Great expectations: Teacher learning in a national professional development programme

This paper reports findings from an evaluation of a national continuing professional development (CPD) programme for teachers in England. Data showed that the localised implementation, opportunities for interactive learning, and ‘collective participation’ were positive factors. Research participants reported difficulties, however, in ‘cascading’ knowledge to colleagues and in sustaining and developing their learning. It is argued that these limitations were rooted in an inconsistent theory of learning that underpinned the programme and a failure to conceptualise teachers as ‘lead learners’ in schools. Wider implications for the design of teachers’ professional development are considered.     

Mapping the classroom emotional environment

Harvey and Evans (2003) have proposed that teachers’ emotional skills, as required in the classroom, can be organized into a five-dimensional model. Further research is necessary to validate this model and evaluate the importance of each dimension of teacher emotion competence for educational practice. Using a statistical method for mapping psychological constructs, teachers’ emotional practices were transformed into a ‘map’ with three spatial dimensions, which was supported by comparative validity checks. The nature of emotional practice was further investigated by administering a Q-Sort of emotional practice items to 100 teachers. Ten highly applicable clusters of emotional behavior across six profile patterns with teachers were identified. Authors’ model and the applicability of emotions were generally supported.     

Teacher beliefs and teacher behaviour in portfolio assessment

This study concerns the relation between teachers’ beliefs towards teaching behaviour and their actual teaching behaviour in teacher portfolio assessment. We analysed the beliefs and behaviour of 18 teachers as described in their portfolios. In addition, each portfolio was independently assessed by two trained raters on eight content standards and the teachers’ classroom behaviour was assessed by their own students in a questionnaire (n=317). Linear multilevel analysis showed that part of the raters’ assessments of the teachers’ beliefs and their behaviour as described in their portfolios was significantly related to the students’ assessments of their teachers’ behaviour. Teachers with high raters’ assessments on the content standard about ‘choosing and arguing for teaching strategies that meet students’ knowledge, abilities and experience’ had significantly higher student assessments than teachers who were judged low on this standard. Implications of the results and suggestions for further research are discussed.     

What can teachers do to raise pupil achievement?

Improving weak teaching may be one of the most effective means of raising pupil achievement. However, teachers’ classroom practices and the teaching ‘process’ may matter more to student learning than teachers’ observed résumé characteristics (such as certification and experience). There may also be important differences in teacher characteristics across government and private schools which may help explain the large documented public-private achievement differences often found in studies. This paper delves into the black-box representing ‘teaching’ to uncover the teacher characteristics and teaching practices that matter most to pupil achievement. This is done using unique school-based data, collected in 2002-2003 from government and private schools from one district in Punjab province in Pakistan. The data allow exploitation of an identification strategy that permits the matching of students’ test scores in language and mathematics to the characteristics of teachers that teach those subjects. Within pupil (across subject rather than across time) variation is used to examine whether the characteristics of different subject teachers are related to a students’ mark across subjects. The data are also unique in asking all subject teachers questions pertaining to their teaching practices and these, often unobserved, ‘process’ variables are included in achievement function estimates. Our pupil fixed-effects findings reveal that the standard résumé characteristics of teachers do not significantly matter to pupil achievement. Perversely, however, teachers are found to be rewarded with higher pay for possessing these characteristics, highlighting the highly inefficient nature of teacher pay schedules. Our findings also show that teaching ‘process’ variables matter significantly to student achievement. There are important differences across school-types.     

Caring for “others”: Examining the interplay of mothering and deficit discourses in teaching

Data from a year-long narrative inquiry, involving six American women elementary school teachers, suggests that teachers’ conceptions of caring are primarily shaped by their biographies. Despite teachers’ claims that they knew their students well, their conceptions of caring were relatively fixed across contexts rather than malleable to differing students’ realities. Here, I raise questions about the interplay of mothering and deficit discourses as they serve to legitimize and perpetuate single-loop caring. Implications for teaching, teacher education and care theory are discussed.     

“So, where do they fit in?” Teachers’ perspectives of multi-cultural education and diversity in Singapore

This qualitative study attends to six Singaporean teachers’ experiences of diversity and understanding of multicultural education to illuminate the influence of national policies and narratives on teachers’ perceptions and practice. These cases illustrate that, beyond reflection on identity and diversity, there is a need for teachers to examine how political, cultural, and economic principles have shaped their understanding of diversity and multicultural education. The authors discuss findings in light of socio-political constraints faced by Singapore teachers and forward implications for teacher education.     

“You choose to care”: Teachers,emotions and professional identity

This paper discusses the findings of a qualitative interpretive study on secondary school teachers’ professional identities and emotional experiences. Teachers’ work is emotionally engaging and personally demanding, yet the caring nature of the teaching role is largely neglected in educational policy and teacher standards. This paper examines the reasons behind the marginalisation of discourses of emotionality and discusses the lived experiences of three teachers. The caring behaviour that teachers exhibit in their work is seen to have professional, performative and philosophical dimensions as individual teachers subjectively negotiate the demands that are placed upon them in different situated contexts.     

God's antipodean teaching force: An historical exposition on Catholic teaching religious in Australia

From the 1850s to the 1970s the teaching force in Catholic schools in Australia was dominated by priests, female religious and brothers. This paper details the scope of existing research on these teachers, the demands of their religious vocation, their own education, the atmosphere which they established in the schools, leadership opportunities, and the ‘darker side’ of their way of life. Such expositions can promote reflection on the possibility that teaching can be influenced by discourses of ‘vocation’ and ‘the giving of service’, every bit as much as it can be by ‘industrial’ and ‘labour’ perspectives.     

Teachers’ perspectives on innovations: Implications for educational design

Educational designers often develop a ‘powerful learning environment’ that is subsequently implemented by teachers. Due to a lack of cooperation with teachers they may receive limited feedback on the quality of their design and the way it is implemented. This study focuses on teachers’ perceptions of a Dutch innovative learning environment called the “Second Phase”, as well as their desires and their dis/satisfaction with this environment. The results show that teachers are reserved about student autonomy and productive learning. Perceptions and desires are related to their individual approaches to teaching. The findings provide useful feedback for designers and a starting point to intensify their cooperation with teachers.     

Co-constructing efficacy: A “communities of practice” perspective on teachers’ efficacy beliefs

Teachers’ efficacy beliefs are critical to improving student learning, but we have yet to fully understand how these beliefs develop. The prevailing model of teachers’ efficacy development emerges from cognitive theories, but sociocultural theories may add insights to modeling the impact of teachers’ school contexts. This case study takes a “communities of practice” approach to explore the connections between teachers’ evidence-based decision-making practices and their efficacy beliefs. Findings, based on interviews with four teachers, indicate that teachers co-construct their efficacy beliefs in shared practices, suggesting the usefulness of communities of practice theory to more fully understand teachers’ efficacy belief development.     

It's not all about school: Ways of disrupting pre-service teachers' perceptions of pedagogy and communication

Many pre-service teachers enter teacher education with problematic or unexamined assumptions about learners and teaching. This article reports on an authentic learning opportunity offered to 22 pre-service teachers in their first year at university, which attempts to disrupt these perceptions about learning and pedagogy. Using a new application of Butin's conceptual framework we show that during the project these participants developed more complex notions of learners and ways of making meaning. We argue that these ‘real-world’ experiences, when offered before pre-service teachers begin practicum in schools, provide more ‘resources’ to problematise the practices and institutional discourses encountered in schools.     

In-service and prospective teachers’ conceptions of creativity

Teachers play a crucial role in the development of primary school students’ creative potential in either a positive or a negative way. This paper aims to draw attention to in-service and prospective teachers’ conceptions of creativity and answer three main research questions: “What are the teachers’ conceptions and implicit theories of creativity in general?”, “What are the teachers’ conceptions and implicit theories of creativity in the context of primary education?”, and “How well-trained and equipped do teachers feel to play their key role in the development of students’ creative potential?” A self-report questionnaire was used as an instrument to gather qualitative and quantitative data from 132 Greek in-service and prospective teachers. According to the selected quantitative data we present in this study, the majority of the participants reported that the facilitation of students’ creativity is included in the teachers’ role, but they (teachers themselves) do not feel well-trained and confident enough to realise this particular expectation. The authors conclude that further research is needed in order to: (i) reveal more on teachers’ conceptions on creativity and (ii) understand and classify teachers’ particular needs to facilitate the creative potential of primary school students.     

Taking Teachers Out of the Equation: Constructions of Teachers in Education Policy Documents Over a Ten-year Period

Education policy documents recently have placed great emphasis on teacher quality in the belief that ‘education of the highest quality requires teachers of the highest quality’ (Department of Employment Education Training and Youth Affairs 2000). This paper traces the discourses on teachers constructed in policy documents in order to establish what is meant by ‘teachers of the highest quality’. It employs Critical Discourse Analysis to investigate the discursive construction of teachers’ professional identities in three policy documents released over the last decade. This analysis finds that, despite recognition being given to the importance of teachers in all three documents, teachers’ professional autonomy is effectively curtailed as they are increasingly being ‘taken out of the equation’ in education policy decision-making. The paper concludes with suggestions for ways in which teachers may challenge these constructions and work to reconstruct teachers as active voices in the policy-making process.     

Agency and conformity in school-based teacher training

Concern has been expressed that the current climate in schools militates against trainee teachers’ self-directed development. This article explores the issue of trainees’ capacity for self-direction through the analysis of interviews with 32 trainees, investigating their perceived proactive social strategies. Three proactive strategies were identified: ‘tactical compliance’, personalising advice, and seeking out opportunities to exercise control. It is argued that these strategies are indicative of trainees’ drive to establish a personal teaching identity through self-directed development and the creation of individual development agendas. The article concludes by emphasising the importance of the development of proactive social skills in beginning teachers.     

Teacher education for World English speaking pre-service teachers: Making transnational knowledge exchange for mutual learning

Pre-service teachers are taught that the funds of knowledge their students bring to school provide intellectual resources to be engaged through productive pedagogies. Teacher education may assist and/or hinder World English Speaking (WES) pre-service teachers in gaining access to the teaching profession by doing likewise. The interpretative case study presented in this paper involves exploring possibilities for teacher education programs to make transnational knowledge connections through WES pre-service teachers. Evidence from interviews with WES pre-service teachers and their Anglophone teacher educators are analysed to elaborate issues confronting teacher education programs involving World English Speakers. The findings indicate that teamwork which is constructed to privilege the knowledge of Anglophone pre-service teachers over their WES peers is questionable. Further, WES pre-service teachers are not only structurally disadvantaged by teamwork practices that privilege local knowledge, they are also challenged by teacher educators’ assessment procedures. The pressures created on teacher educators’ workloads, may lead to ‘lean and mean’ assessment procedures which serve to contain excessive demands on their labour, but do not necessarily resolve the dilemma of how to use assessment practices that minimise WES pre-service teachers’ learning.     

Head Start teachers’ beliefs about language and literacy instruction

This study investigated the nature of Head Start teachers’ beliefs about early literacy and the teacher background factors that relate to these beliefs. Twenty-eight Head Start teachers were given the Preschool Teacher Literacy Beliefs Questionnaire (TBQ) and a background questionnaire. Reliable belief subscales reflecting code, oral language, book reading, and writing aspects of early literacy, as well as a reliable total literacy beliefs score, emerged from the TBQ. In general, teachers agreed with research-based practices related to oral language and book reading, but more variability was apparent around code-related and writing beliefs. Teacher experience was positively linked to agreement with evidence-based beliefs about oral language. The multidimensional nature of these beliefs, possible reasons for the absence of strong relations to background factors, and directions for future research on preschool teachers’ beliefs are discussed.     

Story constellations: A narrative approach to contextualizing teachers’ knowledge of school reform

This article traces the roots of narrative research in the social sciences and education, then centers on ‘story constellations,’ a version of narrative inquiry that uncovers teachers’ knowledge of school reform in context. A fluid form of investigation that unfolds in a three-dimensional inquiry space, story constellations consists of a flexible matrix of paired narratives that are broadened, burrowed, and restoried over time. The adaptability of this narrative inquiry approach is then made visible through introducing four story constellations separately, then laying sketches of the individual story constellations side-by-side. When analyzed in a conjoined fashion, these sketches illustrate how the particularities of place and human agency in the living of school reform played out differently in differing school contexts, despite the fact that the four school sites had one story of reform in common. In the end result, the illustrations demonstrate how the use of the malleable approach drew distinctive story constellations to the surface, spotlighting teachers’ knowledge of school reform as it developed in context over time. In this way, ‘story constellations’ as a method and as a form of inquiry is illuminated.     

Exploring teacher trust in technical/vocational secondary schools: Male teachers’ preference for girls

This article explores whether teachers’ trust in pupils in technical/vocational schools is associated with teachers’ and pupils’ gender. As for the teachers, besides gender, age, socioeconomic origin, and subject taught are considered and, as for the pupils, the gender composition of the school (proportion of girls at school), the socioeconomic context of the school and the grades teachers instruct. Multilevel analyses of data of 391 teachers in a sample of 19 technical/vocational schools demonstrate that initially none of the teacher features relates to teacher trust. Adding gender composition to the model yields an effect of teachers’ gender: Female teachers have less trust in their pupils than male teachers have. Also, teachers’ trust increases with the proportion of girls at school. Finally, a significant interaction effect indicates that male teachers seem to prefer female pupils.     

Developing a pedagogy of mutuality in a capability approach: Teachers’ experiences of using the Open Educational Resources (OER) of the teacher education in sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) programme

The TESSA (teacher education in sub Saharan Africa) programme aims to improve teacher education at scale by developing open educational resources (OER) that allow sustainable and locally managed pedagogical change in higher education institutions and schools. The article offers a sociocultural theoretical rationale for the pedagogy of mutuality represented in the TESSA OER; and for the research approach to understanding pedagogical change that recognises the dialectical relationships between national policies and institutional structures and practices, and the consequent impact of these on teachers’ practice and pupils’ learning. It reports from an interview-based enquiry, from the project¹ ‘Extending and embedding TESSA OER’, looking at how teacher educators at a Kenyan University served to broker changes in pedagogy within the institution and its partner schools. Two school-based cases are discussed that highlight the role teachers, who take up these pedagogical challenges play in further brokering change in their local institutions; some of the influences that support the process of institutional change are identified and how these are understood and reported to increase access and enhance learning for all pupils.