Manifestations of Greek-Cypriot teachers' discomfort toward a peace education initiative: Engaging with discomfort pedagogically

This study sought to understand how teachers' discomforting emotions were manifest in a teacher education setting and how teacher educators might engage with discomfort pedagogically. A qualitative perspective was used with a group of teachers who participated in a series of peace education workshops in Cyprus. All of the workshops were audio- and video-recorded; in-depth interviews were also conducted with seven focal participants before and after the workshops. The findings show the manifestations of discomfort, the sources of discomfort, and the ways of handling teachers' discomfort pedagogically. The paper discusses how this study may inform teacher education.     

Is teachers' general pedagogical knowledge a premise for noticing and interpreting classroom situations? A video-based assessment approach

We examine how the declarative-conceptual general pedagogical knowledge (GPK) assessed via a paper-and-pencil test can be understood as a premise for early career teachers' ability to notice and interpret classroom situations assessed via video-vignettes. Longitudinal data from TEDS-M conducted in 2008 at the end of teacher education and a follow-up study in Germany in 2012 is used. Teachers' skills to notice and interpret differ. Interpreting correlates with the current level of GPK, whereas noticing does not. GPK at the end of teacher education neither predicts noticing nor interpreting, which suggests teachers' cognitions are reorganized during the transition into teaching.     

Enhancing preservice teachers’ motivation to teach diverse learners

This two-year mixed-method case study examined if and how a teacher preparation program can change preservice teachers' motivation to teach culturally and linguistically diverse learners. Survey data from Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) candidates demonstrated statistically significant changes in MATs' self-confidence for teaching diverse learners, their self-efficacy for culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP), their perception of the value of multicultural teaching, and in their interest in teaching diverse learners. Interview and focus group data identified explicit instruction on CRP, diverse practicum opportunities, and an emphasis on culturally-oriented self-inquiry as factors that enhanced teachers’ desire to teach diverse students.     

Exploring student teachers' motivation change in initial teacher education: A Chinese perspective

Informed by a multiple, integrated perspective on teacher motivations, this study explores ten student teachers' motivation change throughout a pre-service language teacher education program in China. Drawing on data from the participants' personal reflections, focus group interviews, and individual interviews, this study reveals how the participants' motivations were shaped and reshaped through their professional practice and social interactions in relation to their self-efficacy, outcome expectations, professional autonomy, and social support in their learning context. This study concludes with some implications for policy makers and teacher educators on how to cultivate and promote pre-service teachers' motivations and commitments towards teaching as a life-long career.     

Towards critical multicultural teacher education in the midst of ethno-nationalism: Korean pre-service teachers’ international learning experiences

This study explored how Korean pre-service teachers with international learning experiences in the United States negotiated their understanding of multiculturalism/multicultural education. The findings demonstrated that the participants’ position of a racial/linguistic minority in a foreign country and their teaching experiences in a culturally diverse setting helped them understand the importance of multicultural education. Nevertheless, participants continued to regard multiculturalism as a celebration of diversity, without considering their own racial privilege and the historical/socio-political underpinnings regarding racism in both countries. This study discusses implications for international teacher education and professional development that support critical and reflective learning for future teachers.     

Let's lunch and learn: Professional knowledge sharing in teachers' lounges and other congregational spaces

Teachers' lounges are often thought as places that breed negativity. This two-year ethnography conducted in the United States explored teachers' interactions within teachers' lounges and congregational spaces. This article discusses that an important occurrence in these spaces, professional knowledge sharing, took place instead of perpetual negativity which is the common perception. I present suggestions for how teacher education programs can highlight the importance of congregational spaces, while providing a more complete account of them.     

“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.     

Narrative inquiry as a mediational space: examining emotional and cognitive dissonance in second‐language teachers' development

In the practice of teacher education, most would agree that critical reflection in and on the process of learning to teach and the activities of teaching play a central role in teachers' professional development. Using Vygotskian sociocultural theory, we examine how narrative inquiry functions as a culturally developed tool that mediates teachers' professional development. We analyzed narratives written by three teachers of English as a second/foreign language set in three different instructional contexts. Our analysis suggests an interwoven connection between emotion and cognition, which drove these teachers to search for mediational tools to help them externalize their experiences. The activity of engaging in narrative inquiry created a mediational space where teachers were able to draw upon various resources, such as private journals, peers and ‘expert’ or theoretical knowledge, that allow them to reconceptualize and reinternalize new understandings of themselves as teachers and their teaching activities. The intersection of experiential and ‘expert’ knowledge provided a discourse through which these teachers named experiences and constructed a basis upon which they grounded their transformed understandings of themselves as teachers and their teaching. Depending on where these teachers were in their professional development when they wrote their narratives, we uncovered evidence of idealized conceptions of teaching with commitment to action as well as the transformation of teachers' material activities. Implications for the role teachers' narrative inquiry may play in teacher education programs are provided.     

Using activity theory to understand prospective teachers' attitudes to and construction of special educational needs and/or disabilities

Appropriate professional development, including that initial teacher training, is regarded as a cornerstone of the development of inclusive education. This research is concerned with prospective teachers' conceptualisations of terms such as ‘disability’ and ‘special education’. Activity theory is proposed as a lens through which to consider the complexities involved. In the context of the English systems, this research, using data collected through word association and analysed using activity theory, explored the trainees' conceptualisations. The findings highlight both heterogeneity and homogeneity within a cohort of students, changes over time and implications for those involved in teacher education.     

Teacher agency and professional learning in cross-cultural teaching contexts: Accounts of Chinese teachers from international schools in Hong Kong

This study examined how teacher agency shaped professional learning in cross-cultural teaching contexts. Interviews with 14 Chinese language teachers showed that teacher agency varied in different dimensions of professional learning. Social suggestions, power relations, teachers' professional and social positioning and the imposed identity and social roles in the school contexts interacted to shape teacher agency. The findings suggest both creating school cultures and structures that value and share diverse discursive and pedagogical practices and managing teachers' professional identity and self-positioning to enhance teachers' agency to engage in mutual learning and remaking of their work practices.     

The retention question in context-specific teacher education: Do beginning teachers and their program leaders see teachers' future career eye to eye

This paper discusses the challenge of retaining teachers in hard-to-staff schools by examining how it is addressed in three context specific teacher education programs, which prepare teachers to teach in urban public, urban Catholic, and Jewish Day Schools in U.S.A. The findings of this study suggest that counter to teaching force trends teachers from the three programs that we studied expressed high motivation to serve as teachers or leaders in their particular schools and communities. In particular, we found that teachers' career commitments developed around the religious or civic missions promoted by their respective programs. Finally, teachers' career perceptions seem to correlate, though not entirely match, with those of their program leaders.     

Gender inclusion and horizontal gender segregation: stakeholders' strategies and dilemmas in Swedish teachers' education

This paper contributes to our knowledge of teacher educators' strategies for, and dilemmas with, working with gender inclusion in teachers' education. It illustrates how gender is constructed and reconstructed in teachers' education. The study revealed that teachers' education is not only – as earlier described – a highly feminised field, it is also a discipline that is permeated by horizontal and vertical segregation typical of higher education. The study analyses how university teacher educators experience and handle consequences of this horizontal segregation, building on interviews with subject representatives at a Swedish university. The results exemplify how university teachers reflect on gender policies and their own roles when working with teacher students. Heteronormative patterns also become visible in strategies meant to facilitate gender equality and desegregation. The author argues for the need to include university teachers' perspectives in future strategies for developing gender inclusion in university education.     

Institutional conceptualisations of teacher education as academic work in England

Through an analysis of job recruitment texts, and interviews with academic leaders, this article shows how the university-based teacher educator is produced as a category of academic worker in England. Focussing on the discursive processes of categorisation provides insights into how English universities conceptualise teacher education. Variations in conceptualisations are noted within and between institutions, with the teacher educator produced as a hybrid or exceptional category. Often, variations are produced around a practitioner/researcher contradiction. The article concludes by asking whether such variations and potential lack of coherence matter, in the context of national policy and funding constraints, and internationally.     

Preservice teachers' attitudes about and awareness of multicultural teaching and learning

This study examined preservice teachers' (N = 73) attitudes about and awareness of aspects of multicultural teaching and learning. Subjects provided background information and responded to 43 statements about multicultural education. Results indicate that most respondents are aware of many issues related to multicultural education and anticipate having culturally diverse students in their classrooms. While aware of the need to be able to work with students from diverse cultures, teacher education students are undecided as to just how well their teacher preparation has developed their abilities to teach children from cultural and religious backgrounds that differ from their own, or to communicate with children and families from diverse backgrounds. The authors recommend that teacher training programs address both theory and practice in multicultural education throughout the curriculum in a comprehensive, long-term manner, so that students can acquire the knowledge and confidence necessary to deal with multicultural issues in education with intelligence, professionalism, and understanding.     

Teacher competencies as a basis for teacher education – Views of Serbian teachers and teacher educators

Around the world reforms in teacher education have been oriented towards making the preparation of teachers more functional for development of competencies they need in practice. At the same time, much criticism has been voiced about such reforms jeopardising the fundamental humanist traditions in teaching, based on beliefs about non-instrumental values of education. In this study we examine teachers' perceptions of importance of competencies and explore their implications for teacher education. The study has been designed to ensure that voices of teachers and teacher educators are heard in identification of areas of expertise that make up a competent teacher. We conducted a principal component analysis of the response of 370 teachers and teacher educators in Serbia to a questionnaire about the importance of a number of aspects of teacher competence. We identified four components underling teachers' perceptions of competencies relating to 1) values and child-rearing; 2) understanding of the education system and contribution to its development; 3) subject knowledge, pedagogy and curriculum; and 4) self-evaluation and professional development. Teachers perceived all but the second area of competence as very important, with the fourth scale perceived as of the highest importance. Implications of each area of competence for teacher education are discussed and conclusions are drawn for the development of teacher education curricula.     

Race,culture and agency: Examining the ideologies and practices of U.S. teachers of Black male students

This study examines teachers of Black male students in a United States secondary school setting. Qualitative methods were used to document teachers' ideologies of and practices with their Black male students. In general, teachers drew upon competing structural and cultural explanations of Black male social and academic outcomes, while also engaging in practices that contested school barriers for Black males. Teacher beliefs about and practices with their Black male students were inconsistent in many ways, yet their agency on behalf of Black males might be understood as essential to Black male educational progress.     

Multicultural perspectives in the curricula of two colleges of education in Israel: ‘The curriculum is a cruel mirror of our society’

This study reveals the multicultural perspectives in the curricula of two colleges of education in Israel. It examines the perceptions of teacher educators with regard to: the importance of the teacher's role in educating students for sensitivity and diversity; the needs of students from different cultural backgrounds in colleges of education; the roles of the teacher and the college; and an evaluation of how multiculturalism is dealt with in teacher education in Israel. Faculty members in both colleges perceived multiculturalism as relating to two domains: student population and curriculum. The findings and conclusions confirm the existence and increasing awareness of multiculturalism in the two colleges. However, it is obvious that as yet the concept has not been thoroughly investigated, nor has it penetrated all realms of activity. Clearly, teacher educators know the meaning of multiculturalism and believe that it should play a more significant role in colleges of education. However, they seem to be uncertain as to how to go about it.     

Intercultural language teaching as a catalyst for teacher inquiry

This study investigated how two teachers of languages, facilitated by university researchers, developed their practices with regard to intercultural language teaching. Taking a qualitative case study approach, we collected data from classroom observations, interviews, debriefing conversations, and guided reflective pieces written by the teachers. Findings indicate that the opportunities for teachers to inquire into their own practices shifted these teachers' approaches to language teaching to accommodate a curriculum expectation to develop students' intercultural communicative competence in plurilingual contexts. The study offers valuable insights for teacher education into the ways teachers' inquiries can support teachers’ responses to curricular change.     

A proficiency model for pre-service physics teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK)—What constitutes high-level PCK?

This study identifies proficiency levels in pre-service physics teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and reveals how teacher education can promote transitions into higher proficiency. Teacher education plays a fundamental role in supporting pre-service teachers' PCK development. Proficiency levels are a powerful source when evaluating this PCK development because they characterize what learners are likely to be able to know on a specific level. Previous research has presented a model of proficiency levels in pre-service physics teachers' PCK; however, evidence for the model's validity is still lacking. According to the Refined Consensus Model of PCK, factors such as teachers' content knowledge (CK), their teaching experience, and their beliefs about teaching and learning science promote PCK development. Thus, understanding how and when pre-service physics teachers' CK, teaching experience, and beliefs contribute to their proficiency can bring insights into how teacher education can promote PCK development. To address this issue, N = 427 observations of pre-service physics teachers were analyzed. Utilizing the scale anchoring procedure, four different proficiency levels in pre-service physics teachers' PCK were identified. Analyzing these proficiency levels showed that lower levels can be characterized as remembering content-unspecific knowledge, whereas higher levels encompass content-specific strategies to structure and elaborate lessons. Additionally, logistic regression models revealed that pre-service physics teachers' CK is crucial for an increase in PCK proficiency. However, transitions into higher levels of PCK additionally require teaching experience and adequate beliefs about teaching and learning. Thus, our proficiency levels can be used to bring insights into how proficiency in PCK can be supported during teacher education. For example, teacher education should provide courses focusing on the science curriculum and the assessment of student learning to promote pre-service physics teachers' progression in PCK.