ABSTRACT This study examines how novice teachers discursively and emotionally navigate dilemmas involving immigrant students in U.S. schools. Drawing on a sociocultural discourse framework and analysis of written reflections from 21 preservice teachers, the study identifies four emotional-discursive typologies: the Avoider, the Meritocrat, the Empathizer, and the Critical Reflector. These typologies reveal how novice educators engage in what this paper terms emotive shielding, a discursive pattern in which emotional language (e.g. empathy, guilt, discomfort) serves to obscure or deflect structural critique. While emotional engagement was common across participating novice teachers, only a small subset moved beyond personal resonance to interrogate systemic inequities. This is one of the few studies to explicitly map emotional-discursive typologies in preservice teacher responses, offering a nuanced lens into how language and feeling shape novice teacher identity. The findings underscore the limitations of unstructured reflection in teacher education and call for more intentional scaffolding of sociocultural analysis, especially in preparing teachers to work with culturally and linguistically diverse students.

ABSTRACT Widely recognized in the literature as a key to professional development, reflective practice occupies a central place in initial teacher education. In order to develop their reflexivity, students in teacher education programs in the French-speaking part of Belgium are commonly required to write a self-evaluation report after each internship. In this longitudinal study, we evaluated whether the repeated writing of these self-evaluation reports allows students to improve their reflective writing skills in a context where reflective writing is neither taught nor supported. To do this, we analyzed the 100 reports written by 20 future Belgian primary school teachers throughout their pre-service education: five reports each, one after each internship. We used a mixed-method approach to analyze the development of their reflective writing skills over these five occasions. Our results show that, despite the repetition, writing self-evaluation reports did not significantly improve the reflective writing skills of the student teachers in our sample. Little change occurred as the training progressed, while the few improvements we observed quickly gave way to a decline. Thus, our results reinforce the need to provide specific support for the development of reflective writing skills.

ABSTRACT Innovative teaching approaches, like Education Outside the Classroom (EOtC), have potential to improve teacher engagement, motivation, and retention. This paper investigates elements supporting persistence during a one-year EOtC implementation in Danish public schools through semi-structured interviews with nine teachers. Using Self-Determination Theory and David Guskey’s teacher development framework, three themes were identified: 1) competence for making a positive contribution; 2) interpersonal collaboration and shared vision; and 3) organizational support and conditions. Continuing use of EOtC relies on developing teacher competencies, ensuring collegial collaboration, and management support. These insights offer practical strategies for sustaining innovative teaching and addressing global teacher retention challenges.

ABSTRACT This study examines how Chilean pre-service teachers use GenAI to develop professional writing genres during their practicum. Using a sociocultural approach to writing, we analyse GenAI as a cultural mediator in the enculturation process into the teaching profession. Based on two rounds of interviews with 36 participants, our findings revealed three main uses of GenAI: creative support in lesson planning, contextual adaptation of materials, and task optimization. However, deeper analysis reveals two problematic patterns: participants employ GenAI strategically to meet institutional demands without developing underlying pedagogical understanding, and they delegate core competencies while believing they possess sufficient professional judgment to evaluate AI outputs. This ‘pseudo-enculturation’ reproduces expected discursive forms without developing the evaluative judgment that gives them meaning. Findings challenge purely punitive approaches and emphasize the need for ITE programmes to foster theoretically grounded, critically reflective relationships with GenAI that support rather than bypass authentic professional development.

ABSTRACT To promote quality education, a learning-practice approach in teacher training has the potential to bring closer school and higher education while pre-service teachers experience active methodologies such as Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). This multimethod exploratory case study seeks to critically investigate a bilingual Physical Education teacher training course sustained from a non-linear learning-practice perspective. We examined 56 pre-service teachers’ views about CLIL qualitatively, and checked the pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their level of competence regarding their knowledge about CLIL from a quantitative standpoint. According to our results, a learning-practice approach could have led pre-service teachers to reshape their views on CLIL and increase their self-reported CLIL competences. Thus, experiencing CLIL could be useful for pre-service teachers to look CLIL in the eye, step out of their comfort zone and, perhaps, reconsider its possibilities as a teaching approach to use in their future careers after proper and specific training.

ABSTRACT This qualitative study explores how an elementary after-school book club functioned as a third space for the professional and personal development of pre-service teachers (PSTs) participating in the America Reads program, a federally funded literacy initiative. Drawing on third space theory, the study examined four PSTs’ experiences as book club leaders guiding fourth-grade students through shared reading and literacy activities in a Midwestern U.S. elementary school. Data sources included PSTs’ informal lesson plans, literacy activities, students’ artifacts, and interviews with book club leaders. The findings highlight the importance of authentic field experiences in teacher education programs, emphasizing the integration of theoretical knowledge with real-world teaching practices. Pre-service teachers demonstrated flexibility in book selection and literacy activities, enhancing student engagement and addressing diverse learning needs. Despite challenges such as time constraints and varied student engagement, the after-school book club served as a generative site for professional identity formation. These findings underscore the importance of integrating non-traditional fieldwork into teacher education programs to support adaptive, relational, and socially just teaching practices.

ABSTRACT Relational skills are essential to the teaching profession, as they contribute to the well-being of teachers and students and to students’ engagement in learning, which is a predictor of student achievement. However, the teacher’s ability to establish a quality pedagogical relationship with students has not always been considered central to the definition of the profession. As a result, little training provision is currently available that aims to develop these skills in teachers. Based on these findings, we considered it crucial to provide a training module to develop these skills in teachers (the SIMEDUC tool). This module is based on simulation-based pedagogy, which is becoming increasingly widespread in the health training sector and has more recently been transferred to the educational field. The theoretical part of this article explains through international literature why it is crucial to develop teachers’ relational skills. We then present why we transferred health simulation to the educational context to achieve our objectives. Finally, we describe the process of developing the SIMEDUC training module and how this tool contributes to broadening knowledge about simulation and interpersonal skills of future teachers more generally.

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to determine if using bug-in-ear (BIE) coaching during preservice teachers’ (PST) guided reading instruction affected their teaching during a subsequent lesson. For this qualitative study, we observed three tutors’ live lessons through Zoom and coached them through a Bluetooth earpiece when their student encountered a point of difficulty in the text. We also interviewed the tutors regarding their experience with the BIE coaching. Holistic, open, and descriptive coding were used to analyze the lesson and interview transcripts. Through analysis, we established that the tutors found the coaching to be helpful, and that they used the coached techniques in their next lesson. The findings from this study have implications for practice in reading clinic settings as well as educator preparation programs in general and are related to technology challenges, human resources, expansion of BIE coaching to other settings, selecting texts for children, and prompting emergent readers.

ABSTRACT This multiple case study examined the extent to which a 15-week self-regulated learning (SRL) intervention, named the Self-Regulatory Instructional Planning Approach (SR-IPA), promoted the self-regulatory development of preservice teachers. This study involved six preservice teachers enrolled in a secondary social studies methods course as part of a secondary teacher licensure program and each case consisted of the experiences of one preservice teacher. As part of the SR-IPA, participants received direct SRL instruction followed by explicit SRL guidance as they completed five cycles of SRL while planning instructional lessons. Findings suggest: (a) the preservice teachers were unfamiliar with SRL before experiencing the SR-IPA; (b) the SR-IPA promoted the preservice teachers’ SRL skill development by providing tangible resources and emphasizing SRL processes; (c) the preservice teachers intend to continue engaging in SRL processes when planning future lessons; and (d) the SR-IPA supported the preservice teachers in developing their SRL skills to the emulation phase of Zimmerman’s Coaching Model, but not beyond. The implications of this study involve recognizing that emphasizing and explicating SRL processes may be an effective strategy for developing SRL among preservice teachers and that teacher education programs should acknowledge that SRL skill development can be a lengthy process.

ABSTRACT The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) has significantly transformed educational practices and learning models. This study examines the perspectives of higher education teachers at Chinese universities on the use of AI as a teaching assistant tool. Although there is growing interest in AI technologies, their overall impact on academia remains a subject of contention. This study highlights the need to systematically investigate the functionalities and potential risks of AI tools, particularly when integrated with traditional educational paradigms. Ten higher education teachers participated in an in-depth interview survey. Utilising a qualitative descriptive research paradigm, the results indicate that participants generally held positive attitudes towards AI, recognising its affordances, such as assisting with lesson planning, as well as providing personalised feedback. However, participants identified three key shortcomings of AI: (a) the destabilisation of pedagogical authority, (b) the absence of affective support, and (c) the propensity to encourage learner overdependence. In particular, clear disciplinary asymmetries emerged, with STEM reporting more efficacious uses than the humanities, where interpretive depth and historical context were limiting factors. This exploratory study contributes valuable insights to the existing literature on the benefits and drawbacks of using AI in cross-disciplinary higher education, informing future AI designers.