Hidden labor in the mentoring of pre-service teachers: Notes from a mentor teacher advisory council

This article argues that mentoring reflects a form of hidden labor within pre-service teacher education. Using Marx’s concern for the ways in which aspects of an economic system are rendered invisible, the article draws on discussions from an American mentor teacher advisory council to illuminate otherwise marginalized aspects of mentors’ work. Meeting data reveal challenging dynamics of initiative, complications in determining teaching opportunities, and unique positions taken up by mentors during transitions in authority. The authors argue for the creation of “intersection contexts” where the voices of various constituencies in the mentoring of pre-service teachers can be heard.     

Narrative inquiry in service learning contexts: Possibilities for learning about diversity in teacher education

This paper explores the experiences of pre- and in-service teachers through intentionally created narrative inquiry (Connelly & Clandinin, 2006) spaces within three different service-learning engagements in Canada, Kenya, and Turkey. Because the contexts where our studies were situated were culturally different from participants' backgrounds, narrative inquiry spaces shaped windows in which participants could restory their understandings of others different from themselves. We argue thinking narratively suits the purpose of learning within service learning, highlighting the potential this kind of work holds for pre- and in-service teachers' professional identities in school contexts shaped by diversity.     

Addressing diversity in US teacher preparation programs: A survey of elementary and secondary programs’ priorities and challenges from across the United States of America

Data gathered from 142 public university elementary and secondary teacher preparation programs across the United States (representing the preparation of approximately 23,000–30,000 new teachers annually), indicated that race/ethnicity was the most emphasized diversity topic followed by special needs, language diversity, economic (social class), gender, and sexual orientation. The majority of programs addressed diversity topics across program classes. States were similar in the priority assigned to various diversity topics, with the exception of California, which placed greater emphasis upon language diversity but less upon special needs as compared to other states. In addition, there appeared to be little to no relationship between the faculty demographics (gender and race) and the priorities placed upon gender and racial diversity in programs. The project also surveyed program coordinators’ assessments of the various challenges to the inclusion of diversity topics. Finally, the data suggested that possible relationships might exist between faculty attitudes/knowledge regarding diversity topics and student attitudes.     

The challenge of involvement in reflective teaching: Three case studies from a teacher education project on conducting classroom discussions on socio-scientific issues

The purpose of this qualitative study was to learn more about how teachers deal with a reflective teaching approach aimed at developing their competencies in analysing and facilitating classroom discussions on socio-scientific issues. Three cases of teachers' journeys through the project are reconstructed and characterised. We posit that each teacher benefited from the project according to his or her individual situation, needs and learning style. A number of modifications to the project design are proposed and can be summarised by the idea of assisting teachers more closely and more individually as they pass through the reflective teaching process.     

Clustering schools to improve teacher professional development: Lessons learnt from a Zimbabwean case study

Abstract

Much still needs to be done to transform schooling in South Africa and provide education of equal quality to all learners. The notion of encouraging close collaboration between schools is widely accepted as a possible strategy to improve the quality of schooling in a particular geographical area. In this article, we discuss research conducted on the implementation of the Better Schools Programme cluster in Zimbabwe (BSPZ), a system of inter-school collaboration aiming at improving the quality of teaching and learning at the member schools. One of the primary objectives was to enhance teachers’ professional development by means of the establishment of professional infrastructure. Despite the shortcomings highlighted, our exploratory study brought to the fore potential advantages of school clusters as a type of formalised school collaboration which can indeed promote quality and equality in the South African schooling system.     

Negotiating epistemological challenges in thinking and practice: A case study of a literacy and inquiry tool as a mediator of professional conversation

This study examines how a Humanities team engaged in professional conversation to refine and implement a literacy and inquiry tool in an Asian Studies curriculum. Drawing on socio-cultural perspectives of teacher learning and theories of tools as mediators of action, this case study investigates the ways this community of practice discussed their understandings of contexts, curriculum, and classroom practice to implement the literacy and inquiry tool. Such practices hold promise for the design of professional learning experiences where teachers engage in conversations about key tools they can use in their practice and assume more control of their own professional learning.     

Learning from James: Lessons about Policy and Practice for Schools' Special Provision in the Area of Literacy Difficulties

Janice Wearmouth is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Language Studies at the Open University in the UK. She has many years' experience of teaching and research in mainstream secondary schools and of developing and leading postgraduate development courses for teachers in the area of special and inclusive education. In this article, she argues that successive Governments in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have adopted policies in relation to special educational provision that are essentially technicist in character. These policies proceed from assumptions that are made about the clear and unproblematic nature of the issues and the responses that need to be made. In this model, difficulties in learning can be 'fixed' by selecting the most appropriate 'tool' in the most efficient and cost-effective way. The current focus on competency-based teacher education can be seen as a corollary of this approach.
Drawing upon a personal account of the experience of having difficulties in literacy acquisition, this article presents a contrary view. Janice Wearmouth argues that the area of special educational needs in schools, including literacy difficulties, is fraught with uncertainty and conflicting viewpoints. Given this complex situation, the technicist responses of recent Governments in the UK seem inappropriate and inadequate, Janice Wearmouth suggests. She proposes that practice in relation to special educational needs in general, and literacy difficulties in particular, can be most effectively understood from the perspective of a reflective practitioner. Her article closes with a call for practitioner professional development to be reconceptualised in these terms.