Empathetic-Reflective-Dialogical Restorying for decolonisation: an emancipatory teaching-learning strategy for Religion Education

ABSTRACT

This article argues for the inclusion of Empathetic-Reflective-Dialogical Restorying as a teaching-learning strategy for Religion Education. This strategy, employed in three small-scale research projects in a South African Higher Education Institution, addresses decolonisation of the Religion Education curriculum in the following ways: changing how teaching-learning takes place; transdisciplinary engagement; empowering students as agents of their own learning; depatriarchisation; and dispelling the myth of African inferiority. Both self-dialogue and self-narrative were used to create open space stories when approaching content that is relevant to the lived experience of gender (in)equality and patriarchy. Engaging in a safe space in Communities in Conversation, Communities in Dialogue, and Communities for Transformation, students troubled entrenched beliefs and worldviews and co-constructed (restoried) understandings. They expressed the view that this emancipatory teaching-learning strategy has the potential to facilitate classroom praxis that is both reflective and reflexive. This can be transformative for the greater society.     

Teacher Educators' Readiness,Preparation, and Perceptions of Preparing Preservice Teachers in a Fully Online Environment: An Exploratory Study

With a view to attracting more students and offering flexible learning opportunities, online teaching and learning is becoming increasingly widespread across the higher education sector. It is now found across a wide range of disciplines (e.g., business, health, psychology, accounting, information technology) and program levels (e.g., from associate degrees to doctorate degrees). Online delivery is also strongly represented in the teacher education sector at many universities. Research of online delivery in higher education generally and teacher education specifically has pointed to a range of benefits and challenges associated with this mode of learning. Within the teacher education literature, many aspects of the online preparation of teachers remain poorly understood. More specifically, there is scant literature on the experiences and beliefs of teacher educators in relation to their readiness and preparation for online teaching as well as their beliefs in relation to the appropriateness of online education for preservice teachers. This article responds to this gap in the literature and reports on an exploratory study that worked with academic staff, teaching in a fully online teacher education course, at a mid-size Australian university. Twenty-seven teacher educators completed a 34-item questionnaire that consisted of closed and open-ended questions. With regards to readiness and preparation for teaching online, the majority of teacher educators reported lacking confidence and competence in the technological and pedagogical skills required to teach online. By and large, the study participants were welcoming of individualized “at-elbow” support that seemed to abate some of their fears of online teaching. The teacher educators were generally divided on whether the online classroom was an appropriate method for preparing preservice teachers. This article concludes with several recommendations for consideration by teacher educators who work in an online environment and sets the stage for a more ambitious study.     

Exploring the use of concept chains to structure teacher trainees’ understanding of science

This paper reports on a paper and pencil concept‐sorting strategy that enables trainee teachers to restructure their knowledge in any one domain of science. It is used as a self‐study tool, mainly to enable them to break down and understand the progression of concepts beyond the level at which they have to teach. The strategy involves listing key ideas in an increasingly complex and inclusive fashion such that a ‘chain’ is developed where the initial statements are simple and the final ones more complex. Evaluation of the strategy with trainees over a five‐year period revealed promising potential for the strategy as a self‐study tool, as well as an audit tool, enabling tutors to more easily identify misconceptions. There was some evidence that trainees found the strategy useful in preparing themselves to teach in the classroom, possibly by enabling meaningful learning to take place according to the Ausubel–Novak–Gowin theory.     

The validity and reliability of focus groups as a research method in adult education

The article examines the theory and practice of focus groups in adult education research. Three theoretical positions are described: radical hermeneutic, moderate interpretative and pragmatic realistic position trying to bridge the gap with positivist research. This last position has been chosen as the departure point for a further analysis of the focus group elements, which relate to validity and reliability. The research examines four European research projects in the field of adult education. The most important and surprising data are presented with reference to both socio-psychological and technical problems in the use of this method. The results highlight the importance and dynamics of all the elements discussed.     

Pastoral care,juvenile justice and the welfare network

This article considers the involvement of schools and teachers in schemes which develop work with young offenders as an alternative to prosecution. Data from one such experimental scheme are presented and discussed. Issues are raised about the consequences of schools’ involvement in this kind of policy initiative which begins outside the educational system and entails co‐operation with professional workers in other statutory agencies. A central theme is whether a tightening of the welfare network in this way is unambiguously in the interests of young people.     

Nurturing Creativity in Education

Across continents, creativity is a priority for education and is central to the discourse on 21^st century learning. In this article, we explore how a greater focus on ‘everyday creativity’ in schools changes the dynamics of teaching and learning. We look briefly at the main concepts in the literature on creativity in education. We then focus on examples from the Centre for Creative Education's creative partnerships, which bring together educators, learners and creative professionals. This is followed by a discussion on how teachers assess learners’ creative dispositions, as well as the quality of creative processes and products. We conclude with recommendations for school-level strategies and policy and research to support learner and teacher creativity.     

What counts as reading? PIRLS,EastEnders and The Man on the Flying Trapeze

After briefly reviewing how reading is conceptualised in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study and the English National Curriculum, this article examines two unofficial reading activities in a class of 10–11‐year‐olds' to see how far these activities match up with the official definitions of reading, or whether they involve a different kind of interaction with text. Although the children's unofficial reading appears trivial, fleeting and fragmentary, analysis shows that they are applying, albeit in a rudimentary way, the comprehension skills of retrieval, inference, interpretation and evaluation promoted by the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study and the National Curriculum. These skills, however, are driven by children's emotional, critical and creative responses to the texts. The children's reading is more imaginative and dialogic than is possible within official curriculum activities; they interweave emotional and moral response with argument and critique in one example and respond humorously to poetic rhyme, rhythm and tone in another. These spontaneous reading activities, where children are active, animated and engaged, provide evidence of important dimensions of literacy which are not adequately addressed in official surveys and curriculum assessment.