Comparative and international education in initial teacher education: an Irish case study

Since the late 1980s and early 1990s, Comparative and International Education (CIE) has almost disappeared from the curricula of teacher education colleges in Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Yet, CIE is experiencing a revival at postgraduate level. This article will explore the reasons for this dichotomy and the decline of CIE in initial teacher education. It will use findings from a research study in an Irish teacher education college to inform this exploration. The author initiated, developed, and offered a CIE course to final year BEd (n=24) students in 2003 and again in 2005. This article will use data gathered during the latter course to explore CIE for undergraduate trainee teachers, considering students’ motivation for choosing to study CIE, their perceptions of CIE, and their beliefs about how it may enhance their professional practice in classrooms. It will explore, in particular, a significant finding that emerged from the study – the potential of CIE in developing student teachers’ capacities to teach in multicultural classrooms.     

Perceptions and practices of multicultural education among Ethiopian secondary teacher education program officials,teacher educators and prospective teachers

This study explores the perceptions and practices of multicultural education among Ethiopian secondary teacher education program officials, teacher educators and prospective teachers. To that end, data were collected from secondary teacher education program officials, teacher educators and student teachers using questionnaire and interview. The data were analyzed by employing mixed methodologies. The study revealed that while Ethiopian secondary teacher education program officials and teacher educators have awareness about multicultural education, the prospective teachers’ awareness was found to be very low. Furthermore, there are inadequate practices of multicultural education in the secondary teacher education institutions. Suggestions which may enhance the implementation of multicultural education in the secondary teacher education program of the country and beyond are discussed in the article.     

美国多元文化教师教育的实施策略与启示

美国多元文化教师教育指美国教师教育领域为了培养职前和在职教师的多元文化教育能力而进行的一系列变革。美国教师教育机构主要采取两大措施开展多元文化教师教育：一是开设专门的课程,同时将多元文化教育理念渗透在整个培养方案中;二是在课程实施中采取自传和反思、基于社区的学习、文化敏感性教学等方式培养教师的多元文化教育知能。这对我国民族地区教师教育的启示是：要重视民族地区教师教育的特殊性,充分挖掘和培育多元文化教师教育资源,为教师提供跨文化体验的机会,强化自主反思与探究。     

美国跨文化模式的多元文化教师教育课程分析

在教学过程中,教师对引导学生的发展发挥着重要的作用。如果教师负责为多元文化学生创造高效的文化回应式教育体验,那么在教师教育课程中就应该培养教师与多元文化学生和谐共处的能力。随着全球化视域下多元文化教育的凸显,以及美国中小学生种族、族群、文化和语言结构的多元化日益增强,美国中小学教育更需要擅长多元文化教育的教师。针对现实中孤立的多元文化教师教育课程的设置及其低效问题,美国提倡设置基于全球观培养教师跨文化能力的多元文化教师教育课程,使教师具有广泛的多元文化知识基础、态度,形成持续的跨文化教学能力。     

Promoting inclusivity through and within teacher education programmes

Promoting inclusivity is a core aim for many teacher education programmes throughout the UK, USA, Canada and other highly diverse nations. However, despite this aim, teacher education programmes continue to face challenges in preparing teachers who feel confident in addressing issues of diversity and inclusivity in their classrooms. The purpose of this research was to present an in-depth examination of how one initial teacher education programme coherently promotes inclusivity through various pre-service programme structures and experiences. Data were collected from four senior programme administrators, 10 faculty members and 25 teacher candidates via interviews, focus groups and professional development journals. Results provided a complex analysis of programme coherence related to the multiple ways in which inclusivity was interpreted and experienced within the teacher education programme. Specifically, three different interpretations of inclusivity were identified across participant groups: integrative, dialogical and transgressive. Each of these interpretations were manifested in varied ways through programme structures of field-based placements, curriculum and pedagogies. Based on this analysis, the paper concludes by identifying critical issues related to the preparation of inclusive educators as a foundation for future research and teacher education development.     

美国多元文化教师教育发展综述

美国多元文化教师教育历经近半个世纪的探索,取得了丰富成果。美国多元文化教师教育的兴起有着特定的背景和发展脉络,即从开始注重课程改革,将多元文化教育课程纳入师范生的必修科目,到20世纪90年代中期注重对教师意识形态、性格等方面的研究与培养。此外,美国多元文化教师教育也显现出一系列鲜明的特征。     

A narrative of teacher education in Canada: multiculturalism,technology, bridging theory and practice

This narrative paper investigates a number of enduring and emerging themes reflecting teacher education in Canada over the past 40 years, including changes in information and communication technology, bridging gaps in theory and practice, English as a second language, French immersion and multicultural teacher development. Canadian teacher education programmes have become famous for their long-standing commitment to public education and social welfare. This paper examines the way in which over the past four decades such a commitment has led to effective leadership, multiculturalism, racial tolerance and global citizenship education, as well as comprehensive curriculum, teaching and learning, all figure prominently in Canadian teacher education.     

Biography,Identity, and Inquiry: The making of teacher,teacher educator,and researcher

This is a self-study of my professional and cultural biography and identity, a history which directed me first toward the work of urban teaching and then into teacher education and research into comparative educational issues of racial and national identity. I use this inquiry to demonstrate how biography and identity influences the lived experience of teaching and the researcher's stance. I also examine areas where preservice urban teacher education programs must improve. My personal recommendations describe experiences that would have better prepared me for urban teaching. Suggestions include expanding coursework in the historical, political, and sociocultural influences on urban education and in designing culturally responsive curricula. I also recommend restructuring field experiences to offer richer classroom-based learning opportunities for preservice teachers and extending fieldwork into urban communities. Finally, I suggest ongoing inservice teacher education in learning-community models that respond to educators' context-specific teaching concerns.     

美国高校的多元文化教育

本文从分析多元文化教育理论入手,从社会历史背景、高等教育大众化的影响以及大学生群体的变化三个方面剖析了美国高校多元文化教育产生的背景,并且进一步论述了多元文化教育课程设计的原则和目标以及对老师的要求。随着各个族裔移民的不断增加,他们必将进一步促进美国文化的多样化发展。同时,美国大学中的多元文化教育也将会得到进一步地完善。     

The emotional work of discomfort and vulnerability in multicultural teacher education

This study documents our efforts to implement an ‘ethic of discomfort’ and a ‘pedagogy of discomfort’ in our undergraduate multicultural teacher education courses. Commitments to these moral imperatives inherently involve emotional work for teacher candidates and teacher educators. Such emotional work, particularly in academia, is often invisible and disincentivized. This study examines the following: (1) grappling with students’ emotional reactions that stem from discomfort, (2) engaging in public emotional discourses, (3) negotiating the political dimensions of teaching diverse students, and (4) remaining emotionally available to students as they work through these ideas in their own lives. The implications of this study address the types of preparation and support teacher educators need to facilitate the transformative potential of a pedagogy and an ethic of discomfort. While pre-service teacher education is considered a safe and productive learning space for students to be discomforted, questions are posed regarding the safety for pre-tenured teacher educators involved in this process. We offer a typology of emotional work from a teacher educator perspective in teaching multicultural education.     

多元文化教育与公民的多元文化伦理

不同民族的文化之间的伦理态度和行动方式是重要的公民品质的内容,是公民道德教育的重要组成部分。不同民族与文化的相互尊重、共同发展、相互学习、相互欣赏,是多元社会中的公民应当具有的意识和能力。形成多元文化意识和文化发展能力,应该是公民公共道德教育的重要内容。多元文化教育不仅反映了对少数族群的文化的认可的政治价值的诉求,更重要的是把多元文化的共生和共存放置在积极的教育追求上,通过教育不仅实现文化的发扬和发展,而且养育多元文化的伦理关系和公民人格。培养公民的多元文化伦理是教育文化建构的重要任务。     

How critical thinking,multicultural education and teacher qualification affect anti-immigrant attitudes

Previous studies identify a relationship between education and anti-immigrant attitudes. There is, however, uncertainty regarding the underlying explanations linking education to attitudes. In this article, we examine whether a relationship exists between exposure to teaching about critical thinking as well as multiculturalism (measured as religions/cultures as well as xenophobia/racism), and anti-immigrant attitudes among adolescents. In addition, we examine whether teacher qualification matters for attitudes. The analysis is based on survey data collected from high school students in Sweden. The results show an association between exposure to teaching about critical thinking as well as multiculturalism (both indicators) and anti-immigrant attitudes among students, i.e. higher exposure is related to lower levels of anti-immigrant attitudes. However, we find that teaching about xenophobia/ racism affects attitudes, but not when simultaneously controlling for teaching about critical thinking and religions/cultures. In terms of teacher qualification, we find that students in schools with a high proportion of certified teachers tend to have lower levels of anti-immigrant attitudes.     

Transformational practice: critical teacher research in pre-service teacher education

This article traces the experiences of three pre-service teachers as they engaged in teacher research as part of their teacher education program and considers how teacher research might disrupt dominant paradigms that aim to de-contextualize teaching and offer one-size-fits-all solutions to address inequities. In particular, the article examines: the role of the teacher’s personal and academic history in the design of their teacher research projects; how their research worked to disrupt and complicate classroom cultures and practices; and the ways in which the pre-service teachers interpreted their research in light of new contexts during their first year of teaching. This work has critical implications in an era when teacher education programs are under attack, including: the value of drawing on pre-service teachers' lived experiences as an entry point into inquiry; creating highly localized inquiries; and positioning novice teachers as knowledgeable practitioners who are able to share research with colleagues.     

地方高师高层次教师教育人才培养的机遇与对策

教师教育的变革给地方师范大学发展带来了前所未有的挑战;《国家中长期教育改革和发展规划纲要》颁布及全国教育工作会议的召开,对教师教育提出了新的要求;我国研究生教育结构性调整,为地方师范大学发展提供了新的视角。笔者认为,地方师范大学将挑战与要求转化为发展动力,抓住难得发展机遇,提升教师教育人才培养层次,扩大教育硕士规模,坚持培养原则,创新培养保障措施,确保培养质量,是其充分发挥自身优势与突出办学特色,在激烈市场竞争中谋求长远发展的较佳选择。     

Valuing Diversity in the Schools: Learning from Multicultural Counseling for Teachers in the Greek Educational Setting

This paper explores the challenge of diversity in an increasingly multicultural world, and adopts the position that the valuing of diversity can be taught – especially within the context of teacher training and education in general. It gives an overview of major components of diversity training within the context of multicultural counseling, and stresses what counseling can offer teacher training in regard to diversity issues and competencies for the Greek educational setting. Finally, it examines key notions of difference and ‘otherness’ in Greek thought, which can inform contemporary discourse on diversity and multicultural counseling theory and practice.     

"多元文化教育"探究

多元文化教育是当今世界的一个教育思潮，目前人们对于多元文化教育的理解逐步从狭义的理解发展到更广义的理解，本文介绍分析了它的内涵、理论基础，以及在西方产生和发展的背景和主要内容等，目的在于对我国实现全民教育和教育全球化能有一定的积极作用。     

From assistant teacher to teacher: challenges and pathways in situated pre-service teacher education

Vocational pathways to Higher Education have a key role in opening teacher education to under-represented groups but bring with them particular challenges. Teacher educators need to address the challenges faced by these learners, of not only connecting their learning but also challenging their knowledge, and doing so in an invested work environment. This paper shares my experiences as a teacher educator working with two groups of Indigenous and non-Indigenous para-professional pre-service teachers in remote and urban Central Australia. I identify four key role-shifting challenges individuals face in developing their professional practice and locate them in two interdependent areas: social sphere challenges arising out of the situated learning setting of professional experience, and those occurring in the personal sphere of professional identity. I suggest that the new ways of mentoring and the development of student’s reflexive capacity needed to address these challenges can best be mobilised by re-positioning the role of professional identity at the centre of both professional experience and academic learning.     

多元文化教育论争及其实质探析

多元文化教育自产生起,就饱受纷争,褒贬俱存。争论焦点主要是多元文化教育是否以特殊利益对抗公众利益;是否制造国家分裂、掩盖阶级矛盾;是否有利于提升学业成就。通过反对者与倡议者的论争探析,可以得出结论,多元文化教育遵循了教育公平的平等、差异、补偿原则,实质是促进教育机会均等,虽不能直接改变社会结构,但最终会通过促进教育公平的实施促进整个社会的公平。     

Concepts,policies and practices of teacher education: an analysis of studies on teacher education in Portugal

Education policies, and in particular those related to teacher education, are central to the construction of Europe as a knowledge society and for facing the social and economic challenges that European countries must respond to in this millennium. This article presents an analysis of studies on the evaluation of in-service teacher education conducted in Portugal since 1992. Based on the results of this analysis, the study develops a reflection on the concepts, policies and practices of in-service teacher education, contextualising it within a wider equation related to teachers’ education in Europe. The study consisted of content analyses of scientific articles, research reports, studies of evaluation and legal documents that provide the guidelines for in-service teacher education in Portugal. At the end, a final reflection and some general recommendations for teacher education are presented. There is a focus on the importance of placing in-service teacher education at the centre of educational contexts and on the problems that this causes in teachers’ work, emphasising its importance for social justice in Europe.