School counselor educators: A grounded theory of career interest and satisfaction

Annually, there are school counseling specific counselor educator positions that remain unfilled. There is a need for more counselor educators with school counseling backgrounds. This grounded theory provides a model of the process by which school counselor educators decide to enter academia and what keeps them in their positions, based on focus groups with 32 participants. Results showed the reasons for leaving school counseling, what factors promote entry into school counselor education, and what keeps school counselor educators in that role. Implications for counselor education are provided.     

SHOULD JEWISH SUPPLEMENTARY RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS BE LIKE THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS?

Whether the Jewish supplementary school should be operated as if it were a public school depends on the goals of Jewish education. “In terms of ultimate goals, however, Jewish education is now at a crossroads.”¹ While all Jewish educators would probably agree with Harold Schulweis' statement that “it is our sacred task to create Jews,”² educators are not in agreement over what type of Jews we are to create and how we are to create them. Jewish educators can be divided into two groups. One group wants to create “educated, thinking Jews” — goal #1—while the other desires to shape children into “feeling Jews” —goal #2.     

Preparing pre-service teachers to integrate technology into K–12 instruction: evaluation of a technology-infused approach

The quality of how technology is addressed in teacher education programmes is conditional for how student teachers apply technology in secondary schools after their graduation. Two technology-infused courses of one teacher education programme were evaluated. In line with studies on the development of pre-service teachers’ technological, pedagogical and content knowledge, two important enablers were distinguished: (1) teaching practice to enact what was learned in teacher education institution as well as to receive feedback from students on this enactment, and (2) modelling of teacher educators and teachers in school. Both enablers might require further development of knowledge and skills of both teacher educators and cooperating school teachers.     

Building a Bridge: Counselor Educator–School Counselor Collaboration

Despite calls for collaboration between counselor educators and school counselors, little is known about how collaboratives develop and what, if any, benefits are derived by the participants. In this article, the authors describe an 8‐year collaboration between a group of university‐based counselor educators and school counselors in 1 partnership community. Interviews with selected members of the collaborative were conducted to assess the participants' perceptions of the impact of this collaborative on their professional lives. A qualitative analysis of interviews revealed that renewal, professional development, and community are central to the experience of participants. Implications for future collaborations and research are discussed.     

A Collaborative Autoethnography of Literacy Professional Development Work in a High-Needs Environment

This article presents the findings of a collaborative autoethnography (CAE) of three teacher educators’ work as literacy professional development (PD) leaders in a high-needs, culturally diverse, urban, US school district. The research questions focused on what the facilitators learned about leading literacy PD in a high-needs/high-stakes environment and how the teacher educators changed from navigating the complex contexts of PD work over an 18-month period. Data collection included written accounts of the researchers’ experiences, collaborative dialogue and probing discussions, and expanded autoethnographic writings. Methods of CAE analysis were employed, resulting in several thematic assertions that offer intimate insight into the processes of facilitating literacy PD with marginalized populations of students and educators. The findings address the socio-political nature of building relationships in such settings, the challenges of changing a deficit-based discourse, and the tensions that influenced the PD facilitators’ actions and learning. Through the self-study methodology of CAE, this work provides teacher leaders and teacher educators with tangible ideas about how to facilitate the vital PD processes of relationship building, collaborating with teachers, navigating multiple roles, designing learning engagements and leadership structures, and supporting resistant and struggling educators.     

Mobile instant messaging for professional learning: Educators' perspectives on and uses of Voxer

Voxer is a messaging tool that allows for voice, text, image, and video communication. To explore Voxer's role in education, we surveyed 240 educators. Heutagogy served as the theoretical framework for the study. Results indicated that participants used Voxer to communicate with educators from diverse roles and from beyond their schools, districts, and regions. Respondents employed Voxer more for professional learning than with students and/or families. The majority of respondents reported that what they learned through Voxer had impacted their practice as educators. We discuss implications of our findings for educators in an era of ubiquitous social media.     

Crossing the boundaries of imagination: The role of a public library exhibition in global learning for student teachers and teacher educators

In this paper, we utilise the theoretical concept of ‘boundary crossing’ to explore how, as Australian university teacher educators, we worked with library curators and a class of student teachers to mount a public exhibition of their group work. We consider how the students crossed ‘boundaries of imagination’ in symbolic representation and critical analysis by creating artistic installations to express global education themes. We reflect on what we, the university educators, learned about crossing institutional and pedagogical boundaries to mutually facilitate new learning. We argue for the importance of shared public pedagogy as offering new avenues for teacher education and of connecting with local communities.     

Language,Experience and Professional Learning (What Walter Benjamin Can Teach Us)

This essay raises questions about how language educators might construct and further develop their epistemology of practice in and through the situations in which they work from day to day. The occasion for this paper is our work as guest editors of a special issue of L-1: Educational Studies in Language and Literature, when we invited L1 teachers to reflect on the role that language plays in their professional learning, whether it be in the form of conversations with peers, reflective writing, or by other means. We begin this essay by locating our reflections within our current policy context, namely the standards-based reforms that have come to dominate educational thinking around the world, offering a brief critique of the values and attitudes embedded within them. We then outline a philosophical framework as an alternative to the world-view reflected by such reforms, focusing specifically on the work of Walter Benjamin. In the final sections, we review our work as guest editors of the special issue of L-1, reflecting on what we have learned from the papers we have assembled for this issue, and locating our learning within the philosophical framework that we have drawn from Benjamin. We argue that it is timely for language educators to articulate the assumptions that inhere within their work, in contradistinction to the common sense embedded in standards. Thus we might begin to reconceptualise the relation between language, experience and professional learning in opposition to the hegemony of standards.     

Diversity,Community, and Pluralism in Jewish Community Day High Schools

Students in “community” (nondenominational) Jewish high schools represent a diversity of denominational affiliations, including those who affiliate with more than one denomination and those that affiliate with none. These schools strive to create communities in which students with varying Jewish beliefs and practices are, at the very least, respected and comfortable. At the same time, schools work to avoid internal Jewish communal fragmentation. In this article, the approach to diversity in three such high schools is compared. Each school, in addition to presenting an approach distinct from the others, has created opportunities for communal Jewish engagement through the enactment of practices that are rooted in Judaism and in the ethos of the school, and allow individualization within universal participation. Further, the range of approaches to Jewish diversity exhibited raises questions about pluralism as it relates to the Jewish educational goals of these schools.     

Short skirts and breast juts: cheerleading,eroticism and schools

Cheerleading, an American invention, has 3.8 million participants in the United States, 97% of whom are female. It is an adult‐sanctioned and typically school‐affiliated activity that remains popular in spite of the increase in sports' opportunities for girls in schools. Drawing from popular culture and a middle school ethnography, the authors document the enduring popularity of cheerleading and how it is a vehicle through which adolescent girls may try out various facets of what it means to be a contemporary American woman. The cheerleader represents both the ‘good’ girl as well as the sexy tease. Understanding the sexual tensions embedded in cheerleading in its nation of origin may provide educators in different national contexts ideas of how to use cheerleading as an educational tool.     

Enacting the role of special needs educator – six Swedish case studies

With the increasing focus on inclusion, special needs educators (SNEs) are now expected to share responsibility for pupils with teacher colleagues and to lead school development, but it is a challenge to enact this role in schools. The aim of the study was to explore how professional roles of Swedish SNEs are enacted in local school contexts. From a survey of SNEs in 10 Swedish municipalities, six participants whose work tasks were expected to correspond to the degree ordinances for their university training were chosen. The participants were followed at work, and data were collected through observation of the participants at work, participants’ diaries and interviews with the participants, their teacher colleagues and their school principals. The analysis involved both quantitative and qualitative methods. First, based on the researchers’ observations of the participants at work, categories of SNEs’ tasks were discerned, and the amount of time devoted to those categories of tasks was summarised. Second, case study narratives of the SNEs’ work were constructed to describe how the participants, their teacher colleagues and their school principals view the SNE role and to describe how the work is enacted in various school contexts. The results revealed seven categories of work tasks practised to varying degrees by the six SNEs. The case study narratives exposed large variation in how the SNEs conceptualised their role and how it evolved in relation to local school contexts. The results of the study are discussed with regard to the role of the SNE in relation to policies of inclusion.     

Developing an appreciation of what it means to be a school-based teacher educator

The nature of partnership between schools and higher education institutions is changing in many countries, with experienced teachers taking on more responsibility for teacher education whilst remaining in their school as teachers, rather than entering the higher education sector to become teacher educators. This research considers the perspectives of these school-based teacher educators (SBTEs) in England, exploring the impact that this role has on them, their student-teachers and their schools. Some benefits and challenges that they face in the dual role of teacher and teacher educator are revealed. The research takes an interpretive perspective, listening to the meanings being constructed by the participants through use of a questionnaire, semi-structured interviews and a focus group of student-teachers who learned from these SBTEs. Possible impacts on student-teachers’ learning and implications for the development of high-quality teacher education are examined.     

Private tutoring in a high socio-economic secondary school in Israel and pupils’ attitudes towards school learning: A double-edged sword phenomenon

Private tutoring (PT) is a widespread educational phenomenon that blurs the conceptual boundaries of public and private education and can affect the formal school system and teachers’ work. This study examined whether participation in PT and the estimation of private tutors’ contributions are related to pupils’ attitudes towards teachers’ effectiveness. Based on a questionnaire administered to all pupils (n = 855) from Grades 7 to 10 from one secondary school located in an affluent area at the centre of Israel (respondence rate, 83.2%), it was found that overall, there were few differences in students’ attitudes between participants in PT compared to those who did not participate in PT. However, among those who participate in PT, their attitudes towards school teachers are related to the distinction between the academic and social-affective contribution of private tutors. When PT is related to academic spheres, it enhances positive attitudes towards school teachers and when PT is related to socio-affective aspects, it increases criticism. The findings highlight the complex interactions of PT with mainstream education and emphasise the challenges school teachers face in view of the trend for more personalised learning approaches.     

Attending to changing landscapes: Shaping the interwoven identities of teachers and teacher educators †

Teachers, in Canada and elsewhere, live and work on school landscapes being shifted by globalization, immigration, demographics, economic disparities and environmental changes. Within those landscapes teachers find themselves struggling to compose lives that allow them to live with respect and dignity in relation with children, youth and families. In places in Canada, increasing numbers of teachers are leaving after only a few years of teaching. In this paper we take up questions about the stories teachers tell of their leaving and about what we can learn about our work as teacher educators from listening to, and inquiring into, their stories. Considering the inter-relatedness of our lives as teacher educators with teachers, we also inquire into our shifting landscapes as teacher educators. We discuss possible spaces we might collaboratively shape with teachers as they, and we, attempt to sustain our stories to live by on these shifting landscapes.     

教师教育者:内涵、身份认同及其角色研究

教师教育者是指教师的教师,既包括基础教育阶段中的教师教育者,也包括中等师范层面和高等教师教育机构中的教师教育者。教师教育者模糊的身份认同是教师教育者专业发展的重要阻力之一。教师教育者是教师教育知识的生产者、教师专业发展的引领者以及教师教育文化的推动者。教师教育者角色的探究是增强教师教育者身份认同的重要途径,也是教师教育者从事教师教育工作的逻辑前提。     

Inside research,inside ourselves: teacher educators take stock of their research practice

This paper tells the story of how a group of teacher educators in a university education department used action research to examine their research situation, and what conclusions they reached. Some recent historical background puts the study in context, identifying tensions between university expectations and time‐heavy teaching demands that operated as obstacles to research activity. This context is shared by many academics who provide training for practitioners in UK universities that seek substantial funding through their performance in national research quality assessments. The project was initially organised in Spring 2007 by new research staff who had investigated staff perceptions of and interests in research through semi‐formal interviews, observations and documentation. An invited group turned to action research as a possible way forward. They asked the question ‘What kind of research culture do we want, and how can we get it?’ Over a year, all participants gathered at semi‐formal meetings for collaborative reflection and discussion, engaged in a diversity of micro‐researches that experimented with ways of researching around the barriers, and wrote a collaborative paper about what they had learned. This gave rise to a series of national and international conference presentations that drew several of the group members into the wider research community. The group members grew to realise that the kind of research that they perceived the institution to value was not necessarily a kind that was readily built into their identities as teacher educators. But this realisation itself was empowering, exposing previously opaque assumptions that had left a felt irreconcilability that had been difficult to articulate.     

A sociocultural investigation of pre-service teachers’ outdoor experiences and perceived obstacles to outdoor learning

Abstract

This study utilizes a sociocultural approach to explore how pre-service elementary teachers’ experiences in both outdoor and formal school settings have contributed to their intentions for taking their students outdoors and perceived obstacles to doing so. The participants were pre-service elementary teachers (N?=?95) enrolled in an elementary science education methods course at a public university in the Midwestern United States. This study builds on the qualitative research methodology established in a prior research study, whereby after reading Richard Louv’s book entitled Last Child in the Woods, pre-service teachers completed written essay responses to prompts about their past outdoor experiences, their intentions for taking their students outdoors, and additionally in this study, perceived obstacles to doing so once they become teachers. Analysis of the data indicates the importance of participants’ youth experiences in the outdoors and positive intentions for taking students outside. In addition, findings describe major obstacles discussed by pre-service teachers, and we use sociocultural theory to analyse the context of these findings. Implications for teacher educators working to better equip pre-service teachers to overcome these perceived obstacles are discussed.     

Jewish Day School Wounds and What We Can Do About Them

This article is based upon a qualitative research study that examined 95 school stories written by Jewish female teacher candidates in an undergraduate education course. Many candidates wrote inspirational or humorous stories about growth and development or a special teacher. However, over one third of the narratives described painful Jewish day schooling episodes with insensitive teachers, stinging rebukes, or public shaming. The findings argue for the enhancement of Jewish educator preparation with attention to professionalization of classroom management and interrogation of assumptions from schooling biographies. This study challenges teacher educators in the liminal space of educator preparation as teacher candidates shift from personal lived schooling experience into professional practice.     

Safety,celebration, and risk: educator responses to LGBTQ professional development

Research has explored multicultural teacher education from multiple, sometimes divergent perspectives; yet, these studies agree that what passes for multicultural education fails to address issues of educational inequity. This paper is part of a larger evaluation study of Reduction of Stigma in Schools (RSIS) – a professional development program aiming to empower educators to create affirming environments for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Questioning (LGBTQ) youth. Interview data indicate that though workshops utilized a critical approach, what teachers embraced was a call to understand and “protect” LGBTQ students through the “safety” discourse – a form of understanding and valuing the “cultural other” – and investment in one time “visibility” or “celebration” events as symbols of improved school climate. Further, educators framed LGBTQ issues as “risk” issues rather than as equity issues, which continue to mark LGBTQ students as “victims” or “problems” in need of saving or solving. We posit that responses to RSIS content reflect educators’ understanding of their obligation to “diversity” as presented during their teacher preparation programs and that workshop content which resonated with them was that which they could easily fit into these familiar frameworks.     

Professionalization of progress and expertise among teacher educators in Iceland: A Bourdieuean interpretation

This paper considers the use of the conceptual framework of Pierre Bourdieu to study curriculum reform and the professionalization of teacher educators in Iceland. It argues that it is theoretically productive to interpret professionalism as the production of expert knowledge and learned discourse. The learned discourse of the Icelandic teacher educators and other education reformers, based on child-centered perspectives, developmental psychology, and child-centered curriculum theory, has become their symbolic capital in the field of educational reform. The paper considers to what extent the discourse on teacher professionalism in Iceland in the 1980s has merely occupied the space (social field) wherein education reformers work. It argues that those who have become “professionalized” are first and foremost teacher educators, curriculum development “professionals,” and teacher leaders, and points out that this was possible in an intermediate social space with much room for a creative redefinition of what can count as capital.