Pre-service teachers’ interpretations of religious policy in citizenship education in China

Studies about religion and education in post-Mao China have become more common in recent years, but very few have touched on teacher and religious education at the basic education level. This study adopted a mixed methodology approach (questionnaire, interview and lesson design analysis) to report Chinese pre-service teachers’ interpretations of religious policy in citizenship education. The analyses of the findings reveal that pre-service teachers actively constructed their understandings of religion-citizenship, rather than passively adopting the officially promoted religion-citizenship relationship.     

Patterns of teachers’ whole-class perceptions and predictive relationships between teachers’ and parents’ perceptions of individual child competence

The stratification or dispersion of first grade teachers’ perceptions of children’s competence was evaluated as a moderator of the predictive relationship between teachers’ and parents’ perceptions of individual children’s competence. Classroom stratification of teachers’ perceptions about child intelligence and about child social difficulties was measured by the dispersion of teacher’s ratings of individual children in their class (N_classrooms=60; N_children=1240). The stratification of teachers’ perceptions was found to be stable across the year. Greater stratification predicted teachers’ perceptions of less child competence and also predicted less change in teachers’ perceptions of individual children over the school year. There was no evidence that teachers who tended to see more stratification among child intelligence were more accurate in their perceptions. In linking teachers’ perceptions to parents’ perceptions, fathers’ perceptions of children’s social difficulties became more congruent with teachers’ perceptions across first grade if children were in high- but not low-stratified classrooms. Implications of this parent- and domain-specific relationship are discussed.     

Differences between students’ and teachers’ perceptions of education: profiles to describe congruence and friction

Teachers and students have their own perceptions of education. Congruent perceptions contribute to optimal teaching–learning processes and help achieving best learning outcomes. This study investigated patterns in differences between students’ and teachers’ perceptions of their learning environment. Student profiles were identified taking into account the degree of congruence/friction with teachers’ perceptions. Teacher profiles were identified based on their differences in perceptions to students. Profiles were validated with regard to learning-related student characteristics and approaches to teaching. Tenth graders (N = 994) of four secondary schools filled out the Inventory of Perceived Study Environment-Extended (IPSEE) and the Inventory of Learning Styles. Their teachers (N = 136) filled out the teacher version of the IPSEE and the Approaches to Teaching Inventory. Latent class analyses were conducted to define profiles with respect to the magnitude of differences in perceptions. Results showed three student profiles: Closest match profile (30 %), intermediate profile (59 %), and distal profile (11 %). While closest match students had desirable learning-related characteristics, others did not and are at risk for destructive friction. Two teacher profiles described idealistic teachers (70 %) and adaptive teachers (30 %), which related to approaches to teaching. Subgroups of students and teachers provide a comprehensive picture of those who are at risk because of too large differences in perceptions. This study stresses that differences in perceptions deserve detailed attention for optimising learning environments. Involving both students and teachers in the instructional design process could be a way to better account for perceptions of both stakeholders.     

Religious doctrines and critical religious education: teachers’ epistemic switching in a confessional setting

The purpose of the present article is twofold: first, to examine whether epistemic switching is documented in the context of religious education; and second, if it is, to show the challenges as well as the strategies that teachers utilise when they engage in epistemic switching. The context of our study is religious education in the Greek-Cypriot educational system – an example of a confessional setting in which Greek Orthodox Christianity is the only religion being taught in schools. This article describes a qualitative case study research – which is part of a larger, 1-year project – that explores the understandings of religion and interculturalism as well as the pedagogical perspectives on religious education of six Greek-Cypriot primary school teachers. The findings show how the possibilities and obstacles of teachers’ epistemic switching could inform larger debates concerning the entanglements between critical religious education pedagogies and religious doctrines, especially within confessional educational contexts.     

Quality of religious education in Croatia assessed from teachers’ perspective

The main aim of the present study was to examine the quality of religious education in Croatian primary schools when assessed from teachers’ perspective. Religious education teachers (N?=?226) rated the impact of certain factors on the existing quality of religious education in primary schools and expressed their expectations about the future status of this aspect of education. In addition, teachers rated different sources of their professional satisfaction as religious education teachers. We identified understandable latent dimensions of teachers’ opinions, expectations and satisfaction where retained dimensions are modestly interrelated. The conducted regression analyses suggest that teachers with different professional status-related personal attributes are fairly uniform in their views, expectations and satisfactions. An interesting finding of this study concerns the relationship between school-based Catholic religious education and the parish-based catechesis, where an existing relationship represents a weak source of religious education teachers’ satisfaction. This represents a valuable empirically driven insight regarding the Catholic religious education in Croatian schools with some importance to the broader context of religious education in general.     

Understanding ‘religious understanding’ in religious education

This paper takes as its starting point, one of the explicit aims of religious education in England, namely, the development of students’ religious understanding. It shows how curriculum documentation, whilst stating that religious understanding is an aim of religious education fails to clearly outline what is meant by it. This paper draws upon long-standing and ongoing debates in the field and suggests that religious understanding may be best conceived as a spectrum of understanding. Approached in this way, religious understanding becomes not an all or nothing affair, but a lens through which the student of religion may regard the beliefs and practices before them. Finally, the paper proposes an interpretation of religious understanding, which focuses on the soteriological dimension of religion, thus providing the student with a particularly religious lens to understand religious traditions in religious education and concludes by outlining what such an approach might look like in practice.     

When Bible and science interact: teachers’ pedagogic and value challenges in teaching religious minority students in higher education settings

The integration of highly religious minority students into institutions of higher education poses significant pedagogical and value challenges for students and teachers alike. We offer a framework for analyzing such challenges, distinguishing between practical concerns, identity issues and value conflicts. By contrasting a deficit perspective to ‘Diversity as resource’, we argue that the latter enables teachers to utilize a collaborative knowledge model in class, surmounting some of the value challenges involved. We present the case of ultra-orthodox students in Israel who have recently entered the gates of higher education for the first time in this society's history. We analyze the narratives of 30 lecturers who teach this population. Most of them adopt a deficit perspective and see their role as academic gatekeepers, minimally adjusting content and pedagogy. A smaller group fosters cross-cultural dialog via a ‘Diversity as resource’ perspective. These findings lead to recommendations for successfully teaching highly religious students.     

The relationship between teachers’ empathy and perceptions of school culture

This research examined the relationship between teachers’ empathy and perceptions of their school’s culture. Teachers’ ability to change their school’s culture might be limited by their inability to interpret and respond appropriately to student behaviour. As teachers’ empathic abilities increase, it seems likely that they would be better able to understand and respond appropriately to their students. Teachers’ perspective‐taking was positively associated with their positive perceptions of student–peer relations, school norms and educational opportunities. Teachers’ personal distress was negatively related to student–peer relations. Empathy was unrelated to student–teacher relations. It is postulated that it takes more than just empathy to be able to negotiate the complex relationship between student and teacher. With teacher training programmes currently focusing on teacher dispositions, such programmes need to focus more on training future teachers to recognise and exercise their cognitive and emotional empathic capacities.     

Relations between teachers’ emotions in teaching and their approaches to teaching in higher education

This study investigated the relations between teachers’ emotions in teaching and their approaches to teaching in individual courses. It is derived from two fields of study that have hitherto been largely unconnected in higher education. While the research literature shows (a) a range of variables are related to the teaching approaches that teachers adopt and that these approaches are related to the quality of their students’ learning, and (b) that the emotional experience of teachers is an important factor in teaching, no studies have been reported on the connections between emotions and approaches in teaching in higher education. Two self-report questionnaires: the Approach to Teaching Inventory-Revised and the Emotions in Teaching Inventory, were completed by a sample of 175 Australian higher education teachers. The results suggest that there are significant relations between the ways teachers emotionally experience the context of teaching and the ways they approach their teaching, with positive emotions being associated with student-focused teaching approaches and negative emotions with transmission approaches. The relations help explain why new teaching strategies may not be successful or not even adopted.     

Authentic game-based learning and teachers’ dilemmas in reconstructing professional practice

Teachers who attempt pedagogical innovation with authentic digital games face significant challenges because such games instantiate open systems of learner activity, inviting enquiry learning rather than knowledge acquisition. However, school environments are normatively sanctioned cultural spaces where direct instruction and high-stakes tests are de riguer. In this paper, we draw on the conceptual frame of dilemmatic spaces to illuminate the dilemmas teachers encounter when attempting to reconstruct professional practice in the classroom. We worked with nine teachers who enacted the Statecraft X social studies curriculum. Drawing on coded interview data, our findings suggest that teachers are forced to wrestle with tensions engendered by misalignments that emerge from the innovation's tacit requirement for change and the system's inherent gravitation towards maintaining the status quo. A school culture that cultivates innovative practice based on greater teacher agency is needed for authentic game-based learning to find traction in the classroom.     

Global citizenship education in conflict-affected settings: Implications of teachers’ views and contextual challenges for the Lebanese case

Despite embracing GCED themes, the Lebanese National Curriculum faces multifaceted challenges rooted in conflict. The 1997 curriculum is still in effect with revision attempts encumbered. Interviews with 56 public school teachers in Lebanon confirm prevalent knowledge transmission practices of prescribed civics content and lack of support for progressive teaching and critical dialogue. Findings suggest few teachers prioritise GCED constructs, while most promote nationalistic citizenship notions contributing to marginalisation. Moving forward, teacher education should develop teaching practice and mindsets for sustainable GCED with the intent of emancipating teachers and students from the limitations of national curricula.     

Critical values education in the early years: Alignment of teachers’ personal epistemologies and practices for active citizenship

To date, little research has explored teaching values education for active citizenship in which young children are supported to express their own ideas and opinions and take moral responsibility for their actions. Using personal epistemology as the conceptual framework, this study investigated the nature of, and alignment between, teachers’ personal epistemologies and practices for promoting critical values education in elementary education. The study drew on interview and observational data from 29 teachers in Australia. Findings showed that four patterns could be discerned, showing complex relationships between teaching practices and beliefs. Implications for preservice and inservice professional learning experiences are discussed.     

Constructions of civic education: Hong Kong teachers’ perceptions of moral,civic and national education*

Various terms have been used to define civic education (CE) in Hong Kong since the colonial era. This has been particularly true since 2011, when CE has been given many names, causing confusion among educators. Mixed methods were employed to examine teachers’ perceptions of different conceptions of CE expressed as moral, civic and national education. The findings indicate that some teachers might not be able to differentiate among moral education, CE and national education. Most teachers contended that national education should be included in CE, while others believed the opposite. Teachers perceived that moral and civic education was more successful than moral and national education in cultivating students to become ‘good citizens’. Teachers’ comprehension of these terms has policy and pedagogical implications. While the study is set within the context of Hong Kong, the findings are valuable to policymakers and educators in other countries seeking to improve CE.     

To jump the wave or not: teachers’ perceptions of research evidence in education

This article presents a microanalysis of how a group of primary school teachers deals with research evidence in their work. Based on analysis of a group of Norwegian teachers’ interactions over issues of educational research and research-based knowledge, we find that teachers’ representations of educational research particularly center on the following issues: educational research being perceived as circular, ‘polyphonic’, and a matter of accommodation to their experience-based knowledge. These metaphors also shed light upon the dilemmas that arise when research evidence meets teachers’ more contextual knowledge. We conclude that teachers’ practice-based evidence may take new forms with an increased policy focus on research-based evidence, as well as bringing forth challenges for teacher work and professionalism.     

Parents’ perceptions of e-learning in school education: implications for the partnership between schools and parents

This study aimed to investigate parents’ understanding of, support for and concerns about e-learning and proposed a school–parent partnership distributing responsibilities to parents and schools based on the results of the study. A total of 61 parents from 21 schools in an e-learning pilot scheme in Hong Kong responded to a questionnaire survey and focus group interviews. Results indicated that there was a high correlation between parental understanding and support for e-learning although parents demonstrated only a basic level of understanding. Four types of parental support and six major areas of parental concern were identified. These results shed light on the school–parent partnership whereby parents should implement a proactive e-learning policy at home to monitor, support and inspire e-learning. Schools should formulate a holistic policy to address parents’ concerns responsively and proactively to gain support. Schools can enhance parents’ pedagogical understanding of e-learning and address parental concerns through school–parent communication and peer support among parents.     

Inclusive cultures,policies and practices in Spanish compulsory secondary education schools: teachers’ perceptions in ordinary and specific teaching contexts

This article presents a study that attempts to inquire into the indicators related with inclusive education by taking into account teachers’ responses in the ordinary and specific teaching contexts (experts in special education needs, specialists in therapeutic pedagogy and compensatory education or specific programmes organised to accommodate diversity). We used a Spanish translation of the Index for Inclusion, which has been adapted and divided into three Likert‐type scales about inclusive cultures, organisation in the teaching–learning context and inclusive practices. We did a t‐test to detect any significant differences in teachers’ responses in terms of the ordinary or specific teaching contexts in which they work. No significant differences were seen in the items related to cultures and organisation, but we found significant differences in 12 of the 36 items of the inclusive practices scale. Finally, we discuss the role of the processes for innovation and transformation in secondary schools and provide key factors to build an intercultural inclusive school.     

The relationships between teachers’ emotional labor and their burnout and satisfaction: A meta-analytic review

Teaching is an emotional endeavor. Unlike mass service employees, teachers enjoy considerable autonomy in their teaching and maintain relatively stable relationships with students, parents, and colleagues. This study is a meta-analytic review of the associations between teachers' emotional labor strategies (i.e., surface acting, deep acting, and the expression of naturally felt emotions) and other relevant constructs. The meta-analysis is based on 85 empirical articles and 86 independent samples, with the experiences of 33,248 teachers represented in the articles reviewed. The meta-correlations are generally in the expected direction. Surface acting is positively related to the individual and interpersonal components of burnout and negatively related to teaching satisfaction. Deep acting is not significantly related to the individual or interpersonal components of burnout, but positively related to teaching satisfaction and the efficacy component of burnout. The expression of naturally felt emotions is negatively related to teachers’ burnout and reduced teaching satisfaction. The moderation analysis of relevant correlates also provides some insights about the research development.     

Inclusive education in Spain: how do skills,resources, and supports affect regular education teachers’ perceptions of inclusion?

This study examined regular education teachers’ perceptions of inclusion in elementary and secondary schools in Spain and how these perceptions may differ depending on teaching experience, skills, and the availability of resources and supports. Stratified random sampling procedures were used to draw a representative sample of 336 general education teachers (68 kindergarten, 133 elementary, and 135 secondary teachers) from the province of Alicante. The results indicated the acceptance of the principles of inclusion, although teacher skills, time, material resources, and personal supports for inclusion were deemed insufficient. Kindergarten and elementary teachers showed more positive perceptions of inclusion than secondary education teachers, and so did teachers with more personal supports and material resources than those with less supports and resources. The results are discussed in terms of its implications for practice in order to promote more inclusive classrooms in Spain.     

Teacher–student interpersonal relationships in Indonesian lower secondary education: Teacher and student perceptions

This study investigated firstly the reliability and validity of an Indonesian version of the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI). Second, perceptions of Indonesian secondary school teachers?? interpersonal behaviour as perceived by students and teachers were studied with the QTI. Third, differences between students?? and teachers?? perceptions regarding interpersonal teacher behaviour were compared. The QTI itself is based on the Model of Interpersonal Behaviour which maps teacher behaviour in terms of Influence (Dominance?CSubmission) and Proximity (Cooperation?COpposition). In this study, an Indonesian version of the QTI was constructed and distributed to 2,380 students of 69 teachers from 85 classes (grade 7?C9) from 12 public lower secondary schools in Indonesia. The results showed high reliability and validity for the instrument. Students?? and teachers?? average ratings on Influence were similar, while teacher??s ratings of Proximity were higher than those of students.