The epistemological stance between the knower and the known

The purpose of this study is to build a conceptual framework of teachers’ practical knowing. Through consideration of interview data from both elementary and secondary school teachers, the common features underlying teachers’ thinking were identified. The empirical findings indicated that teachers shared field-invariant epistemological standards guiding their practical knowledge. Teachers’ professional and moral character were interrelated and could not be separated from each other. In this paper, these two epistemological dimensions in teachers’ reasoning were brought together. The stances of teachers’ professional character and teachers’ moral character have the potential of combining vocational and professional aspects by establishing epistemological standards in teachers’ thinking.     

Teacher perceptions and individual differences: How they influence rural teachers’ motivating strategies

This study examined the influence of high school teachers’ perceptions and individual difference characteristics on teachers’ use of motivating strategies in their classrooms. Participants were 75 teachers in 19 rural, public high schools. A mixed method approach was used. Quantitative measures included demographics, individual differences, perceptions, and motivating strategies, analyzed as correlations and regressions. Qualitative measures included generative self-report of motivating a student, and semi-structured interviews, which were open coded and then axial coded to identify themes and issues. Peer-related environment stood out among teacher perceptions predicting student motivation. Teacher support and efficacy predicted motivating strategies, but teacher perceptions of student goals and causes of lack of motivation did not. Teachers admit that they lack knowledge and efficacy for motivating students. Findings can inform teacher education, professional development, and administrative support for teaching effectiveness.     

A case study of early career secondary teachers’ perceptions of their preparedness for teaching: lessons from Australia and Spain

This paper presents an international comparison of Australian and Spanish secondary teachers’ perceptions about the effectiveness of their pre-service education and their learning as in-service teachers. It aims to identify, firstly, the extent to which beginning teachers believe they are prepared for their careers through their teacher training and, secondly, what teachers have learned as practicing teachers. A qualitative case study was conducted to uncover whether similar issues raised by early career teachers were identified in different contexts. Data were collected through interviews with secondary teachers (N = 11) from Australia and Spain in their third year of full-time teaching. Findings suggest similar positive perceptions towards their practicum experiences, transition to beginning teachers and professional development. However, differences were found in their early career experiences regarding professional learning and their development of identity. Implications of the study are discussed by identifying strategies to improve pre-service education for secondary teachers.     

Educational change takes ages: Life, career and generational factors in teachers’ emotional responses to educational change

This paper examines the relationship of the emotions of teaching to teachers’ age and career stages based on experiences of educational change. Drawing on an analysis of interviews with 50 Canadian elementary, middle and high school teachers it analyzes how teachers respond emotionally to educational change at different ages and stages of career, and also how they attribute age and career-based responses to their colleagues.     

Cultural considerations in teachers’ perceptions of student classroom behavior and achievement

This study examines teachers’ perceptions of classroom motivation and achievement among students displaying culture-based classroom behaviors. Sixty-two elementary school teachers read scenarios of hypothetical students who behaviorally manifested themes purported to be consistent with a European/mainstream cultural ethos (competition, individualism) or Afrocultural ethos (communalism, verve). Teachers then rated students’ motivation and achievement as if they were in their classrooms. Motivation and achievement ratings were significantly higher for students displaying competitive and individualistic classroom behaviors than communal or vervistic behaviors. These findings suggest that the value teachers assign to academic success should not be understood in the absence of cultural considerations.     

‘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.     

Physical education teachers’ self-reported use and perceptions of various teaching styles

Increasing recognition of the constructivist nature of learning as well as the diversity of student learning styles highlights the need for teachers to use different teaching styles. Unfortunately, little is known about teachers’ use and perception of various teaching styles. The purpose of this study was to explore physical education teachers’ self-reported use and perceptions of various teaching styles. Participants were 212 physical education teachers representing a variety of elementary and secondary school settings. Teachers had significantly different experiences in the use and perceptions of the different teaching styles. Their perceptions also differed according to self-rated teaching ability related to using the styles.     

What do teachers believe? Developing a framework for examining beliefs about teachers’ knowledge and ability

Influenced by work on teacher beliefs, personal epistemology, teachers’ knowledge, implicit theories, and motivation, we conducted a two-part investigation exploring preservice and practicing teachers’ beliefs about teaching knowledge and teaching ability. Study I qualitatively examined 53 preservice and 57 practicing teachers’ beliefs about teaching, in order to: (1) ensure that the voices of teachers were made prevalent in the development of a framework aimed at understanding their beliefs and (2) facilitate the development of a quantitative measure to assess these beliefs. Results indicated that participants valued several aspects of teaching knowledge and held complex beliefs related to the implicit theories of teaching ability. Study I concludes with a framework for developing an instrument to assess teachers’ beliefs. Study II describes two instruments developed to assess the beliefs identified in Study 1. Using responses from 351 preservice teachers, exploratory factor analysis procedures identified factors reflective of emergent themes from Study I.     

Teacher agency and professional learning in cross-cultural teaching contexts: Accounts of Chinese teachers from international schools in Hong Kong

This study examined how teacher agency shaped professional learning in cross-cultural teaching contexts. Interviews with 14 Chinese language teachers showed that teacher agency varied in different dimensions of professional learning. Social suggestions, power relations, teachers' professional and social positioning and the imposed identity and social roles in the school contexts interacted to shape teacher agency. The findings suggest both creating school cultures and structures that value and share diverse discursive and pedagogical practices and managing teachers' professional identity and self-positioning to enhance teachers' agency to engage in mutual learning and remaking of their work practices.     

Teachers’ sense-making about comprehensive school reform: The influence of emotions

The paper examines teachers’ emotions in the process of making sense of educational reforms. We draw upon concepts from sociological theory and education to inform our framework for understanding how emotions, as a social construct, directly and indirectly, influence teachers’ understandings. Using qualitative data gathered in a study of comprehensive school reform (CSR), we explain how teachers make sense of reforms within their school and classroom contexts and the emotions that arise in the process. Findings show that as teachers made sense of reforms at the school level, they attached little emotion to them; whereas, making sense of the reforms vis-à-vis their own classroom practice appeared to be a more emotional process for teachers. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.     

The cultural and emotional politics of teacher–parent interactions

This article seeks to explore the ways in which the culture and organization of teaching influences the experiences and emotions teachers report in their interactions with parents. Hargreaves’ framework, based on the emotional politics of teaching, is used here to analyze fifty-three primary and secondary teachers’ interview responses in which they described interactions with parents that elicited negative and positive emotions. Parent–teacher interactions are explored as emotional practices that are inseparable from teachers’ moral purposes, shaped by influences of culture and relationship, and inextricably interconnected elements of status and power. Data suggest that the culture and organization of teaching influence the values, discourses and senses of purpose teachers hold and thus the experiences and emotions they report in their interactions with parents. The article closes with suggestions for further research and policy considerations.     

Pre-service teachers’ questions about the profession during mentoring group conversations

The use of mentoring group conversations as a tool to support pre-service teachers’ professional development has become more common. However, there is still a lack of research that shows how conversations are used to develop knowledge. The present paper is based on ethnographical observations of mentoring group conversations, and describes how pre-service teachers who participate in an obligatory mentoring model use their conversations as an arena in their search for professional knowledge. Three areas were focused upon during the conversations: the teachers’ role and teaching practice, conditions for professional development and conditions related to the profession. The pre-service teachers mainly used conversations to question, discuss, share and reflect over pedagogical and didactical dilemmas related to teaching activities in the classroom and to their own as well as other teachers’ behaviour and attitudes in different situations. The paper provides an insight into how a mentoring model can contribute to professional preparation.     

Analysing the socio-psychological construction of identity among pre-service teachers

A teacher’s representation of self is crucial in how they construct their identity. In this article, it is argued that pre-service teachers’ identities are intricately linked to their perceptions of the teaching profession. This paper explores the social construction of identity among pre-service teachers and the implications for professional identity. It focuses on pre-service teachers in Kenya. The findings presented here are primarily based on semi-structured interviews distributed among students enrolled in a Kenyan university. They highlight pre-service teachers’ difficulty in overcoming the negative perceptions of the profession and building positive identities of self as teacher. They also underscore the need for training programmes that take perceptions and representations of the teaching profession into account when formulating training curricula.     

Dialectics of development: teacher identity formation in the interplay of ideal ego and ego ideal

This paper results from research examining pre-service teacher development in relation to experiences of mentoring during the Professional Experience component of their programme. The paper focuses on the interplay between pre-service teachers’ personal aspirations for their own practice and identity and their perceptions of more socialized and formalized institutional requirements. The paper highlights the developmental potential of dialectical interactions between these ‘inside out’ and ‘outside in’ perspectives on pre-service teachers’ practice and identity, drawing on psychoanalytic theory in order to gain insights into this process by viewing the pre-service teachers wishes and aspirations for their practice and identities as manifestations of the Lacanian (‘inside out’) ideal ego; whilst the school culture and the mentor teachers’ (actual and anticipated) comments and judgements are read as representations of the (‘outside in’) ego ideal. The paper concludes with considerations of how universities and schools, pre-service teachers and mentors, might be encouraged to recognize the need for a sustained and open-ended dialectic between the ego ideal and the ideal ego in ways that might enrich the professional identities available to pre-service teachers.     

Doth the lady protest too much? Pre-service teachers and the experience of dissonance as a catalyst for development

This paper presents findings from an ethnographic study of beginning pre-service teachers enrolled in a large U.S. teacher preparation program (N = 34). Discussion focuses on participants' identity development as examined through the lens of the stories they learn and tell during and about their initial experiences of becoming teachers. Specifically, the analyses suggest that dissonance may play an important catalytic role in pre-service teacher identity development among the study participants. The stories participants tell illuminate their negotiations of conflicting stories about teaching, teachers work and themselves and inform a tentative theoretical model of identity development. The implications for teacher educators include immediate programmatic concerns as well as issues potentially related to teacher attrition.     

河北北方学院职前数学教师职业认同状况调查研究

采用问誊调查方法,对河北北方学院职前数学教师职业认同状况进行了调查,剖析其认同度不高的主要原因,一是对教师职业缺乏必要的了解,二是教师对教育类课程认同度不高。建议高师院校严把学生入学关,不断改革教学内容与教学方法,加强相关教师与中小学的沟通,增加职前教师教学实践机会。     

Teachers’ attitudes toward pedagogical changes during various stages of professional development

This study examines teachers’ attitudes toward pedagogical changes regarding various teaching strategies concerning students, content, and the teacher’s educational orientation. Teachers’ attitudes toward such changes are examined at different stages of their professional development. The research question is: To what extent do teachers at different stages of professional developments hold different attitudes toward pedagogical changes?The participants were 520 teachers in primary schools, junior high schools, and high schools.Findings indicate significant differences between teachers’ attitudes toward pedagogical changes during different stages in their professional development.Data accumulated can guide policy-makers in creating programs for greater efficiency at educational institutions.     

Just add hours? An assessment of pre-service teachers’ perception of the value of professional experience in attaining teacher competencies

This study compared pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their professional competencies at two campuses of a large regional teacher education university, where one campus provided students 22% more hours of professional placement in schools and related educational settings. Students who had experienced more hours in schools and such settings were more positive about their, ability to apply their knowledge of students and how they learn, classroom management, professional knowledge and practice, and community engagement; however, when students felt well supported during professional experience, such differences diminished. Additional hours were not associated with pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their ability to apply subject content and teaching; plan, assess and report; and effective student communication. Researchers argued that this pointed to the crucial role of good classroom mentors in teacher professional experience but also the value of students’ tertiary teacher education in preparing them for classroom teaching.     

Cultural identity in teaching across borders: mainland Chinese pre-service teachers in Hong Kong

This study explores transformations in the cultural identities of a group of pre-service teachers from mainland China during their educational experiences in Hong Kong, and how these transformations subsequently impact their professional identity. Individual and focus group interviews were conducted with 16 cross-border pre-service teachers from a teacher education institution. Findings demonstrate that 1) the participants recast their extant ideologies and cultural beliefs in response to multiple influences in their new context, enabling them to move beyond pre-established teaching values to re-construct their teaching identity; and 2) some participants constructed a bicultural and multilingual identity to gain legitimacy in the host context. The findings indicate that a more supportive context that provides more room for cultural awareness should be co-constructed by local and non-local pre-service teachers, institutions and policy makers. The study extends understanding of the interconnected relations between teacher identity and historical and social discourses.     

Thriving,not just surviving: The impact of teacher mentors on pre-service teachers in disadvantaged school contexts

This study explores the perceptions held by nine mentor teachers from four Australian secondary schools about the impact they have on pre-service teachers during professional placement. Using Fraser’s (2000, 2005, 2008) social justice framework as a theoretical lens, this paper examines what can be learnt from these teacher mentors about mentoring in disadvantaged school contexts. These mentor teachers felt their most significant impact was in shaping pre-service teachers’ awareness and responsiveness to contextual factors so that they could not only fulfil professional experience requirements, but also be better prepared for potential future teaching opportunities in disadvantaged school contexts.