Teacher education as or for social and ecological transformation: place‐based reflections on local and global participatory methods and collaborative practices

This paper offers reflections on two transformative teacher education projects. The first a global communities module is set in a university in Vancouver and utilizes the lens of social ecology to examine the roles of teachers in bringing an awareness of local/global issues to their students' learning experiences. The second, a Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) teacher education project located in rural Peru, involves the collaboration of universities in Canada, Mexico and Peru. The projects are united in their use of ‘critical place‐based’ transformative teacher education agendas and democratic participatory methods. We use our experiences in these projects combined with relevant literature to explore three questions: (1) What inspirations might be drawn from our critical place‐based participatory approaches? (2) What might these approaches offer in response to the United Nation's Decade of Education for Sustainable Development [UNDESD]? (3) Does the UN Decade provides a conceptual framework to instigate and support social and ecological transformation?     

美国PDS与教师专业化发展及其对我国的启示

美国在20世纪80—90年代逐步建立了一批PDS(Professional Development School，专业发展学校)。PDS是美国大学的教育学院与地方的公立中小学或学区合作成立的一种师资培训学校。这种学校融教师职前培养、在职培训和学校改革为一体，为大学教师和中小学教师提高自身素质，改善自身专业发展提供了一条有效可行的途径。教师专业化现已成为国际教师教育改革的一大趋势，研究PDS这一实现教师专业化发展的有效模式，对我国当今的教师教育改革仍具有重要的启示与借鉴价值。     

The Dialectic Relationship between Research and Practice in Mathematics Teacher Education

This paper addresses issues linking research in student teacher learning with reflection on practice in mathematics teacher education. From a situated perspective on learning and practice, we explore our own practice as teacher educators while researching student teacher learning in our classrooms. We describe a study on student teacher learning, considering student teacher learning as a “process of becoming”, and how the results of this research have affected our development as mathematics teacher educators and members of a community of inquiry. Our work shows how in the mathematics teacher education context the relationship between theory and practice becomes an element of both teacher educator and researcher development.     

Responding to the challenge of providing stronger research base for teacher education: research discourses in the Norwegian national research school for teacher education

Background and purpose: The purpose of this article is to shed light on how the research projects of 140 PhD candidates in the National Research School for Teacher Education in Norway (NAFOL) respond to the challenges faced by Norwegian teacher education regarding the demand for higher competence and a stronger research base. The concept of NAFOL is of interest from an international perspective because of its focus on facilitating teacher educators to achieve a PhD. Since 2001, Norwegian educational policy has had a strong focus on strengthening teacher education and making it more research-based than before. From 2017, all new teachers in Norway are expected to take a master’s degree. In order to accomplish this, there is a need for many new supervisors with a PhD in teacher education institutions. NAFOL is a unique project: a consortium of 23 participating network institutions within teacher education. The research school includes 140 research fellows, all of whom wish to achieve a PhD suitable for work in teacher education. The research school is funded by the Norwegian Research Council, originally for a project period from 2010 to 2016. The research school has had a positive external midway evaluation, and the project period has been extended with four cohorts of students to the end of 2021. However, this study is the first one looking into the research projects of this young generation of teacher education researchers. The research question posed in this article is: how do the research projects of the NAFOL PhD candidates contribute to the research base in teacher education? Main argument: The main argument in this article is that the potential impact of this research school is dependent on the quality of the large number of PhD projects connected to teacher education and education in general developed within the research school. The quality is likely to be good because, among other reasons, these projects are scrutinised by the research school community. The challenges these research projects face, located as they are between solidarity regarding grants from the funds financing the PhD candidates, solidarity with the aims of education, and the wish to contribute to innovation, might prove to be able to be met. These research projects have the potential to create innovation in teacher education research through ‘border crossing’ between different educational discourses, as well as through creating new knowledge in meta-studies based on the results from several projects. Sources of evidence and method: In this article, project abstracts from 140 PhD candidates participating in NAFOL are analysed in terms of their theme and problem formulation. The analysis is inspired by discourse analytical thinking – namely that in a certain situation, several conditions for action exist. In this study, these conditions for action are made apparent in the choice of theme and problem formulation in the research projects. The content analysis is focused on ‘signal words’, because these words might signal positioning in different educational discourses. Results: In the study, three main discourses can be seen as influencing the choice of topic and the problem formulation in the projects: a goal-oriented educational discourse, a ‘Bildung’ (i.e. character formation, or personal growth – ‘danning’ in Norwegian) and democracy discourse, and a critical knowledge-producing discourse. These discourses are constituted when the PhD candidates start their research projects but the conditions for action are ever-changing and, hence, the findings in this study cannot, of course, be considered as ‘final’. The development of these discourses within the research community of NAFOL is one way of scrutinising the research projects in order to make a contribution to qualified teacher education research. Conclusion: ‘Border crossing’ between discourses in research projects concerned with what might be, and what can make a difference in a knowledge society could be a key way of enhancing the future for a young generation of researchers in teacher education. The research projects carried out by the PhD candidates in NAFOL have the potential to develop both new knowledge and new discourses of importance for Norwegian teacher education, as well as for a broader international context regarding professional development in teacher education and education in general. The view of the teacher education profession – and on what a teacher educator can be – could become more fully informed than before the candidates’ participation in the research school.     

From Competence in the Curriculum to Competence in Action

The article begins by drawing a distinction between the concepts of “curriculum” and “programme of study”, and goes on to show that curriculum reform involves much more than simply rewriting programmes of study. The reforms that are presently sweeping across education systems throughout the world qualify, in many cases, as true paradigm revolutions, given the magnitude of the transition from an objectives-based to a competency-based pedagogy. The authors discuss the complex nature of a situated approach to competence by exploring the theoretical foundations of a number of contemporary perspectives: situated action/cognition, distributed cognition/intelligence, collective intelligence and enaction. The value of a situated approach to competence is that it goes beyond an objectives-based pedagogy, while at the same time incorporating the best of what it has to offer. Original language: French Philippe Jonnaert (Belgium) Doctoral degree in educational studies from the Université de Mons; formerly, a professor at the Université de Louvain-la-Neuve in Belgium and the University of Sherbrooke in Canada; a visiting professor at the Université René Descartes, Paris 5-Sorbonne; he is currently a full professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQàM); director of the Observatoire des réformes en education (ORé); and consultant to various international organizations on issues related to curriculum development. E-mail: philippejonnaert@yahoo.ca Domenico Masciotra (Canada) Doctorate in educational studies from UQáM and completed post-doctoral studies at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology; he is a researcher for ORé and consultant to the Ministère de l’éducation, du loisir et du sport (MELS) of Quebec. E-mail: masciotra.domenico@videotron.ca Johanne Barrette (Canada) A graduate student in a doctoral programme of educational studies at UQáM; her dissertation concerns informal and tacit learning acquired through practice in business settings. She has worked as an educational consultant for adult education in the workplace; as an adult education teacher; as a project manager in charge of a number of Quebec-based and international projects on the development of competencies in the workplace; and is currently a researcher at ORé. E-mail: barsav@sympatico.ca Denise Morel (Canada) Denise Morel holds two master’s degrees: in philosophy (McGill University, Montreal) and in Applied Linguistics (Concordia University, Montreal); has worked as a teacher, educational consultant and analyst for the English Montreal School Board, and as a part-time lecturer at Concordia University; has participated in several programme development projects for the MELS of Quebec, and collaborates with ORé. E-mail: dmorel@emsb.qc.ca Yaya Mane (Canada) Holds a doctorate in educational studies from the Université Montréal; has taught at the Institut supérieur des sciences de l’éducation de Guinée (ISSEG); he is presently a lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the Université Montréal;, a research officer at the Centre interdisciplinaire de la formation de la profession enseignante (CRIFPE) at the Université Montréal;, and a researcher at ORé. E-mail: yaya.mane@umontreal.ca     

浙江省学前教育发展对策思考

基于对浙江省学前教育事业发展现状的调查和分析,以及对国家学前教育政策走向和国际学前教育发展趋势的把握,要进一步促进浙江省的学前教育事业发展,需要进一步统一思想,深刻认识学前教育的重要性及其公益属性;强化政府责任意识,明确职责,坚持把发展普惠性学前教育放在政府工作的重要位置;进一步理顺管理体制,努力完善办园体制,不断增加有效的学前教育资源;建立适应公共服务需求的学前教育投入机制,加大财政投入,改善投向结构;建立统一、灵活的教师管理制度,切实保障并不断改善幼儿园教师待遇;大力发展农村学前教育,促进城乡学前教育的均衡与公平;创新管理机制,引导民办园健康发展并积极提供普惠性学前教育服务;建立学前教育质量监测与评估体系,确保"有质量"以及质量的稳步提升。     

MAKING THE CONNECTION THROUGH STAFFING: MECHANISMS TO INCREASE CONSISTENCY BETWEEN UNIVERSITY EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION COURSES AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT LAB SCHOOL PRACTICES

Abstract

A team of early childhood teacher education faculty developed the 3‐D talent development model of teacher education, blending theory and research from many sources. These sources include research on talent development, nonuniversal development, and roles of teachers and their professional growth. The faculty integrated constructs from these sources into a program rooted in principles of social constructivism. Using the 3‐D model, the faculty team identified their task as taking students of teaching through the phases of discovery, discipline, and divergence. Assessments that we developed needed to correspond to this conceptual framework, moving us away from traditional types of student assessment. In this article we offer a synopsis of the talent development model; review five of the approaches to student assessment we use, including alternative assessment activities, “Employmee” feedback forms, electronic portfolios, state teacher evaluation frameworks, and action research projects; and articulate the linkages between our approach to assessment and the talent development model of teacher education.     

The development and validation of a scale measuring teacher autonomous behaviour

In the current study a multi‐dimensional scale that measures teacher autonomous behaviour is presented. The scale is applicable across the following educational sectors: primary education, secondary education and vocational education. Based on an elaborate literature study, four theoretically relevant dimensions of teacher autonomous behaviour were derived. Psychometric characteristics of the instrument (note that the terms ‘scale’ and ‘instrument’ are used interchangeably in this article) were tested among a sample of Dutch teachers working in primary, secondary and vocational education (N = 1111). The validity of our instrument was tested in several ways. First, by performing confirmatory factor analysis, we tested the factorial structure, which confirmed the hypothesised four dimensions: (1) primary work processes in the class; (2) curriculum implementation; (3) participation in decision making at school; (4) professional development. Thereafter, we calculated the scale's reliability, which appeared to be excellent. In addition, we tested for measurement invariance by cross‐validating the study in the educational sectors mentioned above. Also, the convergent, divergent and predictive validity was investigated. Teacher autonomy appeared to predict workplace learning, more specifically experimenting, reflecting and school development. Finally, we investigated whether transformational leadership can facilitate teacher autonomy, which appeared to be the case. The results empirically confirm the four dimensions of teacher autonomous behaviour, which we derived from theory, and offer solid proof of the psychometric properties of our instrument. The instrument can be used by school leaders and policy makers to monitor autonomous behaviour. More generally, the development and use of this instrument helps us understand teacher autonomous behaviour and teacher professionalism.     

Special education teachers’ experienced burnout and perceived fit with the professional community: A 5-year follow-up study

In many countries, including in Finland, promoting inclusive school practices supporting pupils’ equal rights for learning is the focus of school development. Special education teachers play a central intermediary role in developing inclusive school and classroom practices by providing support both for pupils and peer teachers. This may increase their risk of experiencing exhaustion, cynicism towards the teacher community and/or inadequacy in pupil–teacher relationships. However, the resources of a school's social working environment experienced as a functional teacher–working environment fit may buffer the risk of developing burnout. This study aims to gain a better understanding of the interrelation between, and development of, special education teachers’ experienced burnout symptoms and perceived teacher–working environment fit across time. The longitudinal study included two measurements (in year 2010, n = 760 and in year 2016, n = 485). The results show that special education teachers’ experienced inadequacy in pupil–teacher relationships predicted teacher exhaustion, cynicism towards the teacher community and inadequacy in pupil–teacher relationships 5 years later. Moreover, a perceived good teacher–working environment fit predicted lower cynicism towards the teacher community 5 years later.     

Teacher education for rural–regional sustainability: changing agendas,challenging futures,chasing chimeras?

Rural schooling has remained a concern for policy‐makers, employers, teacher education providers and schools throughout our recent history. In particular, the allegedly variable quality of teaching and learning in rural Australia is a major concern for teacher educators and educational leaders alike, with the provision of quality services for rural Australians a major equity issue in social as well as political terms. Working from an explicitly situated perspective, this paper explores these issues in relation to a set of current and recent research projects and government reports, with particular reference to a study currently exploring the articulation of teacher education and rural schooling in New South Wales. This is contextualized within a larger agenda of national and environmental sustainability which raises the key issue of social policy and educational priorities as we look forward into a radically uncertain future for teacher education, rural schooling and rural‐regional sustainability.     

“新农村学习型学校社区建设”项目调查报告

新农村学习型学校社区建设旨在推广学习型组织概念,改革农村办学和教学观念,利用“活知识信息中心”的培训平台,促进农村教师和校长的专业发展,提升农村学校教育素质,推动农村社区发展。经过三年的实践探索,新农村学习型学校社区的建设为农村学校教育的改革、教师的专业发展、学校与社区的互动、大学与中小学的合作等搭建了平台,提供了机会,有效地探索出了一条在西北农村贫困地区建设新农村的途径。     

The AECT Project: Modeling the Effective Use of Technology in Teacher Preparation

Conclusion The AECT Project builds on ISTE’s groundbreaking work in the development of technology standards for teachers. The Project adds specificity and has developed a comprehensive set of tools for pre-service teacher education. Teacher educators can use these tools to ensure that their graduates leave with the technology skills needed for their selected teaching specialty. The commitment and leadership demonstrated by the U.S. Department of Education in offering the Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers for Technology program has earned their leaders our respect. Through this program the AECT Project has been able to develop tools and can now offer them at no cost to institutions of higher education. The PT3 Program has galvanized educators across America, has helped to create important, ongoing collaborations, and has helped to instill an unprecedented mass consciousness valuing educational change. The partners in the AECT Project are proud to have this opportunity to contribute, in important ways, to technology integration in teacher education. We are honored to join with all of the other PT3 Projects from across the Nation in creating teaching and learning opportunities that will shape our educational systems in the 21st century. We welcome other teacher education institutions and professional associations as partners as we move ahead. For more information, please contact us through our Website athttp://aect.org/pt3, or send email to us ataect@psu.edu     

Why are teachers absent? Probing service delivery in Peruvian primary schools

A high rate of absence of teachers from their posts is a serious obstacle to delivery of education in many developing countries, but hard evidence on the problem has been scarce. This study, carried out as part of a new multi-country survey project, is the first systematic investigation in Peru into the extent and causes of teachers’ absence from schools. Data from our nationally representative survey of public primary schools, based on unannounced visits and direct observation of teachers, reveals that public school teachers in Peru are absent from their posts 11 percent of the time. While this overall absence rate is low compared with those of other survey countries, the absence rates in Peru's poorest and remotest communities are much higher—16 and 21 percent, respectively. In our multivariate analysis of the causes of public school teacher absence, we identify several important variables that are associated with increased absence: poor working conditions, such as poorer communities and infrastructure; teachers with fewer ties to the school's community; contract teaching; and, perhaps, an absence of private competition. By contrast, proxies for more vigorous top-down and bottom-up monitoring are not associated with lower absence. These results, together with the relatively high overall public school teacher attendance rates in an environment where financial incentives for performance are weak, suggest that non-pecuniary incentives are important determinants of teacher performance.     

HOW MUCH PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IS NEEDED TO EFFECT POSITIVE GAINS IN K–6 STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT ON HIGH STAKES SCIENCE TESTS?

This paper is a report of a study that examines the relationship between teacher participation in a multi-year, K–6 professional development effort and the “high stakes” science test scores of different student groups in 33 rural mid-west school districts in the USA. The professional development program involved 1,269 elementary school teachers and utilized regional summer workshops and distance delivery technologies to help the teachers learn science concepts, inquiry teaching strategies, and how to adapt science inquiry lessons to teach and reinforce skills in the language arts. Regression analyses revealed a significant positive relationship between the professional development hours experienced by teachers and student gains on high stakes test scores. But the analyses also suggest that primary grade teachers need less professional development than upper grade teachers on instructional strategies where the focus is on the integration of language arts and science inquiry. The implications for funding and implementing professional development projects are discussed.     

Impact of the ‘Grade Zero’ system on minority children in Lao PDR – A qualitative study of pre-primary schools in a rural province

ABSTRACT

In Lao People’s Democratic Republic, two streams exist in pre-primary education, the standard three-year and a one-year preparatory class called ‘Grade Zero system’. This research aims to investigate the introduction of the Grade 0 system, one-year pre-primary class, and its impact on ethnic minority children in rural villages of Lao PDR. The research methodology included qualitative research comprising interviews with villagers, school authorities, and an officer of the local education office and observations carried out at schools in rural villages. The results show Grade 0 has been introduced in accordance with the circumstances of attached primary schools; more specifically, small villages with incomplete schools offer Grade 0 because they can’t possess three years pre-primary education. Moreover, Grade 0 plays an important role in the acquisition of Lao language when entering primary school. For instance, the repetition rate greatly improved due to the adequate preparation period. Grade 0 is an effective system in bridging the gap in primary schools, especially for minority children whose linguistic and cultural background is different from majority. As pre-primary education has finally been considered important, more international study projects will be essential, such as contemplating the construction of schools, teacher trainings, and bilingual education.     

乡村教师补充策略的国际经验与启示

如何补充乡村教师、吸引优秀人才到乡村学校任教是一个国际社会共同关注的问题.世界上一些国家采取的主要补充策略有:利用经济激励,增强招募优势;培养当地人才,保障定向就业;注重乡村体验,完善职前培养;关注职业发展,注重情感激励;吸纳其他人员,转入教师行业.借鉴国际经验,在我国乡村教师补充中,还需优化经济激励,提高激励有效性;明晰对象和内容,实现培养专门化;选拔优秀学生,注重职后发展;调动多方力量,共担补充责任.     

Life in the Village: Teacher Community and Autonomy in an Early Childhood Education Center

This article presents findings from a qualitative case study of a public early childhood education center whose motto, the familiar African proverb “It takes a village to raise a child,” reflects the emphasis given to teacher community in the official school discourse. The meanings teachers gave to professional community were investigated. Interviews and observations were conducted at the school over a period of 12 months. Data analysis revealed an inherent tension between community ethos and personal autonomy. These findings suggest that professional teaching community is complex and contradictory, and that explicitly addressing the tension between community and autonomy would enhance teacher education and professional development.     

Promoting science and technology in primary education: a review of integrated curricula

Integrated curricula seem promising for the increase of attention on science and technology in primary education. A clear picture of the advantages and disadvantages of integration efforts could help curriculum innovation. This review has focused on integrated curricula in primary education from 1994 to 2011. The integrated curricula were categorised according to a taxonomy of integration types synthesised from the literature. The characteristics that we deemed important were related to learning outcomes and success/fail factors. A focus group was formed to facilitate the process of analysis and to test tentative conclusions. We concluded that the levels in our taxonomy were linked to (a) student knowledge and skills, the enthusiasm generated among students and teachers, and the teacher commitment that was generated; and (b) the teacher commitment needed, the duration of the innovation effort, the volume and comprehensiveness of required teacher professional development, the necessary teacher support and the effort needed to overcome tensions with standard curricula. Almost all projects were effective in increasing the time spent on science at school. Our model resolves Czerniac’s definition problem of integrating curricula in a productive manner, and it forms a practical basis for decision-making by making clear what is needed and what output can be expected when plans are being formulated to implement integrated education.     

Sustainability education: researching practice in primary schools

Many teachers are keen to implement sustainability education in primary schools but are lacking the confidence, skills and knowledge to do so. Teachers report that they do not understand the concept and cannot integrate sustainability into an already overcrowded curriculum. Identifying how teachers successfully integrate sustainability education into their teaching practice can offer important insights into how these perceived problems can be overcome. The paper is based on data from the third year of a longitudinal study about teacher education and teacher professional learning for sustainability in primary education. The third year of the study investigated teachers’ understandings of sustainability and how sustainability education is manifested in eight rural and regional primary schools in Victoria, Australia. Data included photographs of school grounds and sustainability projects, audio recordings of focus groups with teachers and principals, and field notes of meetings with school staff. Sustainability education was found to be an emergent practice necessarily constituted in the relation between teachers, students and community members and the materialities of local places. Partnerships were found to be an essential part of integrated sustainability programmes which extended into communities and places beyond the schools. The processes of learning involved pedagogies of creative problem-solving and inquiry learning that enabled children to lead the way.