Giving birth to a supervisory identity built upon pedagogical perspectives on teaching: The case of a novice physical education cooperating teacher

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 353-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariana Amaral-da-Cunha ◽  
Amândio Graça ◽  
Paula Batista ◽  
Ann MacPhail
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Physical Education ◽  
Professional Identity ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Initial Teacher Education ◽  
Cooperating Teacher ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Teaching Perspectives ◽  
School Placement ◽  
One Year

Teaching perspectives in initial teacher education are useful analytical tools for exploring the development of professional identity and the supervisory practices of cooperating teachers working with preservice teachers on school placement. A case study design was employed with an experienced physical education teacher newly appointed as a cooperating teacher to a cohort of three physical education preservice teachers to examine how his professional identity was challenged by the demands of the new role as a mentor. Data were collected throughout a one-year school placement and included three semi-structured interviews and the cooperating teacher’s weekly journal entries. Analysis was informed by grounded theory coding procedures. Open codes were collapsed into three metaphorical axial themes: (a) the chameleon, (b) a tailor-made cooperating teacher, and (c) the liaison of relations. To perform his new role as a cooperating teacher and surpass the emergent supervisory challenges in developing a pedagogical relationship with his first cohort of preservice teachers, the cooperating teacher called upon his educational perspectives on teaching physical education built on constructive, collaborative and inquiry premises, but ended up practising teaching perspectives echoing an apprenticeship model due to the preservice teachers’ personal characteristics.

Reconstructing a supervisory identity

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 240-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariana Amaral-da-Cunha ◽  
Paula Batista ◽  
Ann MacPhail ◽  
Amândio Graça
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Identity Development ◽  
Professional Identity ◽  
Initial Teacher Education ◽  
Cooperating Teacher ◽  
Legitimate Peripheral Participation ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Teaching Perspectives ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Mentoring Practices

Cooperating teachers’ teaching perspectives and participation in initial teacher education have been frequently considered as ways to understand teachers’ learning trajectories and professional identity at workplace settings (Clarke and Jarvis-Selinger, 2005; Clarke et al.2014; Lave and Wenger, 1991). A case study approach was employed to examine the challenging supervisory experiences of a highly experienced physical education cooperating teacher that led to the reconstruction of her professional identity. Data were collected throughout a one-year school placement and included three semi-structured interviews with the cooperating teacher and the cooperating teacher’s daily journals entries. Analysis was informed by grounded theory coding procedures. Themes included: (i) the challenge of changing entrenched teaching and mentoring practices to connect with pre-service teachers; (ii) reconfiguring mentorship to expand pre-service teachers’ limited teaching ideias and range of teaching tools; and (iii) the possibility of practicing different mentoring strategies for different ‘types’ of pre-service teachers. We infer that contextual factors and teaching perspectives play a role in the cooperating teacher’s legitimate peripheral participation in teacher education and constitutes elements of her professional identity development.

Becoming a physical education teacher during formalised school placement: A rollercoaster of emotions

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 893-909 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarida Alves ◽  
Ann MacPhail ◽  
Paula Queirós ◽  
Paula Batista
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Physical Education ◽  
Professional Identity ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Physical Education Teacher ◽  
Education Teacher ◽  
School Placement ◽  
Teacher Professional Identity ◽  
Teacher Professional

Since becoming a teacher is a highly emotional path, it is fundamental to understand teachers’ emotional journeys while constructing their teacher professional identity. An ethnographic approach was employed to examine how the emotions experienced by physical education preservice teachers during formalised school placement contributed to the construction of their teacher professional identity. Data were collected throughout a ten-month school placement (i.e. an academic school year) and included researcher observations, researcher field notes, and semi-structured interviews with preservice teachers and their cooperating teacher. A thematic analysis was used in a process of constant comparison. Emotions were labelled using Zembylas’ three main categories: ideology; school culture; and power relations. A fourth category labelled physical education culture was created through an inductive thematic analysis to capture emotions deemed to align specifically to the teaching of physical education. With respect to ideology, preservice teachers alluded to positive emotions such as care for students, a sense of accomplishment and happiness. Challenging emotions included insecurity/anxiety, disappointment and anger/frustration. Related to school culture, while preservice teachers expressed a sense of belonging they also reported feeling powerless with respect to particular rules enforced by the school. Related to power relations, while preservice teachers were thankful for having a school structure guiding them they, at times, regretted the limited opportunity that such structure allowed them in cultivating agency. Becoming a physical education teacher triggered specific emotions such as practising safety within the gymnasium and a rise in confidence when recognised as a physical education teacher by other physical education teachers.

Extremely Ego-Oriented Preservice Teachers’ Perspectives on Teaching Physical Education

2009 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Todorovich
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Physical Education ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Subject Area ◽  
Mediating Effect ◽  
Teaching Behaviors ◽  
Teaching Perspectives ◽  
Education Data ◽  
Teachers Perspectives ◽  
Performance Behavior

Social constructivists posit that learning involves social interactions among individuals in a given place and time. Since teachers play a significant role in how social interactions are developed and determined in the school classroom, it is important to learn how teachers make decisions about their teaching behaviors and interactions with their students. Because extreme ego orientations have been shown to have a mediating effect on performance behavior in achievement settings, the purpose of this study was to investigate the potential mediating effect of an extreme ego orientation on preservice teachers’ perspectives on teaching physical education. Data collection consisted of two formal interviews, several informal interviews, and observations of the participants’ teaching. Five themes reflecting the teaching perspectives held by the participants emerged from the data: (a) teachers must maintain control and manage their classes, (b) the best students should be singled out, (c) physical education is an isolated subject area, (c) physical education and athletics are inherently linked, and (d) because only the best can do physical education well, teachers must grade on effort. Findings demonstrate how extreme ego orientations were actualized in preservice teachers’ perspectives of teaching.

Sources of Conflict During the School Experience of Pre-Service Physical Education Teachers

1997 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 116-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Hardy
Keyword(s):  
Physical Education ◽  
Teaching Profession ◽  
Initial Teacher Education ◽  
Physical Education Teachers ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Beliefs And Values ◽  
School Partnership ◽  
One Year ◽  
The One ◽  
The University

The context for the present study is the one-year initial teacher education course for postgraduates specialising in physical education at the secondary level. The research focus is on the conflicts which pre service teachers experience during the school practice element of a University- School Partnership Scheme based on the new government criteria and procedures introduced in the DFE Circular No. 9/92 for England and Wales. Fifty-three postgraduate students completed report forms about their teaching concerns at the end of each week of a six-week and an eleven-week block practice, and, of the 1510 concerns reported, 257 (17.02%) were classed as conflicts. A content analysis of the 'conflict' concerns revealed four general categories of conflict, and these were related to school staff and peers, the school and university working procedures, the demands from the school and the university, and beliefs and values about the teaching profession. The paper argues that such conflicts are viewed with much apprehension by pre-service teachers because of the additional responsibilities and powers placed on school subject mentors and the more limited time available in the university to prepare for the practical activities. Therefore, it is suggested that University-School Partnership Schemes should build in arrangements that give pre service teachers the opportunity to resolve deep-seated problems by being able to approach neutral staff from either the university or the school.

What Preservice Physical Education Teachers See in an Unguided Field Experience: A Follow-Up Study

1987 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate R. Barrett ◽  
Pamela C. Allison ◽  
Rick Bell
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Physical Education ◽  
Classroom Climate ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Professional Preparation ◽  
Fifth Grade ◽  
Physical Education Teachers ◽  
Fifth Grade Students ◽  
Physical Education Majors

This study is a follow up to one conducted in 1982 (Bell, Barrett, & Allison, 1985) and examines what a group of eight preservice physical education majors reported seeing in a 15-min games lesson with fifth-grade students at the end of their professional preparation. As in the previous study, an analytic inductive strategy was employed to categorize the data at two levels of specificity. Results indicated that as individuals the preservice teachers recorded statements about the teacher, the students, and the lesson in combination, whereas in the 1982 study, they recorded statements about the students only or the students and the teacher. Level 2 analysis showed 66.1% of the reported statements were about the movement response of the children. This was in sharp contrast to the earlier study in which the preservice teachers made only 10% such statements. The percentage of statements recorded for the subcategory teaching techniques was fairly consistent across the two studies: 21.9% in the current study and 25.9% in the earlier one. Relatively few statements were made in any of the other categories. Preservice teachers at the end of their professional preparation report more observations (224 in contrast with 89), but questions remain why the observations exclude statements about the personal characteristics of students, classroom climate, and lesson elements.

scholarly journals The meaning of nursing 200 years after Nightingale - perceptions of professional practice in the intensivist context

2021 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emanuelle Caires Dias Araújo Nunes ◽  
Regina Szylit
Keyword(s):  
Intensive Care ◽  
Professional Identity ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Methodological Framework ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Interpretive Interactionism ◽  
Intensive Care Nurses ◽  
Self Image ◽  
Professional Self ◽  
One Year

ABSTRACT Objectives: to know the meaning of contemporary nursing from the experience of intensive care nurses. Methods: qualitative research based on the theoretical framework of Symbolic Interactionism and the methodological framework of Interpretive Interactionism. The setting was a general hospital in Bahia, being carried out with 12 nurses working in intensive care for at least one year, through semi-structured interviews and drawing-text-theme technique, whose data were organized according to Miles and Huberman and analyzed upon the referential. Results: the sense of being a nurse was evidenced; a being for care, resulting from the experience in intensive care, capable of promoting the development of professional self-image, by causing, in nurses, other skills - besides the scientific ones, such as empathy, creativity, spirituality and compassion. Final Considerations: the sense of being a nurse, currently, expresses developments inherited from the Nightingalean proposal, but transcends the technical-managerial emphasis of this to a humanistic care perspective converging with our contemporary professional identity: a being for care.

scholarly journals Irish Physical Education Cooperating Teachers’ Experiences of Learning to Become a ‘Teacher of Teachers’

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann-Marie Young ◽  
Ann MacPhail
Keyword(s):  
Physical Education ◽  
Professional Identity ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Situated Learning ◽  
Cooperating Teachers ◽  
Legitimate Peripheral Participation ◽  
Learning Trajectories ◽  
Supervision Process ◽  
School Placement ◽  
Peripheral Participation

This article presents case studies detailing the learning trajectories of two physical education (cooperating) teachers as they strive to establish and maintain their identity as competent and confident supervisors to pre-service teachers on school placement. The cooperating teachers who participated in the study share their experiences in attempting to construct a professional identity within the school placement triad. Lave and Wenger’s (1991) theory of situated learning and the concept of legitimate peripheral participation were employed to investigate each of the cooperating teacher’s journeys in their attempt to shape their professional identity through participation in a variety of professional learning communities. The data revealed that the cooperating teachers experienced various forms of legitimate peripheral participation and, as a result, their learning trajectories and attempts to construct professional identities were diverse. The cooperating teachers’ learning did not always follow a positive trajectory, often meeting obstacles, resulting in the teachers experiencing both highs and lows during the supervision process.

Greek preservice physical education teachers’ mental models of production and reproduction teaching styles

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 544-564
Author(s):  
Ioannis Syrmpas ◽  
Senlin Chen ◽  
Denis Pasco ◽  
Nikolaos Digelidis
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Physical Education ◽  
Mental Models ◽  
Mental Model ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Teaching Styles ◽  
Time Process ◽  
Structured Interviews

The purpose of this study was to examine Greek preservice physical education (PE) teachers’ presuppositions, beliefs and mental models about the reproduction and production teaching styles. The participants were 16 preservice PE teachers (10 males, six females). A qualitative methodology was used with data collected using semi-structured interviews. A multi-level analysis process using open coding and axial coding was sequentially conducted. Findings revealed two generative mental models about teaching styles. For the first mental model ( n = 5), learning is considered as a transmissive and unidimensional (i.e. one goal pursued at a time) process. Presuppositions supported by this mental model urge the preservice teachers to believe that the reproduction teaching styles promote effective learning, class control, students’ safety and discipline. For the second mental model ( n = 11), learning is viewed as a constructivist and multidimensional (i.e. multiple goals pursued at a time) process. Presuppositions supported by this mental model urge the participants to believe that the production teaching styles effectively promote students’ learning, critical thinking, responsibility, motivation, autonomy and discipline. The aforementioned mental models highlight the developmental nature of preservice PE teachers’ learning concerning the production and the reproduction teaching styles. These mental models reveal the diversity of PE preservice teachers’ understanding of the teaching and learning processes. Furthermore, findings support Vosniadou’s assumption that learners come to formal education not as a tabula rasa but holding a naive understanding about the world.

scholarly journals Associate teachers' learning networks: a figurational analysis of initial teacher education

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-218
Author(s):  
Luke Jones ◽  
Steven Tones ◽  
Gethin Foulkes
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Initial Teacher Education ◽  
Learning Networks ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Mentor Training ◽  
Innovative Teaching ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Adequate Understanding ◽  
One Year ◽  
Interdependent Relationships

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to use the lens of figurational sociology to analyse the learning networks of physical education (PE) associate teachers (ATs) in England. More specifically, it aims to develop a more adequate understanding of who is involved in the learning networks and how they influence ATs during their one-year postgraduate initial teacher education (ITE) programme.Design/methodology/approachA total of 35 ATs within a university ITE partnership took part in the study during the final phase of their postgraduate programme. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were used to examine the nature and impact of the interdependent relationships that they had developed with other individuals and groups. A process of content analysis was used to identify and analyse patterns in the data.FindingsMentors have the most influence over ATs. They support the inclusion of the ATs within the PE department, but elements of the mentors' role are contradictory and can unintentionally hinder the ATs' teaching. Mentors, teachers and tutors also share a common social habitus that ensures a degree of conformity within the PE community. New experiences tend to reinforce ATs' existing beliefs about the nature and practice of teaching PE.Practical implicationsThese findings have implications for providers of ITE in deciding who is involved in mentor training and how it is approached. If ATs are to be introduced to more innovative teaching approaches that promote change, then tutors need to collaborate with mentors and teachers to develop awareness of their often-unplanned influence.Originality/valueApplying the distinctive, and more generally sociological, concepts that make up the figurational perspective helped to develop a more adequate understanding of the ATs' learning networks. It provided an insight into the changing relationships that ATs have with their mentors and other individuals who work within the school and university context.

scholarly journals A construção da identidade profissional do professor cooperante de Educação Física [The construction of the Physical Education cooperating teacher’s professional identity]

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-51
Author(s):  
Mariana Cunha ◽  
Paula Batista ◽  
Amândio Graça
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Physical Education ◽  
Professional Identity ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Pedagogical Practice ◽  
Teaching Perspectives ◽  
Pedagogical Relationships ◽  
Supervisory Practices ◽  
Academic Year

This research focuses on the construction of the supervising teaching practice professional identity of the cooperating teacher. To this end, it explored the discourses on the teaching practices and teacher education experiences; the legitimate participation in teacher education and working spaces; and the teaching perspectives that substantiate the pedagogical relationships and learning trajectories in the context of professional practice. A case study was conducted to examine the narratives of cooperating teachers, an experienced and a beginner on the supervisory roles and tasks of the pedagogical practice of Physical Education pre-service teachers during an academic year. Data were gathered through interviews. The qualitative inductive thematic analysis was informed by grounded theory coding procedures. Themes included: i) challenges in interacting with the pre- service teachers; and ii) challenges in the (re)configuration of the supervisory practices. The reconstruction of the cooperating teacher’s professional identity happens in the doing of their roles, the confrontation with the challenges encountered, the negotiation of interactions with the pre-service teachers, and the implementation of teaching perspectives that inform their practices and pedagogical supervision relations.

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