Abstract
Conventional approaches to analyzing cross-national data on teacher knowledge have often failed to recognize qualitative variations across and within different countries. A dilemma confronted by researchers is how to avoid the essentialization of cultures while benefiting from cultural intuition by attending to general national patterns. If researchers focus on exploring the diverse subjectivities of respondents, they are not likely to observe general national patterns because subtle nuances in meaning make it challenging to deal with data with broad categories. There may be too many subtle meanings. However, if researchers focus on general national patterns, they may lose the hidden scripts of the data, as little attention is paid to nuanced meanings. Our data suggest that a holistic reading approach examining different types of semantic foci can be an alternative method for dealing with such a methodological dilemma. This study provides an illustrative example analysis based on this alternative analytic approach.
Highlights
Examining SocioculturalThis study explores methodological possibilities for research on future teachers’ epistemological assumptions about educational inequality in a cross-national analysis
Particular attention was focused on the qualitative aspects of the data that revealed socioculturally embedded epistemological assumptions of student achievement held by preservice teachers in different countries
We contend that a holistic reading strategy helps interpret the subtextual meanings of the responses and their specific terms because the very meaning of student achievement and educational inequality may not be consistent across different responses
Summary
This study explores methodological possibilities for research on future teachers’ epistemological assumptions about educational inequality in a cross-national analysis. This study attempts to find methodological avenues to reveal socioculturally embedded epistemological assumptions of student achievement by analyzing preservice teachers’ responses to an open-ended question about educational inequality (see the Section 3). Preservice teachers in different countries might share the presumption that socioeconomic disparities between students contribute unequally to academic achievement, epistemological assumptions underlying this belief may vary across countries (see, e.g., [1,2,3]). This study contributes to the literature on teacher knowledge in comparative perspectives by situating the preservice teachers’ responses in sociolinguistic contexts. Methodological implications are discussed concerning how to examine teachers’ general pedagogical knowledge and beliefs about educational equity in cross-national contexts.
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