Some family matters that affect young children

I recall a teacher who helped an apprehensive boy become adjusted to his classroom without his mother. His teacher enumerated the various body parts that he had brought to school that day—“his arms, legs, eyes, ears” and so on. He watched with anticipation for a while, then looked up wearily at her and said, “I know I'm all here. Butwhy am I here?”     

Ciencia en Nepantla: the journey of Nepantler@s in science learning and teaching

This paper presents a new approach to science education that takes a path through sociocultural theory and into the ideas of Gloria Anzaldúa. We apply Anzaldúan theory to science education by illustrating it in action through various examples which explore the multidimensionality of teaching science with Latin@ students in various contexts including dual language settings. We present what it is to journey through transformation using examples from educators at various levels of science within the world of teaching science with Latin@ students in the U.S. Our examples illustrate how Latin@ students cross many cultural borders in Spanish, English, Latin@ home culture, school culture, and the world of scientific dialogue and content, and in doing so, go through tensions and transformations between dominant and non-dominant worlds, which should be acknowledged and better understood through Anzaldúan theory. Fundamentally, we present a transformative notion of Latin@ science learning as “living on the bridges” of many dialogic and cultural practices, and having to negotiate these in-between spaces, or “nepantla” (Anzaldu´a and Keating in Interviews, Psychology Press, London, 2000), where Latin@ students must contend with the fragmented and sometimes painful struggle of living in racialized reality amidst the demands of a dominant culture, and where transformation and healing are possible through the path of conocimiento. We advocate for teachers to become science teacher nepantler@s, who guide their students through nepantla, and into a new mestiz@ consciousness of science education.     

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.     

教师实践性知识养成的生活史探究:布迪厄社会实践理论的视角

以布迪厄社会实践理论为分析框架,对一位优秀的初中特级教师Y老师的个人生活史进行探究,可以发现教师实践性知识的养成得益于教师在一定的“场域”中,在特定的“惯习”驱动下所采取的一系列活动。教师的实践性知识是一种复杂综合的知识样态,是教师在一定“场域”中进行“文化再生产”时,他过往的“实践”积累下的“惯习”和“资本”的外在表征,它集历史经验与现实创造于一体,是社会客观条件制约与教师内在创造力高度统一的产物。     

“Where are the children?” Personal integrity and reflective teaching portfolios

This study chronicles a 2-year school wide portfolio initiative in a British elementary school, teacher resistance to the initiative, and factors that contributed to acceptance of the portfolio initiative. Critical components to teacher engagement in this context included teacher ownership of the process and product, a child-centred focus to the portfolio, and opportunity to include belief statements and entries of felt importance. The reflective teaching portfolio is discussed as a cultural tool of mediation and a vehicle for providing programmatic reflection wherein teacher integrity can be demonstrated through alignment of beliefs and teaching practice over time.     

Forms and functions of storytelling by teachers

This paper deals with forms and functions of storytelling by teachers in an Israeli comprehensive school staffroom. The main function of these stories is to present to the teachers themselves the teachers' views on teaching, and especially some features of the image of the ideal teacher. The ideal teacher believes in the important value of control. He or she should be able to establish control by being practical, and using “professional knowledge”. This professional knowledge has three main sources: the teacher's own experience; his or her colleagues' experience; and his or her creativity. The stories in the staffroom create images of the ideal teacher and socialize teachers to these images.     

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.     

About Creativity,Giftedness, and Teaching the Creatively Gifted in the Classroom

In this case study the author explored a teacher's beliefs about creativity and gifted‐ness and investigated the classroom practices of this teacher of gifted students for 20 years. Seven semi‐structured and 2 open observations were carried out in her classroom, and 2 prefigured interviews were conducted with her. She believed that creative children are those who are “free thinkers” and have “imaginative intelligence.” The thin line between an academically gifted child and a creatively gifted child is built by “imagination,” “emotional intensity,” and “curiosity.” In creative writing, she tried to implement activities such as learning to write poetry, personal narratives, research reports and essays posing solutions to real world problems, and mystery stories decorated with similes, metaphors and imaginative expressions. In reading, students analyzed characters, problems, places and times in stories and novels, and then rewrote stories.     

“Becoming” a mentor between reflective and evaluative discourses: A case study of identity development

This case study interpreted the experiences of a teacher as she grew her coaching and mentoring practices by working with preservice teachers and participating in professional development focused on reflective coaching, mentorship, and literacy teaching. We drew on the notion of “becoming” from critical and sociocultural theories in analyzing how she constructed a teaching identity through mentoring, and how her identity enabled her to enact reflective coaching practices. Our findings outline her agentic moves to provide the preservice teacher with reflective support, rather than evaluative critique, in opposition to the surveillance and regulation that characterize many existing teacher evaluation models.     

Cultural studies of science education

In response to Stetsenko’s [2008, Cultural Studies of Science Education, 3] call for a more unified approach in sociocultural perspectives, this paper traces the origins of the use of sociocultural ideas in New Zealand from the 1970s to the present. Of those New Zealanders working from a sociocultural perspective who responded to our query most had encountered these ideas while overseas. More recently activity theory has been of interest and used in reports of work in early childhood, workplace change in the apple industry, and in-service teacher education. In all these projects the use of activity theory has been useful for understanding how the elements of a system can transform the activity. We end by agreeing with Stetsenko that there needs to be a more concerted approach by those working from a sociocultural perspective to recognise the contribution of others in the field.

Moving parts in imagined spaces: community arts zone’s movement project

ABSTRACT

Movement is relatively invisible in literacy theory and pedagogy. There has been more recent scholarship on the body and embodiment, but less on connections between movements, body and literacy. In this article, we present the Community Arts Zone movement project and ways that the study opened up spaces for creativity, experimentation, and palpable identity mediation. Embodied space locates human experience within material and spatial forms. Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari’s rhizomal ontology and Lefebvre’s spatial theories, we examine how movement can be utilized to enliven pedagogy and to motivate people. During the research, classrooms, gymnasiums, and studio spaces became spaces that “the imagination seeks to change” by asking students to construct stories with their bodies. In the article, we present vignettes from our research study as telling instances showing the inherent strengths of movement as a form of literacy.     

FUNDAMENTALISM AS A CHALLENGE FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

“. . . human experience is shaped, molded, and in a sense constituted by cultural and linguistic forms. There are numberless thoughts we cannot think, sentiments we cannot have, and realities we cannot perceive unless we learn to use the appropriate symbol systems ... to become religious involves becoming skilled in the language, the symbol system of a given religion.” — George Lindbeck ^{1 1}George Lindbeck, The Nature of Doctrine (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1984), 34.

“My child is not learning anything. All they do in there is play.” — disgruntled parent after observing a preschool church school class.

     

Deconstructing Delphinium: Violence and Flowers in Rousseau’s émile and Henke’s Chrysanthemum

This article is an attempt to contribute to the conversation about “go[ing] beyond all kinds of binary thinking” (Lenz Taguchi, Going beyond the theory/practice divide in early childhood education: introducing an intra-active pedagogy, 2010, p. 50), especially the binary which positions “adults” and “children” as being powerful and powerless, respectively, in educational settings. It is also a personal reflection on “naming.” At the center of the reflection are two literary works, the picture book by Henkes, Chrysanthemum (1991), and the novel by Rousseau, émile, ou l’education (1762a). The central metaphor of émile—that of the developing child as organically unfolding, like a flower—is deconstructed by the plot involving two flower-named characters in Chrysanthemum. These characters are the protagonist, Chrysanthemum, and her music teacher, Delphinium Twinkle. Two acts of “naming” are considered: the literal act of naming a newborn baby and the abstract concept of “naming” [or labeling] a particular time in the life of a human being: “Childhood” (Cannella, Deconstructing early childhood education: social justice and revolution, 1997).     

Features of an Emerging Practice and Professional Development in a Science Teacher Team Collaboration with a Researcher Team

This study concerns teaching and learning development in science through collaboration between science teachers and researchers. At the core was the ambition to integrate research outcomes of science education—here ‘didactic models’—with teaching practice, aligned with professional development. The phase where the collaboration moves from initial establishment towards a stable practice is investigated. The study aims to identifying features of formation and exploring consequences for the character of contact between research and teaching. Specific questions are “What may be identified as actions and arrangements impacting the quality and continuation of the emerging practice?” and “What and in what ways may support teacher growth?” The analysis draws on practice architectures as a theoretical framework and specifically investigates the initial meetings as a practice-node for a new practice, empirically drawing on documented reflections on science teaching, primarily from meetings and communication. The results take the form of an analytical-narrative account of meetings that focused planning, enactment and reflection on teaching regarding the human body. We identify enabling actions such as collaborative work with concrete material from the classroom and arrangements such as the regular meetings and that the collaborative group had a core of shared competence—in science teaching and learning. Constraining were actions such as introducing research results with weak connection to practical action in the school practice and arrangements such as differences between school and university practice architectures and the general ‘oppression’ of teachers’ classroom practice. The discussion includes reflections on researchers’ roles and on a research and practice base for school development.     

What do professional learning policies say about purposes of teacher education?

Enhancing teacher learning is acknowledged globally as a key route to improving student outcomes, thereby contributing to nation states’ economic competitiveness. This globally accepted policy “hypernarrative” is driving reform of teacher education policy internationally. This article seeks to analyse some key features of contemporary teacher professional learning policies in terms of the underpinning purposes of education, in an attempt to make more explicit the purposes and potential implications of particular policy choices. The analysis draws on literature related to the fundamental purposes of school education, highlighting three broad, but distinct categories of “purpose”: the socialisation function; the development of human capital; and “subjectification” which focuses on individual creativity. While principally conceptual in nature, the article draws on the Scottish policy context in exemplifying the analysis, concluding that there is a tendency towards socialisation and human capital functions, at the expense of subjectification purposes.     

Revealing a bilingual science teacher’s dynamic views and practice about science and language teaching through dialogic reflections

Adopting a sociocultural perspective, we construct a case study exploring how a middle school bilingual science teacher reflected and acted when engaged in dialogue, co-teaching, and a newly designed unit on plate tectonics. Sources of data include video of classroom interaction and audio recordings of daily debriefs between the bilingual science teacher and second author. Dialogic reflections between these individuals reveal how the new curriculum, the dialogue, and co-teaching with the second author mediated the teacher’s emerging abilities to think and act in different ways at that sociohistorical moment in time. Based on these findings, we highly encourage professional development experiences to include ongoing dialogic reflection and co-teaching to “shake” teachers’ views and practice. These initial connections can indicate inroads into helping teachers broaden understanding of bilingual science education.

     

The mediating role of socio-motivational support in the association between individual school self-concept and achievement motivation amongst adolescent students

It is now well known that adolescence is frequently marked by a decline in students' achievement motivation, which in turn is often associated with a decline in individual school self-concept. Less is known about the mediating role of socio-motivational support in the association between individual school self-concept and achievement motivation. The current study examined the interplay of individual school self-concept, socio-motivational support and achievement motivation in a large sample of seventh and eighth grade students (N?=?1,088; M _Age?=?13.7) in secondary schools in Brandenburg, Germany. Structural equation modeling was used to test the associations between individual school self-concept, socio-motivational support, and achievement motivation. The results showed that the teacher–student relationship as well as “teachers as positive motivators” mediated the association between individual school self-concept and achievement motivation. In contrast, neither “peers as positive motivators” nor the student–student relationship mediated this association. These results support the notion that maintaining a positive teacher–student relationship as well as encouraging teachers in the role of positive motivators could be an effective starting point for prevention and intervention programs aimed at offsetting the decline in individual school self-concept and achievement motivation during adolescence.     

The role of sociocultural mediational tools in EFL teachers’ development: insights from a life history approach

The sociocultural orientation in general education, which has gradually leaked into second language teacher education, argues that teachers usually employ social relations, cultural artefacts, and theoretical concepts to mediate their thinking and practice. Against this background, the present study aimed to explore how three male Iranian English as a foreign language teachers have capitalised on the three sociocultural tools to mediate their development. The findings revealed that not all three mediational tools, though each influential in its own terms, have been available wholesale to the teachers and that different academic and teaching phases have yielded differential access to the tools. The authors indicate that during school as student, human mediation, particularly of apprenticeship, seems to be the dominant tool available for the teachers to mediate their development. Later on, in higher education institutes, although the human apprenticeship is still visible, cultural artefacts and scientific theories start to surface influencing the teachers’ learning and teaching trajectories. The implications for both teachers and teacher educators are discussed.     

The Free Schools “Riddle”: Between traditional social democratic,neo‐liberal and multicultural tenets

The question of what role free schools should perform in the Swedish educational system has been a contested subject between three ideological, theoretical, political and policy tenets. The first, “contribution to pedagogical diversity in a controlled school market” reflects a traditional social democratic view. The second, “contribution to a better education on a competitive school market” reflects a neo‐liberal approach. The third tenet, “contribution to the maintenance of groups' and individuals' cultural and religious identity” reflects a multicultural view insisting on the thesis that a family's cultural and religious identity should be a steering motive for the school choice. The aim of this article is to take a closer look at what the three tenets that constitute the “riddle” contain—including their claims, responses to critics, arguments and empirical evidence—and to discuss some of their practical impacts on the shaping of educational policy.