Beginning student teachers’ teacher identities based on their practical theories

In this article, we investigate first-year student teachers’ teacher identities through their practical theories and ask what these practical theories reveal about their emerging teacher identities? This study approaches teacher identity from a dialogical viewpoint where identity is constructed through various positions. The empirical part of this study analysed the practical theories of 71 first-year student teachers in order to determine what kinds of positions are involved in their teacher identity at the beginning of their teacher education and what positions are emphasised. The results showed that when student teachers begin their teacher education, the majority of positions concern didactical issues, that is, how to promote pupils’ studying and learning processes. In addition, student teachers’ teacher identities as teachers strongly emphasise the moral nature of teaching. Contextual issues about school and society and matters related to content, such as the curriculum, had little representation in first-year student teacher identities. On the basis of the results, the role of teacher education is considered in the process of promoting development of student teachers’ teacher identity during their studies.     

Changing students’ and teachers’ concepts and constructs of knowledge in RE in Greece

ABSTRACT

Based on a qualitative research (2012–15) this paper is concerned with the identification of concepts and constructs of knowledge in RE. It is based on participative enquiry and educational action-research methodology. Over a three-year period, the researcher, teachers and the students of a High School in one of the most difficult social, economic and pedagogic environments in Greece collaborated and the resulting data were analysed by a team of independent researchers using quantitative and qualitative techniques. Findings point to the consideration of knowledge in education as an experience in which the content (what) of education is as important as the process (how). RE teaches an additional invaluable language with different religious meanings of concepts, which facilitates students’ communication with self and others, and offers an interpretation of the world. Such religious literacy is essentially provided at school in the framework of multi-literacies and is a result of an intersubjective process of the interconnection between thinking, reflection and action on what the curriculum positions on the top of the didactic triangle (content, teacher, student). In that process, to ‘know what I know’ and to provide ‘events with meaning’ based on experiential learning and its principles, is of inestimable value.     

Representation and safe space: conflicting discourses in RE teacher education supervision

ABSTRACT

This article explores supervision conferences in RE teacher education in Sweden. Two discourses that are often articulated in supervision conferences are ‘representation’ and ‘safe space’. These are investigated and presented as necessary components for becoming a competent teacher of upper secondary school RE in Sweden. The empirical material consists of observations of six RE supervision trialogues and interviews with the participants – student teachers, upper secondary school supervisors and university-based teacher educators. Based on the analysis of the empirical material, representation and safe space emerge as essential ‘RE teacher knowledge’. Furthermore, the antagonism between representation and safe space that emerges in the supervision trialogues is explored and highlighted. By way of conclusion, the presented discursive struggle is reflected on as a battle over power within the supervision triad.     

Measuring attitude towards RE: factoring pupil experience and home faith background into assessment

Recent studies have increasingly favoured contextualisation of religious education (RE) to pupils’ home faith background in spite of current assessment methods that might hinder this. For a multi-religious, multi-ethnic sample of 369 London school pupils aged from 13 to 15?years, this study found that the participatory, transformative and dialogical activities of church visits, computer use and classroom debate improved attitude to RE. It revealed more readiness in girls to apply RE to their own religiosity and particularly negative attitudes to RE in pupils with no religious background. Besides indicating the validity, reliability and unidimensionality of a new short quantitative measure of pupil attitude to RE which acknowledges pupil experience and home context, the findings suggest ways to move beyond ‘banking’ paradigms to which RE remains prone.     

Teacher–student power relations as a reflection of multileveled intertwined interactions

This paper examines the factors shaping teacher–student power relations, based on observations, interviews and document analysis from a Hong Kong study. It identifies and examines six factors: China’s traditional culture of respect, examination-oriented teaching and religious culture were found to encourage imbalanced teacher–student power relations, whereas curriculum reform, values education and some school cultures facilitated relatively balanced teacher–student power relations. The paper depicts teacher–student power relations in Hong Kong as a reflection of multileveled intertwined interactions, and as affected by the interplay of various factors. It provides empirical evidence to supplement existing understandings of the nature of teacher–student power relations, especially in a non-western context with varied socio-cultural, educational, school and classroom levels.     

Dialogue in religious education lessons – possibilities and hindrances in the Estonian context

This paper discusses the limitations and potentials for dialogue in religious education (RE) classes on the basis of observations of Estonian RE lessons. I investigated how the way of asking questions contributes to the dialogue in the classroom. Additionally I investigated how students’ readiness to engage in dialogue is influenced by others’ responses to their contributions. I examined what happens in a classroom, by observing and analysing patterns of interaction in RE lessons in two schools. Video‐ethnographic data collection was combined with stimulated recall. Incident‐analysis stemming from conversational analysis was used to interpret the data. On the basis of these analyses and interpretations, we can conclude that the teacher‐centred habit of instruction is a main impediment to dialogue. A teacher’s positive reinforcement of answers does not contribute to dialogue between students but rather to the assumption that the correct answer has already been given and to reliance on the teacher’s arguments. Also, open questions do not work always as facilitators of dialogue, but rather can be felt as intimidating.     

The uncertainty and fragility of learning to teach: a Britzmanian lens on a student teacher story

This paper turns the kaleidoscopic lens of Professor Deborah Britzman’s writings on a student teacher story of learning to teach. It begins by briefly setting the context for the research. It then explains the study’s ontological and epistemological focus on experience and how student teacher and researchers create expressions of experience through an interpretative process. This leads to the design for interpretation in this study and to an explanation of why the work of Britzman became part of the interpretative layering for understanding student teacher Ciara’s texts. It continues by explicating Britzman’s concept of ‘struggle for voice’ as a metaphor for learning to teach and briefly makes comparison with the work of Bakhtin and his concept of the dialogical imagination. It then presents the layered interpretation in the form of indicative excerpts in a chronological story. Finally it focuses on the salient and pervading theme of affect and offers a brief commentary on its significance in initial teacher education and the need for developing an understanding for the feeling world of learning to teach.     

Connecting religion and teacher identity: The unexplored relationship between teachers and religion in public schools

It is increasingly acknowledged that for individuals to participate in a pluralistic and democratic society, they must understand religious conviction and difference. In educational literature, the discussion surrounding education and religion focuses on the implications for students. It is important to consider what this may mean to the teachers, as teachers directly influence student learning. This article uses literature on religion, multiculturalism, teacher identity, and popular culture to connect teachers' private religious identifications to their professional identities in public school classrooms. It supports future research in this area and provides a theoretical framework for subsequent studies.     

Transformative praxis in teacher practice: one tauira finds her place in education

This paper reports on an initial teacher education programme that has been designed to facilitate and support Māori student teachers in New Zealand. This paper highlights the ambiguity in New Zealand on the theoretical foundation of initial teacher education. Therefore a background on transformative praxis and how it has impacted on the education system of New Zealand is first presented. Then the tauira’s (student teacher’s) narrative is presented which has been informed by two years of a Te Ao Māori (Māori worldview) programme. The programme was built upon critical theory to facilitate transformative praxis in student teachers. Specifically, this narrative was a vehicle for how her own past in mainstream education and the programme has impacted upon how she sees teaching and being the teacher. The paper highlights the positive impact a culturally responsive programme can have on the self‐efficacy of marginalised members of society.     

Meaning-making in religious education: a critical discourse analysis of RE departments’ web pages

This paper explores what some have described as a ‘crisis in meaning’ in religious education (RE). One region, Northern Ireland, is chosen as a focus for exploring the question of meaning-making as it provides an example of ‘agreed ambiguity’ – where a common syllabus for RE is believed to be ascribed different meanings by different schools. The web pages of RE departments were used as a data source, and a critical discourse analysis method was employed to investigate how a sample of departments construct meaning in RE. The findings identify three dominant discourses in relation to RE in the sample: Christian Community, Cultural Hegemony and Personal Quest. It is noted that when giving meaning to RE, schools show commonality and difference across three key areas: ‘stake and interest’; ‘pupil agency’; and ‘dealing with difference’. In conclusion, it is noted that, where freedom is given to schools to construct meaning in RE, it is possible to sustain a common curriculum across schools with very different views of the subject, however, this flexibility has implications for issues of power, identity, autonomy and difference which may require mitigation. It is suggested critical education may be a valuable partner in this work.     

Training for Interreligious Classroom Teaching: An Empirical Study

Interreligious education should support cultural and religious diversity in the classroom by inviting new perspectives. Four contexts are important in this regard, as follows: auto-interpretation of one’s own religious tradition, auto-interpretation of foreign traditions, allo-interpretation of one's own religious tradition, and allo-interpretation of foreign traditions. Previous empirical research in the Netherlands has indicated that interreligious learning is not possible in the classroom. However, this study investigated interreligious education from the teaching perspective by conducting an exercise among twenty-four religious and worldview teachers. Specifically, a combination of student teachers, schoolteachers, and teacher trainers took part in a secondary school workshop before answering interview questions. Most participants discussed their own or foreign traditions using auto-interpretation. However, approximately half of all teacher trainers discussed their own traditions using allo-interpretation, although none discussed foreign traditions from the same perspective. In addition, student teachers reached the highest level of interreligious learning available in this study by using multiple perspectives to promote inquiry and engage in productive debate. Although interreligious education is problematic at multiple teaching levels, these results indicate that interreligious teaching practices may be improved through increased training.     

What Leadership Practices Are Associated with International Baccalaureate (IB) Student Achievement? An Exploratory Study of IB Schools in Southeast Asia

This article explores what leadership practices are associated with International Baccalaureate (IB) student achievement. Using a combined data set of Diploma Program (DP) exam scores and teachers’ survey responses about school leadership from 29 schools in Southeast Asia, the article reports certain leadership practices (i.e., strategic resourcing, monitoring classroom teaching and curriculum, encouraging teacher learning and development) exercised in the sampled IB schools that are significantly associated with student academic outcomes. This article contributes to empirical literature on school leadership effects on student learning in international school settings, which is an underresearched inquiry in the field.     

Religious education and intercultural understanding: examining the role of religiosity for upper secondary students’ attitudes towards RE

Recent studies show that religious education (RE) may play an important role for teaching intercultural understanding in many Western societies facing increased cultural and religious pluralism. Quantitative and qualitative research have however failed to examine what role the religiosity of the students plays in their attitudes towards RE. A nationally representative Swedish sample of 1850 students answered a classroom questionnaire. The main result was that, when controlling for background variables such as gender, foreign background, parents’ education level and study programme, the students’ religiosity had a significant effect on their attitudes towards (a) existential issues, (b) preferences on what to study in RE as well as (c) incentives for studying RE. Regression analyses demonstrated that by entering individuals’ religiosity into the model the effect of foreign background was suspended in 11 out of 14 cases. In order to understand the attitude towards RE, it is useful to include the students’ religiosity. As a consequence, this article argues that in order to reach the citizenship goals of educating for intercultural understanding in RE, the subject should be developed to reach male students, students with parents with lower levels of education, students in vocational study programmes and students who are not religious.     

The living art of religious education: a paradigm of hermeneutics and dialogue for RE at faith schools today

ABSTRACT

In light of ongoing debates about religious education as hermeneutical, this contribution proposes a ‘hermeneutical-communicative’ (HCM) paradigm for RE through the development of a twofold reflection: (a) a critical (re-)evaluation of the theological and anthropological foundations for RE in light of (b) a context marked by religious and philosophical diversity, disaffiliation and ‘areligiosity’. In this way, the HCM approach proposes an identity for RE that lies at the intersection of ‘hermeneutical’ and ‘dialogical’. Drawing upon theologies of interreligious dialogue, this contribution first analyses four paradigms for RE (exclusivism, inclusivism, pluralism, particularism) and then advocates for a hermeneutical-communicative approach characterised by an emphasis on interreligious ‘literacy’, philosophical and religious hospitality and inter-hermeneutical dialogue. Such a paradigm results in a number of implications for practice, including sensitivity to ‘big questions’ in life, engagement with the Gospels and the faith tradition, respect and appreciation for other avenues in the search for meaning and identity, and attention to the personal growth of young people.     

Knowledge development of tweens in RE – the importance of school class and communication

This article draws on empirical findings from an religious education (RE) test done by 52 pupils in three different classes on two occasions at the beginning and end of the 2011/2012 academic year. The purpose is to examine whether RE knowledge development can be identified generally, whether there are differences between classes, and if so whether they can be related to communication patterns and describe directions of knowledge development within RE. A sociocultural perspective on learning is used, stressing the importance of communication and the discursive practices the individual is a part of for what is learnt. The findings show that RE developments over the course of the academic year can be identified in all three classes, and that there are differences among the classes in both achievement levels and developments, indicating variety in the degree to which the discursive practices of the classes facilitate RE learning. Among the individual communicative factors, ‘asking questions’ when one is curious or does not understand shows to be one important factor. The greatest developments seem to be among less complex and learning-about forms of RE knowledge.     

Bion and Schön: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Reflection in Action

Schön’s concept of ‘reflection in action’, particularly when interpreted from a sociocultural perspective, is often used as frame with which to consider the relationship between theoretical and tacit knowledge in the work of teachers. This paper presents an alternative interpretative frame for Schön which makes use of the ideas of Wilfred Bion, perhaps the most influential psychoanalyst of the second half of the twentieth century. It is argued that it is the productive emotional struggle with uncertainty that lies within Schön’s moment, which ultimately leads to the teacher coming to a moment of decision about what the child might need in a particular situation. This (contingent) understanding arises from a dialectic intertwining of knowledge derived from intersubjective relationship and theoretical knowledge, for example, about typical and atypical development in children. Implications for professional practice particularly in relation to working with children with special educational needs are discussed.     

Secular youth and religious practice: candle lighting in Norwegian folk high schools

Although large international studies have defined Norway as one of the most secular countries in the world, Christian folk high schools in Norway have experienced record high attendance. This paper presents case studies of the religious education (RE) and practices of two Christian folk high schools in Norway. A survey shows that students at these schools can be considered representative of the confessional backgrounds and stated values of their cohort of Norwegian youth. The studied institutions have the declared goal of offering RE, of which an on-campus worship service is a central element. A large portion of the student body attends these services. Using a reconstruction of Etienne Wenger’s theory of communities of practice, the author analyses student participation in the school worship service, specifically in the act of candle lighting. Observations and student interviews indicate that the service can be described as a reflective practice representing a dialogic form of religion. This article contributes an analysis of the distinctive form of RE offered by Christian folk high schools in Norway. In a broader sense, it contributes to the understanding of secular youth and their relation to religious practice.     

Student teachers’ perceptions of reading and the teaching of reading: the implications for teacher education

This article reports on research which identified perceptions of reading and the teaching of reading held by trainee teachers and the impact on my provision as a teacher educator. It found that students’ past and present experiences of learning to read and being a reader influenced their perceptions of what reading is and of what it means to teach reading. As a teacher educator, I am not able to give students long experience of seeing children becoming readers, but I am able to give them richer experiences of reading in personally and culturally relevant contexts. This has implications for the nature of subject knowledge required by a student teacher of reading and the curriculum and practice of teacher education.     

University–School Partnerships in English Pre-service Teacher Education: A Dialogic Inquiry into a Co-teaching Initiative

Evidence has been accumulating for some time about the impact of standards-based education reforms on schools and schooling, but there has been little research investigating the influence of these reforms on university-based initial teacher education (ITE). This article critically inquiries into the effects of these reforms on an ITE co-teaching project where a secondary English teacher in a school was seconded to work for a year as a teacher educator in an Australian university in a praxis-based partnership. Using Cavarero’s framing of ‘who’ and ‘what’ narratives, and Bakhtinian discourse theory, the authors present three autobiographical narratives exploring different perspectives on their experiences in the co-teaching partnership. The article affirms the value of school–university praxis partnerships for speaking back to standards-based reforms, but acknowledges that this speaking back involves complex relational and dialogic work in grappling with institutional and system-wide policies and practices.