到我国教师教育界的关注。反思型教师教育是对技术型教师观和经验型教师教育模式的一种否定。它强调教师教育的核心应是培养教师对现有的教育理论与教学实践进行批判性反思的意识与能力,通过反思加实践,教师不断地对教育理论进行解构和自我建构,从而获得自身的专业发展。反思型教师教育模式对英语教育专业学生创新与实践能力培养有着深刻的启示。     

Teacher education, preservice teacher beliefs, and the moral work of teaching

This paper presents a case for attending to preservice teachers’ beliefs that are relevant to the moral work of teaching within teacher education research and practice, and examines what it would look like to do so. The case for attending to candidate beliefs is grounded in a learner-centered approach to teacher education and in the literature on the role of beliefs in teacher learning and change. The authors demonstrate how attending to preservice teacher beliefs is particularly critical for the task of preparing candidates for the moral work of teaching, and present a conceptual framework that can guide that task and teacher education research and practice designed to support it.     

Using activity systems analysis to identify inner contradictions in teacher professional development

This study took place in the United States and explored teacher perspectives on the situational factors that influence their professional development using Engeström's (Engeström, Y. (1987). Learning by expanding: An activity-theoretical approach to developmental research. Helsinki: Orienta-Konsultit Oy) four levels of inner contradictions in activity systems analysis. In this process, we addressed the question: what do teachers perceive as sources of conflicts in their professional development? Semi-structured interviews with participants were the primary data source in this study. By using this analysis method, the findings indicated that teachers perceived that their motivation and goals for participating in professional development were not in alignment with their school district and universities that designed and facilitated professional development activities. This misalignment contributed to various situational challenges that became obstacles for teachers to improve their classroom practices through curricular-based interventions.     

Authentic and self-directed learning in vocational education: Challenges to vocational educators

This article analyses the dilemmas and practical tensions in implementing competence-based vocational education. Eleven case studies were conducted, including observation of lessons and interviews with teachers and students. The results show that schools meet various fundamental issues in realising this approach. A crucial question is how to stimulate the acquisition and use of a way of knowing and thinking that is based on vocational theory. Reflection, authenticity and coaching are relevant characteristics that are hardly put into practice yet. To understand these results the article reflects on factors that account for the distance between promising concepts and actual teaching practice.     

Institutional separation in schools of education: Understanding the functions of space in general and special education teacher preparation

The purpose of this spatial study is to understand the function space play in a combined credential program in the US in helping or hindering the program’s inclusive mission. The study examines how physical and social manifestations of general and special education are (re)organized in the new program. The data provides evidence for the pervasive separation between general and special education within the new program. This study points to the importance of examining space in relation to teacher education reform as a way to highlight where policy, institutional, programmatic, physical, and pedagogic changes are needed to support inclusive teacher preparation.     

International comparative studies in teaching and teacher education

This review of eight papers published in Teaching and Teacher Education over the past twenty years shows how the profession has been impacted by the forces of globalisation. The impact varies in different contexts, according to local factors. The review looks at papers that use explicit international comparisons as a means to bring local contextual characteristics into sharp relief, and discusses the values and pitfalls of this approach. The review concludes by suggesting a possible future agenda for international comparisons, one that seeks answers to the domestic challenges of the Millennium Development Goals and Education for All by looking for solutions overseas. However, international appropriation needs to remain highly sensitive to the cultural context of implementation.     

What and how do student teachers learn during school-based teacher education

This study looks at how student teachers learn to teach during school-based teacher education. It explores the changes that occurred in the practical theories of the student teachers and how the student teachers made these modifications. Eight student teachers were closely monitored during their training. The study's findings show that all student teachers developed broad, well-structured practical theories that focused on pupils' learning processes. Their learning processes displayed considerable individual variation. As a result of these findings, several questions have been formulated for further research concerning the impact of learning style on learning outcomes and learning in a work-based context.     

Re-conceptualizing partnerships across the teacher education continuum

This research, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council–Teaching and Learning Research Programme (ESRC–TLRP), explored student and beginning teachers' experiences of teacher education in Northern Ireland. Within a situation of teacher over-supply, many newly qualified teachers have little or no induction. This paper focuses on the views of key induction providers on the effectiveness of partnership arrangements. These stakeholders believed that an improved model of partnership was needed, particularly for induction, and a more collegial model could offer a positive reconceptualisation of early teaching experience enabling reciprocal professional learning.     

Becoming a health and physical education (HPE) teacher: Student teacher ‘performances’ in the physical education subject department office

This study considered how physical education teacher education students ‘perform’ their ‘selves’ within subject department offices during the practicum or ‘teaching practice’. The research was framed by a conceptual framework informed by the work of Goffman on ‘performance’ and ‘front’. The findings revealed three common performances across the whole group across all sites. These were: performance of sports talk, bodily performances, and performance of masculine repertoires. Such performances were considered to be inconsistent with the coursework ideals and principles within the teacher education programme but in step with the general ethos of most PE department offices.