教师的有效学习与职业生命价值的提升

教师的职业生命价值能否获得提升关键在于能否进行有效的学习。教师在传递知识的同时,也需要不断地更新知识。而知识的更新须要有效的学习作为支撑。教师告别被动的应付式的学习,以高度的自觉性、积极性和主动性,开拓视野、更新知识结构和能力结构,有助于教师发现和提升职业的生命价值。     

论教师自我教育意识

教师自我教育意识是教师对自身的教育理念与教学行为的省察和反思，是学习化社会和教师专业化对教师的形象诉求。积极的自我教育意识是教师人格不可或缺的职业品质，是教师专业成长的起点，能促使教师不断地进行角色认知和角色学习，进而达到自我完善，体现了教师专业发展状态的升华。通过开展教育科学研究，加强教学反思训练以及建立有意义学习的范式，以此构建符合个体实际的自我教育取向的教师专业发展路径。     

The managerial role of the principal in promoting teacher professionalism in selected Eastern Cape schools

Abstract

In the last two to three decades teachers’ work has been plagued by problems internationally. These problems include a growing dissatisfaction of teachers about their working conditions (characterized by heavy workloads and low salaries), the growing attempts by governments to control teachers’ work and the increasing negative public image of the teaching profession. This negative public image of teaching is manifested in the failure of the profession to attract enough students and the fact that those who are already in the profession want to leave. These factors had, inter alia, lead to a collapse of professionalism amongst teachers in general.

There are, however, also other factors that have an influence on the professionalism of school teachers. It is argued in this article that the management role of the school principal is a crucial factor that influences teacher professionalism. This influence can be either positive or negative, depending to a large extent on how effectively the principal is managing the school. This article, derived from an empirical case study undertaken among a number of secondary schools in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, is an attempt to conceptualise the important and pivotal managerial role of the principal in promoting professionalism amongst teachers in this province.     

Career stories of Israeli teachers who left teaching: a salutogenic view of teacher attrition

Many countries experience a high percentage of teachers who leave the profession before retirement. Most of the explanations, such as teacher burnout, adopt a pathogenic point of view which perceives attrition as a negative work outcome. In contrast, the qualitative project that this article is based on, which characterizes the career decision-making processes of 34 Israeli teachers, adopts a salutogenic perspective. This view allows for approaching attrition as a career decision which reflects the meaning teachers attach to their work. Drawing on a model which identifies three orientations toward work (job, calling and career), this article describes career stories of teachers who left teaching in order to illustrate how their work orientation shaped their decision.     

Item analysis of Guglielmino's self‐directed learning readiness scale

The present study was designed to ascertain the effect of a sabbatical year on teachers’ professional identity, feelings of job burnout and intentions to leave either their workplace or the profession. The sample was drawn from those members of the Israel primary school teacher population who were eligible to be on a sabbatical during the 1991‐92 school year. The subjects filled out survey questionnaires before and after taking their sabbaticals. The findings indicate that a sabbatical in conjunction with a professional training programme had great impact on strengthening the teachers’ professional image, and reducing their feelings of job burnout and intentions to leave their workplace or profession.     

Emily and Rebecca: A tale of two teachers

Using a qualitative study, two teachers, Emily and Rebecca, who started their teaching careers in their forties were interviewed and followed for 3 years to document their experiences in the teaching profession. The tale of these two teachers includes their joys, frustrations, and problems that surround their lives as middle school math teachers. Discussing such topics as, college preparation, isolation, time required, extra duties, little respect for teachers, resistance to innovation, and the need for a mentorship program, Emily and Rebecca honestly paint a self-portrait that includes the influence of their past experiences before becoming a teacher and the reality of joining the profession of teaching.All administrators and educators should take note of Emily and Rebecca's tale in order for changes to be made that will create an environment that is encouraging and inviting for all teachers that will lead to teacher retention, and, in turn, focuses on the success for all students.     

教师专业形象的意蕴和价值

走向专业化的教师形象既是教师作为专业者的时代诉求,又是对传统教师形象的反思和重构。要真正领会教师专业形象的意蕴,需要在形象专业和专业形象、政策形象和自主形象、理想形象和现实形象等相关范畴中进行正确的抉择。教师专业形象的深入阐释在认同教师作为教学专业者身份、凸显教师专业形象现实性和规范教师专业发展路径等方面将发挥举足轻重的作用。     

How education policy is made meaningful – a narrative exploration of how teachers show autonomy in the development of teaching and learning

This study addresses how the autonomy of teachers in higher education, in relation to education policy and reform, can be understood. By taking a narrative-in-action approach, we studied health profession teachers’ activities and reasoning within their ongoing practice during one year. The findings show how the teachers created their own policies and in what way these policies became meaningful. As teachers in this study continuously made changes, the joint creation of policies contributed to their sense of togetherness and the re-building of a community of practice. In parallel, they increased the evidence-based standards related to their discipline and experienced a shift in perspective concerning teaching and learning. The importance of their jointly made policies can be explained by how they learned a student-learning view together, and built on their own ideas of what educational matters needed to be developed. At the same time, their activities and reasoning mirror ‘a debated but yet prevailing view’ on the discourse of quality and a number of ideals thereof such as transparency and standardisation, effective teaching and increased academisation.     

Decision-making and control: perceived autonomy of teachers in Germany and Sweden

Teacher autonomy has become an increasingly popular research topic over the past decade, reflecting wider national and global education trends. In this light, this article investigates and compares the perceptions of German and Swedish teachers concerning their professional autonomy. We analyse teachers’ perceptions using a grid, and view teacher autonomy as a multidimensional phenomenon taking place in different domains (educational, social, developmental and administrative) and at different levels (classroom, school, profession). The findings show that the teachers interviewed in Germany and Sweden value autonomy in various domains and dimensions differently, even if there also are many similarities. In instruction, that is, the educational autonomy domain, they perceive themselves to be very autonomous, in particular in relation to choices of content and method. Autonomous work in the classroom arena is also seen as the very core of the teaching profession. Overall, German teachers perceive themselves to be significantly involved in more areas of their work, and they refer much more to decisions which are to be made, whereas their Swedish colleagues are more concerned about control. Finally, we discuss the findings in relation to different nation-specific forms of extended or restricted autonomy teacher autonomy.     

The Academic Profession and Scholarship: the Case of Czech Higher Education

This article discusses the intricacies of the relationship between the academic profession and scholarship in the current conditions of Czech higher education. It provides an overview of the evaluation parameters of the academic profession from different points of view. It also presents the two sides of the academic career in higher education: research and teaching, both composing scholarship, and their places in an academic career. The main problem for university teachers in the changing educational and social context of the Czech Republic is one of conserving those traditions judged to be useful and of stressing certain professional competencies over others. The research function is threatened by inadequate working conditions and administrative barriers.     

师德:教师执业的动力与规范、度量——面对张丽莉、“范跑跑”现象的理性审视

教师是一种以教书育人为责任的特殊社会性职业。师德是教师的职业(执业)道德,是社会对教师和教师对自己所从事的职业的正确理解,是对这种社会性行为的坚定而持久的内在信念,是教师的道德意识、道德关系和道德活动的总和,是教师素质的核心部分。要警惕两种错误做法:拔高"德"的尺度,过分要求教师"应然",使教师承受不应该且难以承受之重;或矮化"德"的水准,牵强教师顺应"实然",而使教师不能达到其特殊职业的要求。     

Keeping our teachers! Investigating mentoring practices to support and retain novice educators

For this study the researchers used data from the 2006 North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions survey to investigate the possible relationship between mentoring and intentionality with respect to beginning teachers’ intentions to remain in the profession. The sample consists of 8838 teachers who were mentored during their first two years of teaching. To determine whether the quality of mentoring is related to teachers’ intentions to stay or leave the profession, mentor matching, degree of support, and frequency of interactions were variables examined. Beginning teachers who were matched by grade level, who received assistance with the supports investigated, and who met with mentors at least once monthly for the specified activities were more likely to commit to remaining in the profession than their peers who had received less support.     

What characterises the competent RE teacher? Finnish student teachers’ perceptions at the beginning of their pedagogical training

This study is part of a research project concerning perceptions of competence among RE student teachers at different stages of their pedagogical studies. This article focuses on the perceptions of RE teachers’ competence at the beginning of their training. According to the qualitative data the RE student teachers discerned various areas of competence. Both task competencies (content knowledge and good practice) and person competencies (experience, professional awareness, motivation and pro-social orientation) were identified. In addition, the student teachers placed more emphasis on theories of teaching than theories of learning. They also seemed to view RE teaching as a general educational profession.     

Reclaiming professionalism for geography education: Defending our own territory

In a world where governments increasingly attempt to impose regulation on all professional activities, this paper advocates that professional standards for teachers be developed ‘by the profession for the profession’. Foucauldian archaeology is applied to two teacher standards documents recently published in Australia, one developed at national governmental level and the other by geography teachers through their professional associations. The excavation reveals that both students and geography teachers themselves are better served when teachers assert their own definition of professionalism and thus reclaim their professional territory, rather than being compliant with generic governmental agendas. Whilst we use Australia as an illustrative example, our findings are applicable to all other countries where governments attempt to impose external professional standards on the teaching profession.     

教育生态环境视阈下的现代教师形象及其塑造

改革开放以来,中国教育生态环境发生了巨大变化,其中蕴涵着平等、独立自主、竞争、多元等丰富的现代价值观念。教师作为教育的核心构成要素,应该成为现代价值观念的化身和忠实的践行者,塑造与现代教育生态环境要求相一致的职业形象,努力成为师德践行的模范、心灵相通的知己、平等相待的朋友、方法选择的向导、人类命运的关注者、享受职业的幸福人。塑造现代教师形象是一项系统工程,需要教师自身加强学习提升职业道德修养,行政主管部门完善教师管理制度,社会形成真正尊师重教的氛围。     

试论教师职业幸福的缺失与重建

教师幸福在一定程度上影响着学生的幸福.但是,审视当下教师的生存和生活状态,却发现教师的幸福在逐步失落:物质生活缺乏保障、身心健康遭受侵袭、人际关系日益紧张、人生价值无法实现.究其因,与社会对教师职业神圣化、学校对教师要求功利化、教师自身对职业认识物质化不无关系.为此,需要社会、学校、教师自身三方协同努力,有效提升教师的职业幸福感.     

From attrition to retention: a narrative inquiry of why beginning teachers leave and then rejoin the profession

The issue of beginning teachers leaving the profession in the first few years of their career represents a global problem, and while discrepancies exist over precise numbers, there is consensus that the attrition rate of new teachers is high. This paper reports on a narrative inquiry into two beginning teachers who left the profession after just 1 year of practice, only to return 2 years later. By examining this continuum from attrition to retention through the lens of the two teachers’ narrative accounts it is possible to gain some insights into how new teachers’ personal and professional landscapes intertwine. Findings reveal that these beginning teachers’ experiences of their school contexts combined with their personal stories in the first year of practice shaped their professional identity culminating in them leaving and then rejoining the teaching fold. Insights gleaned may have significant implications for beginning teachers, school leaders, teacher education institutions, and policy makers.     

Who is the ideal teacher? Am I? Similarity and difference in perception of students of education regarding the qualities of a good teacher and of their own qualities as teachers

This research examines two images of teachers as seen by students of education: the ideal teacher and their own self‐image as teachers. The research compares the students’ perceptions of these two images using two sub‐groups of students of education: students at an academic teachers’ college who will be referred to as student teachers and beginning teachers, who, while teaching, are completing their academic degrees at teachers’ colleges or regional academic colleges. Data were collected from 89 students at the two colleges by means of a questionnaire that included open‐ended questions which were analyzed qualitatively. The findings of the research indicate that there are two major categories that comprise perceptions of the ideal teacher: first, personal qualities; and second, knowledge of the subject taught as well as didactic knowledge. Both groups of students similarly attributed great importance to the personal qualities of the ideal teacher, but there is a difference in their perception of the importance of knowledge: the beginning teachers attributed great importance to knowledge and perceived it as a quality similar in importance to personal characteristics, while the student teachers, who had not begun their teaching careers, attributed less importance to knowledge as a characteristic of the ideal teacher. A quality which was less prominent when profiling the ideal teacher is general education and wide perspectives. The teacher as a socializing agent, a person who promotes social goals, was not mentioned at all. Students maintained that, during their studies, they had improved their qualities as ‘empathetic and attentive’ teachers, ‘knowledgeable in teaching methods’, and in ‘leadership’. But they had hardly improved their knowledge of the subject they taught or their level of general knowledge. The discussion of knowledge and the desirable personal qualities of a teacher is relevant to the current debate regarding the relative merits of disciplinary education in contrast to pedagogical education in preparation for teaching as a profession. The clear preference for disciplinary education by policy makers in Israel and elsewhere in the field of teacher education is contradictory to the emphasis placed on the personal development of future teachers and their pedagogical education by the students of education who participated in this research.     

Career change teachers: pragmatic choice or a vocation postponed?

For the last decade, international bodies have warned of a teacher shortage and sought to find ways of attracting more applicants to the profession. This article reports on a pilot study undertaken at one Australian university which asked why some applicants to preservice teaching courses had given up existing careers in order to become teachers. It then asked if their career change had been successful. Using open-ended questions and interviews, this paper recorded the view of 35 teachers who had been in teaching for 2–5?years. The findings suggest that reasons for selecting teaching as a second career are more complex and nuanced than existing research suggests, combining pragmatic, deeply personal and spiritual elements. It also found a significant connection between career change teachers’ satisfaction with their new occupation and the status of their occupation, indicating that further study of career change teachers’ experiences and personal beliefs is warranted.