‘I am not the teacher!’: some effects of remodelling the roles of teaching assistants in English primary schools

Remodelling the roles, responsibilities and working practices of all school staff has been central to the government's modernisation agenda for English state schools. This is typified by a determination to review and change the distribution of tasks undertaken by teachers and teaching assistants (TAs). Whilst there has been a substantial increase in the numbers of TAs employed in schools there is still a lack of clarity about their roles and about the impact of remodelling on the working lives of both teachers and assistants. Evidence from the Transforming the School Workforce: Pathfinder Project, conducted immediately prior to the launch of the National Agreement in 2003, indicates that initial concerns about the ways in which TAs were being deployed are still very apparent. Here the authors focus on management and professional development issues arising from TAs adopting more pedagogical roles in schools.     

‘Fitting in’ or ‘being different’? Integration,separation, and identity construction during a teaching practicum in Hong Kong

This paper reports the results of a qualitative study that examined the perspectives of one group of teacher educators and pre-service teachers about a teaching internship in Hong Kong. Reflecting recent interest in both a practice turn in pre-service teacher education as well as teacher identity construction, the study uses in-depth interviews to reveal how both teacher educators and pre-service teachers construct the meaning of a teaching internship. The results suggest that two discourses dominate such meanings: the discourse of integration and the discourse of separation. The study not only reveals the presence of these discourses but, moreover, considers how their interplay provides affordances for and constraints upon the capacity of pre-service teachers to construct their professional identities during the teaching internship. This exploration suggests that this interplay can lead to identity conflict for pre-service teachers. Implications for overcoming such conflict in ways that support the construction of pre-service teachers’ professional identities are considered and suggestions for future comparative research discussed.     

Exploring university-based teacher educators’ teaching beliefs and practice: a Hong Kong study

This study explores two higher education-based language teacher educators’ teaching beliefs and how they implemented their beliefs in classroom practice. Drawing on data from in-depth interviews and classroom observation, the findings revealed the teacher educators’ multiple and complex beliefs, which were derived from their past experiences and continued to be shaped and transformed through their professional work. The study also shows that while the participants tried to act in accordance with their beliefs in their teaching of teachers, they encountered some contextual obstacles (e.g. the ‘publish-or-perish’ system) which resulted in the gap between their beliefs and practice. Through their continuous reflections and agentive work, the teacher educators tried to close the gap and facilitate their students’ learning to teach. This study concludes with some implications for current teacher education and higher education on how to promote language teacher educators’ cognitive learning and continuous development.     

Understanding higher education-based teacher educators’ identities in Hong Kong: a sociocultural linguistic perspective

While teacher educator identities have received increasing attention over the past decade, there is a lack of research on teacher educators’ professional identities in the complex and shifting higher education contexts. Informed by the sociocultural linguistic perspective, this study investigates two language teacher educators’ professional identities in Hong Kong universities. The findings show that the participants discursively constructed their identities, such as “accidental teacher educator,” “teacher educator-researcher,” “struggling researcher,” “teacher of teachers,” and “inactive researcher” in their professional work. By drawing on the three interrelated processes of identity formation (i.e. adequation/distinction, authentication/denaturalisation, and authorisation/illegitimation), the study adds to our knowledge of the complex and contested nature of teacher educator identity in relation to the ongoing restructuring and reform in higher education. The study concludes with some implications for teacher education and higher education.     

Datafying the teaching ‘profession’: remaking the professional teacher in the image of data

This paper explores how data-driven practices and logics have come to reshape the possibilities by which the teaching profession, and teaching professionals, can be known and valued. Informed by the literature and theorising around educational performativity, the constitutive power of numbers, and affective responses to data, it shows how different US educators experienced, and came to embody, new forms of numbers-based accountability. Drawing on interviews with teachers, and school- and district-level leaders, as well as relevant school-based documents, it is argued that such data are now both effective (i.e. they change ‘what counts’ within the profession) and affective (i.e. they produce new expectations for teachers to profess data-responsive dispositions over actual educative practices). This prevalence and use of data have combined not only to change teaching into a ‘data profession’, but also to change teachers into ‘professors’ of data.     

Schooling,politics and the construction of identity in Hong Kong: the 2012 ‘Moral and National Education’ crisis in historical context

Since Hong Kong's retrocession, the government has endeavoured to strengthen local citizens' identification with the People's Republic of China – a project that acquired new impetus with the 2010 decision to introduce ‘Moral and National Education’ (MNE) as a compulsory school subject. In the face of strong local opposition, this policy was withdrawn in 2012, and implementation of MNE made optional. This article seeks to elucidate the background to the MNE controversy of 2012 by locating the emergence of a distinctive Hong Kong identity in its historical context, and analysing successive official attempts (before and after the 1997 retrocession) to use schooling for purposes of political socialisation. We argue that the school curriculum has projected and reflected a dual sense of identity: a ‘Chineseness’ located mainly in ethno-cultural qualities, and a ‘Hongkongeseness’ rooted in civic attributes. While reinforced by schooling, local civic consciousness has been intimately related to a tradition of public activism strongly evident since the 1970s, and further strengthened post-1997.     

“It’s like starting all over again”. The struggles of second-career teachers to construct professional identities in Hong Kong schools

Educational-policy makers worldwide are concerned with finding effective strategies to recruit and retain high-quality teachers. The recruitment of second-career teachers has been seen as one means of fulfilling this aim. Against a background of calls to better understand SCTs, this article reports the results of a qualitative study investigating the experiences of six second-career teachers in Hong Kong. Based on a theoretical framework of teacher-identity construction, discourse analysis was used to explore the participants’ perceptions of their professional development. In-depth interviews were conducted to gain detailed insights into how the teachers construct their identities-in-practice and identities-in-discourse within Hong Kong schools. The findings expose tensions between attempts the positioning of SCTs within dominant discourses as ‘traditional’ and ‘conventional’ teachers, for example, and the participants’ self-positioning in practice as ‘innovative’ and ‘risk-taking’ teachers. Ways in SCT agency, and hence identity construction, can be facilitated through the introduction of the innovative pedagogical practices which many SCTs seek to pursue in Hong Kong schools are considered.     

‘At least I'm the type of teacher I want to be’: Second-career English language teachers' identity formation in Hong Kong secondary schools

A teacher shortage in Hong Kong in core subjects, such as English, has led to interest in the recruitment and retention of second-career teachers. Drawing upon Wenger's (1998 Wenger, E. 1998. Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Crossref] [Google Scholar]) theory of identity formation and using data from interviews with eight second-career English language teachers in Hong Kong, this paper explores how second-career teachers may be better supported in their professional development. The study found that second-career teachers' skills and experiences were not valued within their schools and that this was reflected in a rigid division the participants drew between the institutionally endorsed identity positions made available to them and the type of teachers they wanted to be. In response to this antagonism, second-career teachers used their position of non-participation to establish identity territories that connected aspects of their first-career identities, such as engineers and managers, to their emerging teacher identities. It is suggested that non-participation, a potentially negative experience in Wenger's (1998 Wenger, E. 1998. Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Crossref] [Google Scholar]) framework, was deployed by this group of teachers to create the space they needed to enact their own preferred teacher identities. Implications for attracting and retaining second-career teachers are discussed.     

Difficulties of Hong Kong teachers’ understanding and implementation of ‘play’ in the curriculum

Play is a characteristic behaviour of young children. It is a vital way through which children reconcile their inner lives with the outside world. It is a central activity in kindergarten and nurseries. ‘Learning through play’ is recommended as the mode of learning and teaching for young children. In Hong Kong, it was documented in an official education report in 1986 and is the key guideline for the implementation of the aims of early childhood education for the next millennium. A case study of two kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong was conducted to investigate the understanding and implementation of play in the kindergarten curriculum. The findings showed immense difficulties in understanding the concept ‘learning through play’ and a gap between the practitioners’ espoused theories and practice. The study reflected the complex nature of learning and teaching and highlighted the core issue for reform, namely, the need for bridging the gap between theory and practice.     

From ‘civilising the young’ to a ‘dead-end job’: gender,teaching, and the politics of colonial rule in Hong Kong (1841–1970)

The feminisation of teaching is an important topic in education and gender studies. Discussions have been enriched by comparative and international studies as well as a gendering perspective in which a complicated view of the role of the state has emerged. In colonial Hong Kong, although the government was limited in its support of teacher training, its strategic control was not ineffective. Through regulating the teaching force, the colonial regime was instrumental in training women to help civilise the young and in creating a dead end job – that of a ‘primary school teacher’. It also constantly (re)constructed the nature and role of ‘Chinese teacher’ and ‘Chinese women’. By revealing some seldom-explored strategies and disrupting the fixed meanings of ‘Chinese teacher’, ‘Chinese women’, and ‘primary school teacher’, this paper unravels the intervention and (re)invention of the colonial regime in the teaching occupation and probes their implications for a patriarchal society.     

Teaching in the ‘margins’: rekindling a passion for teaching

The data for this paper are drawn from a qualitative research project involving a number of alternative education sites in Australia and the United Kingdom. In this paper, we focus only on the motives and teaching philosophies of a sample of teachers who have chosen to work in alternative education sites despite, for some, the prospect of uncertain employment conditions and lower salaries. A thematic approach is used with the data so as to structure participant perspectives on a range of teaching-related issues. We argue that the experiences and perceptions of these teachers provide a starting point for reflection about the impact of many current educational policies that have been shaped or influenced by market-driven neo-liberal paradigms emphasising disciplinary accountabilities for teachers.     

Does the gender of the teacher matter in the teaching of reading literacy? Teacher gender and pupil attainment in reading literacy in Hong Kong

A study of 148 primary school teachers and 4867 Grade 4 pupils in Hong Kong found no support for the proposal that boys learn to read better when taught by men teachers. In fact, it was found that both boys and girls learnt better when taught by women. Responses to a teacher questionnaire indicate significant differences in the preferred patterns of teaching favoured by male and female teachers. Responses from men teachers suggest they are more authoritarian, prefer to control pupils' learning, engage pupils in whole-class reading and like to read passages aloud while pupils follow the text. Responses from women teachers suggest they prefer to teach reading in groups, to group pupils according to reading ability, set tasks that suit pupils' stage of learning, allocate more time for pupils to read books and use the school library and encourage pupils to discover for themselves the meaning of new vocabulary encountered in text. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

‘New Partnerships for Learning’: teachers and teaching assistants working together in schools – the way forward

In comparison with the school sector, formative and diagnostic assessment have received relatively little attention in higher education. This article reports on an in‐depth study of assessment across one university, exploring views and practices in each of the five faculties, using semi‐structured interviews with eight staff and small group interviews with 60 students. Our data indicate that: there is very little common understanding of the terms often used to describe forms of assessment in policy documents and other literature; students, contrary to popular belief, do value assessment that carries no marks, although a form of ‘deferred instrumentalism’ may be at work here; staff are sometimes engaging in formative and diagnostic assessment without explicitly recognising it; and that students in this case study do value assessment which relates to and will be valuable for life after university. The paper concludes by suggesting frameworks and terminology for future discussion and issues for staff development.     

On constructs and the construction of teachers’ professional knowledge in a post-Soviet context

This paper examines the understandings (‘constructs’) of teachers’ professional knowledge and its sources that underpin current practice in initial teacher education in Kazakhstan and in particular the way in which pedagogika contributes to these. Drawing on empirical data collected over four years, the paper illustrates the ways in which professional knowledge and professional preparation of teachers in pre-service institutions are constructed within the Kazakh and Soviet pedagogical traditions, albeit with some reference to international scholars. Teachers’ professional knowledge is formed from pedagogic theory mediated by academic staff in what is seen by many from outside and inside the country who are engaged in educational ‘reform’ in Kazakhstan as a largely didactic style with little or no critical engagement or exploration of the implications for practice. This stands in contrast with two recent professional development programmes: the Collaborative Action Research and Center of Excellence, which are focused on interactive learning and teaching, reflective practice, classroom action research, and teachers’ collaboration as sources for teachers’ professional knowledge. This paper highlights this contrast and begins to explore what happens when these two different approaches to the construction of teachers’ professional knowledge encounter each other.     

Motivation and engagement in the ‘Asian Century’: a comparison of Chinese students in Australia,Hong Kong,and Mainland China

The present study investigated multidimensional motivation and engagement among Chinese middle school students in Australia (N?=?273), Hong Kong (N?=?528), and Mainland China (N?=?2106; randomly selected N?=?528). Findings showed that a multidimensional model of motivation and engagement fit very well for all three groups. Multi-group invariance tests showed that the number of factors, factor loadings, factor correlations and item uniquenesses were invariant across the three groups – as were inter-correlations with a set of cognate correlates (class participation, school enjoyment, positive intentions, academic buoyancy) – hence no differences of ‘kind’. However, differences of ‘degree’ were indicated through significant mean-level effects between groups, with self-reports favouring Australian Chinese students over Hong Kong and (to a lesser extent) Mainland Chinese students. We propose these findings shed important light on Chinese students’ academic motivation and engagement and also on socio-cultural perspectives on motivation and engagement because they assist understanding about effects attributable to context and effects attributable to ethnicity. Given this, the study is a timely contribution to current understanding of the Chinese learner in this, the ‘Asian Century’.     

‘I need to be strong and competent’: a narrative inquiry of a student-teacher’s emotions and identities in teaching practicum

In teacher identity research, limited attention has been paid to how pre-service teachers constructed their identities by negotiating with different emotions in their practice. To fill this gap, the present study, drawing upon the approach of narrative inquiry, explores how a student-teacher – Ming – negotiated and navigated conflicting emotions in the process of becoming a teacher. The findings show that while Ming experienced some negative feelings in his work, which challenged his self-belief as a teacher, the positive emotions derived from his students’ progress and recognition contributed to his teacher identity. However, due to the constraints imposed by his mentor and the school context, his negative emotions gradually escalated, posing severe impediments to his teacher identity. The emotional flux and identity change of the student-teacher can be attributed to his professional learning in the structural and cultural working conditions with hidden ‘emotional rules’ embedded in the practicum school. This paper argues for the inclusion of teacher emotions as an indispensable part of pre-service teacher education.     

Reculturing schools in England: how ‘cult’ values in education policy discourse influence the construction of practitioner identities and work orientations

The imperative of continuous improvement has now become normative in education policy discourse, typically framed as setting ‘aspirational’ targets for pupil performance as a prerequisite for gaining competitive advantage in the global economy. In this context, teachers, leaders, teacher assistants and other practitioners working in schools across England have been under increasing pressure to raise standards. This article focuses on how values are deployed in reculturing and regulating practitioners to develop identities and work orientations which are congruent with the policymakers’ agendas. G.H. Mead’s concept of ‘cult’ values illuminates the process of fostering homogeneity with the dominant policy discourse through an inclusion/exclusion dynamic. Interview data collected in two primary schools revealed a significant convergence of practitioner discourse with policy objectives. Delivering improvement affects how practitioners talk about their work and see themselves as educators. The ‘cult’ of continuous improvement appears to inhibit a critical approach to the implementation of education policies by school practitioners in their everyday work.     

The politics of collaboration: discourse,identities, and power in a school–university partnership in Hong Kong

This article reports on how teacher educators from a university, acting as facilitators, supported teachers in conducting a school-based action research project as a practice of professional development in the context of reform in language assessment in Hong Kong. In particular, the article problematises how the facilitators and teachers negotiated and managed identities whilst being engaged in a collaborative action research project. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews. Critical discourse analysis was used to examine the textual data. A key finding was that identities were neither fixed nor finite in the context of collaboration, but were negotiated within and against a range of contextually salient discourses. A major contribution of the article lies in its examination of the complexities of negotiating identities when educators from two different institutional cultures collaborate. The article suggests that collaboration has to be understood within broader sociocultural contexts to identify the interplay of forces that shape relations, identities, and practices constructed.     

I’m going to be a teacher! exploring motives for teaching of a sample of Italian pre-primary and primary teacher candidates

This study explores the main motives inspiring the choice of the teaching profession. To this end, a group of almost 400 Italian students enrolled in a training programme for pre-primary and primary school teachers was surveyed through questionnaires and discursive interviews on the main reasons for choosing a career as a teacher, and in particular for choosing to become a teacher for young children. Our findings differ from those of most of the studies carried out in countries at a comparable level of social and economic development, since among the future teachers questioned there was no clear predominance of altruistic or intrinsic motivations. Moreover, our findings are contrasting, as the responses to the self-administered standard questionnaires show a certain appreciation of the material benefits of the profession, whereas only disinterested motives emerge from face-to-face interviews.