Restructuring teachers’ work‐lives and knowledge in England and Spain

This article explores the restructuring of education in England and Spain. Against a presumably homogeneous global streamlining of educational systems according to competition‐driven goals, the comparison of teachers’ work‐lives and professional knowledge evidences a variety of experiences under‐represented in discourses on global restructuring. Our argument highlights how in England political reforms have worked their way deep into the working lives of professionals, giving rise to a ‘managerial’ model of professionalism, whereas in Spain reforms are more loosely coupled with teachers’ work, favoring a ‘social service’‐oriented model. However, despite the different professional ideals, teachers uniformly stressed the challenges they face were predominantly due to broader social transformations for which policy reforms provided few if any remedies. Our study emphasizes the variety of educational reforms and teachers’ experiences in the European context and argues further educational change should be bound to the historical trajectory and the concrete needs of the professionals in question.     

Understanding teachers’ motivation for and commitment to teaching: profiles of Chinese early career,early childhood teachers

ABSTRACT

To better understand the reasons underlying attrition and the teacher shortage, and to develop ways to attract and retain high-quality teachers in early childhood education, it is necessary to explore teacher motivation and commitment to teaching. Although previous research has investigated various aspects of teacher motivation and commitment to teaching, little attention has been paid to this in the context of early childhood teachers, especially early career teachers. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with 12 early career, early childhood teachers in mainland China, this study aims to examine early career early childhood teachers’ motivation to teach and commitment to teaching in the Chinese context. Four distinct types of early career, early childhood educators were identified: committed passionate, committed compromiser, undecided, and uncommitted. Each of these had unique motives for teaching and different levels of commitment to kindergarten teaching in mainland China. The four types of early career early childhood teachers identified in this study demonstrate the diversity and complexity of teaching motivation and commitment to teaching in the field of early childhood education. The findings from this study can provide implications for policy-makers and teacher educators to enhance novice teachers’ motivation and commitment to teaching in the early childhood context.     

Beginning teachers’ job experiences in multi‐ethnic schools

Multi‐ethnic schools in Flanders are frequently portrayed – both in popular media and research – as highly problematic working environments for (beginning) teachers. This article reports on an exploratory study of beginning teachers’ experiences in one secondary multi‐ethnic school in Flanders. Based on data from questionnaires, document analysis and semi‐structured interviews with both six beginning teachers and two mentors, the study concluded that the structural and cultural working conditions as well as the personal belief systems of the teachers were essential to understand the actual impact of the multi‐ethnic character of the school on new teachers’ job experiences. Due to the mediating role of these factors, beginning teachers do not consider the multi‐cultural character of their working environment as problematic as such.     

Teachers’ work and innovation in alternative schools

Toronto boasts a large and diverse system of public alternative schools: schools where democratic practices, student access and a commitment to public education are fundamental. There are academic schools; schools with thematically focused curricula; schools driven by social movement principles such as antiracism and global education; schools for students who do not thrive in mainstream schools; and schools with alternative scheduling and delivery practices for students who must work. The schools are small, supporting personalized relationships among teachers and students, with teacher-driven curricular programs that are responsive to student interests. Curricular innovation is made possible because alternative schools are only loosely coupled with the rest of the public education system, but they still must comply with school system regulations. This paper describes how teachers’ work and the structural elements of alternative schools support school-based innovation.     

Placement,inclusion, law and teachers’ perceptions in Macao’s schools

In Macao, the government has initiated a debate regarding revisions in the Decree Law in order to promote a more inclusive schooling system. In this Special Administrative Region of China, inclusive education is one of three possible types of special education that are likely be legislated in the future. The way the teachers perceive the different aspects related to inclusive education, namely the principles, concepts and law, is essential for its full implementation. The aim of this study is to understand teachers’ perceptions about the proposed amendments in the consultation document for changes in the special education regime. In particular, we focus on teachers’ acceptance of the recommended role of parents, the proposed placement models and expectations for teacher training. A mixed-methods approach with a survey of a sample of 500 teachers in private schools and interviews to a sub-sample of 20 provide the data. While agreeing in principle with the majority of the proposed changes in the Decree Law, there were several reservations made by the teachers, especially regarding the extent of parental choice, placement decisions and teacher training. Recommendations to continue the pathway for a more inclusive education system in Macao and for further research are made.     

Pedagogical well‐being: reflecting learning and well‐being in teachers’ work

Teachers’ learning and occupational well‐being is crucial in attaining educational goals both in the classroom and at the school community level. In this article teachers’ occupational well‐being that is constructed in teaching–learning processes within the school community is referred to as pedagogical well‐being. The article focuses on exploring teachers’ experienced pedagogical well‐being by examining the kinds of situations that teachers themselves find either empowering and engaging or burdening and stressful in their work. The study aims to: (1) identify the primary contexts of teachers’ experienced critical incidents of pedagogical well‐being; and (2) determine the kind of action strategies teachers have adopted in these contexts when they are reported as empowering and engaging. The study included data collected from the teachers of nine case‐schools around Finland. Altogether, a selected group of 68 comprehensive school teachers, including both primary and secondary school teachers, were interviewed. Our results suggested that interaction with pupils in socially and pedagogically challenging situations constitutes the core of teachers’ pedagogical well‐being. Success in both the pedagogical goals and more general social goals seem to be fundamental preconditions for teachers’ experienced pedagogical well‐being. Further investigation showed that teachers’ approaches to socially challenging situations varied. Results suggest that teachers’ pedagogical well‐being is centrally generated in the challenging social interactions of their work. Moreover, the way in which a teacher acts in the situation is found to be a regulator for experienced pedagogical well‐being.     

Post‐welfarism and the reconstruction of teachers’ work in the UK

A key rationale for the UK education reforms of the 1980s and 1990s was a desire on the part of agents within the state to control more directly the work of teachers. In a variety of ways, the reforms were designed to contribute to a reconstruction of the work of teaching. The first part of this paper considers the roots of this intended reconstruction. The second part explores the impact of the reforms on the culture of teachers’ work, focusing on three kinds of consequences ‐ emotional, social and pedagogical. The paper draws on loosely‐structured interviews with secondary school teachers, carried out as part of a study of the culture and values of schooling in the light of the shift from wel‐farist to post‐welfarist policies in education.     

Faith schools in the twenty‐first century

This article is intended as an initial investigation into the foundations of moral psychology. I primarily examine a recent work in moral education, Daniel Lapsley’s and Darcia Narvaez’s ‘Character education’, whose authors seem to assume at points that criteria for discerning moral actions and moral traits can be derived apart from ethics or moral philosophy. This assumption, which appears to stem from misconceptions about both the virtues traditionally understood and the non-empirical nature of moral-philosophical theorising, is problematic: (1) it courts moral relativism, which would preclude arguing for the superiority of any model of moral education, (2) deriving or validating a morality through empirical methods involves a self-undermining stance about the nature of empirical justification and (3) empirical criteria used to delineate morality are unavoidably arbitrary. After examining similarly problematic works by David Wong and Lawrence Kohlberg, I conclude that moral psychologists must wrestle with the problem of moral criteria through substantive engagement with moral philosophy.     

Teachers’ work in culturally and linguistically diverse schools

Teachers in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms work in highly charged contexts where policy, curriculum, student backgrounds, equity issues and pedagogical expertise provide both resources and constraints. Often, these classrooms are in underachieving schools in low socio-economic areas. This study investigated one school in Melbourne where teachers struggle to balance subject content and the language and literacy needs of their students. It addresses a serious gap in research on teachers in such schools by combining a theoretical model of job demand and control, and an explicit focus on teaching literacy in a culturally and linguistically diverse school. Using data from teacher focus groups and written reflections, the study illustrates the spectrum of conflicts teachers grapple with in their daily work, including issues of workload, time constraints, institutional practices and social and cultural practices which tend to isolate and disempower them. The findings support the need for a deeper differentiation of school contexts in language teacher research. The analysis also has implications for a range of strategies to build more autonomy into teacher work and to retain good teachers in schools where they are most needed.     

School,family, and community partnerships in teachers’ professional work

Abstract

This article discusses the contributions of the international studies in this special issue and presents a few emerging topics on school, family, and community partnerships. The studies in Part I confirm that, across countries, future teachers are inadequately prepared to conduct effective partnership programmes with all students’ families. Part II reports the results of interventions that provide future teachers with opportunities to practice the kinds of communications with parents that they will use as new teachers. In my and colleagues’ studies, several topics of family and community engagement have emerged that will extend and enrich college courses for future teachers and school leaders. These include a redefinition of the ‘professional’ teacher; understanding partnerships as a component of good school organisation; the importance of goal-linked family and community engagement for student success in school; the role of the community in partnership programmes; and the connections of preservice and inservice education for preparing and sustaining productive connections of home, school, and community.     

The preparation of pre-service student teachers’ competence to work in schools

Competence to work in schools is an important dimension of professional competence, although it is often a neglected dimension of teacher development. This article reports a qualitative study that examined student teachers’ learning experiences in initial teacher education (ITE) in relation to competence to work in schools. In-depth interviews were conducted with 12 student teachers on an undergraduate ITE programme in Hong Kong. The findings of the study show that competence to work in schools is characterised by student teachers’ deep contextualised learning. In addition, it offers a deeper understanding of this competence in the ITE context by identifying its three facets, namely understanding of the micro-political realities of schools, social capital building and social strategies. The study provides insights for ITE and schools to support student teachers’ development of their competence to work in schools, including the design of ITE curricula, ITE processes and co-curricular activities in undergraduate studies. Moreover, it suggests the importance of developing schools as growth-fostering and positive micro-political sites for ITE fieldwork and teacher induction.     

Patriotism in British schools: teachers’ and students’ perspectives

Because there are good arguments both for and against loving one’s country, patriotism should be taught as a controversial issue in schools. But is this pedagogical approach practically viable in the British educational context? Here we report on a small‐scale survey of teachers and students in secondary schools and show that their perspectives and practices are highly compatible with our recommended approach.     

Change‐of‐career secondary teachers: motivations,expectations and intentions

In New Zealand there is an increasing trend for people with prior occupational experiences to enter secondary teaching. At a time when the media is continually questioning the status and capability of the teaching profession, we explore what or who motivates people to change their occupational paths and enter the teaching profession. Our sample of 68 newly qualified change‐of‐career teachers reported multiple factors related to their decision to pursue teaching. The matrix of reasons involved a range of “push and pull” factors related to previous work and family experiences, values and task expectancies. Three cluster groups of teachers – “Looks Good”, “Time is Right” and “Teaching is Me” – were developed to illustrate the relative influence of different combinations of reasons. We looked at how these teachers' motivations and prior experiences impacted on early and long‐term career expectations and intentions.     

Exposure to the eyes of God: monitorial schools and Evangelicals in early nineteenth‐century England

Through a close analysis of the links between nineteenth‐century Protestant missionary thought and the British and Foreign School Society (BFSS) this article suggests that to distinguish Enlightenment educational and social reform from evangelism is mistaken. Emblematic of the social reform projects which emerged in England as responses to the challenges of the French Revolution and rapid urbanisation, the BFSS was the outgrowth of Joseph Lancaster’s efforts at spreading the method of education he pioneered, the monitorial system, throughout the British Isles and, ultimately, the world. Despite the strong association between the BFSS and various utilitarian thinkers, evangelicals of late‐eighteenth and early‐nineteenth‐century England came to view the Society and the monitorial system as means by which to integrate all the peoples of the world into the Lord’s dominion. Becoming part of that dominion entailed subjecting oneself to constant moral scrutiny, and monitorial schools were regarded as a means by which to ensure such self‐examination. In short, missionaries seized upon monitorial schools because their aims were parallel to those of educational reformers in the metropole. Where home reformers aimed at the normalisation of the body of English political subjects, the development of the English social body, missionary reformers aimed at the normalisation of the body of God’s children.     

Harbingers of feminism? Gender,cultural capital and education in mid‐twentieth‐century rural Wales

This paper reports the results of a small‐scale narrative study of men and women who grew up in mid‐twentieth‐century rural Wales, and their reminiscences regarding women and education. Although the dominant image of Wales during that era is that of a male‐dominated society, all of our participants remembered influential independent women and educational aspiration for both girls and boys. We use Bourdieusian notions of types of cultural capital and the role of women in transmitting this to illuminate our participants’ narratives. Accounts of family life disclosed themes of sacrifice concerning education, poverty during childhood and the role of school teaching as a career for women. Yet at the same time, there were forms of exclusion in operation. In conclusion, we suggest that in many ways, the women remembered by our participants could be seen as forerunners of the second wave of feminism.     

Why they sat still: the ideas and values of long‐serving teachers in challenging inner‐city schools in England

Within the UK there are grave concerns about retention and attrition rates within the teaching profession, particularly in challenging schools. These are compounded by worries about the gap that will be left as long‐serving teachers reach retirement age. This article is about the working lives of long‐serving teachers in three high‐poverty urban schools in England. In a climate in which teaching is tightly controlled and suffering from problems of retention and recruitment, the teachers discuss intensely personal and emotional commitments to their work‐place. Qualitative in‐depth interviews with 20 long‐serving teachers, all of whom had management responsibilities, are used to explore their lives and careers. These histories evoke a strong sense of the ideas and values that make up their personal and professional identities. These are then contrasted with the ideas and values in officially mandated views of progression within the profession. Within the stories of their professional lives, the teachers talk about the emotional dimensions of their work and the emotional ties of their ‘work‐place’. The article concludes that recognition of the emotional dimensions within teachers’ work at an official level could go some way to helping with recruitment and retention in schools facing challenging circumstances.