Place-based education and pre-service teachers: a case study from India

Case studies of successful place-based education that involve international partnerships are rare. This article reports on an inclusive educational collaboration between pre-service teachers at an Australian university and primary and secondary school-aged children in a slum area of Delhi, India. Encouraged to undertake teaching that affirmed and extended the children's existing linguistic and cultural knowledge, the six teacher candidates collaboratively planned and implemented exemplary programmes geared to the children's interests and needs. This highly inclusive teaching and learning took various forms: a photographic project in the community, the collection of family portraits and stories, a dance and drama performance, and rich conversations on topics ranging from popular culture to politics. Using data drawn from observations of teaching, teacher candidate interviews and written reflections, and artefacts of student learning, this article analyses the processes and outcomes of this highly successful teaching. Essential to the success of this initiative was focused preparation that stressed cross-cultural awareness and sensitivity, a rejection of deficit notions about children and families living in slums, knowledge of Indian socio-political complexities, and a commitment to the building of equitable and ethical relationships with the Indian children and NGO staff. It is anticipated that this analysis will inform further attempts at place-based collaboration in the service of quality education.     

Transforming the embodied dispositions of pre-service special education teachers

Teacher education programs seek to foster dispositions that welcome student differences in race, culture, language and ability. However, pre-service teachers’ dispositions are difficult to transform because they tend to be aligned with the field of schooling where differences are punished or excluded. This study examines an activity for transforming pre-service teachers’ communicative habitus that was inspired by Bourdieu’s theory that habitus or dispositions are unconsciously embodied and therefore require a bodily counter-training for change. The activity instructed 17 pre-service Special Education teachers to communicate an experience through sound alone rather than words in order to challenge teachers’ deeply embodied communicative norms and open them up to the possibilities of non-normative communication. Follow up discussions, written reflections and videotaped think-alouds provided opportunities for explicit pedagogy and reflection. In this article, we discuss findings and implications from a recent implementation of this activity.     

Promoting field trip confidence: teachers providing insights for pre-service education

Pre-service teachers need experiences in practical matters as a part of field trip preparations programmes. For 14 years, a private, non-profit university in Turkey has involved pre-service teachers in field trip planning, implementation and evaluation. A programme assessment was conducted through a case study to examine the long-term effects of pre-service field trip preparation. Through a survey created for the study, teachers shared their field trip activities and reported confidence levels. The survey was administered to 44 alumni of the biology education department with a response rate of 72.7% (N = 32). This study will help researchers learn which programme areas need to be improved and can serve as a model for other institutions interested in evaluating field trip preparation programmes.     

Understanding legitimate teacher authority in a cross-cultural teaching context: pre-service Chinese language teachers undertaking teaching practicum in international schools in Hong Kong

Legitimate teacher authority is fundamental to effective teaching, but is often a thorny issue that teachers need to grapple with when teaching in cross-cultural teaching contexts. By interviewing 18 pre-service Chinese language teachers on their understanding of legitimate teacher authority throughout teaching practicum at international schools in Hong Kong, this study revealed that the teachers changed their perception about the essentiality and the nature of the pedagogical and interpersonal components of legitimate teacher authority. They developed a more nuanced and balanced understanding about legitimate teacher authority over time. However, their abilities in reaching the balance were constrained by their cultural knowledge and skills in achieving positive interpersonal dynamics when implementing student-centred pedagogies.     

Engaging youth and pre-service teachers in immigration deliberations

In this report of innovative teacher practice, the author describes an arts-based event which brought together adolescent refugee and immigrant students and pre-service teachers to deliberate about immigration policies and attitudes in the United States.     

Mothers who are student teachers: navigating their dual roles in pre-service teacher education

Many students in New Zealand are now of mature age, female, and mothers of dependent children (Allister et al. 2006). These students typically experience the challenge of sharing themselves between their children, partners, extended families and their fellow students, lecturers and studying. This research explored how a group of student-teachers who were also mothers experienced these dual roles and sought to document their beliefs, motivations, attitudes to these roles from the time they had entered teacher education. The following key themes emerged from the in-depth interviews with the women: strong motivation for wanting to become primary school teachers; the impact this decision had on the lives of their children, partners and extended families; the particular issues they faced as they tried to navigate the roles of mother and student-teacher; and the suggestions they had for continuing education and tertiary institutions to improve opportunities for other mothers wanting to study. This last theme is perhaps the most pertinent, as it offers implications for continuing education institutions wanting to attract and retain these students, who, as a group, represent a growing demographic trend in the student population.     

Meta-action research with pre-service teachers: a case study

This article analyses a case of action research collaboratively conducted by a university teacher and 50 students in a master’s course in teacher training. Its originality resides in the socio-economic, academic, and conceptual nature of the obstacles encountered in the module; in the meta-theoretical orientation of the action research that was chosen to overcome them; and in how triangulation strategies were devised to compensate for the limitations imposed by the academic framing of the course. In spite of the brevity of the research cycle, both the structure of the course and teacher–student interaction improved rapidly and significantly, as did the latter’s trust in the teacher. As a result, important advances in learning also ensued, and the pedagogical potential of this research method was thereby confirmed.     

Facilitating pre-service teachers to develop Regulation of Cognition with Learning Management System

The object of the present study is to propose a technologically based method for developing Regulation of Cognition (RC) among pre-service teachers in a pedagogical problem context. The research intervention was carried out by two groups during a Teaching Training Workshop, based on the IMPROVE instructional method, which was implemented in the Learning Management System (LMS). The first group (N = 53) investigated the pedagogical problems with “dual perspectives” (teacher and learner), and the other group (N = 47) analyzed the same problems from a teacher perspective only. The triangulated research design provided three sets of data of RC (e.g., statements on Metacognitive Awareness Inventory, Educational Data Mining, and observations on actual teaching). The results were indicative of the advantage that was obtained by the dual perspective group (LMS+2P), which has manifested in most components of RC, as compared with the single-based intervention (LMS+1P).     

Establishing a portfolio assessment framework for pre-service teachers: a multiple perspectives approach

In the field of initial teacher training, portfolios are widely used to assess pre-service teachers' performance as well as the outcomes of university-based teacher preparation programmes. However, little is known about the explicit design of portfolio assessment mechanisms in teacher preparation programmes. Issues related to the design and validation of portfolios for pre-service teacher assessment are a critical area of inquiry for the field of initial teacher training. In this study, perspectives were elicited from school trainee teachers and faculty from a secondary teacher preparation programme to examine the relationships identified among core competencies of a portfolio assessment framework and pre-service candidate learning outcomes. Comparative findings are presented about the relationships identified by the trainee teachers and faculty across the secondary education programme's portfolio core competencies and trainee learning outcomes. A discussion of the findings is presented with implications and future directions highlighted.     

Critical considerations in becoming literacy educators: pre-service teachers rehearsing agency and negotiating risk

This article looks closely at the talk of two pre-service teachers over time to examine how they used language as a way of rehearsing their evolving agency as literacy educators. Drawing on critical sociocultural theory, I use Agency Tracing to highlight how pre-service teachers’ agentic actions are not isolated phenomena but ones developed and planned with others in language. Through rehearsals, they considered possible options and outcomes of actions before taking risks, therefore bolstering their confidence to act and resist individual and institutional Discourses of literacy. Analysis reveals that because pre-service teachers rehearse agency over time via language, such agency can be developed in teacher education coursework and field experiences. Findings indicate four recommendations to foster agency: rehearsals over time, dissonance to the point of frustration, observations and approximations in field experiences, and interactional spaces for critical reflection.     

Attitudes of preschool and primary school pre-service teachers towards inclusive education

Teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion are important as they have the primary responsibility of implementing inclusive education. Attitudes at the beginning of teaching careers are likely to predict future attitudes. Some studies show a drop in attitudes after leaving university education. Using the Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Inclusion (Amended) questionnaire, 465 pre-service teachers (located in Victoria, Australia) from primary school and preschool streams were examined to determine the effect of a number of independent factors on Total Inclusion Score; a measure of attitudes towards inclusion. Two-way ANOVAs revealed module (unit) and year of study to be significant factors. A multiple regression showed the factors combined accounted for 10% of the variance in Total Inclusion Score. Participants who had studied a module (unit) on inclusive education or were in later years of study were more positive towards inclusive education based on Total Inclusion Score from the questionnaire. No significant differences for Total Inclusion Score were found between pre-service teachers that study primary school teaching or preschool teaching. It is concluded that studying a module on inclusive education is a particularly important factor in the development of pre-service teacher attitudes towards inclusion.     

The tensions of preparing pre-service teachers to be assessment capable and profession-ready

There is both a growing appreciation of teacher assessment capability for the improvement of school student learning and achievement and a commensurate drive for graduates in Australian Initial Teacher Education institutions to demonstrate impact on school student learning as part of a national accreditation process. We argue in this article that if institutions are to prepare assessment capable graduates who are “profession-ready”, attention to practice architectures is warranted. Practice architectures are the features in schools that enable and/or constrain practice. Skills, knowledge and understandings do not just cleanly transfer across Initial Teacher Education institutions and practicum contexts into graduate teacher classrooms. Practitioner identities are produced through “relatings” within specific social-political arrangement, “doings” that constitute activities afforded in material-economic conditions, and “sayings” that are a dominating medium in cultural-discursive frameworks.     

When rural meets urban: the transfer problem Chinese pre-service teachers face in teaching practice

Traditional teacher education’s supposed failure to prepare prospective teachers for classroom realities (the transfer problem) is a widely discussed topic in the teacher education literature. Previous studies have focused on causal relationships between teaching and such factors as pre-service teacher education programmes, contextual factors in the practicum school, and transition shock; however, most of these studies have been set in developed countries, and have paid little attention to the interactions among such factors. This study, involving 35 East China Normal University pre-service teachers, explores the transfer problem in a rural/urban divide context, discusses the possible impacts of pre-service teachers’ previous educational experience (i.e. before teacher education) on their teaching, and examines the interactions among teachers’ previous education experience, teacher education, and practicum schools.     

Transformational practice: critical teacher research in pre-service teacher education

This article traces the experiences of three pre-service teachers as they engaged in teacher research as part of their teacher education program and considers how teacher research might disrupt dominant paradigms that aim to de-contextualize teaching and offer one-size-fits-all solutions to address inequities. In particular, the article examines: the role of the teacher’s personal and academic history in the design of their teacher research projects; how their research worked to disrupt and complicate classroom cultures and practices; and the ways in which the pre-service teachers interpreted their research in light of new contexts during their first year of teaching. This work has critical implications in an era when teacher education programs are under attack, including: the value of drawing on pre-service teachers' lived experiences as an entry point into inquiry; creating highly localized inquiries; and positioning novice teachers as knowledgeable practitioners who are able to share research with colleagues.     

Affordances and limitations of a special school practicum as a means to prepare pre-service teachers for inclusive education

As education systems worldwide embrace inclusive education in some form, pre-service teachers need to be prepared to be pedagogically responsive to diverse students and learning needs. While much learning for inclusion takes place in course work in higher education institutions, field experiences, including practicum placements, can complement this learning. Using Loreman's [2010a. “Essential Inclusive Education-Related Outcomes for Alberta Preservice Teachers.” The Alberta Journal of Educational Research 56 (2): 124–142] seven areas of essential learning for inclusion, with the addition of Waitoller and Kozleski's [2010. “Inclusive Professional Learning Schools.” In Teacher Education for Inclusion, edited by C. Forlin, 65–73. London: Routledge] idea of ‘critical sensibilities’, this article considers the extent to which a practicum experience in a special school might contribute to learning for inclusion. The main findings of a small-scale qualitative study with 15 South African pre-service teachers suggest that the practicum placement exposes them to children with disabilities and learning difficulties, resulting in a growth of understanding of their learning needs. It also enhances pre-service teachers' ability to plan lessons and draw on a range of instructional strategies to enable learning for all. For some pre-service teachers, however, the practicum convinced them of the benefits of separate special education and the unfeasibility of inclusion. We conclude that a special school practicum has value for pre-service teachers, provided that opportunities are made available for critical engagement with the potential for both inclusion and exclusion of students with special educational needs in different types of school.     

Predicting the academic achievement of first-year,pre-service teachers: the role of engagement,motivation, ATAR,and emotional intelligence

Australian universities are enrolling a larger and more diverse undergraduate student population. Counter to this trend, several states have developed plans to restrict entrance into the teaching profession. This study investigates the role of engagement, motivation, Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR), and emotional intelligence in the academic achievement of first-year, pre-service teachers. Eighty-three regionally enrolled pre-service teachers agreed to complete self-report questionnaires that assessed engagement with learning and emotional intelligence. The questionnaire data were supplemented with findings from a series of focus groups. Although ATAR scores were found to be a significant predictor of academic achievement, scores on the Motivation and Engagement Scale emerged as a much stronger predictor of first-year grade point average. Measures of emotional intelligence did not add to the model. The results support the need to consider pre-service teachers’ motivation and engagement with learning, especially given the high stakes nature of proposed reforms to initial teacher education programmes.     

Challenges to prepare pre-service teachers for inclusive education in Bangladesh: beliefs of higher educational institutional heads

This paper reveals the beliefs of higher education institutional heads about the challenges they face in preparing pre-service teachers for inclusive education in Bangladesh. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 institutional heads. Data were analysed by applying thematic analysis procedure. Challenges were found in four theme areas: attitudinal beliefs, academic challenges, challenges in practicum and challenges for beginning teachers. Lack of appropriate information in the teacher preparation curriculum, untrained teacher educators, limited resources, inappropriate teaching-learning approaches, insufficient practicum experiences, and large class sizes were some of the major challenges identified. Participants also identified some useful strategies to address the challenges which ranged from curriculum reform, emphasizing practicum more than theories, human resource development empowering institutional heads to implement inclusion and resource support. Implications of the findings for university educators are discussed.     

Exploring TPACK among pre-service teachers in Australia and Israel

The ubiquitous nature of technology in the world has not yet translated into the ubiquitous use of technology to transform learning and teaching. Teachers lack the confidence and competence to integrate technology across a broad range of tools within a range of contexts. Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) has become a common framework to explore technology within teaching and teacher education. However, little research exists to explore the similarities and differences of TPACK between different teacher education programmes, within different countries or even different disciplines, especially in a secondary context. Using a self-report online survey, this study sought to compare and contrast TPACK results from pre-service teachers studying in secondary teacher education programmes in Australia and Israel. Findings suggest that TPACK is higher in Australia, and in both countries for those students who were aged over 26. There were no significant differences between gender and disciplines reported. The paper also discusses broad-scale implications for the future of research in TPACK.     

Teaching in rural Turkey: pre-service teacher perspectives

Despite preliminary findings that preparing teachers for rural positions is of great importance in Turkey’s conditions, little has been reported regarding the measures that need to be addressed in order to effectively prepare teachers for remote areas. In response to this gap, the present study aimed to provide some preliminary views about the expectations of pre-service teachers in relation to rural teaching from a qualitative research paradigm. Data were collected through an open-ended questionnaire from 115 senior pre-service teachers in a large Turkish university. Thematic analysis of the data revealed that participants had polarised views about the issue. While some of them viewed the experience positively, others highlighted the potential challenges. Pre-service teachers’ vague and dichotomous images concerning rural teaching suggested that they had some preconceptions formed through media representations or word of mouth. Implications for teacher education and professional development, along with directions for future research were included.     

Exploring metropolitan university pre-service teacher motivations and barriers to teaching in rural schools

Staffing shortages has been a consistent problem for Australian rural schools. This paper addresses the rural staffing shortage by exploring the motivations and barriers faced by pre-service teachers in an Australian metropolitan university as they explore the prospect of teaching in a rural school. The paper examines two research ideas prevalent in the research literature. Firstly, that introducing pre-service teachers to rural placement experiences enhances their desire to seek teaching positions in rural schools. Secondly, that pre-service teachers from regional or rural backgrounds are more likely to seek teaching jobs in rural settings than their metropolitan counterparts. We draw on data from a longitudinal qualitative study with pre-service teachers in a metropolitan university that were interviewed before, during and after their rural placement. We found that while the second idea stands the test, the first idea, undertaking a rural placement, is not a guarantee to redressing the staffing shortage.