Comparing England,Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: The case for 'home internationals' in comparative research

The differences among the four education systems of the UK are often perceived as a nuisance by comparative researchers. This paper argues that they are also an opportunity. It describes the four systems and summarises their similarities and differences. It then presents five reasons for giving 'home international' comparisons a more prominent role in comparative research. These are, respectively: their potential contribution to theoretical debates; specific differences among the four systems, which touch on core problems of educational research; the practical value of home international comparisons; their potential for policy learning; and the relative ease of conducting them.     

Bringing modern languages into the primary curriculum in England: investigating effective practice in teacher education

This paper presents the results of an investigation into the effectiveness of an initiative in a large education faculty in the North West of England, designed to ensure that all generalist primary teacher trainees on an undergraduate course are prepared to support the implementation of the UK government’s National Languages Strategy in primary schools. The results suggest an overall positive response from trainees, but indicate a need to ensure that schools provide more explicit and targeted support when trainees are on placement.     

Student resistance and teacher authority: the demands and dynamics of collaborative learning

The intersection among discourses of curriculum, pedagogy, and power are increasingly becoming the focus of research and analysis in southern African classrooms as the effects of apartheid, colonialism, and patriarchalism are critiqued for their influences on epistemic and pedagogic policies and practices. This article draws on feminist research on pedagogy to examine the dynamics of teacher and student relations in southern African university classrooms. In particular, it focuses on student resistance to engaging in collaborative work and with radical ideologies in course content. Drawing on case studies it shows that, despite feminist teachers subscribing to egalitarian ideals, when they encounter student resistance to democratic pedagogic strategies and radical course content they resort to normalizing and regulatory postures that reinstate teacher authority in the classroom.     

The nature of the relationship between teaching concerns and sense of efficacy

This study examined the relationship between prospective teachers’ concerns about their teaching and their beliefs about their sense of efficacy. Three hundred and thirty‐nine prospective teachers participated in this study. Two instruments, the ‘Teaching Concerns Checklist’ and the ‘Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Beliefs Scale’, were used to elicit the participants’ teaching concerns and their sense of efficacy. Canonical correlation analysis, conducted to explore the relationships between these two constructs, revealed that concern variables were negatively correlated with efficacy variables. This means that if teachers believe their efficacy is weaker, they tend to have more concerns about teaching. The results of this study have implications for teacher education programmes.     

Care,thoughtfulness, and tact: a conceptual framework for university supervisors

The pedagogical work of university supervisors has received little attention in teacher education literature. Based on this concern, this paper provides a conceptual framework for university supervisors, recasting their role as teacher pedagogues focused on responding to the particular contextual needs of student teachers as they learn to teach. Using care, thoughtfulness, and tact as a conceptual framework, the author argues for an interactive and responsive pedagogy of field‐based teacher education grounded in the university supervisor’s concern for the development of the student teacher.     

英国高校改革:学生资助与教育参与

英国工党上台后,奉行第三条道路的政治纲领.在高等教育领域,政府一方面延续了新自由主义的市场化政策,对大学生资助方式进行改革,进一步革除福利社会的弊端;另一方面又通过政府的管制,化解市场化造成的不良后果,扩大社会各界对高等教育的参与.本文从学生资助方式的改革和高等教育参与面的扩大两个方面介绍了英国高等教育改革的最新动向和措施.     

Becoming a lecturer in further education in England: the construction of professional identity and the role of communities of practice

Further education colleges in England offer a wide range of post‐school education and training provision. Recently they have undergone major transformations that have resulted in considerable changes to the work of those teaching in them. In this paper we examine how cultures of learning and teaching in colleges are affected and how the nature of professional identity has changed. The paper considers the formation of professional identity amongst a group of trainee lecturers completing a one‐year full‐time teacher‐training course at a university in the English Midlands. Lave and Wenger's work on apprenticeship to communities of practice is used to examine the effect of trainees' teaching placement on the development of professional identity. Rather than identifying effective processes of increasing participation in existing communities of practice, a strong sense of marginalisation and alienation amongst trainees was observed. The paper argues that this is detrimental both to trainees and experienced lecturers if they are to actively engage in building new forms of professionalism for the future.     

The centrality of Aboriginal cultural workshops and experiential learning in a pre-service teacher education course: a regional Victorian University case study

This paper discusses a cross-cultural pedagogical approach, couched in a theory–practice nexus, used at a Victorian regional university to guide non-Indigenous pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives and cultures. We have drawn on qualitative and statistical data, and current issues in Australian and international literature, to explore the relevance and success suggested by data from this cross-cultural pedagogical approach, in particular the notion of teacher ethnicity in racialised spaces. In doing so, we have addressed recent sentiments about a lack of quantitative and qualitative research that explores inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content and discussions of ways in which tertiary educators construct and influence teachings about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. It is anticipated that this paper will generate further dialogue and research-based evidence on ways in which other tertiary education providers may draw on cross-cultural theories to guide inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content and perspectives in PST education courses.     

Black,White, and Rainbow [of Desire]: the colour of race-talk of pre-service world language educators in Boalian theatre workshops

This article examines how Boalian Theatre of the Oppressed exercises helped instructors and pre-service teachers navigate the consequences of ventriloquized, racialized discourses in a pre-service world language teacher education classroom. Applying a critical and performative approach, we analyse the mostly White student–actors’ varying representations of a “White teacher’s” use of the term “hoodlum” for classroom management and the resulting communication breakdown that occurred between the teacher and a “Black parent.” Findings indicate that rehearsing pre-service teachers’ classroom struggles helped to move the group away from monochromatic perceptions of White/Black, Teacher/Parent interactions to a polychromatic view of interlocutors’ multiple histories and investments. This study has implications for revitalizing the place of world language education in K-12 education, extending the acquisition of second language verbs and nouns to incorporate connections between language, culture, history, and power.     

The art of the organiser: Raphael Samuel and the origins of the History Workshop

The History Workshop movement took its stance on the democratisation of history making, becoming notorious for its exuberant gatherings and impassioned ‘histories from below’. At the centre of the early Workshop was the British historian Raphael Samuel, who has been described as the personification of its intellectual and ethical politics. This paper examines Samuel’s role in the Workshop arguing that his distinctive intellectual personality was critical in shaping its early form and ethos. Drawing on a biographical approach, it explores the development of this persona over the course of his formative years. It argues that Samuel’s life history provides an insight into the renewed appeal of libertarian ideas in post-war British radical political and educational thought and that as an individual he illuminates the application of these ideas to the social role of the historian-educator.     

More than a place to teach: exploring the perceptions of the roles and responsibilities of mentor teachers

The purpose of this study was to shed light on mentor teachers’ perceptions of their roles and responsibilities and to contrast their understandings with a normative view of mentoring (Goldsberry, 1998 Goldsberry, L.F. 1998. “Teacher involvement in supervision”. In Handbook of research on school supervision, Edited by: Firth, G.R. and Pajak, E.F. 428–462. New York: Macmillan.  [Google Scholar]; Hawkey, 1997 Hawkey, K. 1997. Roles, responsibilities, and relationships in mentoring: A literature review and agenda for research. Journal of Teacher Education, 48: 325–335. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). We hypothesized that the mentor teachers’ perceptions would likely differ from established conceptions of this construct, a difference that has significant implications for mentor preparation and university collaboration. Participants, 264 teachers who were serving as mentors to pre‐service teachers, were asked open‐ended questions designed to allow the mentors to describe the ways in which they envisioned their role. Follow‐up telephone interviews were conducted with 34 randomly selected mentor teachers to further determine the relative value they placed on different aspects of mentoring. The results of this research confirm that mentoring is a complex construct and that the perceptions held by mentors may be influenced by the kinds and quality of mentoring experiences they have had. Implications for the appropriate selection, preparation, and support of mentor teachers are discussed.     

Market Mechanisms in Education: School choice in The Netherlands,England and Scotland in a comparative perspective

This article analyses differences in the availability of school choice in The Netherlands, England and Scotland. A 10 variable model is used to determine that the increased availability of choice leads generally to an increased presence of the market mechanism in the three countries. However, the functioning of the market is most obvious in The Netherlands, to a lesser extent in England and even less in Scotland.     

The tension in turkish teacher education: Conflict and controversy during the transformation from an academic approach to a professional approach

Most of the reforms, which have been undertaken in the last 30 years in the Turkish educational system, are about teacher education. When we examine the teacher education curriculum from the perspective of these reforms, it has been observed that there is a controversy between the academic and professional approaches used in these curricula. While the reforms undertaken in 1982 and 1997 were in favor of the academic approach, the latest reform undertaken in 2006 was made to strengthen the professional aspects of teacher education curriculum. In this paper, Turkish teacher education reforms are introduced in the light of the professional and the academic approaches, which have always been the topic of discussions about teacher education.     

论教师教育中教育学教学的“史·思·用”三维模式

教育学教学“诗·思·用”三维模式,旨在从教师教育的高度探讨教育学教学的改革方式。通过“扎根于史”、“启趣于思”、“立足于用”,从时间、空间和实践三个维度进行系统研究,期望从根本上改变教育学教学的现状,使之适应教师教育发展的需要,使教育理论真正进入学生的意识,为教育实习和人职就业服务。     

Pre‐service teachers’ beliefs about inclusive education in the Netherlands: An exploratory study

Teachers’ beliefs are crucial to the success of inclusion programmes and reform efforts for children with special educational needs (SEN). Based on this evidence, one hundred and thirty‐nine primary pre‐service teachers from one training institution in the Netherlands completed an adapted version of a measure of beliefs towards inclusive education. In contrast to previous studies on pre‐service teachers, results of this study showed participants held neutral or negative beliefs towards this matter. In addition, limited time for pupils received the highest rating as a barrier to inclusion, whereas direct teaching experience was the most preferred method of inclusion. The implications of this study for practice and indications for future research are discussed.     

Understanding the co‐construction of inquiry practices: A case study of a responsive teaching environment

We set out to understand how different instantiations of inquiry emerged in two different years of one elementary teacher's classroom. Longitudinal observations from Mrs. Charles' 5th grade science classroom forced us to carefully and deliberately consider who exactly was responsible for the change in the class activities and norms. We provide empirical evidence to show how a focus on the teacher can easily overlook the complex dynamics of the classroom. The data reveal that students had a substantive and generative role in the class's arrival at the different instantiations of scientific inquiry—the nature and form of inquiry—that were constructed each year. We argue that, in an environment where a teacher carefully attends and responds to student thinking, the nascent resources students have for reasoning about phenomena can affect not only the conceptual ideas that emerge, but also influence what inquiry activities or practices become established as normative and productive over time. Our work with Mrs. Charles illuminates an important methodological concern with research on teacher development as well as the construct of teacher learning progressions; research accounts that focus primarily on the teacher may overlook the classroom norms that are negotiated between teacher and student, and thereby provide an incomplete portrayal of the teacher's activity within one classroom and the teacher's progress across multiple years. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 429–464, 2012     

Every Child Matters: the perceptions of a sample of initial teacher education trainees in England

We discuss an investigation into the understandings of trainee teachers about government policy, using, as an example, the UK government's ‘Every Child Matters’ (ECM). We discuss the research methods used to gather and analyse data from 197 initial teacher education trainees in three institutions in England drawn from six subject areas. The project focussed on trainees' reactions to the anticipated outcomes of ECM and their confidence to help implement the initiative in their roles as form tutors (home room teachers) and subject teachers. Trainees react positively to ECM but reveal uncertainty about its precise meaning and about the roles they would need to adopt as teachers. We suggest that it is problematic for governments to expect teacher education communities to assist with the implementation of policies that have been inadequately characterised. We make recommendations about the role of initial teacher education in the further development of ECM.     

The International Baccalaureate in England and Wales: the alternative paths for the future

The year 2007 was a significant one for the International Baccalaureate (IB) in England and Wales. Several milestones were reached, and the number of schools offering the curriculum reached one hundred. This article charts the growth and development in England and Wales of this continuum of international education and shows how the Diploma Programme, in particular, has reached a fundamental crossroads. On the one hand, the IB looks set for further growth and has the ability to be an influential and respected catalyst for the movement towards international education in curriculum development. On the other hand, the IB is emerging as an elite programme of study alongside other ‘baccalaureate’ curricula and in competition to A level, and other ‘Diploma’ developments. The ability of the IB to be a divisive force is explored.