Everyday life and everyday learning: the ways in which pre-service teacher education curriculum can encourage personal dimensions of teacher identity

This article presents and discusses the findings of a research project, the main objective of which is to identify curriculum components that promote personal development as a nuclear part of teacher professional identity formation through pre-service teacher education. Curriculum is viewed as an ecological scenario with different subsystems and both as formal and informal. Identity formation is conceived as an ever-provisional result of a double transaction: the biographical one and the relational one. The curricula of four different historical periods of pre-service teacher education in Portugal and the professional identity of teachers trained within them were characterised through collection and analysis of documents and biographical narratives. Crossing results from the four periods, the quality of school climate emerges as an important variable to the quality of the teachers’ identity. The lifelong learning ethos seems to emerge when the training curriculum connects everyday learning with everyday life, namely by urging the students’ involvement in school life, peer learning activities and peer and teacher educators’ informal learning activities.     

ePortfolios beyond pre-service teacher education: a new dawn?

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the efficacy of using ePortfolios to enhance career skills for newly qualified teachers (NQTs). The context is the final phase of a longitudinal action research project investigating whether an ePortfolio, created as a pre-service teacher to evidence a digital story of developing professional identity, could transition into employability, i.e. the first year as an NQT. Thus, this paper focuses on a new area of ePortfolio-related research in teacher education; the transition from university into employment. The research findings indicate a changing purpose of the ePortfolio from training to the workplace, an increasing strength of ownership as part of the transition, and empowerment in becoming a teacher. Secondary findings demonstrate an increasing acceptance amongst head teachers regarding the usefulness of the ePortfolio in pre-service teacher education and in the continuing professional development of qualified teachers. Key outcomes are discussed and arguments are presented for an ePortfolio to support professional development from university to employment.     

Exploring the interplay of cultural capital,habitus, and field in the life histories of two West African teacher candidates

This paper captures the life histories of two West African pre-service teachers pursuing their education in the United States. Based on a larger study examining the life histories of 45 undergraduate pre-service teachers, these narratives focus specifically on international student experiences in the US. Grounded in Bourdieu’s theory of habitus, capital, and field, the life histories of Bakar and Selma illustrate how their capital and habitus become contingent on the field(s) (i.e. sites, time, and agents within a specific context) in which they are situated. The narratives of Bakar and Selma captured their early educational experiences, teacher preparation practices, and future possibilities as they moved in and out of different fields where the exchange of capital occurred, which then led to restructuring and/or de-valuerization of certain habitus. The experiences of Bakar and Selma heighten our awareness of the capital and habitus deployed in a variety of contexts – fields – in the US and elsewhere. We conclude by incorporating discussion focused on working with international teacher candidates.     

“Don’t rock the boat”: conflicting mentor and pre-service teacher narratives of professional experience

This article examines conflicting mentor (school-based supervising teacher) and pre-service teacher narratives of professional experience in schools. It draws on a small narrative inquiry about the mentoring relationship in teacher education. Interview conversations were analysed using “writing as a method of inquiry”, allowing for a recursive understanding of the competing discourses that emerged, and highlighting the tensions in the mentoring relationship. While the pre-service teachers interviewed for this study expected professional experience to provide opportunities for innovation and collaboration, mentors tended to view the relationship as assimilation into the profession. Two points of challenge are identified where disruption to the tensions that arise from these competing narratives is needed if changes to educational equity are to occur.     

Learning from teaching: pre-service primary teachers’ perceived learning from engaging in formal Lesson Study

While there is abundant research reporting the impact of Lesson Study as a professional development framework for qualified teachers, its potential within initial teacher education remains relatively unexplored. We present a particular model of formal Lesson Study which has been experienced annually for a decade by Irish pre-service primary teachers. This study examines the perceived effects on learning of this Lesson Study model on a large sample of pre-service primary teachers (N?=?225) who worked in 45 different lesson study groups over a 10 year period (2008–2017). Data analysis reveals that participants’ perceptions of learning fell within two distinct themes namely ‘An awakening regarding teacher content knowledge’ and ‘Cornerstones of learner-centred practice’, each of which consisted of rich inter-connected sub-themes. As a result of engaging in Lesson Study, participants report an increased awareness of the importance of deep content knowledge in addition to adopting a learner-centred approach to their practice. Participants also believed that Lesson Study enhanced their professional knowledge and skills in the curricular area of focus (mathematics, in this case). While this study focuses on self-report data, these opinions are fundamental given research which proposes that interventions will fail if participants judge them to be ineffective.     

信息技术职前教师专业发展途径探究

职前教师专业发展是教师终身专业发展的基础阶段,为了促进信息技术职前教师专业发展,探究信息技术职前教师专业发展途径。提出改革与教师专业发展不适应的课程设置,培养教师自主专业发展意识,改革和拓展信息技术教学论教学,加强教育实践和教育研究,从而加速职前教师的成长和发展。     

信息技术职前教师专业发展途径探究

职前教师专业发展是教师终身专业发展的基础阶段,为了促进信息技术职前教师专业发展,探究信息技术职前教师专业发展途径。提出改革与教师专业发展不适应的课程设置,培养教师自主专业发展意识,改革和拓展信息技术教学论教学,加强教育实践和教育研究,从而加速职前教师的成长和发展。     

Identity development: what I notice about myself as a teacher

Teacher identity has been recognised as critical to the practice and development of teachers. However, there remains a paucity of scholarship capturing the voice of pre-service teachers’ meaning making of their own development as teachers during initial teacher education. This paper sets out to explore seven pre-service teachers’ meaning making of becoming a teacher. Reflections gathered using autobiographical narratives and teaching metaphors, were prompted by video clips of practice during School Placement. Results suggest that pre-service teachers’ were initially drawn to the physical depiction of what a teacher looks like. Their meaning making then turned towards instances of dissonance between their prior meanings of what it is to be a teacher and their lived experiences of School Placement. These sources of dissonance challenged the pre-service teachers’ ongoing construction of their teacher identity. The findings of this paper are discussed in terms of relevant literature.     

Educational policy or practice? Traversing the conceptual divide between subject knowledge,pedagogy and teacher identity in England

This research paper is framed by concerns about recent UK Government policy regarding the training of mathematics and science teachers in England and discusses how two cohorts of pre-service teachers negotiated the development of a professional identity while undertaking subject-specific training. The data reported upon were garnered in two ways; through an evaluation survey that received quantitative and qualitative responses from 159 teacher trainees and through focus groups conducted with 40 trainees. In the paper, the authors take the concept of ‘participation in communities of practice’ as a departure point to explore how trainees demonstrate their development of professional identities as chemistry, maths or physics teachers. In the conclusion, the authors consider the implications of the findings for pre-service teachers and teacher trainers given the current education climate of financial austerity being experienced across Europe.     

Pre-service teachers’ engagement in a cross-curricular television news project: impact on professional identity

This paper focuses on the impact of pre-service teachers’ engagement in the annual BBC News School Report project on their emerging professional identity and on the evidence they provide as part of the process of becoming qualified. The research reported on is drawn from three years of enquiry. Respondents included pre-service teachers themselves, their tutors as representatives of teacher education providers and their mentors as representatives of schools in which they were placed. The methodological approach was interpretative and phenomenological with qualitative and quantitative data being analysed for emergent themes. Two years of evaluations were followed by a third year in which a set of case studies were developed. The research showed that professional identity is enhanced through being in a leading role in respect of curriculum and working with other staff. Through engagement in such projects, this paper moots that pre-service teachers develop richer evidence of emerging professionalism as defined by standards of initial teacher training. Moreover, self-perception of role was modified to one in which they saw themselves, and were seen, as equals to qualified staff rather than subservient to or dependent on them. A new more equal power relationship developed as they took on responsibility for the project. Pre-service teachers’ move to become full members of the professional community for which they are training was accelerated.     

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.     

Professional aspirations among pre-service teachers: personal responsibility,time perspectives,and career choice satisfaction

Exploring the direct and indirect effects of pre-service teachers’ sense of personal responsibility on their professional aspirations through affective (i.e., career choice satisfaction) and cognitive (i.e., time perspectives) variables may enable teacher educators and policy makers to better describe the factors influencing teacher development in an era of teacher accountability. Indeed, current teacher accountability movements rather neglect the ‘teacher’ as a person who has professional aspirations, a sense of personal responsibility, career choice satisfaction and time perspectives within which these professional aspirations are contextualized and/or interpreted/reinterpreted. This indicates that it is important to consider pre-service teachers’ professional intentions together with their sense of responsibility, professional satisfaction, and time perspectives in order to inform current accountability movements more comprehensively. Thus, the current study examined whether pre-service teachers’ sense of personal responsibility, time perspectives, and career choice satisfaction were significantly related to their professional aspirations, with a particular focus on the mediating roles of their time perspectives and career choice satisfaction. A total of 511 pre-service teachers voluntarily participated in the study. Correlation, multiple regression, and structural equation modeling analyses were conducted in order to analyze the data in a comprehensive manner. The results showed that aspects of pre-service teachers’ sense of personal responsibility were significantly and positively related to their professional aspirations, career choice satisfaction, and future time perspective. The results also showed that career choice satisfaction and future time perspective played significant mediating roles in the relationships between personal responsibility and professional aspirations. Notably, the mediating role of career choice satisfaction was stronger than that of the mediating role of future time perspective. Overall, the results of the study reveal that the correlational patterns, derived from the links between pre-service teachers’ sense of personal responsibility, career choice satisfaction, future time perspective, and professional aspirations, have clear potential to inform teacher educators and policy makers regarding the factors influencing pre-service teachers’ engagement with the teaching profession and professional development aspirations.     

Investigating the relationship between pre-service physics teachers' professional knowledge,self-concept,and interest

This study investigates the relationships between professional knowledge, self-concept, and interest of pre-service physics teachers. In order to support student learning and interest development alike, teachers need a profound professional knowledge and respective motivational orientations. Developing both professional knowledge and motivational orientations in teachers is therefore a key challenge of teacher education. Prior research has focused on the development of content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) within teacher education, but the role of motivational orientations such as self-concept and interest have mostly been neglected areas of study. As individuals develop domain-specific motivational orientations, they compare their achievement in an external frame to the achievement of their peers, and they compare their achievements in an internal frame across domains. The effects of these psychological processes on domain-specific motivational orientations are described by the generalized internal/external frame of reference model (GI/E model). We assessed the professional knowledge (CK and PCK) and motivational orientations (self-concept and interest) of N = 200 pre-service physics teachers from 12 teacher education institutes in Germany. To investigate the predictions of the GI/E model, we utilized structural equation modeling. In line with the GI/E model, the analysis revealed that pre-service teachers use social comparisons. Pre-service teachers with a higher CK/PCK also showed a higher CK/PCK self-concept. We also identified instances of internal comparisons as we found that a high level of CK corresponds with a lower PCK self-concept. While we could not identify the same effects from professional knowledge on interest, self-concept mediated the effects from professional knowledge on interest. The results suggest that interdependencies between professional knowledge and motivational orientation should be given more consideration in teacher education research and should also be addressed more explicitly in teacher education.     

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.     

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。     

‘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.     

Pre-service teachers' reasons for choosing teaching as a career in Singapore

As the national teacher education institute in Singapore, the National Institute of Education (NIE) prepares all teachers seeking to be employed within the education service in Singapore. In the last decade, NIE's enrolment for initial teacher preparation programmes has grown significantly, with peaks in numbers during the recession years. There is also some evidence of attrition when beginning teachers complete their 3-year bond with the Ministry of Education, which sponsors their teacher education programme. It is thus important to determine empirically the reasons why pre-service teachers join the teaching profession, to see whether this can inform us about measures that can be taken to ensure they stay on in the profession. As part of a longitudinal study on beginning teachers' attitudes towards teaching and professional development, a research survey, the first of three data collections, was administered to whole cohorts of pre-service teachers entering NIE's three main teacher preparation programmes in July 2004. This paper presents the survey findings on pre-service teachers' reasons for choosing teaching as a career and discusses the differences between cohorts of different programmes. The implications of the study are discussed in terms of informing future policy and practice in the areas of teacher recruitment, retention and professional development.     

Understanding Teacher Educators and Their Pre-Service Teachers through Multi-Media Case Studies of Practice

The challenges facing those who seek to prepare mathematics teachers are well established in the literature. Most of the research to date has focused on the perceptions and understandings of pre-service teachers, but not on the perceptions and understandings of teacher educators. In this study, we explore how four teacher educators understand their pre-service secondary teachers as the pre-service teachers attempt to make sense of teaching through the investigation of a multimedia case study of practice. We found that the teacher educators adopted two different implementation strategies: one strategy tended to be open-ended and exploratory; the other was more focused on the teacher educators' goals of anticipating student understanding and developing mathematical content knowledge for teaching. We also found that, in using the case study, teacher educators elicited pre-service teachers' thinking about the complexities of the teacher's role in small group work, about the value of explicitly revealing the teacher's reflections on the lessons, about the role of planning and preparation, and about the limits of pre-service teachers' abilities to understand and appreciate students' thinking and to extend lesson ideas. Both teacher educators and their pre-service teachers gained perspectives on the role of a teacher's mathematical content knowledge. These results imply that multimedia case studies of practice can serve as vehicles for revealing the knowledge and practice of teacher educators, as they engage in supporting the professional development of pre-service teachers.