Learning to teach teachers

This paper reports on a study of the practices of a cohort of traditionally appointed teacher educators with the responsibility for facilitating teacher learning and learning teaching. The approach used in this investigation involved a practice-to-theory field experience (PTE), a reflective paper analyzing the PTE, and a shared set of readings on pedagogy for facilitating teacher learning and learning teaching with the PTE as context. The participants in this study were 21 students enrolled in an education doctorate program at a Research I university in the Western United States. The findings from the study revealed that the number of years of experience as a teacher educator was not related to competence or effectiveness. Further, it was found that the combined processes of documenting practice, writing a reflective paper, and engaging in focused dialog with peers based on a shared set of readings, and incorporating the PTE as context enabled participants to think critically and co-construct deep knowledge and understanding of the role of the teacher educator and practices for facilitating teacher learning and learning teaching.     

Do prospective mathematics teachers teach who they say they are?

In this case study, the professional mathematics teacher identity (PMTI) of final year mathematics education students is investigated in terms of their self-perceived and actualised identity. These prospective teachers were required to discuss and describe their own PMTI in terms of three aspects: mathematics specialisation, teaching-and-learning specialisation, and caring. Subsequently, they were observed in the classroom, where the actualisation of their PMTI was considered in terms of the same three. The participants’ perceptions of their own PMTI and the actualisation of that PMTI in the classroom were found not to be congruent. While their self-perceptions regarding their prowess as Mathematics Specialists were accurate, since this is concretely tested as part of their studies, their self-perceptions as teaching-and-learning specialists and particularly as Carers, were not verifiable in their classroom practice. Espoused theory, theory that the individual perceives as true and valid, and which may thus be seen as intrinsic to their PMTI’s, is not necessarily enacted.     

Reputation and parental logics of action in local school choice space in Finland

Differences in reputation between schools and in classes within schools shape parental choice in the Finnish urban context, even if the differences in school performance and the risks of making a ‘bad’ choice are relatively small. This study analyses the instrumental and expressive orders of schools in a specific educational context. Two overlapping local school choice spaces emerge: the local space of school catchment areas, and the selective space of the city in interaction with neighbouring cities. Entry into the selective space requires different forms of parental capital, and may reproduce educational and social distinctions. Institutions that provide less future exchange value according to the parental conceptions, with socially and ethnically mixed student populations and low expectations of pupils’ contentment are seen to be worth avoiding. The discussion on the choice between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ schools seems to be superficial and to conceal certain educational reproduction processes, which do not officially exist in the Finnish education system. Choosing between classes (general and classes with special emphasis) within a school also works as a distinction strategy.     

Bullying in schools: why it happens,how it makes young people feel and what we can do about it

In spite of decades of research and more recent guidance by Government, bullying in schools remains a serious concern to young people and to educational practitioners. This two year qualitative study explored the meanings eight teenagers gave to bullying they had experienced, and related this to an analysis of previous research and school policies about bullying. The findings from the study revealed that bullying affected the subjectivity of young people, including how they positioned themselves and believed themselves to be positioned by others. It also found previous research and school policies focused on the behavioural aspects of bullying, neglecting the subjective meanings that it had for those who experienced it. The research findings suggested that a more open approach by adults to what bullying means to individuals, and clearer guidance to teachers on how to work with them about subjective meanings, may provide a new direction in supporting young people who have been bullied.     

Care taker blogs in caregiver fabricated illness in a child: A window on the caretaker's thinking?

Three recently diagnosed cases of caregiver-fabricated illness in a child at Seattle Children's Hospital shed light on a new manifestation of their caretakers’ attention seeking. The patients’ mothers were actively blogging about their children's reputed illnesses. Although it is not uncommon for parents of chronically ill children to blog about their child's medical course, specific themes in these blogs of parents suspected of medically abusing their children were noted. In particular, gross distortions of the information parents had received from medical providers were presented online, describing an escalation of the severity of their children's illnesses. The mothers reported contacting palliative care teams and Wish organizations, independently from their medical providers’ recommendations. They sought on-line donations for their children's health needs. We believe these blogs provide additional direct evidence of the suspected caregivers’ fabrications. Although we have not performed formal content analysis, blogs might also provide insight into the caretakers’ motivations. Protective Services and/or police investigators could consider querying the internet for blogs related to children at risk for caregiver-fabricated illness in a child. These blogs, if viewed in parallel with the children's medical records, could assist medical diagnosis and legal documentation of medical fabrication and assist in protective planning for the affected children.     

Information literacy in South-East Europe: Formulating strategic initiatives,making reforms and introducing best practices

South-East Europe (SEE) is one of the geographic regions in the world which is lagging behind positive global Information Literacy (IL) developments. An informed, authoritative and enlightened understanding of the state of Information Literacy conceptual understanding and best practices across the region was recently provided by two important UNESCO co-sponsored workshops that addressed specific IL challenges in this part of Europe. The first meeting, the Workshop on Information Literacy Initiatives for Central and South-East European Countries, co-organized by UNESCO, with the support of the CEI (Central European Initiatives, an arm of the EU), took place in 2006 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The second, also co-organized by UNESCO, was held in Ankara, Turkey, as a part of a series of eleven Training-the-Trainers in Information Literacy («TTT») workshops that covered all regions of the world. This paper will review and analyse some of the main policy agreements reached by the participants at these meetings, as well as best practices shared by the participants at the two workshops, and discuss remaining Information Literacy advocacy and promotional barriers. The authors will endeavour to identify region-specific barriers to IL in the SEE region and, based on the aforementioned Ankara and Ljubljana workshop outcomes, define focal points for future local and regional IL events, meetings and other initiatives that could and should be taken.     

Peer mediation: citizenship and social inclusion revisited

In sociometric research tradition, popularity is defined as the degree to which children are liked or accepted by their peers. However, research indicates that two definitions of popular students should be distinguished: (1) popular students as those students who are well liked by many and disliked by few peers, and (2) popular students as those students who are described as popular by their peers. The main purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between sociometric and peer perceived popularity in Slovenian students of different grades of elementary and secondary school. Additionally, the age differences in the relationship between sociometric and peer perceived popularity were examined. Another purpose of the study was to investigate the differential relationships between concepts of popularity and some students' characteristics. The participants were 321 boys and 329 girls who ranged from the 5th grade of elementary school (the mean age 11.04 years) to the 3rd grade of secondary school (the mean age 17.02 years). The results of this study confirm previous findings that peer perceived popularity is a construct that is distinct from sociometric popularity. There are some substantial differences in relations between indices of perceived popularity and sociometric indices between elementary school students and secondary school students—i.e. between early adolescents and middle to late adolescents. It seems that perceived popularity and sociometric popularity are rather similar constructs in elementary school students, whereas in secondary school students they become almost unrelated to each other. Based on these findings, the terminological issues are discussed and some conclusions are made.     

Ambiguity as persuasion: The Vietnam Veterans memorial

Visitors to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial generally are deeply moved by it—regardless of their positions on the Vietnam War itself. In this essay, five visual features of the memorial are identified that enable it to appeal to virtually all visitors: (a) It violates the conventional form of war memorials; (b) It assumes a welcoming stance; (c) It provides little information to the visitor; (d) It focuses attention on those who did not survive the war; and (e) It generates multiple referents for its visual components. The effectiveness of the memorial suggests that it may serve as a model for contemporary anti‐war rhetoric.     

Coaching the Mentor: Facilitating Reflection and Change

The purpose of this study is to explore the process of coaching a mentor of experienced teachers. In particular, we sought to determine if coaching would help a mentor to compare her espoused beliefs about mentoring to her mentoring behaviors and possibly resolve any dissonance. The mentor and coach (the co‐researchers) participated in a platform conference, three coaching conferences, and a debriefing conference. In the platform conference, the mentor espoused the use of nondirective mentoring behaviors. The mentor and coach used the coaching conferences to review audio recordings of the mentor working with mentees during conferences intended to improve the mentees’ teaching, and to engage in reflective dialogue concerning the mentor’s interpersonal behaviors. The mentor experienced cognitive dissonance on several occasions during the coaching conferences when she discovered her use of directive behaviors in some interactions with mentees. Eventually, the mentor resolved this dissonance, primarily by changing her beliefs about mentoring and shifting from a nondirective to an eclectic platform. We conclude that the coaching of mentoring explored in this study has considerable potential for future research on the coaching process.