Informing Teaching Through Community Engagement

Preservice teacher education programs prepare teachers for a variety of educational settings that serve a diverse range of children. Research suggests that many graduates lack confidence and the capability to teach those from backgrounds different from their own, including children from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, and children with additional learning needs. In the bicultural, and increasingly multicultural, New Zealand context, preservice teachers are overwhelmingly from White, middle-class, monolingual backgrounds. This chapter offers a case study of the development of a community engagement course within an initial teacher education degree program. Based on Kolb's model of experiential learning and Moll's notions of funds of knowledge and identity, the course aims to enhance preservice teachers' knowledge of the lives of children they teach, and their dispositions and cultural competence for teaching, through personal and professional interaction with the community.

Download Full-text

From salvation to inquiry: Preservice teachers’ conceptions of race

Global Studies of Childhood ◽

10.1177/2043610620978510 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 368-384

Author(s):

Lucinda Grace Heimer

Keyword(s):

Teacher Education ◽

Preservice Teachers ◽

Social Justice ◽

Critical Race Theory ◽

Classroom Practice ◽

Future Teacher ◽

Teacher Education Programs ◽

Education Programs ◽

The Impact

Race is a marker hiding more complex narratives. Children identify the social cues that continue to segregate based on race, yet too often teachers fail to provide support for making sense of these worlds. Current critical scholarship highlights the importance of addressing issues of race, culture, and social justice with future teachers. The timing of this work is urgent as health, social and civil unrest due to systemic racism in the U.S. raise critiques and also open possibilities to reimagine early childhood education. Classroom teachers feel pressure to standardize pedagogy and outcomes yet meet myriad student needs and talents in complex settings. This study builds on the current literature as it uses one case study to explore institutional messages and student perceptions in a future teacher education program that centers race, culture, identity, and social justice. Teaching as a caring profession is explored to illuminate the impact authentic, aesthetic, and rhetorical care may have in classrooms. Using key tenets of Critical Race Theory as an analytical tool enhanced the case study process by focusing the inquiry on identity within a racist society. Four themes are highlighted related to institutional values, rigorous coursework, white privilege, and connecting individual racial and cultural understanding with classroom practice. With consideration of ethical relationality, teacher education programs begin to address the impact of racist histories. This work calls for individualized critical inquiry regarding future teacher understanding of “self” in new contexts as well as an investigation of how teacher education programs fit into larger institutional philosophies.

Download Full-text

Redesigning initial teacher’s education practices with learning scenarios

International Journal of Information and Learning Technology ◽

10.1108/ijilt-11-2018-0131 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 36 (3) ◽

pp. 266-283 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Ana Pedro ◽

João Piedade ◽

João Filipe Matos ◽

Neuza Pedro

Keyword(s):

Teacher Education ◽

Initial Teacher Education ◽

Teacher Education Programs ◽

Content Type ◽

Education Practice ◽

Planning Strategy ◽

Learning Scenarios ◽

The One

PurposeThe construction of learning scenarios is a way to plan for teaching activities, promoting the development of skills related to problem solving, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity. Using learning scenarios as a lesson planning strategy becomes a powerful tool in initial teacher education. On the one hand, it mobilizes teaching-related scientific concepts, and on the other hand, it offers opportunities to think on innovative pedagogic approaches involving strategies and capacities essential for the future teacher. Research shows that teacher education programs within real school contexts enriched with digital technologies represent an important factor in increasing the quality of teachers’ preparation and their future professional practice. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approachThe authors present the analysis of practice of design and implementation of learning scenarios in teachers’ initial education courses developed with students of teaching master degrees. Activity theory is used in the analysis of a case study of a student-teacher in Computer Science.FindingsThe results have been analyzed, contributing to the specification of the principles underlying the learning scenarios in initial teacher education.Research limitations/implicationsResults show the affordances and possibilities of using learning scenarios as structuring resources for the initial teacher education practice.Originality/valueTherefore, the use of learning scenarios brings a set of potentialities to teacher training given its prospective nature.

Download Full-text

Tacit assumptions of citizenship education: A case study in Spanish initial teacher education

Education Citizenship and Social Justice ◽

10.1177/1746197918771336 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 131-148 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Marta Estelles ◽

Jesús Romero

Keyword(s):

Teacher Education ◽

Citizenship Education ◽

Teacher Educators ◽

Public University ◽

Initial Teacher Education ◽

Teacher Education Programs ◽

Education Programs ◽

Tacit Assumptions

Current curricula, which organize initial teacher education programs, include, among their stated purposes, preparing teachers to help their future students to grow as global, participatory, and ethically engaged citizens. However, we know little about how teacher educators prepare their students to be citizens. This article analyses how a group of teacher educators from a public university in Spain understand citizenship education, exploring the net of metaphors and idealized visions they seem to share, regardless of their formal conceptualizations. The discussion of the findings considers the implicit hierarchies of these shared assumptions that define what is deemed as real, desirable, and possible in citizenship education. Implications for teacher education are also contemplated.

Download Full-text

A COVID-19 Re-envisioned Teaching Practicum Curriculum

Research in Social Sciences and Technology ◽

10.46303/ressat.2021.29 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 249-266

Author(s):

Carisma Nel ◽

Carolina Botha ◽

Elma Marais

Keyword(s):

Teacher Education ◽

Preservice Teachers ◽

Student Teachers ◽

Initial Teacher Education ◽

Teacher Education Programs ◽

School Partnerships ◽

Teaching Practicum ◽

Alternative Placement ◽

University School Partnerships ◽

Faculties Of Education

The changes taking place in the schooling landscape because of the coronavirus are real and meaningful and have implications for the training of preservice teachers, especially the teaching practicum component of their initial teacher education programs. The havoc caused by COVID-19 forced many faculties of education into a state of ‘panic-gogy’ to ensure that student teachers could complete their teaching practicums. In this paper we argue that consideration should be given to core teaching practices and practice-based teacher education pedagogies (i.e., representations and approximations) that can be used in alternative “placement contexts” that will supplement and harness the authenticity of school-based experiences. We provide two conceptual tools, collaboratively developed by teaching practicum educators and mentor teachers, that can be used as heuristic by other university-school partnerships when considering teaching practicum redesign efforts.

Download Full-text

Innovating Teacher Pre-Service Education in Bahrain: An International Partnership Model

Innovations in Educational Leadership and Continuous Teachers' Professional Development ◽

10.46679/isbn978819484832503 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 59-82

Author(s):

Lucy Bailey ◽

Keyword(s):

Teacher Education ◽

Social Change ◽

Teacher Educators ◽

Initial Teacher Education ◽

Teacher Education Programs ◽

Policy Borrowing ◽

International Partnership ◽

Partnership Model ◽

Education And Development

This chapter reports on the process used to develop a revised curriculum for initial teacher education in the Kingdom of Bahrain, using this case-study institution to reflect on the evolving nature and purpose of teacher preparation in the twenty-first century (McMahon, Forde & Dickson, 2015), and the drivers and impediments in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to ensuring that teacher education programs keep abreast of wider social change. The chapter, therefore, contributes to the burgeoning literature analyzing the worldwide evolution of teacher education (Tan, Liu & Low, 2017). The chapter begins by explaining the reasons underpinning a proposed revision of the Bachelors in Education (BEd) programme. It next reports on the process that was adopted to undertake the curriculum revision, arguing that the concepts of ―policy borrowing‖ and ―policy learning‖ are both problematic, and suggesting that these should be replaced by the idea of ―institutional partners‖. The chapter subsequently examines how potential tensions between local and global practices were leveraged in the revision through this partnership model. This case study in the development of a pre-service teacher education curriculum is of interest to international scholars as it explores the place of teacher education in both driving and reflecting social change, and it raises questions about how competing conceptualizations of teacher education reflect contrasting visions for society (Säfström & Saeverot, 2017). Interweaving sociological and philosophical perspectives on teacher education and development, this chapter will be of interest to curriculum developers, teacher educators, and teacher practitioners alike.

Download Full-text

Tracing the Development of Reflective Competence in Multi-Sited ITE Involving Telecollaboration

Fostering Reflective Teaching Practice in Pre-Service Education - Advances in Higher Education and Professional Development ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-2963-7.ch016 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 288-315

Author(s):

Victoria Antoniadou

Keyword(s):

Teacher Education ◽

Preservice Teachers ◽

Learning Environment ◽

Cognitive Change ◽

Initial Teacher Education ◽

Multimodal Interactions ◽

Quantitative Measurements ◽

Multiple Case ◽

The Relationship

This chapter illustrates the process and outcomes of developing reflective competence according to three preservice teachers who participated in a multi-sited learning environment, involving integrated telecollaboration. The learning environment fused together university, virtual and school sites. An ethnographic multiple case study with quantitative measurements was employed to analyse the year-long trajectory of the preservice teachers' learning to reflect. We gathered audio-visual data from beginning to end of the year, indicating participants' growing ability to reflect on their own practices, and leading cognitive change and transformation of classroom practices. By tracing multimodal interactions sequentially, we were able to extract guidelines for creating useful collaborative artifact ecologies in Initial Teacher Education and discuss the relationship between reflection, cognitive development and different personality traits. Based on our findings, we empirically substantiate the argument that reflective competence can indeed trigger transformation in Initial Teacher Education.

Download Full-text

Formative Assessment via Video Feedback on Practicum

Formative Assessment Practices for Pre-Service Teacher Practicum Feedback - Advances in Higher Education and Professional Development ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-2630-8.ch006 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 158-183 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Christopher Dann ◽

Beverly Dann ◽

Shirley O'Neill

Keyword(s):

Teacher Education ◽

Preservice Teachers ◽

Early Childhood ◽

Video Feedback ◽

Initial Teacher Education ◽

Teacher Education Programs ◽

Education Programs ◽

Program Leaders ◽

Teaching Position ◽

Practice Opportunities

University program leaders in conjunction with accreditation bodies, create Initial Teacher Education programs. These programs provide the knowledge and practice opportunities that preservice teachers need to learn and develop as teachers, and provide evidence of attaining the requisite standard required for obtaining a teaching position. This places the Initial Teacher Education programs in a unique position to lead much needed systemic change to transform the learning experiences of preservice teachers in schools. However, at the same time, there are challenges involved in creating innovative programs that align with the requirements of stakeholders, which in the first instance involve: accreditation authorities, universities, early childhood agencies and government. This chapter discusses how video feedback might act as a catalyst for change. First it addresses how it provides the conditions necessary to stimulate focused reflective dialogues that align to the graduate standards and lesson objectives, and second the implications for the field.

Download Full-text

Formative Assessment via Video Feedback on Practicum

Pre-Service and In-Service Teacher Education ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-7305-0.ch040 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 818-836

Author(s):

Christopher Dann ◽

Beverly Dann ◽

Shirley O'Neill

Keyword(s):

Teacher Education ◽

Preservice Teachers ◽

Early Childhood ◽

Video Feedback ◽

Initial Teacher Education ◽

Teacher Education Programs ◽

Education Programs ◽

Program Leaders ◽

Teaching Position ◽

Practice Opportunities

University program leaders in conjunction with accreditation bodies, create Initial Teacher Education programs. These programs provide the knowledge and practice opportunities that preservice teachers need to learn and develop as teachers, and provide evidence of attaining the requisite standard required for obtaining a teaching position. This places the Initial Teacher Education programs in a unique position to lead much needed systemic change to transform the learning experiences of preservice teachers in schools. However, at the same time, there are challenges involved in creating innovative programs that align with the requirements of stakeholders, which in the first instance involve: accreditation authorities, universities, early childhood agencies and government. This chapter discusses how video feedback might act as a catalyst for change. First it addresses how it provides the conditions necessary to stimulate focused reflective dialogues that align to the graduate standards and lesson objectives, and second the implications for the field.

Download Full-text

Preservice Teachers’ Sense of Belonging During Practicum Placements

Australian Journal of Teacher Education ◽

10.14221/ajte.202v45n11.2 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 45 (11) ◽

pp. 17-33

Author(s):

Yvonne Dewhurst ◽

◽

Michelle Ronksley-Pavia ◽

Donna Pendergast ◽

◽

...

Keyword(s):

Teacher Education ◽

Preservice Teachers ◽

Preservice Teacher ◽

Lived Experience ◽

Sense Of Belonging ◽

Preservice Teacher Education ◽

Initial Teacher Education ◽

Teacher Education Programs ◽

Cultural Contexts ◽

Hermeneutic Phenomenological

Practicum placements in schools are keystone features of preservice teacher education, yet inconsistencies in their nature and quality are pervasive. This phenomenon was explored in two cultural contexts, with a focus on ‘belonging’, which the literature reveals may impact practicums and commitment to the profession. Interviews were conducted with six primary school preservice teachers in Australia and Scotland, about their lived experience of belonging/non-belonging during practicum. Hermeneutic phenomenological analysis revealed four themes in both cultural contexts: 1. Being welcomed; 2. Settings and procedures; 3. Interpersonal interactions; and, 4. Strategic behaviours. This study indicates belonging as crucial to preservice teachers’ cognition, wellbeing and learning during practicums, with ‘non-belonging’ inhibiting their development. Preservice teacher and mentor preparedness for practicums is highlighted, alongside challenges for initial teacher education programs and schools in addressing the fundamental need to foster a sense of belonging for preservice teachers during this crucial aspect of their teacher preparation.

Download Full-text