Looking Inward: The impact of race,ethnicity, gender,and social class background on teaching sociocultural theory in education

In this paper I examine how and to what extent various elements of my biography—race, ethnicity, gender, age, social class background, and prior personal and professional experiences—influenced my relationships with students in a graduate course examining the impact of race, gender, and social class on education. My lived experiences as an immigrant woman of color in United States society and my prior professional experiences as an urban teacher are shown to have strengthened my expertise and confidence in teaching this course. Nevertheless, experience confirmed my initial concerns that my race, gender, and social class background negatively influenced some students' perceptions of my teaching competence and position of authority in the classroom. The paper concludes with recommendations for teacher education, including encouraging teachers to continuously engage the question of how their biographies shape their pedagogies and relationships with students, an important undertaking as our schooling populations become more racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse. I also recommend that universities continue to recruit faculty who are not only from racial minority backgrounds but also from varied ethnic and social class backgrounds.     

Professional development in person: identity and the construction of teaching within a high school science department

This is a narrative inquiry into the role of professional development in the construction of teaching practice by an exemplary urban high school science teacher. I collected data during 3 years of ethnographic participant observation in Marie Gonzalez’s classroom. Marie told stories about her experiences in ten years of professional development focused on inquiry science teaching. I use a social practice theory lens to analyze my own stories as well as Marie’s. I make the case that science teaching is best understood as mediated by socially-constructed identities rather than as the end-product of knowledge and beliefs. The cognitive paradigm for understanding teachers’ professional learning fails to consistently produce transformations of teaching practice. In order to design professional development with science teachers that is generative of new knowledge, and is self-sustaining, we must understand how to build knowledge of how to problematize identities and consciously use social practice theory.     

A Balancing act: ethical dilemmas of democratic teaching within critical pedagogy

This article discusses practitioner research that focused on student resistance to teaching about the apartheid past and issues of ‘race’ in a first year English studies course at a predominantly Afrikaans and ‘white’ university in South Africa. The study aimed to explore the way in which students and the teacher engaged with a form of critical pedagogy moment–by–moment in the classroom. In this article, I turn the analytical spotlight onto myself, analysing the way in which my own multiple and sometimes contradictory identity positions as an educator play themselves out. In particular, I explore the tensions between my preferred ‘democratic’ teaching style, and my moral or ethical views. I argue that this tension creates a dilemma for teaching within critical pedagogy, which is not easily resolved. I also reflect on the experience of researching my own teaching practice, and attempt to understand how my research insights were developed, linking this to the distinction between reflective practice and action research.     

The familiar observer: seeing beyond the expected in educational research

Reflection on subjectivity in the qualitative research process is fundamental to the methodology. Although much attention is paid to what to do (identify subjectivities), there is much less emphasis on how one should do this. Furthermore, a researcher engaged in an intimately familiar setting, such as a typical American classroom, faces the unique challenge of sifting through vast stores of prior knowledge and beliefs that influence perceptions of observed instruction, including experiences as a K-12 learner and classroom teacher. As a novice qualitative researcher and former special educator drawn to questions involving instructional practice in reading comprehension, I struggled to balance my emotional responses to observed instruction with my need to understand teachers' decision-making. I begin by sharing my own experiences as a novice researcher, brought forward from artefacts of that time. Moving to the present, I reflect on my early misperceptions, and conclude with recommendations for working with subjectivity in the research process.     

The Place of English Revisited

In this essay I explore the constraints and opportunities confronting me as a newly qualified teacher and how these affect my pedagogy. I have reflected on my own development from beginning to newly qualified teacher and considered how such forces have shaped my identity as a teacher, my values and my approach to the job. As part of my exploration of my practice and the values I hold, I have revisited ‘The Place of English’, an essay I wrote midway through my Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) year; I have reconsidered how the current climate of educational reform and my subsequent experience have altered or strengthened these initial perceptions. In what follows I have reflected critically on two episodes of teaching and learning with my Year 10 class, my most challenging group, in order to further understand the way in which I have responded to the responsibilities and pressures placed on a classroom teacher. These pressures, I suggest, are intensified by the preconceptions of age and gender within my school and implicit more widely in the traditional values of our culture. The fragments of my practice that I have explored reveal tensions that gesture at a gap between educational theory, first-hand professional experience and governmental policy. They present an argument to resist the temptations of oversimplified, linear conceptions of teaching and learning, and maintain the place of English as a subject of creativity, exploration and expression that, at its heart, values both individual and collective student voices and identities.     

Teacher as knower and learner: Reflections on situated knowledge in science teaching

I argue from an understanding of current feminist philosophy that a teacher's practice reflects changing experiences, knowledge, values, and identities, and as such can be productively thought of as a site for learning as much as a site for expounding upon what is known. This suggests a vision for what constitutes effective practice different from that commonly held in science. I argue that praxis proceeds from the personal epistemological standpoints of the teacher (defined as standpoint theory). This knowledge is only partially applicable to particular situations in the classroom. The hallmark of feminist pedagogy, if conceptualized as derivative from standpoint theory, is to “take everyday life as problematic” (Smith, 1991, p. 88). Implicit in such a conceptualization is that pedagogy starts from an explicit recognition of everyday life and both builds from and questions that beginning. This is true for students and also for the teacher, and is the root of my claim that through teaching, the teacher becomes a learner. The immediate circumstances in which teaching occurs present different and unique qualities from those in which the teacher's knowledge and value were created. As a teacher, I am therefore continuously confronted with the inadequacy of my knowledge. The circumstances and children's activities tell me that I need to do things differently. In this situation, the act of teaching as an assertion of knowing becomes a recognition of not-knowing. Teaching becomes an occasion for learning about subject matter, children, and self. I recount an example of teaching in a first-grade classroom to give this argument substance. This story is an example from my own teaching in which parallels between scientific theorizing and storytelling are drawn and capitalized upon as a vehicle for critical thinking in science. This became an occasion for reflecting upon the appropriateness of those values because of the multicultural qualities of the classroom. J Res Sci Teach 35: 427–439, 1998.     

Classroom stories of multicultural teaching and learning

This is the second of three papers based on a 20-month study of teaching and learning in a diverse classroom in a downtown community school in Toronto, Canada. The purpose of the research was to describe the details of teaching and learning in a multicultural classroom and to document successful strategies in working with immigrant and minority students. The three papers detail the process by which this focus on classroom life led to a critique of the literature and to a new way to think about multicultural teaching and learning, which I call 'narrative multiculturalism'. In this paper, I provide a sampling of stories that illustrate what contributed to my changing thinking about multiculturalism. Four short stories focus on a participant teacher in her school, in her classroom and in interaction with her students. The stories illuminate the complexity of multicultural teaching and qualities of narrative multiculturalism. In the analysis of the stories I explore multicultural understandings that developed from the experience of being in the classroom, being in relationship with a teacher participant, and our on-going dialogue.     

Intersubjectivity as a way of informing teaching design for a community of learners classroom

In this paper, I relate concepts from research (mainly psychological) on intersubjectivity to problems emerging in designing classroom learning environments by considering one of my undergraduate teacher education classrooms, which I designed to run according to an educational philosophy of “community of learners”, and I consider the issues emerging from these efforts. It seems that the notion of intersubjectivity is helpful both for understanding difficulties one can face with a teaching design for a “community of learners” classroom and for improving such a design. I consider three aspects of intersubjectivity corresponding to the teaching design difficulties described here: (1) intersubjectivity as having something in common, (2) intersubjectivity as coordination of participants’ contributions, and (3) intersubjectivity as human agency. The paper is limited to the issues of internal teaching design and does not address institutional constraints.     

Perceived interplay between flexible learning spaces and teaching,learning and student wellbeing

In recognition of the evolving learning needs of twenty-first century school students, changes to teaching practices and the incorporation of technology are increasingly accompanied by modifications to the built classroom environment. Typically rows of desk and chairs are replaced with a range of furniture that can be configured in various ways to facilitate teaching and learning. This article explores the perceived relationship between these flexible learning spaces and teaching, learning and wellbeing outcomes. The perceptions and experiences of 12 school principals, 35 teachers and 85 students from four primary and four secondary schools in Australia were examined. Flexible learning spaces were reported to facilitate student-centred pedagogy and selfregulation, collaboration, and student autonomy and engagement. Modified spaces were reportedly more enjoyable, comfortable and inclusive and allowed greater interaction. The findings are discussed in light of Beaton’s five key design principles of student-centred learning environments to explore the connection between the physical classroom environment and teaching and learning. Self-Determination Theory is used to interpret how elements of the physical space facilitate the creation of a social environment that encourages greater motivation to learn and increases student wellbeing. The research contributes to an understanding of how flexible learning spaces are used and with what effect, thereby addressing a present gap in the literature.     

Reflections on teaching observations and the use of a personal development journal in medical teacher education

In this article, I reflect on the events and experiences that occurred during (and after) my studies for a Diploma in Teacher Education. The elements required for the award of Diploma included a professional development journal, a number of peer teaching observations and an action research project. At an early stage, I selected vaguely ‘peer teaching observation’ as the topic for my research. As the course progressed my journal began to contain an increasing amount of material relating to the teaching observations and finally the three components – journal, teaching observations and research project merged into one. Through a process of progressive focusing, the project was clarified and came to be about my role in the observation. I was surprised to find it became a very personal examination of myself in order that I could understand more fully the process of teaching observation. In the end, almost everything else diminished compared to the insights I gained about myself. I concluded that, for myself, perhaps a direct critical self-examination was too threatening and potentially painful to endure. However, by looking at myself as an observer of teaching then the very objectivity that was potentially so safe turned out to allow me to reflect on myself as a person. To become a reflective practitioner is not easy, yet the process can be intellectually engaging.     

Making sense of power relations in a Malaysian English-as-a-second-language academic writing classroom

The role of power in an English-as-a-second-language classroom has yet to be fully explored by an action research practitioner, especially in a Malaysian higher education setting. This study aims to contribute to this gap by working within an academic literacies perspective to teaching academic writing, which propagates the understanding of power-relational, socio-cultural and epistemological conditions for effective teaching and learning. As the teacher in this classroom, I focus on how power-relational conditions play out. To activate the power conditions, I used a teaching principle in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)-negotiated interaction to reduce power-based mismatches between participants in a teaching or learning relationship in my classroom, drawing upon Kumaravadivelu’s work on post-method pedagogy for TESOL; that is, not being bound by any specific method of teaching. In analysing the different types of power that were operational in my classroom, wider implications of power that operate beyond the classroom level and how they impacted teaching and learning decisions were found to be highly illuminating. The action research methodology used for this study enabled me to reflect critically on my detailed diary recordings and student letter and interview collections, which in turn impacted on my teaching decisions as each teaching cycle was completed. My reflections also help shape my evolving identity as a teacher-researcher throughout this ongoing Malaysian action research journey.     

Talking about English Classroom Teaching

Classroom teaching is a subject of science and it is also a subject of art.so designs of classroom teaching should follow certain principles;and it ought to have the general characteristics of art.Here,I will talk about my views in English classroom teaching,and I hope that I can get some comments,I hope sincerely that as many as possible mistakes will be pointed out,in order that I can correct them,so as to improve my English teaching level.     

Good Readers Get Smart: Reading Orientations in a Second-Grade Classroom

The primary goal of this research is to better understand my students' reading orientations – what they believe it means to be a successful reader. I also seek to identify the relationship between those beliefs and my teaching. The data come primarily from six focal students in my second-grade classroom in an urban public charter elementary school in Oakland, California. Focal students were observed, interviewed, and asked to discuss and rank vignettes of readers with varying reading behaviors, skills, and habits. In addition, I drew on systematic reflections about my own teaching and students. Results showed that focal students shared reading orientations toward aspects of fluency, such as accuracy, and knowledge-level comprehension skills, such as retelling events from a story. Results also showed that students' responses correlated closely with teaching points emphasized both within my classroom and around the school. These results, in combination with data from observations, led me to discover that students' reading orientations may have both public and private aspects. In other words, their stated preferences might differ from their private inclinations. These findings suggest that teachers need to be organized and intentional around the messages that they send to students about successful reading. They also suggest that teachers create environments in which various purposes and reading behaviors are valued.     

英语课堂提问的技巧

文章就英语课堂提问的技巧在优化课堂教学中的作用,阐述了具体的教学体会,就提问的目的、设置提问到提问的技巧进行论述。     

An exploration of the use of disruption as a pedagogic intervention

This article describes a journey of exploration in which I take a hitherto unexamined aspect of my teaching practice, the use of disruption, and subject it to interrogation. The journey is an exercise in auto‐ethnographic research in that I am my own subject, located within the context of the classroom. My purpose is to surface the beliefs that underpin this pedagogic strategy and to locate it within theories of teaching and learning in higher education, so that that which is known but not yet thought becomes available for reflection and challenge. The article is structured in such a way as to trace the thought processes that shaped the direction of the journey; it follows a logic dictated by the heuristics of recognition and association. Throughout the journey I draw on students’ reflective reports to illustrate my conclusions that disruption is a metaphorical strategy that uses associative logic to promote transformations in students’ underlying belief systems and is an artefact of a relativist ontology. It assumes a political stance about the challenging of power relationships and of collusion. I conclude by identifying some ethical issues that are raised by this teaching strategy. I highlight the importance of a relationship of trust between teacher and student that is based on a shared commitment to each other’s potentiality.     

语文教学中如何创设愉快的教学情境

本篇论文从语文教学目的谈起,提出要对学生进行审美教育,也就是要求在语文课堂上要创设一种愉快的教学情境。论文首先介绍什么是情境教学法,其次指出情境教学法的核心是激发学生的情感,然后从导入新课有新意、课堂问题的设置几方面谈如何创设愉快的教学情境,最后结合本人的教学实际谈对它的应用。     

Teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs for teaching math: Relations with teacher and student outcomes

Social cognitive theory posits that teacher self-efficacy beliefs should be related to not only their own well-being outcomes but also classroom processes and student outcomes in the general ecology of the classroom environment. However, little research has directly examined the associations of teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs with these teacher and student-level outcomes simultaneously. The present study proposes and tests an integrative model of the relations of teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching math with their job satisfaction and student math achievement both directly and indirectly via interaction quality as a critical dimension of the quality of classroom processes. Additionally, student level relational and motivational predictors of math achievement, including individual perceptions of student-teacher interaction quality and math self-concept, are included per the ecology of the classroom environment. Based on data from over 6000 4th grade students and 450 teachers, results of multilevel structural equation modeling revealed that teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs for teaching math were positively associated with teachers’ job satisfaction and class levles of math achievement and interaction quality. At the individual student level, individual levels of math self-concept were positively associated with math achievement, and individual perceptions of interaction quality were positively associated with math self-concept. However, a negative association between residualized interindividual perceptions of interaction quality and math achievement was observed.     

Gambling with Nonsense: Play and the Secondary English Classroom

Dominant and common-sense contemporary conceptions of practice tend to frame the emotional volatility of the classroom – most commonly explored in discussions about student behaviour – as a fundamental obstacle to teaching and learning. The ‘outstanding’ classroom is both orderly and, paradoxically perhaps, characterised by its passionate, and vocal, student engagement. In this piece I draw on D.W. Winnicott’s writing about play and aggression, exploring his ideas in the context of my work with two classes as a secondary English teacher at an inner-city comprehensive; doing so, I attempt to reframe both my own and my students’ affectively charged experience of the classroom as valuable rather than problematic. I posit certain moments of playfulness as a kind of pedagogical patience: less an evasion of, or a disruption to, the business of the curriculum, and more a route to meaningful engagement with it.     

Reflective journals: making constructive use of the “apprenticeship of observation” in preservice teacher education

Many scholars have characterized the “apprenticeship of observation” as a “pitfall” to be avoided or a barrier to be overcome in preservice teacher education, but directly challenging students’ experience-based beliefs often leads to resistance, making students feel discounted or disrespected. In my introductory educational psychology course, students write biweekly journals reflecting on their own lived experiences in light of course concepts and ideas. These reflections are then shared in a variety of ways, serving as a vital context for further investigation and discussion of how these concepts and ideas translate into the classroom. In this paper, I share typical journal questions and excerpts from the responses of two recent classes to show how students can engage journal questions at differing levels; how even the experiences of my mostly privileged and successful students have at some points echoed, and thus can illuminate, the struggles of the less privileged, the rebellious, and the failed students who most need good teaching; and how students’ own shared reflections can be used nonthreateningly to help them confront their unconsidered assumptions about teaching and learning. Finally, I discuss choice, respect, and agency as three essential conditions for effective use of student journals in preservice teacher education.