Teacher Education Courses Research Articles

‘Non-stop wokeism’: facilitating social justice teacher education amidst epistemic oppression and popular misogyny

ABSTRACT This paper considers a social justice teacher education (SJTE) course that is intellectually and emotionally demanding, time-poor, and yet aimed at generating relations of reparative coexistence. Interspersed with feminist testimony, the article exposes intensities of course facilitation as a female academic at a sandstone university amidst: 1) a worldwide rise in ‘anti-woke’ populism, and 2) a higher education (HE) sector that is epistemically hostile. Combining the concepts of affective infrastructure and discomfort, the paper develops a genealogy of Australian HE as a backdrop for analysis. Within this field, bodies are affected by and affect discomforting pedagogical encounters. The paper argues that SJTE is crucial work that is carried unevenly and that alongside honing the affective craft of SJTE, awareness be raised concerning ways in which HE institutions make this work harder and riskier for some. Affective solidarities are offered as one means of ‘staying with’ the unavoidable discomforts.

Deficit to Asset Thinking: An Exploration of Incorporating Community Cultural Wealth on Preservice Teachers’ Mindsets

This qualitative inquiry examined how using Yosso’s community cultural wealth (2005) model as a framework in a 16-week teacher-education course focused on home, schools, and communities which supported the development of 24 preservice teachers’ equity mindsets in relation to these spaces. To examine the nature of preservice teachers’ viewpoints, the following data sources were collected: a researcher-developed survey with open-ended questions based on Yosso’s model used as a pre- and post- survey, reflection assignments, and semi-structured interviews. These data were analyzed using priori coding based on the Equity Mindset Framework (Nadelson et al., 2019). Analysis revealed that Yosso’s community cultural wealth model provided a framework for preservice teachers to develop all eight attributes of an equity mindset to some degree, but three of those attributes were developed at a higher level: development of culturally relevant practices and thinking, the importance of understanding and knowing student populations, and taking responsibility for student success. This research has implications for teacher educators, as it provides guidance for a practical way to enhance preservice teachers’ equity mindset.

Pedagogizing Identity in Teacher Education Through Critical Autoethnographic Narrative

In this study, I report on my use of critical autoethnographic narrative (CAN) writing with English language teacher candidates (TCs) in a graduate-level teacher education course. In that iterative, scaffolded writing activity, I coached TCs to construct their teacher identity in narrative and make visible to themselves ideologies dominant in the sociopolitical context of language teaching. Drawing data from my CAN implementation in Spring 2023, I analyze Pamela's (pseudonym) case to address this research question: How does she construct her English language teacher identity in a semester-long CAN writing activity? The qualitative data analysis demonstrates that Pamela's language teacher identity involved: (a) becoming a social justice advocate, (b) grappling with neurodiversity, and (c) positioning language as an evolving local contextualized practice. Based on her positioning of language, she denies ‘one right way’ approach to language use, ‘teaching as correcting errors’ approach, and ‘assessment as gatekeeping’ approach as part of her teacher identity. Pamela's CAN shows that the personal, professional, and political dimensions of language teaching are intricately intertwined in teacher identity, and that teacher identity construction involves tensions of competing ideologies in the sociopolitical context.

“Doin’ diversity” in teacher education: beginning Black teacher discourses on learning to teach for diversity

The voices of Black preservice teachers are largely missing from discussions about teacher diversity, and one place this is evident is in teacher education diversity coursework. This article shares findings from a qualitative study using critical race methodology with five novice Black teachers’ experiences in teacher education courses focused on diversity in education. Three semi-structured life history interviews were conducted for each teacher and data were analyzed using zoom model analysis. Findings revealed that during their preservice experiences in teacher education diversity courses, Black teachers experience such learning spaces in alienating ways despite entering the program with strong commitments to improving education outcomes for Black children. Findings demonstrate that teacher educators and teacher education programs must raise the expectations for engaged learning in the diversity course in order to better support Black teachers and contribute to diversification of the teaching force in meaningful ways.

Biographically Driven Development of Translanguaging Stance for a Modern Language Teacher Candidate in a Graduate TESOL Class

This case study investigated a modern language teacher candidate’s developing translanguaging stance in a Masters-level TESOL course as she made sense of emerging tensions while drawing on her personal and teaching experiences. Data included the participant’s oral contributions to the course, the course syllabus, and student-produced artifacts. We used thematic analysis focusing on the participant’s perceptions of translanguaging as both theory and practice to analyze the data. A semi-structured interview was carried out five years later to review the impact of translanguaging on the participant’s teaching and ideology as a Spanish teacher in a dual language program. Findings uncovered five primary themes all related to the participant’s biographically related development of translanguaging stance: traditional second language acquisition theories as a concern, updating the notion of social justice, the ability to support positive identity development, contemplating translanguaging as a pedagogy, and the longevity of the biographical approach to lifelong learning. The findings highlight the importance of biographical approaches to lifelong learning in language education and suggest that teachers can foster bilingual development, establish inclusive teaching strategies, and create equitable language learning spaces by recognizing the potential of translanguaging, which may be made possible by fostering similar contexts in teacher education courses.

유아교육 전공 대학생들의 셀프리더십, 학습태도, 학업성취와의 관계에 대한 연구: 플립드러닝을 적용한 교직수업을 중심으로

Objectives As learner-centered teaching methods emerge as a new paradigm in education, the flipped learning approach is increasingly being utilized in universities. This study aims to identify the relationship between flipped learning attitudes and self-leadership among university students majoring in early childhood education, partic-ularly within teacher education courses. It seeks to determine which specific self-leadership strategies sig-nificantly influence learning attitudes and academic achievement. Through this analysis, the study intends to ex-plore the potential for effectively utilizing self-leadership in flipped learning in the future. Methods The subjects of the study were 61 first-year students majoring in Early Childhood Education at B University in Seoul. Data collection took place from March to June 2024. The collected data were analyzed using Jamovi 2.25 for correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis, and ANOVA. Results A positive correlation (r = .53) was found between flipped learning attitudes and self-leadership. Among the three self-leadership strategies, the constructive thought pattern strategies significantly influenced flipped learning attitudes. Differences between academic achievement groups were confirmed, particularly between the A-grade group and the B-grade group, in terms of flipped learning attitudes, self-leadership, and the constructive thought pattern strategies as a sub-strategy of self-leadership. Conclusions Self-leadership, particularly the constructive thought pattern strategies, plays an important role in the effective application of flipped learning and can enhance students' academic achievement. Instructors need to develop support measures that can strengthen this self-leadership for the successful implementation of flipped learning. The significance of this study lies in confirming the influence of self-leadership, especially the con-structive thought pattern strategies, in a flipped learning environment. Based on these findings, universities could establish strategies for teaching and learning and support students by utilizing self-leadership.

Wolfram alpha and maple as educational technology for future teachers of mathematics

The paper’s purpose is to present technology-enhanced activities with triangular, square, and other polygonal numbers arranged in basic geometric shapes – equilateral and isosceles triangles and squares. The author’s review of recently published mathematics education papers found no use of computing technology in teaching polygonal numbers either at the college or the pre-college levels worldwide. This omission served as a motivation to share and discuss computational algorithms designed by the author for the summation of such numbers within each geometric structure. A method through which those algorithms were used with teacher candidates is based on the technology-immune/technology-enabled problem-solving pedagogy. This method can be recommended for the modern-day teaching of elementary number theory and other mathematical topics across multiple grade levels and educational programs. The activities, supported by Wolfram Alpha and Maple, can be used by instructors of technology-motivated mathematics teacher education courses. The paper argues that the power of digital tools allows future teachers of mathematics, in the context of elementary number theory, to appreciate the use of simple algorithms in achieving sophisticated computational outcomes. Reflective comments of teacher candidates (the author’s students) are shared to indicate the importance of the history of mathematics and the focus on mathematical visualization as a pedagogical approach aimed at conceptual understanding of the subject matter.

Professional development in teacher education: (Vocational) teacher students’ descriptions

This article focuses on a learning objective, as part of a teacher education course at a Swedish university, where student teachers should be able to discuss their own professional development and identify further development needs. Since both research and policy documents highlight professional development as an important part of teacher education, it is important to study professional development from the perspective of student teachers. The theoretical starting point is Communities of Practice (CoP), and the study focuses on knowledge and learning within a social community. Ten subject teacher students and six vocational teacher students are interviewed about their descriptions of what the professional development for teachers in teacher education means for them, which results in six prominent themes: 1) the developmentof identity formation, 2) the development of subject specific and vocational knowledge, 3) the development of leadership, 4) the development of relationship-building, 5) the development of knowledge about policy documents, laws, rules and regulations, 6) the development in relation to changes in the society. Despite common denominators in the students’ descriptions of professional development, there are also nuanced differences that can be understood by positioning actors about the (vocational) teacher education community. The vocational teacher students frequently connect their professional knowledge to industry and working life, whereas the subject teacher students often connect their subject knowledge to university courses and research. Both the vocational teacher students and the subject teacher students in the study describe that they need to stay up-to-date and continue developing their competence in pedagogy. However, the vocational teacher students specifically highlight the need for pedagogical knowledge within the school environment, rather than in the context of working life and workshop settings. This may be because some vocational teacher students are accustomed to training and teaching interns in these environments as part of their professional practice.

Methodological Combinations in Qualitative Research in Music Education: Autobiography and Grounded Theory

This article explores the theoretical and methodological approaches of (auto)biographical qualitative research and grounded theory, based on their historical and epistemological characteristics. This study in music education aimed to gain an understanding of the process of becoming a primary school music teacher. The Supervised Internship course in teacher education for a music degree was analyzed using the methodological and formative (auto)biographical dispositifs of the Biographical Project Workshop (Delory-Momberguer, 2006) and situational analysis (Clarke, 2005), constructed through the students’ oral, written, and musical narratives based on their experiences as music teachers in the public elementary schools. As a result of the methodological combination, it was found that the research procedure was a collaborative process between the researcher and the participants. This approach allowed for theorizing that did not decontextualize the trainees' narratives. It is recommended to consider using this combination with a postmodern perspective on grounded theory due to epistemological compatibility. Further exploration of the empirical field and reflexivity could contribute to the advancement of qualitative research methodology.

Empowering Future Bilingual Educators: Integrating Trauma-Informed Approaches in Bilingual Teacher Education

The impact of trauma on children's social, emotional, and academic growth is profound, yet teacher preparation programs, particularly in bilingual and multicultural contexts, often lack comprehensive training in trauma-informed practices. This qualitative study investigates the integration of trauma-informed approaches into a bilingual teacher education course at a university in West Texas. The study included 59 undergraduate pre-service teachers enrolled in a course on bilingual and multicultural education. Data were collected through preliminary and concluding written interviews, alongside ongoing instructional interventions, including discussions, case analyses, and trauma-informed strategies. Initially, participants demonstrated a limited understanding of trauma, associating it primarily with extreme events such as accidents or death. Post-course assessments, however, revealed a broadened understanding, recognizing everyday traumas like poverty, bullying, and family instability. Findings suggest that integrating trauma-informed approaches significantly enhances pre-service teachers' ability to identify and apply practical strategies to support trauma-affected students. The study introduces the Trauma-Informed Bilingual Teacher Preparation Model, focusing on key components such as foundational trauma knowledge, recognizing trauma symptoms, culturally responsive teaching, creating supportive environments, and fostering teacher resilience. By embedding trauma-informed practices in teacher education, this model prepares future educators to cultivate compassionate, inclusive classrooms, particularly in bilingual and multicultural settings. The study emphasizes the importance of curriculum reform to equip teachers with the necessary skills to support both students' emotional well-being and academic success.

Cultivating STEAM teachers: A regional resource‐based model for normal university students in Chongqing

AbstractThe cultivation of innovative talents with interdisciplinary skills is a central goal of STEAM education, and the success of STEAM education hinges on the availability of qualified STEAM teachers. This study explores how to integrate STEAM awareness, understanding, and curriculum development into the teacher education and major course learning system of normal university students in Chongqing, China. Drawing upon the region's rich resources, the study proposes a three‐level STEAM teacher training model. At the macro level, the model advocates for a collaborative educational ecosystem involving government, schools, businesses, and society. At the meso level, it presents a 4‐year curriculum model that progressively cultivates preservice teachers' interdisciplinary thinking, integration skills, and pedagogical competence. At the micro level, the model explores effective pedagogical methods and strategies for implementing STEAM projects in real‐world teaching scenarios. This regional resource‐based model offers a “Chongqing plan” for training STEAM teachers and ensuring a sustainable supply of innovative talents to support the region's economic and social development.

Embedding Sustainability across a Teacher Education Course: Teacher Educator Experiences

Abstract Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) remains an urgent priority to combat the numerous social, environmental and political crises prominent in the 21st century. This article shares the experiences of teacher educators who integrated ESD into discipline-specific units of study for pre-service teachers. Using a collaborative auto-ethnographic approach, we explore how curriculum change for ESD was navigated and discuss how institutional support was essential for providing legitimacy and necessary resources. Drawing on Noddings’ approach to ethics of care, we emphasise the significance of valuing the perspectives and experiences of stakeholders involved in curriculum change and advocate for inclusive and responsive approaches that engage individuals meaningfully throughout the process.

Imagining anew: a narrative analysis of STEM teachers’ fictional educational futures

ABSTRACT High teacher attrition rates suggest the need for new methods of STEM teacher education to prepare teachers for fulfilling professional and personal lives. This design research study explores an approach to teacher learning within a US university-based teacher education course which centres projective agency as a key aspect of teacher learning, specifically to imagine transformative educational futures. Using thematic narrative analysis, this study presents evidence suggesting teachers can articulate their educational values by creating aligned possible futures. Drawing upon their experiences, these teachers envision futures that sometimes reimagine the constraints of the current educational system. By fostering projective agency, these envisioned pathways facilitate expansive action beyond teachers’ past experiences and present circumstances, fostering sustainable flourishing for both teachers and students.

Pre-service Teachers’ Perceived Importance of and Performance on Sustainable Development Goals

This study aimed to examine the awareness and performance of pre-service teachers in Taiwan regarding the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A mixed-methods research approach was employed, utilizing a questionnaire survey to obtain quantitative data on pre-service teachers’ perceived importance of and performance on SDGs. Qualitative data were supplemented through interviews with professors and pre-service teachers at a university that incorporated SDGs into its pre-service teacher education courses. The findings revealed that pre-service teachers perform best in “Quality Education” and “Gender Equality.” Men with STEM(Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) fields demonstrated higher levels of awareness of sustainable development, and pre-service teachers majoring in STEM fields outperformed those in non-STEM fields in SDGs performance. Pre-service teachers identified “Good Health & Well-being,”“Life below Water,” and “Life on Land” as the indicators in most urgent need of improvement. Integrating the SDGs into teacher education programs can assist pre-service teachers in enhancing their awareness and performance regarding various SDG indicators.

Investigating preservice secondary mathematics teachers' skills in posing realistic mathematics tasks

Mathematics tasks situated in realistic situations play a central role in developing and applying mathematical knowledge. However, mathematics educators face difficulties in designing realistic mathematics tasks. This study was conducted to gain deeper insights into the characteristics of mathematical problems that underprepared preservice secondary mathematics teachers pose. This study examined 32 preservice secondary mathematics teachers' problem-posing skills based on three problem-posing situations: structured problem-posing, semi-structured problem-posing, and free problem-posing. As the context of the participants, they did not have learning experiences in designing realistic mathematics tasks. In evaluating the preservice teachers' works, the researchers used several evaluation criteria, namely the compatibility of the problem with the mathematical principles, plausibility and sufficiency of information, the problem text, level of context authenticity, cognitive demand, and the correctness of the solution. The results revealed that most preservice teachers posed problems with the first-order level of context use and low cognitive demand. Additionally, many of them encountered difficulties when attempting to solve the problem. The findings of this study were expected to serve as a basis for developing a curriculum for pedagogic and mathematics courses in teacher education.

One intervention, several benefits: Deliberate computer‐assisted argument mapping practices in an online teacher education course

One intervention, several benefits: Deliberate computer‐assisted argument mapping practices in an online teacher education course

Development and Evaluation of an Internet of Things Project for Preservice Elementary School Teachers

Programming education is gaining more attention in elementary schools, especially through the use of visual programming tools and development boards. However, the elementary school teacher education in Taiwan allows only limited time periods for training in visual programming and the use of development boards. Development boards are ideal for creating internet of things (IoT) projects, and project-based learning (PBL) is an effective teaching strategy in programming education to promote active learning. Therefore, to sustainably cultivate 21st-century teachers, this study developed an IoT PBL activity for preservice elementary school teachers in Taiwan, so as to improve their attitude toward programming and to enhance their content knowledge of programming teaching, including in computational thinking concepts and knowledge concerning the micro:bit and IoT. This project aimed to engage preservice elementary school teachers in using the micro:bit and electronic modules to create cardboard games with IoT features. A preliminary evaluation was conducted within a teacher education course to verify the project’s feasibility. Consequently, the preservice elementary school teachers participating in this project could develop various IoT cardboard games through teamwork. Their scores on the assessments of computational thinking concepts, development board knowledge, and attitude toward programming showed significant improvement after the project activity. They also expressed highly positive feedback on the project. These findings verify that the proposed PBL activity could be feasible for elementary teacher education.

Teacher education students’ experiences navigating inherent requirements within their courses of study

ABSTRACT Inherent requirements define core competencies that all students must demonstrate to be accepted, progress, and successfully complete professionally accredited programmes such as teaching. This paper presents research that examines how students of teacher education navigate supposed abilities to teach through their courses of study, to inform the development of a statement of inherent requirements for a large school of education in an Australian university. Drawing on critical disability perspectives, we present results from a survey conducted with students enrolled in teacher education courses. This analysis demonstrates that inherent requirements have little affect for students whose bodily capacities align with preconceived notions of abilities to teach. Yet, students with disabilities will likely experience impose barriers to their success within teacher education because of perceived inherent requirements to practice, which is not easily addressed through disclosure and reasonable adjustments. The paper concludes with a discussion addressing how when seeking to expand their impact in support of inclusive local and global communities, universities must necessarily start by paying close attention to the ways that they frame competency in relation to equity. Here we draw from concerns raised by students in the present study, and critical disability theory, to support an institutional transposition from inherency to coherency, reframing how ability to teach can align with contemporary policy aspirations and inclusive practices. The paper is unique for drawing on student experiences to inform the development of knowledge in the field of teacher education along with critical disability perspectives with which to analyse them.

Including the Brügner Tangram in an Undergraduate Mathematics Education Course: Systematic Search for Solutions and Graphs

This article presents a reflection on a teaching experience involving the use of the Brügner tangram, an interesting but little-known manipulative material. It details an activity conducted as part of an undergraduate mathematics education course for prospective primary school teachers. The main objective of this paper is to present the implementation of a sequence of activities designed to convey to future teachers the importance of systematically solving problems that involve searching for or constructing different cases. Specifically, participants are provided with the three pieces of the Brügner’s tangram and assigned the task of identifying all possible convex polygons that can be constructed. Moreover, they are required to elucidate the methodological approach underpinning their exploratory process, with an emphasis on establishing relationships between the polygons. Graphs are introduced as one of the possible approaches for modelling the problem, offering a graphical representation that aids in the systematic search for solutions. This paper describes different activities involving the Brügner’s tangram which has demonstrated its adaptability as an instructional resource. The teaching sequence adheres to the five-phase structure proposed within the framework of the van Hiele model, which is also part of the course.

Assessment of Chinese primary school mathematics teachers’ knowledge of students’ misconceptions regarding space and shape

ABSTRACT The study aimed to establish an assessment model for mathematics teachers’ knowledge of students’ misconceptions in the Space and Shape domain, develop the testing tool, investigate and analyse the overall and differences in performance, and propose suggestions for improvement. The assessment model included content knowledge and performance standards. The content knowledge standard included cognition and content dimensions. The cognition dimension was subdivided into predicting the misconceptions, interpreting the misconceptions, analysing the reasons and teaching strategies to correct misconceptions. According to the division of Space and Shape in official curriculum standard, the content dimension was subdivided into Recognition of graphics, Measurement, Motion, and Location. 701 Chinese mathematics teachers from 8 provinces were involved to verify the assessment model. Item response theory was used to estimate teachers’ performance, and combinations of response categories was used to divide the teachers’ performance into three response levels: Low, Medium and High. 81% of teachers were performing at Medium and High response levels. Teachers performed the worst in Recognition of graphics and the best in Measurement. The worst performance occurred in analysing the reasons, the best in interpreting the misconceptions. These results have provided evidences for adjusting teacher activities, improving teacher education courses and teachers training.