En dags praksis: Hvordan bidra til at studentene finner sammenhengen mellom teori og den virkelige verden?

This chapter revolves a one-day practice for 200 pedagogy students at three primary schools in the municipality. The practice is completed in March when the students have studied the vocation for eight months. Lectures and seminars build up to this takeover in advance. The week before the day of practice, the students are out in the practice schools and observe the class they are going to take over and talk to the teachers at the school. Practice reports, reflection notes and logbook notes show that no matter what we do to link theory to practice at class, it is the one day in the role of teachers at a school that seems to make the big difference. When students become responsible for a class, they behave in a completely different way than when they are responsible for teaching fellow students. At the practice school, they show up well in advance and take the responsibility they have received. The students’ behaviour after the school takeover may indicate that the experiences from the real world, with associated responsibility, have given increased understanding of the vocation, which in turn contributes to increased motivation for the study programme.

Incentivizing improvement or imposition? An examination of the response to gubernatorial school takeover and statewide turnaround districts

Although state-run school districts and gubernatorial school takeover have become popular turnaround strategies among some states, little is known about how district and school leaders perceive and respond to these changes in educational governance. Using Georgia as a case study, this paper employs sensemaking and exit, voice, and loyalty as frameworks to examine how district and school leaders interpret and respond to the threat of state takeover. Similar to prior studies, results indicate that urban schools and districts largely populated by low-income students and students of color are most likely to be affected by state takeover. Several themes emerge from district and school leaders’ interpretation of state takeover policy, including: (a) principals and teachers are to blame, (b) too many changes, too little time to reflect, (c) lack of trust between school districts and the state, and (d) market-based reforms and the illusion of choice. Although a non-trivial number of teachers and principals have expressed their intent to leave for charter schools or leave the teaching profession in response to the threat of state takeover, voice was the more common response, particularly among teachers in takeover-eligible schools who were more experienced and had students performing well on state tests. There are also noteworthy differences in the response of district and school leaders based on the eligibility for state takeover.