Have conceptual reforms (and one anti‐reform) in preservice teacher education improved the education of multicultural,multilingual children and youth?

This article examines three conceptual reforms in US teacher education (competency‐based teacher education (CBTE), reflective teacher education (RTE) and constructivist teacher education (CTE)) for their effects on the education of multicultural, multilingual youth, as well as considering alternative certification (AC), known here as an ‘anti‐reform’. The author suggests that although each reform made incremental improvements in the ways that preservice teachers are prepared to teach multilingual and multicultural learners, none significantly altered the education of under‐served children and youth. For instance, CTE points out the importance of prior knowledge, but fails in connecting its core concepts with culturally relevant instruction. CBTE, while also generally failing to alter teacher preparation for multicultural learners, did try to make explicit connections for preservice teachers. RTE made explicit the moral consequences of working in diverse communities but fell short when it altered the apprenticeship–mentor relationship. AC of teachers is presented as the work of neo‐liberals whose largely successful efforts to deregulate teacher preparation offer both an improvement and retrenchment for urban children and youth. Finally, the article links the field’s focus on the preparation of teachers for diverse students and the moral dimension of teacher education, concluding that such a connection may be the only way to maintain the professional school preparation of teachers.     

地方高师院校教师教育专业发展的困境与出路

伴随着综合性大学全面参与教师教育人才培养,地方高师院校综合化及教师教育的转型发展,地方高师院校教师教育专业面临着质量提升、内涵建设、转型发展的困境。实施教师教育专业建制,强化教师教育的师范性,推进与基础教育协同育人,推动教师教育一体化是地方高师院校摆脱发展困境,实现可持续发展的可行出路。     

民族师范院校教师教育师资队伍建设机制研究——以阿坝师范高等专科学校为例

教师教育类课程是高等师范院校区别于其他院校的标志性课程。民族师范院校探索教师教育师资队伍改革新途径。与基础教育发达地区的优质学校合作,在共育师范生的同时,形成教师教育师资专业发展的长效机制成为必然。     

Graduate feedback on a teacher education program and school district support: An argument for a continuum of professional learning

This phenomenological study aimed to explore how early career teachers were supported in their transition from teacher education to professional practice. It involved interviewing seven recent graduates from a post-degree teacher education program on their perceptions of both the program and their local school district in supporting them as early career teachers. Results involve numerous recommendations for supporting these teachers during their induction into the profession leading to the articulation of a continuum of lifelong professional learning that includes teacher education, induction and mentorship, and professional development. Key responsibilities for school districts, principals, and teacher education faculty are included.     

Teacher Education for Research‐based Practice in Expanded Roles: Finland's experience

Preparing teachers for a research‐based professionalism has been the central mission of teacher education in Finland since the mid‐1970s. More recently, as a result of such national policy developments as school‐based curriculum development and local decision‐making, the conception of teachers' work and professionalism has expanded. Drawing on experience within the teacher education programmes at the University of Helsinki and Åbo Akademi University, this paper discusses some of the programmatic issues that these developments have raised in class‐teacher, i.e. “elementary”, teacher education programmes. We focus in particular firstly on the research thesis that is a part of every teacher education programme in Finland, and the hallmark of the research‐based professional ideal; and, secondly on the emerging issues that derive from the need to incorporate the expanded understanding of the teacher's role within the curriculum of teacher education.     

Linking technology,learning, and stories: Implications from research on hypermedia video-cases

Teacher educators have been turning to video-based hypermedia cases as a strategy to confront the challenges of preparing teachers. Even though technology has been shown to have a transformative effect on teaching and learning, innovated uses in classrooms have been the exception rather than the norm. This paper describes how a teacher candidate responded to video and hypermedia cases in ways that assisted her in transforming knowledge and beliefs about literacy instruction. The author describes this transformative process, explores the relationship between narrative ways of knowing and learning from technology, and discusses implications for teacher preparation.     

The promise of experiential education in teacher education: transforming teacher beliefs and practices

Building from the theories of Dewey and Kolb and Fry, we sought to examine the impact of experiential education in teacher education on teacher beliefs and practices. The teacher education model described in this article sets out to challenge the seduction of the apprenticeship of observation and create an opportunity for in-service teachers to re-imagine their teaching in concrete and transformative ways. Immersed in a weeklong experiential residency in either the mountains or at a local environmental education farm, the teachers in the study were challenged physically, intellectually, socially, and emotionally in and through the experience. The experiential work ultimately led to changes in teacher participants’ beliefs and practices related to teacher and student roles and potentialities. Although challenges exist for this type of practice in K-12 classrooms and in teacher education, experiential education has a significant potential to change the way teachers think about and act in their practice.     

教师培养制度的变革:从师范教育到教师教育

我国高等师范教育正处于从数量满足型向质量提高型转变的重要变革时期,灵活开放的教师教育培养体系适应了知识经济社会对高素质教师的需求,师范教育向教师教育的转型是历史的必然。建立“开放型”、“综合类”、“高层次”、“专业化”的教师教育体制对提高基础教育质量具有十分重要的作用。     

Encouraging interaction and striving for reciprocity: The challenges of community-engaged projects in teacher education

Opportunities for experiential learning in teacher education are increasingly important as the demographics of teachers and students diverge. I draw on place-conscious pedagogies, funds of knowledge, and teacher development theories to inquire into pre-service teachers' developing conceptions of community as they engaged in a project meant to introduce them to the local communities. Findings suggest that PSTs’ experiences with communities growing up limit their understanding of reciprocity between communities and schools as teachers. The findings have implications for the ways that teacher educators incorporate experiential learning into their programs.     

师范教育与大学:比较分析及其对香港的启示

教育大学可视为一种新型大学 ,能够以崭新的方式同时适应师范教育发展和知识社会的需求。本文首先对大学和师范院校在西方和亚洲社会的发展作一历史回顾。然后 ,探究这两类院校形成的对照的价值取向 ,讨论本文的核心问题 ,即师范教育如何达到与大学比肩的学术水准 ,同时保有师范院校与知识社会有关的价值观。对三个西方社会和三个亚洲社会的比较的历史分析 ,展示了摆脱这一困境的不同方式。本文最后勾勒了师范教育截然不同的四种模式 ,提出教育大学这一模式最为适应香港的现状 ,可能也最为适应亚洲的文化环境     

Learning from School-based Teacher Training: Possibilities and constraints for experienced teachers

This article presents findings from a study of teachers' development conducted in a large English 'comprehensive' school during a period of intense educational reform. In particular, it considers the ways in which experienced teachers contributed to and claimed benefit from a new national system of school-based initial teacher training (ITT). In addition to outlining the professional development possibilities for experienced teachers involved in school-based ITT, the article highlights a range of factors that appeared to constrain this development. By drawing on the English experience, the paper considers the implications of recent Danish policy related to school-focused teacher education, both in terms of the potential benefits for experienced teachers from involvement in such training, as well as more generally in terms of the quality and appropriateness of such forms of teacher preparation.     

开发教师领导力的实践探索

由于我国特有的组织结构、文化特色、领导观念等诸多因素的影响,教师领导力的开发遭遇如下障碍：地方教育行政部门的影响;科层式的学校内部组织结构;校长“权力”观念的制约;消极竞争的教师文化;教师时间、精力的有限性;教师的不自信、缺乏经验。为此,从“可为”出发,校长应转变教育观念;创建教职员工普遍认同的价值观和清晰、明确的愿景;形成有利于学习、共享、信任的组织文化;不断创造平台,从多元渠道促进教师领导力的开发;激励机制的完善,让教师的努力“很值得”;变革日常教学管理制度,给教师一定的资源支持。     

我国中小学教师专业发展存在的问题及改革路向

当前我国中小学教师专业发展过程中存在着教师专业素养偏低,教育管理体制不完善等方面的问题。为了提升和优化我国中小学教师专业发展,教师教育通过提升教师专业化素养,树立教师光辉形象;把握教育发展趋势,推进教师专业发展等措施,努力提升我国中小学教师的综合素养,提升我国中小学专业发展水平,使得我国中小学教师专业发展走上一个更高的台阶。     

The Oppressor Within: A Counterstory of Race, Repression, and Teacher Reflection

In this paper, I offer my own counterstory of matriculating through a teacher education program as an African American student on a predominately White campus as a reference point for thinking through how racism operates through teacher education’s dominant discourse and practice of teacher reflection. It is an important story to tell primarily because it touches on a largely unexplored dimension of teacher reflection. While the large majority of the literature has focused on how to prepare White preservice teachers to teach in a culturally and racially complex world, little qualitative attention has been given to the preparation of nonwhite students. While there are a few select and important articles that touch on some of the challenges African American students face in predominately White teacher education programs, including covert and overt racism, none focus on how teacher reflection might reproduce these dynamics. Thus what the literature on teacher reflection often suggests is that it is a racially neutral practice. In this essay, however, I suggests otherwise, by providing an intimate and critical look at my process of learning to be a reflective practitioner. The question I seek to grapple with is quite simply, “What does teacher reflection work to repress?”     

成人学习理论下教师教育与教师专业发展再思考

研究目的在于应用成人学习理论指导教师教育的实践,促进教师专业发展。首先,通过诺尔斯的成人教育学理论分析了成人学习理论对教师教育的适用性,探究各个成人学习论对教师教育的指导作用和对教师发展的促进作用,构建了较为完整的指导框架。然后,分别阐述了自我导向学习理论指导下教师教育生成内生动力,促进教师知识发展;转化学习理论对于教师教育提供新途径,促进教师伦理发展;熟练理论指导教师教育产生外部动力,帮助提升教师专业能力;情境学习理论指导下创设多元的教师教育环境,丰富教师实践经验。最后,成人学习理论于教师教育领域具有很强的适用性,应充分尊重教师成人身份和主体地位。     

Reform of teacher education in China: a survey of policies for systemic change

ABSTRACT

This paper adopts an inductive analytical approach to reviewing the major state policies to reform teacher education in China. Based on the perceived impact on teachers and teacher education, 21 policy documents have been selected for this review. Five themes emerge in the analysis, which include: Expansion of teacher education by institutional diversification; structural changes through upgrading, merging and eliminating institutions and school; innovations on modes of teacher preparation, curricula and teaching practicum; certification and examinations; and strengthening teacher supply for the rural schools. The paper also analyses the contextual and systemic factors that affect the formulation and implementation of reform policies in teacher education and critically reflect the effect of these policies on Chinese teacher education.     

Teacher perceptions of the goals of effective school reform and their own role in it

The role of the teacher in the modern school system is increasingly important and complex. A teacher needs a high level of professional knowledge and autonomous decision‐making when faced with professional challenges. The curricular reform in Slovenia has encompassed several areas of teachers’ professional activities. This paper establishes that declarative goals by themselves are not enough for successful introduction of reform, as the achievement of reform goals in practice is highly dependent on teacher perceptions and how actively they are involved in all phases of the reform. The empirical study examined how teachers understand the main aim of the reform, and how they evaluate their own level of competence in areas which have gained in importance as a result of the reform. The study included 468 primary and grammar school teachers. The results show that teachers have a fairly narrow view of the goals of the reform. The categories stressing a more active and responsible role of the learner (in line with modern models of instruction and learner‐centred paradigms of curriculum development) did not rank highly. The study also points at areas where teachers need additional training. The importance of quality teacher education at pre‐service and in‐service levels is stressed as a pillar of effective school reform.     

The Contribution of Ethnobiology to the Construction of a Dialogue Between Ways of Knowing: A Case Study in a Brazilian Public High School

This paper reports results obtained in pedagogical interventions in a Brazilian public high school which aimed at promoting a dialogue between scientific and traditional knowledge in the context of biology teaching. The interventions were based on the use of a didactic material and teaching sequence elaborated on the grounds of school knowledge about botany, as presented in biology textbooks, and interviews with students who were also farmers, so as to gather data about their ethnobiological knowledge. Our goal was to develop and test resources that can offer support for teachers who wish to build a dialogue between different ways of knowing in multicultural settings. Our results indicate that the use of the didactic material and teaching sequence indeed created possibilities for a dialogue between the students’ ethnobiological knowledge and biology school knowledge. We observed some shortcomings in classroom practice, partly reflecting our very choice of subject matter to develop the teaching sequence. But the interventions also revealed important limitations that we regard as representative of problems that may generally make multicultural science teaching a hard goal to achieve. It was clear that important shortcomings were related to teachers’ difficulties to conduct a dialogue between ways of knowing in a science classroom, and, thus, called attention to the importance of introducing a multicultural dimension into teacher education. We also observed that the fact that students did not show much sensitivity towards dealing with cultural diversity was a factor constraining the success of the interventions. These results highlight the importance of proposing and testing teacher education initiatives aiming at preparing them to teach science in a culturally sensitive manner, and also managing classroom tensions and conflicts so as to make it possible an effective dialogue between different ways of knowing in a multicultural setting.     

Integrating teacher education effectiveness research into educational effectiveness models

The purpose of this article is to review and to connect research about teacher education effectiveness and school effectiveness to arrive at an integrative conceptualization that has the potential of improving empirical research in both fields. Teacher education effectiveness addresses effects of teacher education on outcomes such as teacher knowledge, this knowledge becomes the predictor in teacher effectiveness research with instructional quality and student achievement as outcomes. The two research orientations become united in path-analytic studies. A fuller incorporation leads to an extended educational effectiveness model that enriches a systemic interpretation of key levers of educational effectiveness and opens up black boxes at the system and the classroom level. In such a comprehensive model, teacher policies can be regarded an alternative for educational improvement strategies like school curriculum policies, accountability and evaluation or governance and management. At the same time insights from educational effectiveness research at large suggest inclusion of additional variables in teacher education and teacher effectiveness research, particularly on the institutional level.     

Individuals and Leadership in an Australian Secondary Science Department: A Qualitative Study

In this article, we consider the complex and dynamic inter-relationships between individual science teachers, the social space of their work and their dispositions towards teacher leadership. Research into the representation of school science departments through individual science teachers is scarce. We explore the representations of four individual teachers to the assertions of teacher leadership proposed by Silva et al. (Teach Coll Rec, 102(4):779–804, 2000). These representations, expressed during regular science department meetings, occur in the social space of Bourdieu’s “field” and are a reflection of the “game” of science education being played within the department. This departmentally centred space suggests an important implication when considering the relationship between subject departments and their schools. The development of an individual’s representation of teacher leadership and the wider “field” of science education appears to shape the individual towards promoting their own sense of identity as a teacher of science, rather than as a teacher within a school. Our work suggests that for these individuals, the important “game” is science education, not school improvement. Consequently, the subject department may be a missing link between efforts to improve schools and current organizational practices.