Not Saint Darwin

Charles Darwin’s name is going to be heard, read about, or spoken a lot this year, as it is the second centenary of his birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species. And as great as his contribution to science and the modern world is, we might ask ourselves whether we are making rather too much of this man. Is Darwin the important person he is being taken to be? To answer this question I shall raise three more: first, why do we celebrate individuals in scientific history, when it is the work of many scientists that gives us the results? Second, how original was Darwin anyway — who else did the important work? And third, what role do scientific heroes play in current science? Answers to these questions will give us a better, more sober and balanced, and more useful explanation of actual science both in the past and the present, and perhaps also in the future.     

The Oppressor Within: A Counterstory of Race, Repression, and Teacher Reflection

In this paper, I offer my own counterstory of matriculating through a teacher education program as an African American student on a predominately White campus as a reference point for thinking through how racism operates through teacher education’s dominant discourse and practice of teacher reflection. It is an important story to tell primarily because it touches on a largely unexplored dimension of teacher reflection. While the large majority of the literature has focused on how to prepare White preservice teachers to teach in a culturally and racially complex world, little qualitative attention has been given to the preparation of nonwhite students. While there are a few select and important articles that touch on some of the challenges African American students face in predominately White teacher education programs, including covert and overt racism, none focus on how teacher reflection might reproduce these dynamics. Thus what the literature on teacher reflection often suggests is that it is a racially neutral practice. In this essay, however, I suggests otherwise, by providing an intimate and critical look at my process of learning to be a reflective practitioner. The question I seek to grapple with is quite simply, “What does teacher reflection work to repress?”     

Narrative Reflection in the Philosophy of Teaching: Genealogies and Portraits

How has philosophical reflection contributed to the ways that we think about teaching? In this paper I explore two forms of narrative reflection on teaching—genealogies and portraits. Genealogies tell a story about the origins of teaching; portraits find expression in myths and other narrative forms. I explore two genealogies of teaching—one deriving from the sophist, Protagoras, in which teaching is viewed as a technical skill employing methods of instruction; the other, deriving from Plato, in which teaching is seen fundamentally in terms of a special relationship between teacher and pupil. The Platonic account of the origins of teaching that finds expression in the myth, recounted in the dialogue Phaedrus, gives rise to a tradition of pedagogic portraiture that views the teacher/pupil relationship as foundational and presents the teacher as a wounded healer. This paper explores the grounds of this image and suggests that a tradition of portraiture in which the teacher is represented as a wounded healer can be traced back from Plato to the myth of Chiron and forward to St Augustine, Rousseau, and Nietzsche.     

Relationships in the workplace: Doing what comes naturally?

In this paper I explore the connection between workplace relationships and teacher development. Using a conceptual framework built on Brim and Wheeler's (1966) ideas on self-socialization and Erickson's (1963) theory of psychosocial development I draw on information gathered in year one of a 2-year qualitative study of teacher socialization to explore the following questions: With whom do beginning teachers form relationships in their new professional contexts? What is the nature of these relationships? What functions do they serve? Are some relationships more important at some times than others? How do certain relationships facilitate or constrain the various aspects of teacher development? Can facilitating relationships be contrived? Can contrived relationships be facilitating? And, finally, what role does context play in all of this?The focus on relationships grows out of a need to understand better the role of the “other” in the professional growth process. By examining information gathered through conversations with 13 new teachers I will uncover and explore some of the issues pertaining to professional relationship formation and development particularly in relation to teacher socialization and the psychosocial aspects of teacher development. These insights will be used as a basis for a discussion of formalized induction programs which feature forms of institutionally imposed collaborative arrangements. Drawing on some of the recent work on teacher culture and collegiality (Hargreaves, 1990; Little, 1990; Rosenholtz, 1987, 1989), Barth's (1990) ideas on school improvement through the creation of a “community of learners”, and on Noddings' (1986) and Gherke's (1987) notions on the building of caring and helping communities, I will discuss the limitations of some of the recent trends in professional development for new teachers. I will recommend an alternative approach to new teacher induction, one that takes into account the individuality of the teacher, the school culture, and the socialization process. In essence, I will argue for a “natural” and integrated approach to teacher induction.     

The Struggle to Love: Pedagogical Eros and the Gift of Transformation

Why does anyone become a teacher, and why a student? Education in its contemporary form has evolved into a subsystem of society in which professional ‘teachers/ educators’ are confronted with an ever‐changing group of people called ‘pupils/students’; and the individuals in both groups now have to deal with this institutionalised confrontation. Neither one nor the other decision—to become a teacher or to become a student—seems to have much to do with a specific other person, and it certainly does not have much to do with the actual person(s) that one is related to by becoming a teacher or by becoming a student in a specific institution. However, if pedagogical relations were as depersonalised as suggested, why is it that teachers as well as students hold very different relations to different students and teachers—relations that are more or less ‘deep’, ‘affectionate’, ‘successful’? And how are we to perceive education outside of formally institutionalised contexts (or those special relations that occur even within formalised contexts but transcend them)? Is there another type of pedagogical relationship? And what would be the reasons for entering into a pedagogical relationship other than becoming and being made a part of a subsystem of society? Why do two people gravitate towards each other, freely recognising each other as teacher and student? Attempting to answer those questions, the following paper revisits some historic positions, being conscious that those answers are also part of the answer to a much greater question: What is education?     

Pedagogy as Work: Educating the Next Generation of Literacy Teachers

What do new teachers need to know about literacy and how to teach it? Given the changing demographics of the teaching and teacher education workforce, the changing populations of young people, and the changing nature of literacy, what counts as essential pedagogical knowledge is increasingly open to question. In the midst of such complexity, many governments are taking a stronger position on normative standards for literacy and teacher training. Publishers have moved in to play key roles in the professional development of teachers on authorised approaches. The insider knowledge of generations of teachers is now under threat as large percentages of the teaching population head for retirement. In this article I argue that we need to radically rethink teacher education. Taking the case of literacy, I demonstrate the kinds of pressures and doubts experienced by many teachers about their knowledge and practice. I offer some recommendations for educating the next generation of literacy teachers, which are informed by historical, political, demographic, and futures analyses of the contemporary scene.     

Drawing ourselves into teaching: Studying the images that shape and distort teacher education

How do childhood memories and social stereotypes colour emerging teacher identities? What images of “teacher” silently direct the ways in which we teach and think? Is our teaching practice consistent with our personal teaching philosophy? Are we sufficiently aware of influences past and present? By analyzing student teachers' and experienced teachers' drawings, this paper explores many stereotypes and contradictions in teacher identity and teaching practice that are often ignored or left unexamined. We suggest that drawings provide an excellent forum for necessary (self-) reflection by bringing to light nuances and ambivalences in teaching identities that might otherwise remain hidden.     

Lasting leadership: Toward sustainable school improvement

After decades of meager results in school improvement efforts that work and that last, it may seem irrational to hope that this time it could be different—that we could learn and apply approaches to lasting school improvement. Obama (2006, The audacity of hope. New York: Crown publications) might refer to such hope as audacious. What gives us the impulse for hope in the face of continued disappointment? This is not to suggest that all of our efforts have come to naught. Having witnessed and participated in hopeful approaches for more than 40 years, I’ve seen noteworthy programs and heard exceptionally wise ideas. Islands of hope existed in each decade, yet even these remarkable islands drop below sea level when founders, principals or key teachers leave. As long as any one individual is indispensable, sustainability is a distant dream. As I’ve talked with educators, parents, students and community members over these years, I’ve been bombarded with questions. The question I find most compelling is: “We can now understand our schools as they exist. And, we have an improving image of what sustainable schools look like, but how do we get there from here? How do we find our way to the sustainability we yearn for?     

Literature review: The role of the teacher in inquiry-based education

Inquiry-based education receives much attention in educational practice and theory, since it provides pupils and teachers with opportunities to actively engage in collaboratively answering questions. However, not only do many teachers find this approach demanding, it also remains unclear what they should do to foster this type of education in their classrooms. Our research question was: Which teaching strategies are used by K-12 teachers when promoting inquiry-based education in their classrooms and what are the reported outcomes?After searching for empirical studies on this topic, we examined 186 studies investigating different ways in which teachers can promote inquiry-based education. Analyses revealed varying teaching strategies, differing with regard to direction (teacher directed, student directed and mixed) and different perspectives of regulation (meta-cognitive, conceptual, and social regulation). Results show that important teacher strategies in metacognitive regulation are: focussing on thinking skills, developing a culture of inquiry, supporting inquiry discourse, and promoting nature of science; in conceptual regulation: providing information on the research topic and focussing on conceptual understanding; and in social regulation: bridging the gap between high and low achievers, organizing student learning in groups and focussing on collaboration processes.     

Power and place in teaching and teacher education

This paper explores the thesis that teacher education prepares teachers to fit into existing patterns and structures of teaching, schooling and society. The key questions explored are: (1) How have some discourses emerged as privileged, as others have been eclipsed? (2) What do these processes reveal about the relationship of power and place in teacher education? The case examined is Northern Ireland. The author concludes that if teacher education is to be one of the means by which educators learn new ways of seeing within a deep sense of tradition, then teacher education itself needs to become a discursive project.     

教育归一方法引发再思考——学习生本教育的体会

“回归本体--归一“是生本教育提倡的研究法之一.本文通过对教师的位置在哪里?美德可教吗?教师能做些什么?这三个问题的再思考,认为“归一“方法是我们摆脱二元对立的研究视角的好途径,是正确思考和把握教育问题的好方法,更是我们在教育实践中保证教育行为方向正确的标的.     

Is Freire Incoherent? Reconciling Directiveness and Dialogue in Freirean Pedagogy

While some of Paulo Freire's readers understand his pedagogy as a rejection of any and all directive teaching methods, there are many scholars who do recognise Freire's emphasis on teacher directiveness in its appropriate form. In light of this tension between directiveness and dialogue, it seems that students of Freire must inevitably come to a crossroads: is Freire's pedagogy directive or is it not? However, even this question does not get at the more critical dilemma: if Freire's pedagogy is directive, is such directiveness incompatible with Freire's overwhelming emphasis on egalitarian dialogue? This paper establishes three readings of the issue of directiveness in Freire and ultimately provides an exegetical defence of what is termed the compatibilist reading—that directive teaching, properly construed, is compatible with dialogic teaching in Freirean pedagogy. The question this paper seeks to answer is how Freire can have it both ways. In sum, Freire undeniably supports teacher directiveness and philosophically justifies directiveness as compatible with problem‐posing education through his concepts of virtue education, utopia and criticality.     

Conversation VS Presentation

<正>It is always said that a good teacher should be a good lecturer.He or she should at least master all the different methods of presenting a good presentation to students.We expect our teachers to give a wonderful lecture in class and that’s everything a successful teacher should do.However,is this truly right?Does it really make sense that a teacher should be a lecturer and treat our students as audiences in class?No,I don’t think so.Especially after all these years of teaching primary and middle school students,I think a successful teacher should be a good talker.They should always know how     

The views of children and parents towards higher level teaching assistants who teach whole classes

By September 2009 there were approximately 30,000 higher level teaching assistants (HLTAs) in English schools. All of these HLTAs are expected to be able to deliver pre-set lessons in place of a teacher. Often, they are determining the pedagogical approach and range of activities used to deliver the lesson's objectives. Consequently, there is a need to question the extent to which they can improve the quality of learning when meeting HLTA standard 31 (advancing learning when working with whole classes without the presence of an assigned teacher).This paper therefore considers the following question: Does the use of HLTAs with whole classes have a positive impact on children's learning? The voices of children and parents have so far been neglected in this field. Their voices deepen our understanding of notions of teacher professionalism and school effectiveness. How do parents and children view hierarchical staffing structures and the subsequent impact on learning disposition and behaviour? Is it possible for HLTAs to acquire the pedagogical skills and subject knowledge needed to ensure continuity in learning when taking responsibility for a class? These are the issues this paper will address.     

A Seat at the Table: How the Work of Teaching Impacts Teachers as Policy Agents

Policy reflects and shapes society's beliefs about schools, teachers, children, learning, and society, as well as the power structures embedded in our communities and decision-making processes. Although teachers may be central to the implementation of education policy, they are marginal to the design of policy agendas and text, especially around issues of teaching and learning. Their absence in the policymaking process creates a disconnect between the goals and design of education policy and the actual lived challenges of implementation. In examining the dynamics in this critical disconnect, we address the following research questions: How do institutional norms and routines affect teachers' agency in the policymaking process? Following this research question is our action question: How do we support conditions that support teachers as policy agents? We draw on qualitative data from two sites (West Virginia and Wisconsin) where K–12 teachers partnered with university researchers in a range of capacity-building efforts. Analysis illustrates how teachers interact with certain institutional norms that make it hard to engage in policy design. Based on our findings, we discuss how a teacher–university partnership can better support the conditions that facilitate greater teacher agency in thinking, talking, and acting on policy.     

当代大学教师的知识分子角色的思考

作为大学教师,"我是谁"的问题是回答"我如何生存和生活、如何进行教学及科研工作"等问题的一个本源性的或本体问题,大学教师的知识分子角色所包蕴的四对基本矛盾,揭示了当代大学教师的知识分子角色正在发生一系列相应的转变。     

A rose in a mirror

In this paper I reflect on the idea of a person as constructed through their actions, in science and otherwise, and the role of the teacher in enabling such action. I write, drawing on my own history in science and the imaging technologies in which I am presently involved, about how these shape the work I do with children and teachers in schools. I purposely try to make the science I do with children reflect the science I did as a scientist and it is in this context that the children act. This environment is illustrated in two stories. In the first the children are looking at lenses and discussing their qualities and the things they are able to see as they gaze through them. This conversation illuminates both the qualities of lenses, the role of the observer, and of the act of seeing. In the second story I argue that the, way I shape the classroom is in effect a lens through which we can view children. What we see through such a lens has the same qualities as the things the children and I talk about in the first story and such visions both shape and are shaped by my actions as a teacher.     

Lessons of love: Psychoanalysis and teacher-student love

What is the relation of love and pedagogy? Two recent phenomena have called into question whether love has any place within pedagogy at all: teacher‐student sexual scandal and the standardization movement. As love walks the thin line between inspiration and sex, and as standardization has assumed love to be synonymous with bias, it has become more important than ever to provide a clear account of love and its relation to teaching. For this account, I turn to Lacanian psychoanalysis and, in particular, to Lacan's contentious claim that “There is no such thing as a sexual relationship.” Through an explication of Lacan's position on love, I conclude that love not only has a place within pedagogy but is necessary for it.     

Exploring Self-Study to Improve My Practice as a Mathematics Teacher Educator

While supervising a student teacher in school, an incident occurred that highlighted a contradiction between my practice and my beliefs and prompted me to question why I do not always live the values I profess. The aim of this article is to investigate how self-study can help me to understand the complex and context-based situations of my practice. I draw on the work of other teacher educators to examine the potential of self-study to improve my practice. Through this exploration I have begun to transform the way that I comprehend teaching and learning in teacher education. I identify several tensions and challenges in implementing the methodology within my professional context. I believe that self-study can help us in our roles as teacher educators to develop more reflexive self-awareness and to problematize taken-for-granted assumptions relevant to our contexts of practice.     

The ethical claim of partiality: practical reasoning,the discipline,and teacher education

Practical reasoning refers to a teacher's capacity to discern particulars and make wise judgements about how to act in pedagogical situations. But how do teachers know what is right? How are teachers' preferences to be grounded and their choices justified? I explore the disciplines as one source of moral perception. Assuming that narrative unities underscore the coherence and continuity of an individual's experience, I generated data in the context of a 2‐year teacher education programme. The case study of an aspiring teacher of secondary school language arts illustrates how the intellectual virtues of a discipline can influence a student teacher's practical reasoning. I conclude that teacher educators must attend to the complex ways in which a prospective teacher's prior discipline may influence aspiring teachers' orientations to experience, their consideration of educational ends, and, finally, their characters.