Left-behind children: teachers’ perceptions of family-school relations in rural China

Large-scale rural-urban migration in China has left rural schools with large proportions of left-behind children whose parents are away working in the city. This has a huge impact on family-school relations and poses a burden on teachers. This study draws on 42 interviews with teachers working in two rural schools. This article argues that teachers’ negative narratives about antagonistic family-school relations are driven by the gaps between their culturally embedded traditional models of family-school relations and the reality, with implications for the expanded role of schools and that of grandparents as caregivers. This article further discusses the implications of these findings for rural schools and draws heavily on Western models of family-school relations in a comparative perspective.     

Growth of Reflection in Teaching: Reconciling the Models

Although all teachers are expected to be “role models,” discursive trajectories reaching back to the West’s gay liberation pressure queer teachers to be role models in specific ways – by “coming out” and helping queer students out of their “time of difficulty.” Paradoxically, discourses that construct children as innocent and queers‐as‐a‐threat make it difficult for queer teachers not only to take up these positions as role models but to be visible in schools. In this article, I explore the discourses that shape queer teachers’ understanding of touch, sexuality, confidentiality, the private versus public domain, and pedagogical responsibility within the schooling context. Informed by Foucault, I analyze the interview data of three Ontario queer teachers to investigate the ways in which queers‐as‐a‐threat and teacher‐as‐role‐model influence the negotiation of their ethical dilemmas regarding their student crushes.     

Teachers talking about teaching and school: collaboration and reflective practice via Critical Friends Groups

Reflective practice has potentially positive effects on an organization’s capacity to focus on student learning and teaching practices. In an effort to comply with policy and provide teachers with opportunities to reflect on their practice, districts, schools, and teachers have turned to various models that feature collaborative experiences. One such model is the Critical Friends Group (CFG), focusing on the improvement of practice and learning experiences for children, using protocol-driven structured conversations. This article examines the mechanisms that support and sustain reflective practice within a community of practice and utilizes Wenger’s three dimensions of practice – mutual engagement, joint enterprise, and shared repertoire. The study followed a CFG in an elementary school using ethnographic case study methods to conduct a close examination of CFG meetings, protocol use, and analysis of teacher interviews. The propensity to ‘look out’ at school-wide issues vs. looking in at classroom practices, perceptions about feedback on classroom practice, and using protocols to guide conversation emerged from the data as prominent mechanisms in communities of practice. CFG facilitators and coaches, as well as participants must be explicit about the purposes of their work and protocol use alone does not ensure a focus on student learning and teaching practices.     

Science as experience,exploration, and experiments: elementary teachers’ notions of ‘doing science’

ABSTRACT

Much of the literature on science teaching suggests that elementary teachers lack relevant prior experiences with science. This study begins to reframe the deficit approach to research in science teaching by privileging the experiences elementary teachers have had with science – both in and out of schools – throughout their lives. Our work uses identity as a lens to examine the complexities of elementary teachers’ narrative accounts of their experiences with science over the course of their lives. Our findings identify components of teachers’ science-related experiences in order to lay the groundwork for making connections between teachers’ personal experiences and professional practice. This work demonstrates that teachers’ storied lives are important for educational researchers and teacher educators, as they reveal elements of teaching knowledge that may be productive and resourceful for refining teachers’ science practice.     

The self-efficacy of primary teachers in supporting the inclusion of children with autism spectrum disorder

In the context of a trend towards inclusive practice in Irish primary schools, many teachers feel ill-equipped to cope with this new challenge. Scope exists within the Irish education system to transform mainstream schools into autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) friendly environments. Research into teacher perceptions of inclusion has found that teachers’ views impact on how inclusionary practices are implemented. This study utilised semi-structured interviews with six primary school teachers. The data were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Findings from this study suggest that the majority of teachers were apprehensive and lacked confidence at the initial prospect of teaching a child with ASD. The majority of the teachers interviewed also described feelings of uncertainty in managing the behaviour of a child with ASD. These findings were analysed in the context of teachers’ perceptions of systemic issues such as lack of access to resources, support and training in ASD-specific approaches.     

集团校教师专业发展机理的质性研究

集团化办学现已成为各地推进教育优质均衡发展的主要抓手,而促进集团校教师专业发展亦将成为建设高素质教师队伍的关键。采用个案研究的方式实地考察了江苏省一所集团化小学的教师专业发展状况,研究结果显示：行政力量、多元文化价值和人格魅力是影响集团校教师专业发展的主要因素,这些因素促成教师在观念、实践方面的转变及学生在课堂学习中的转变。以“教师转变”为核心的教师专业发展的生成机理为：中介变量支持教师转变、“双环”驱动教师转变和规则因素全程影响教师转变。依此,集团校教师要融入学校文化生态,增强在诸多规则间的判断力,实现自身的转变;学校要把脉教师专业发展状况,促进各校区间的沟通,为教师转变营造良好的生态环境。     

Considering ‘teacher resilience’ from critical discourse and labour process theory perspectives

This article considers the construct of ‘teacher resilience’ from critical discourse and labour process perspectives in order to cast new light on what has been traditionally viewed from a psychological perspective. In this respect, the construct of resilience is placed in the broad political landscape of teachers’ work and the labour process of teaching, within a neoliberal globalised economic paradigm. Importantly, this article argues that any conceptualisations of teacher resilience should be critically appraised and not simply ‘taken for granted’. While the concept of developing ‘teacher resilience’ as a means, for example, of addressing alarmingly high rates of early career teacher attrition may sound like a good idea, it is important to consider the way such constructs can be used to shape and potentially control teacher identity and the nature of teachers’ work.     

A comparison of student teachers’ perceptions of school placement experience in Malta and China Compare

ABSTRACT

This study explores the insights about teaching that student teachers elicit from schools when they go on their first school placements. It thereby offers an appraisal of how student teachers experience teaching when still at the relatively early stages of training and how they are socialised into a role where they become protagonists who can create a positive teaching climate in the classroom. The authors approach this study from the perspective of construction of meanings and consider the discourse that takes place in candidate teacher-student interactions in two university settings – in Malta and China, respectively. The study shows how student teachers believe that cultures and cultural differences need to be clearly considered across the curriculum if schools are to promote active learning equitably.     

Surprising but not shocking: The reality of the first year of teaching

The need in many countries not merely to recruit but – critically – to retain effective teachers has been a key factor in shaping induction policies. Past reviews of teacher induction have highlighted two important sources of difficulty: novices’ own unrealistic expectations of teaching and of students, and others’ unrealistic expectations of the novices. This article, which examines the relationship between teachers’ expectations of the first year of teaching and the realities that they encounter, explores the ways in which two policies in England – school-based initial teacher education partnerships (established since the early 1990s) and formal induction arrangements (re-introduced in 2000) have impacted on beginning teachers’ experience of the transition. Drawing on data from a three-year longitudinal study it focuses specifically on how the teachers’ reflections on their experience of their first year in teaching are related to the accounts that they give of their learning over the same period.     

未来教师的工作创新、跨界与重塑

人工智能已成为全球引领教育变革创新的战略性技术,如何推动教师主动探索应用人工智能等新技术进行自适应教育,成为当前的研究热点。教师作为未来教育教学工作创新主体,既要发挥基于人工智能协作的创新意识,更要面对AI环境的创造力培养,必须与来自不同领域的专家学者进行多元交互,积极跨界,重塑自身的工作态度、角色和工作效能。面对发展迅猛的复杂技术,以及人机协同共存、共融、共生发展的真实需求,未来教师应转变和提升对智能技术的应用意识与能力,从而获得更高的发展动力,体现自我价值。     

学校变革视角下的教师学习

在教育现代化进程中,学校变革已经成为一种常态。只有教师成为学校变革的积极支持者和变革动力,学校才能走上具有生长性的持续变革轨道。支持教师成为变革动力的最重要途径是教师学习。教师学习具有传递经验、促进学校成员间融合与创生新知识等功能。指向支持学校变革的教师学习,要根据学校的变革需要精心设计教师学习活动,要引导变革阻力在教师学习活动中积极转化,要倡导指向教学研究的教师学习活动,要通过培育教师学习小团队建设合作的组织文化。     

试析农村中学校本教研的开展途径

校本教研作为一种培养研究型教师的有效方式已经引起了我国广大中小学校及教师的热切关注,并且有相当一部分教师已经走上了校本教研之路。但在大部分农村中学,由于种种原因,许多教师对于如何开展校本教研还存在很大困惑。针对于此,文章从"从寻找研究‘问题’起步"、"养成撰写教育日记的习惯"、"积极参与教研组活动"、"参与乡土教材的编写及其课程资源开发"、"校长带头搞科研"等多角度探讨了农村中学教师进行校本教研的途径。     

Understanding the Impact of Accountability on Preservice Teachers’ Decisions About Where to Teach

Research has shown that individuals who become teachers are uniquely oriented to the psychic rewards of teaching such as connecting with students and making a difference. Yet, in the era of “No Child Left Behind”, emphasis upon test scores as indicators of student learning, competition within and between school districts, and threats of external sanctions seem to promote a different orientation to teachers’ work. This is especially the case in schools with limited human, social, physical, and cultural capital serving disproportionate numbers of low-income, racial/ethnic and linguistic minority students typically located in urban areas. Given the existing problem of teacher shortages in urban schools and the current impact of accountability, this study seeks to explore two questions: How do preservice teachers believe their aspirations to teach will be affected by the accountability movement? And how do these views affect their considerations about where to teach?     

“It’s like starting all over again”. The struggles of second-career teachers to construct professional identities in Hong Kong schools

Educational-policy makers worldwide are concerned with finding effective strategies to recruit and retain high-quality teachers. The recruitment of second-career teachers has been seen as one means of fulfilling this aim. Against a background of calls to better understand SCTs, this article reports the results of a qualitative study investigating the experiences of six second-career teachers in Hong Kong. Based on a theoretical framework of teacher-identity construction, discourse analysis was used to explore the participants’ perceptions of their professional development. In-depth interviews were conducted to gain detailed insights into how the teachers construct their identities-in-practice and identities-in-discourse within Hong Kong schools. The findings expose tensions between attempts the positioning of SCTs within dominant discourses as ‘traditional’ and ‘conventional’ teachers, for example, and the participants’ self-positioning in practice as ‘innovative’ and ‘risk-taking’ teachers. Ways in SCT agency, and hence identity construction, can be facilitated through the introduction of the innovative pedagogical practices which many SCTs seek to pursue in Hong Kong schools are considered.     

Is teacher knowledge associated with performance? On the relationship between teachers’ general pedagogical knowledge and instructional quality

Researchers have identified general pedagogical knowledge (GPK) as a relevant category of teacher knowledge. However, hardly any study has examined the relationship between GPK of teachers and the instructional quality delivered to their students. This article therefore investigates the relationship between teachers’ GPK assessed via a standardised paper–pencil test and the quality of their instruction rated by their students. A sample of 246 in-service teachers at vocational schools in Austria is used. Teachers’ GPK positively correlates with students’ perceptions of effective classroom management, generic teaching methods/teacher clarity and teacher–student relationships. Regression analysis shows that GPK is a significant predictor for instructional quality even when controlled for teacher education grades, teacher personality (Big-Five) and teaching experience. Implications of teachers’ GPK as a resource for their teaching, limitations of the study and perspectives for future research are discussed.     

‘The Trees of Knowledge and Life Growing Together’ in the Educational Vision of C.S. Lewis: Why Medway and Stevens are Almost Right About Enlightenment and Romantic Values in English

Peter Medway’s paper ‘English and Enlightenment’ (Changing English, 2010) and David Stevens’ response to it, ‘Critically Enlightened Romantic Values and English Pedagogy: A Response to Peter Medway’ (Changing English, 2011), address the relative merits of the quest for truth and the place of aesthetic response in English. It is suggested here, however, that each paper contains the kernel of a counter-argument to the one being presented and that, taken together, both papers might be augmented by attention to The Abolition of Man – Reflections on education with special reference to the teaching of English in the upper forms of schools by C.S. Lewis. This article develops ideas introduced briefly in a previous issue of this journal and considers one important aim of English teaching in schools to be the fostering of ‘just sentiments’. It argues that educational values are necessary to augment Enlightenment and critically enlightened Romantic values if English teachers are to facilitate spiritual as well as moral development and do justice to the diversity of both the texts and the students they teach.     

研究性学习背景下小学数学教师的专业发展

知识经济时代的到来与科学技术的迅猛发展,对教育的要求越来越高。培养具有创新精神与实践能力的人才已经成为教育的主要任务之一。研究性学习具有开放性、探索性、问题性、综合性、实践性等特点,是培养创新型人才的有效手段。因此在小学阶段推行研究性学习,对于培养小学生初步的研究意识、探究能力等具有重要价值。作为一种新的学习方式,如何在小学教学过程中渗透研究性学习,对小学教师提出了更高的要求与挑战。小学数学教师必须及时更新观念,转变角色,更新自身素质以及构建与研究性学习一致的教学方式来适应研究性学习环境下的小学数学教学,不断促进自己的专业发展。     

Information Technology Courses in Teacher Education: the need for integration

ABSTRACT

Although computers have become common features of schools worldwide, their impact on education and learning has been far less than what could be expected from such a versatile and powerful technology. A significant deterrent has been teachers’ lack of skills and expertise with the new technologies but although computer education is increasingly becoming a significant component within teacher education programmes, this paper will argue that the direction and nature of the teaching and learning in many of these courses is counter‐productive and unable to provide the skills and expertise required from new teaching graduates. The paper posits that these skills can best be developed and achieved through instructional programmes in teacher education that mirror the models that student teachers will be required to embrace in their own classrooms. In order to achieve this, the IT component within teacher education must become an integral part of the programme.     

On not becoming ‘a mere empirical existence’: exploring ‘who’ and ‘what’ narratives in pre-service English teachers’ writing

Standards-based reforms of education favour narrow forms of teacher professional learning tied to generic standards and pre-determined, measurable outcomes. In high-stakes accountability-driven environments, in schools and initial teacher education programs, educators are rarely encouraged to inquire into their work and professional identities through narrative writing. This article describes and analyses an assessment task in a pre-service teacher education course wherein students explore dialogic forms of critical autobiographical writing as part of an ongoing process of examining and clarifying their views and values about English teaching. Drawing on Cavarero, we argue that the writing these preservice teachers do provides a space for them to negotiate ‘what’ and ‘who’ narratives as they journey to become English teachers. Their writing productively grapples with generic ‘what’ stories such as what standards documents attempt to tell about English teaching, and the ‘unrepeatable uniqueness’ of ‘who’ stories developed out of their individual cultural, educational and linguistic difference.     

A quest for legitimacy: on the professionalization policies of Sweden’s Teachers’ Unions

The aim of this article is to contribute to the ongoing discussion on teacher professionalism by analyzing the professional strategies of Sweden’s two teachers’ unions from an organizational perspective. Drawing on institutional theory, the article argues that the teachers’ unions’ focus on strategies of professionalization has as much to do with questions of legitimacy in the eyes of the public, as with any specific effort at transforming the practice of teaching in a professional direction. Against the background of two recent Swedish education reforms, the article shows that the unions are ‘trapped’ within a normative order emphasizing professionalization as the primary way of organizational development and legitimacy, resulting in a need for the unions to adopt professional attributes. In the case of the Swedish unions, this is accomplished through mimetic processes whereby union policies, aimed at the improvement of teaching, are modeled upon the medical profession, regardless of the differences between the technologies and practices of the occupations. In this way, the professional rhetoric of the unions is decoupled from the practice of teaching in order to maximize the public legitimacy needed for improving the declining societal status of teaching.