scholarly journals Pedagogy: A Teacher’s Practice

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-56
Author(s):  
Andrew Foran ◽  
Dan Robinson ◽  
Margareth Eilifsen ◽  
Elizabeth Munro ◽  
Tess Thurber

Neoliberal assaults upon public education have been grounded upon the supposition that schools are failing to prepare students to respond to local and global economic needs and realities. The result has left the relational between pupils and teachers as a taken-for-granted practice. Lived experiences often can show and capture the unexpressed in taken for granted moments. This discussion presents teaching as relational moments, shared between beginning teachers and pupils. We employ a phenomenological sensitivity as we unravel the anecdotal evidence to bring into language a “lived through” dimension of human relations. As teacher educators, we ask: what is experienced when relationality is the focus for beginning teachers? The importance of this question is due to the prevalence of neoliberal forces that now guide, and to large extent, control what it means to teach in schools across Canada. In an effort to understand this emerging view of teaching, we explore what four preservice teachers from Nova Scotia experienced in becoming teachers, as they completed their final Field Experience in Bergen, Norway. We share these anecdotal representations to help teachers see how the relational informs identity in becoming a teacher and allows teacher educators to deconstruct the “taken-for-granted-ness” of teaching stuck in the rational-technical model.

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Babak Khoshnevisan ◽  
Mojgan Rashtchi

Researchers have recognized pre-service teachers’ field experiences as a pivotal element for enhancing teaching practices. Research indicates pre-service teachers usually are optimistic about teaching. However, when pre-service teachers encounter complexities in classrooms, their optimism fades. There is little research about ESOL pre-service teachers’ perceptions of field experiences. In this inquiry, we focused on pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their first field experience with ESOL students in a southeastern United States public school. We selected a multiple case study to conduct this qualitative research. We collected the data through student interviews, field experience reports, and the participants’ journals before and after the field experience. Our discoveries through constant comparative analysis centered on ESOL pre-service teachers’ perceptions of field experience, teaching strategies and pedagogical competence, and development stages of teachers. The findings of the present study indicated that field experience serves as a catalyst to facilitate the learning process for ESOL pre-service teachers. Teacher educators can adopt field experiences to challenge preservice teachers. Field experiences can be helpful tools in the developmental stages of teachers. These experiences can help preservice teachers gain insight into the culturally sensitive strategies required for ESOL courses. The findings of this study proved Khoshnevisan’s (2017) developmental stages of teachers.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-52
Author(s):  
Olivia Gail Tucker

Occupational identity development is an important, complex component of music teacher education. Preservice teachers may experience dissonance between and/or integration of their musician and teacher identities, and scholars have found early field experiences to be important in undergraduates’ transitions into the teacher role. The purpose of this instrumental case study was to examine the occupational socialization and identity development of preservice music teachers in an early field teaching experience with a focus on preservice teacher and P–12 student interactions. I conducted observations, interviews, and a demographic survey during a semester-long early field experience. Findings centered around (a) the dynamic nature of preservice teachers’ identities; (b) the importance of peers, music teacher educators, and students to preservice participants as they engaged in the process of becoming music teachers, and (c) the momentary embodiment of music teacher and student roles. I connect these findings to prior research and suggest implications.


in education ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-25
Author(s):  
Sharon L. Allan

Students enrolled in Bachelor of Education degree programs engage in academic study and field experiences that both validate and challenge their existing understandings of who they are and who they are becoming: their professional identity. This interpretive case study explored the ways in which four intern teachers constructed professional understandings during the 15 weeks of their culminating field experience: a borderland space. Ecologically defined as an ecotone, this time in between—of being a student and becoming a teacher—is a zone of transition, a crossroads of being and becoming. Using a series of conversational interviews where the researcher and the participants explored the experience of living on the borderland, this study revealed the challenges of constructing a professional identity as well as the ways in which these intern teachers gradually assumed the subject position: teacher. Four essential aspects of this experience were distilled from the findings of this inquiry and arranged into a conceptual framework to assist teacher educators as they craft curriculum capable of engaging student teachers in the consideration of who they are becoming as teachers. By contributing to our growing understanding of the ways in which preservice teachers view themselves as emerging professionals, this inquiry suggests deeper investigation of the mentor-mentee relationship is needed in order to better support student teachers on the borderlands of their final field experience.            Keywords: professional identity; borderland space; intern teachers; field experience; interpretive case study


Author(s):  
Tabitha Dell'Angelo ◽  
Maria DeGenova

Interviews and observations of first year teachers in the northeastern United States were used to construct a comic. The comic communicates the excitement, fears, and competing demands of a beginning teacher. The dialogue and setting are presented as surrealist to help the reader gain an understanding of the affective realities that the teachers expressed when describing their early teaching experiences. This approach allows for the multiple dimensions of the teachers’ lived experiences to be experienced in ways that a traditional text does not allow. The work takes a critical look at the transition of beginning teachers into their careers and is meant to trouble notions of standardization in both teacher preparation and curriculum design. This arts-based approach recognizes performance as both a method of investigation and representation (Worthen, 1998). Given that public education is often a prominent part of societal discourse, this modality allows the reader the opportunity to make meaning of the data by experiencing the words on the page (Leavy, 2009). The illustrations allow the reader to experience the words differently than traditional text. In this way, dramatizing the data is a form of critical pedagogy (Denzin, 2006).


in education ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-24
Author(s):  
Andrew Foran ◽  
Daniel B. Robinson

Our recent research study investigated an international field experience for preservice teachers, labelled as a service-learning internship, a term often used to refer to a student teacher in a Bachelor of Education (BEd) program. Relying on what we know to be advantages and benefits of similar international field experiences for preservice teachers to frame our investigation, we explored the impact of a service-learning internship upon beginning teachers, particularly as it related to their professional growth as teachers. To gain insight into teacher education, we drew on the work of Mollenhauer (2014) to critically examine the foundations of how we prepare teachers in our BEd program. Analysis of questionnaire responses, tracked by a digital discussion forum via Moodle™, revealed two dominant themes: (a) gaining a deeper understanding of children, and (b) learning to be flexible regardless of curricular constraints. Results from this study might be of interest to those who share a similar interest in international field experiences, teacher education, and pedagogy.            Keywords: pedagogy, Bildung; teacher education; international; field experience; service learning; global teaching


Author(s):  
Colleen Conway ◽  
Shannan Hibbard

This chapter situates the study of music teacher education within the larger body of music education and teacher education research. It problematizes the terms teacher training, teacher education, and best practice and introduces the concept of teaching as an “impossible profession.” Goals of teacher education, including reflective practice and adaptive expertise, are discussed. The chapter outlines the challenges that music teacher educators face as they try to prepare preservice teachers for the realities of P-12 school-based music education while instilling in these new colleagues a disposition toward change. It concludes with narratives that examine teachers’ descriptions of classroom relationships throughout the lens of presence in teaching as a way to remind teacher educators of the importance of their work to push the boundaries of music teacher education in order to serve the profession at large.


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 51-64
Author(s):  
Mara E. Culp ◽  
Karen Salvador

Music educators must meet the needs of students with diverse characteristics, including but not limited to cultural backgrounds, musical abilities and interests, and physical, behavioral, social, and cognitive functioning. Music education programs may not systematically prepare preservice teachers or potential music teacher educators for this reality. The purpose of this study was to examine how music teacher education programs prepare undergraduate and graduate students to structure inclusive and responsive experiences for diverse learners. We replicated and expanded Salvador’s study by including graduate student preparation, incorporating additional facets of human diversity, and contacting all institutions accredited by National Association of Schools of Music to prepare music educators. According to our respondents, integrated instruction focused on diverse learners was more commonly part of undergraduate coursework than graduate coursework. We used quantitative and qualitative analysis to describe course offerings and content integration.


2000 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne Woods ◽  
Grace Goc Karp ◽  
Elizabeth Escamilla

This study engaged 26 preservice teachers (PTs) in research focused on students in a secondary methods course who had early field experience (EFE). The purposes of the study were (a) to determine what PTs learned about students in an early field experience (EFE) that engaged them in a structured teacher research project and (b) to examine how the teacher research process was used by PTs. Results indicated that questions about students became more refined and focused through the research process and that there were fluctuations between student-centered and teacher-centered questions during the EFE. The prevailing themes indicated that PTs came to know more about student motivation and interests, characteristics, and peer interactions. More importantly, much of their data challenged previous beliefs and assumptions about students, as PTs began making connections between their newfound knowledge of students and its implications for curriculum, instruction, and management decisions.


1995 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 133-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Ferry

Few teacher educators would dispute that preservice teachers benefit from active participation in planning, implementing, and evaluating experiential learning activities in natural environments. Such experiences help them to understand how environmental education can be successfully woven into a teaching program rather than just an added “frill” presented in isolation. However, it is difficult to find efficient ways of organising these experiences in tertiary institutions. This paper discusses a partnership formed among teacher educators, schools, and field study centers in New South Wales, Australia. It was devised to enhance the experiences in environmental education for all participants, and at the same time make efficient use of human resources.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
S.R. Toliver ◽  
Heidi Hadley

Purpose This paper aims to identify how white preservice teachers’ inability to imagine an equitable space for Black and Brown children contributes to the ubiquity of whiteness in English education. Further, the authors contend that the preservice teachers’ responses mirror how the larger field of English education fails to imagine Black and Brown life. Design/methodology/approach Using abolitionist teaching as a guide, the authors use reflexive thematic analysis to examine the rhetorical moves their preservice teachers made to defer responsibility for anti-racist teaching. Findings The findings show preservice teachers’ rhetorical moves across three themes: failure to imagine Black and Brown humanity, failure to imagine a connection between theory and practice, and failure to imagine curriculum and schooling beyond whiteness. Originality/value By highlighting how preservice teachers fail to imagine spaces for Black and Brown youth, this study offers another pathway through which teacher educators, teachers and English education programs can assist their faculty and students in activating their imaginations in the pursuit of anti-racist, abolitionist teaching.


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