Understanding narrative relations in teacher education

The use of stories in teacher education is ubiquitous; yet, the question regarding how stories help teachers make sense of their professional lives is more complex than it first appears. The authors draw from Adriana Cavarero's understanding of narrative relations as the political site where one's unique singularity is revealed in the desire to have one's story told. They compare her insights to Judith Butler's resignification of injurious speech, examining both positions as they apply to a beginning teacher's efforts to become the professional she admires. It is suggested to teacher educators that they use stories from practice to foreground the tension between a teacher's life and her life-story. By understanding the irresolvable tension of desire to have one's story told, a teacher has a better chance of recognising her own vulnerability and that of her students, and of teaching at the starting place of ethics.     

“转型期”ESP教师发展策略研究

ESP教学是我国大学英语教学改革的新方向。ESP教师发展至关重要。本文通过对一线ESP教师的访谈调查,分析研究了我国ESP教师发展中存在的问题,并提出了岗前专业培训、建立学习型合作组织及激发教师专业自主意识,促进自我发展等克服策略。     

A narrative account of a teacher community

This narrative account draws on dialogic approaches to education to critically reflect on teachers’ expressed pedagogic thinking in community. The context for the study is a teacher community in Central Finland comprising teachers from pre-primary to upper secondary contexts. The shared interest of the community is in the foreign-language mediation of education. The data were collected over a period of one and a half years and primarily consisted of teacher-produced notes from community sessions. These data were thematically analysed using a theory-driven approach. The key findings underline the value of pedagogic relationships between teacher-colleagues to support enriched critical understanding of pedagogy. This research suggests the importance of mutual pedagogic relationships to support teacher development.     

Using action research in current conditions of russian teacher education

This article introduces readers to some of the cultural characteristics of education and educational development in Russia. Action Research is as yet a new influence on Russian educational thinking, and so this article makes a beginning by tracing the connection between the ‘Action Research’ approach and Russian ‘Activity Theory’ in the teacher training process. The assumption of the Russian participants in an international project devoted to action research in teacher training was that the facilitation of the ‘Activity Theory’ approach would make a relevant contribution to an understanding of action research. The practical implications of this link in various different contexts are described in the article.     

Conceptualizing narrative authority: Implications for teacher education

In this paper I explore an alternative to the dominant authority of positivism in teacher education research and curricula through the conceptualization of narrative authority. Narrative authority is rooted in the personal practical knowledge of teacher education students, university teachers and classroom teachers as they interact within the contexts of teacher education. I begin by describing Dewey's conception of experience as individually continuous and socially interactive. I then discuss two ways in which knowledge is constructed from experience and describe how each Ivalues a different kind of authority. 1 then focus on the educative qualities of experience and show how narrative knowledge expressed through mundane and sacred stories can become taken-for-granted or be reconstructed through experience. Next, I describe how we can think of ourselves as authoring our lives through our narrative authority. I then consider the institutional narratives of teacher education in which sacred stories of apprenticeship, technical rationalism, and inquiry are embedded. I conclude by discussing some of the implications acknowledging narrative authority has for reshaping teacher education.     

集群创新:研究型大学学科团队发展对策

首先阐述了学科团队、集群创新等概念;其次,根据研究型大学的特征与内涵,从资源集中、学科综合、职能多样、文化宽松等方面分析了学科团队集群创新的优势;最后,从发展规划、组织结构、运行机制、环境氛围等角度提出了学科团队向集群创新发展的对策建议。     

Engaging in and engaging with research: teacher inquiry and development

The connection between teacher inquiry, professional development and school improvement was recognised 30 years ago by Lawrence Stenhouse. Stenhouse contributed many valuable insights into the role of practitioner enquiry in creating and utilising knowledge about teaching and learning, much of which is still to be applied systematically in teacher education and professional development. This paper draws on the Learning to Learn Phase 3 Evaluation, a three‐year‐action research project in which teachers in primary and secondary schools across the UK completed three cycles of practitioner inquiry to explore tools, pedagogies and other innovations which would promote dispositions of ‘learning to learn’ (L2L). The paper focuses on identifying those aspects of being involved in L2L that support teachers’ learning and the way that the teachers themselves understand the impact on their professional development. Data from over 60 semi‐structured interviews undertaken over the three years of the project, the case study reports compiled by teachers at the end of each year of the project and collaborative workshops involving teachers and university researchers as co‐inquirers are used to explore teachers’ learning. Qualitative methods are used to develop a thematic analysis of the interviews, case studies and the teachers’ understanding of the relationships between inquiry, research and continuing professional development (CPD) in order to identify categories and generate key concepts that can inform a theoretical understanding of the impact of professional inquiry on teachers’ learning. The findings contribute to our understanding of the role of inquiry and research in schools in supporting professional learning by suggesting how tools and models of working are developed.     

Using Lesson Study in teacher professional development for domain-based moral education

This study examined the application of Lesson Study for professional development (PD) for a domain approach to moral education. A comparison was drawn between the effects of Lesson Study with 17 teachers and 144 students representing middle schools in the same district as a prior study employing intensive traditional PD. In Lesson Study, groups of same grade teachers construct lessons taught by one group member and observed by the others. Teachers meet following the lesson to critique and improve the lesson using criteria established by teachers and informed by outside ‘experts.’ Findings from analysis of teacher discourse over nine months and end of year surveys revealed improvements in teacher pedagogy, knowledge of moral development, greater sense of professionalism, and efficacy for engagement in moral education in comparison with controls. Fewer lessons were produced, resulting in fewer gains in student moral and conventional reasoning than observed with intensive individualized PD.     

Using activity systems analysis to identify inner contradictions in teacher professional development

This study took place in the United States and explored teacher perspectives on the situational factors that influence their professional development using Engeström's (Engeström, Y. (1987). Learning by expanding: An activity-theoretical approach to developmental research. Helsinki: Orienta-Konsultit Oy) four levels of inner contradictions in activity systems analysis. In this process, we addressed the question: what do teachers perceive as sources of conflicts in their professional development? Semi-structured interviews with participants were the primary data source in this study. By using this analysis method, the findings indicated that teachers perceived that their motivation and goals for participating in professional development were not in alignment with their school district and universities that designed and facilitated professional development activities. This misalignment contributed to various situational challenges that became obstacles for teachers to improve their classroom practices through curricular-based interventions.     

Faculty development for preservice teacher educators: A research utilization perspective

Weak research utilization strategies limit the faculty development of university-based preservice teacher educators. Compared to school district-based inservice teacher educators, preservice teacher educators have weaker knowledge acquisition strategies, and are less likely to have sustained contact with researchers, especially where a training focus is prominent. Preservice teacher educators have less developed networks that facilitate research utilization, and have less institutional support for internal staff development. A research utilization theoretical framework is used to propose recommendations for helping preservice teacher educators.     

Japan's teacher acculturation: critical analysis through comparative ethnographic narrative

Cross‐cultural teaching and research in Canada and Japan is reported. Ethnographic narrative methods were used to examine Japan's teacher acculturation. Canada's teachers are largely required to work in isolation, to learn their practice through trial and error. There is little provision for mentorship and insufficient time to reflect. In contrast, Japan's teachers have opportunities for reflection, collegiality and collaboration. Moreover, effective induction practices have evolved gradually, becoming a tacit part of teaching culture. Japan's teacher acculturation is characterized by significant teacher relationships; leadership and guidance; and further cultivated through professional development. However, undeveloped pre‐service programmes, one‐way, ‘top–down’ pedagogical exchanges, and ineffective mentors are contentious issues, hampering teacher education reforms. Nevertheless, Japanese induction practices challenge us to ameliorate teacher education to focus more on the needs of beginning teachers.     

Transformational practice: critical teacher research in pre-service teacher education

This article traces the experiences of three pre-service teachers as they engaged in teacher research as part of their teacher education program and considers how teacher research might disrupt dominant paradigms that aim to de-contextualize teaching and offer one-size-fits-all solutions to address inequities. In particular, the article examines: the role of the teacher’s personal and academic history in the design of their teacher research projects; how their research worked to disrupt and complicate classroom cultures and practices; and the ways in which the pre-service teachers interpreted their research in light of new contexts during their first year of teaching. This work has critical implications in an era when teacher education programs are under attack, including: the value of drawing on pre-service teachers' lived experiences as an entry point into inquiry; creating highly localized inquiries; and positioning novice teachers as knowledgeable practitioners who are able to share research with colleagues.     

Consequential research designs in research on teacher education

Collaboration between researchers and educators in conducting intervention research is increasingly common, as such collaboration is assumed to benefit educational practice. Alternatively, in this study, we explore the consequences of such collaboration on research quality. Based on our analysis of a year-long collaboration in formative intervention research, we find that educators experienced their own position as agent, the researcher's position as learner and the research itself as integrated, as being different from previous experiences in research. The educators indicate that these differences are consequential for their engagement in the research. We discuss how this, in turn, might benefit research quality.     

Contextualizing teacher motivation research

At the heart of the social cognitive theoretical approaches common to all papers in this special issue is a recognition that the contexts in which teachers live and work affect their level of motivation, how they feel, and what they do. Teacher motivation, in turn, can affect students’ perceptions and behaviors. This commentary addresses the major contributions made by the papers in this special issue toward advancing a more contextualized understanding of teacher motivation. Contextual considerations include theoretical and practical interpretations, sampling, the teaching and learning setting, measurement, and study design and analyses. Recommendations are offered for how researchers can better account for the role of context in all aspects of teacher motivation research.