Dimensions Of Teacher Education Research Articles

Equity Issues in Teaching and Teacher Education

ABSTRACTConcerns about creating greater equity in education are often projected outside of teaching. Yet the creation by teachers of more equitable and inclusive educational experiences and opportunities can play an important part in wider struggles for social justice. We argue that equity must become a central dimension of teacher education to challenge the complex ways that insidious inequalities are reproduced in and through educational frameworks and practices.

A Narrative Inquiry into Chinese Teacher Induction in West China through Cross-Cultural Teacher Development.

This article is part of a narrative study of Chinese beginning teacher induction through cross-cultural teacher development, which has been developed and contextualized in the Teacher Education Reciprocal Learning Program between the University of Windsor (UW), Canada and Southwest University (SWU), China. This program is part of Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Partnership Grant Project, Reciprocal Learning in Teacher Education and School Education between Canada and China. The partnership builds on the Teacher Education Reciprocal Learning Program, and the Shanghai-Toronto-Beijing Sister School Network. In this article, the authors conducted narrative inquiry with two of the SWU participants in the Teacher Education Reciprocal Learning Program to explore their experience from their cross-cultural learning in Canada to beginning teachers in West China. The findings of the research suggest the need to develop a global and cross-cultural dimension in teacher education and development in West China. It is evident that the cross-cultural experiences in Canada have influenced beginning teachers’ curriculum views, relationship to students, and beliefs about teaching. Their “lived stories” (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990, p. 6) also indicate that the personal, pedagogical, and social influences of cross-cultural experiences play important roles in beginning teachers’ teaching careers.

What Do Teacher Candidates in Turkey Think About Their Teacher Education? A Qualitative Study

Teachers have a significant role to provide the education that societies need. Therefore, the content and quality of teacher education is quite important for educating successful and competent teachers. Teacher candidates admitted to teacher education are expected to gain certain skills during their education. Moreover, the dimensions of teacher education should have an effectiveness to foster the development of these skills. This qualitative study aims to evaluate teacher education from the perspectives of teacher candidates in terms of student admission, gaining teaching skills and 21st century skills, and the dimensions of teacher education (faculty environment, program and courses, teaching practice, teaching staff). Interview schedule was used in the study and totally 43 teacher candidates selected from seven different faculties in Turkey were interviewed by the researcher. The qualitative data were analyzed using descriptive analysis. The results indicated the existence of agreed problems in relation to ineffectiveness of student admission to faculties through only an exam, not gaining certain teaching skills such as teaching under diverse conditions, ineffectiveness of teaching practices and not having enough practice. The necessary suggestions were made by the researcher based on the findings at the end of the study.

What Do Teacher Candidates in Turkey Think About Their Teacher Education? A Qualitative Study

Teachers have a significant role to provide the education that societies need. Therefore, the content and quality of teacher education is quite important for educating successful and competent teachers. Teacher candidates admitted to teacher education are expected to gain certain skills during their education. Moreover, the dimensions of teacher education should have an effectiveness to foster the development of these skills. This qualitative study aims to evaluate teacher education from the perspectives of teacher candidates in terms of student admission, gaining teaching skills and 21st century skills, and the dimensions of teacher education (faculty environment, program and courses, teaching practice, teaching staff). Interview schedule was used in the study and totally 43 teacher candidates selected from seven different faculties in Turkey were interviewed by the researcher. The qualitative data were analyzed using descriptive analysis. The results indicated the existence of agreed problems in relation to ineffectiveness of student admission to faculties through only an exam, not gaining certain teaching skills such as teaching under diverse conditions, ineffectiveness of teaching practices and not having enough practice. The necessary suggestions were made by the researcher based on the findings at the end of the study.

Education and child poverty in times of austerity in Portugal: implications for teachers and teacher education

In recent years Portugal has experienced a severe financial and economic crisis, with implications for all sectors of society, particularly education. Salary cuts, high rates of unemployment, high taxation and worsening career progression are just some ways in which the teaching profession has been affected. Recent policy changes have also impacted on initial teacher education. This paper gives a brief characterisation of the emerging picture within the context of crisis, drawing on data from continuing research on the effects of poverty on teaching and teacher education. It looks at student teachers’ experiences during practicum in regard to issues of poverty at school, as well as the ways in which poverty is framed and discussed during their initial teacher preparation. Key findings point to student teachers’ perceptions about poverty and its impact on children’s well-being and equal opportunities; the strategies they employ to deal with poverty at school; and the complex role of the teacher in promoting equity and social justice through facilitating access to powerful knowledge for all children. Implications for teacher education are discussed, particularly the need to foster social and cultural dimensions of teacher education.

Five-Year Retrospective

We have just completed 5 years as editors of Journal of Teacher Education (JTE), having published four full volumes (63-66) and part of one (62), and will hand over the privilege and responsibility to a new team from Michigan State University in the next issue. In one of our first editorials (Knight et al., 2012), we reflected on how views of teacher education research from both within and outside the profession influenced our vision for the journal. At that time, we saw our challenge as building on the emerging traditions of diversity and excellence established by previous teams of capable editors with the ultimate goal of further advancing research to establish teacher education as a distinct field with knowledge, histories, research methodologies, and practices that are recognized and recognizable. Furthering the goal would require us to bring together the three dimensions of teacher education--practice, policy, and research--in challenging and productive ways so that considerations of issues or challenges in teacher education would be enriched by careful attention from these multiple frames of reference. We recognized a number of obstacles: the reputation of research in teacher education as lacking rigor and relevance and, relatedly, an incomplete knowledge base that prevents us from connecting findings in meaningful ways to inform practice and policy (e.g., Cochran-Smith & Zeichner, 2005; Feuer, Towne, & Shavelson, 2002; Kaestle, 1993; Moss et al., 2006; National Research Council, 2002; Wilson, Floden, & Ferrini-Mundy, 2001); a lack of a sense of professional identity among teacher educators (Labaree, 2008); and publication of teacher education research in specialized content journals with limited audiences rather than in broader teacher education research journals. In reflecting on our tenure as JTE editors, we see that putting our rhetoric into reality was challenging. The sheer number of manuscripts--more than 700 per year--was overwhelming even for a relatively large editorial team with diverse expertise and interests. We made concerted efforts to address our goal of improving quality; we devoted editorials (e.g., Knight et al., 2012) to the topic of quality and led interactive sessions at the annual meetings of our sponsoring organization, the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE), to discuss what constitutes rigor in teacher education research. To address our goal of improving relevance, we sponsored major forums at AACTE meetings on current topics and solicited recommendations from teacher educators for theme issues focusing on emerging areas of interest. Teacher Education Research Quality Based on our review of manuscripts from the first year of our editorship (Volume 63), we identified four areas that authors could target to improve the quality of their research (Knight et al., 2013). The first area that we identified, appropriateness for JTE, involves an explicit connection to an important topic or issue related to research and scholarship in teacher education. We initially rejected a large number of articles prior to external review for two primary reasons: They focused on teachers, teaching, or K-12 students without a clear connection to teacher education or they used teacher education students or faculty as their sample but did not connect to relevant theory and previous methodological and empirical work in teacher education. The second and third areas involve intertwined issues related to the nature of the research design and the samples used in the studies. We received a large number of manuscripts describing studies where the researchers were also the teacher educators or program developers and implementers and the samples were their own students. Whereas this relationship is not problematic in and of itself, the genre of many of the manuscripts often appeared to be program evaluation with program improvement or validation as the primary purpose. …

A Narrative Inquiry into Chinese Teacher Induction in West China through Cross-Cultural Teacher Development

This article is part of a narrative study of Chinese beginning teacher induction through cross-cultural teacher development, which has been developed and contextualized in the Teacher Education Reciprocal Learning Program between the University of Windsor (UW), Canada and Southwest University (SWU), China. This program is part of Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Partnership Grant Project, Reciprocal Learning in Teacher Education and School Education between Canada and China. The partnership builds on the Teacher Education Reciprocal Learning Program, and the Shanghai-Toronto-Beijing Sister School Network. In this article, the authors conducted narrative inquiry with two of the SWU participants in the Teacher Education Reciprocal Learning Program to explore their experience from their cross-cultural learning in Canada to beginning teachers in West China. The findings of the research suggest the need to develop a global and cross-cultural dimension in teacher education and development in West China. It is evident that the cross-cultural experiences in Canada have influenced beginning teachers’ curriculum views, relationship to students, and beliefs about teaching. Their “lived stories” (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990, p. 6) also indicate that the personal, pedagogical, and social influences of cross-cultural experiences play important roles in beginning teachers’ teaching careers.

Language teaching for European citizenship: insights for teacher education

A drive for the development of European citizenship (EC) through Modern Foreign Language (MFL) teaching has existed for some time within the academic literature as well as policy institutions. Nevertheless, the views of MFL teachers on the role of MFL in developing EC have rarely been given a voice. This article presents the findings of a study conducted in eight schools in four European countries. Through semi-structured interviews with 19 secondary school teachers of MFL, the study investigated teachers' views on the teaching of the EC and their understandings of their role as MFL teachers. The study also examined teachers' considerations on what such teaching might include, their preparedness for the task and their perceptions of challenges they may face. Findings show that teachers are supportive of the development of active EC but highlight a number of systemic and situational challenges, particularly in England. Findings are discussed in light of the European dimension of teacher education as well as socio-cultural perspectives on second language teacher education.

Comparative glocal perspectives on European teacher education

This article reports the findings of a PhD study, which offers comparative perspectives on teacher education in a period of reforms, inquiring into stakeholders’ perceptions in English, French, Italian and Spanish contexts as case studies. The interaction of needs and constraints in European initial teacher education within higher education reforms, and the mediation between contrasting influences and diverse education cultures, are viewed as global phenomena: teacher education practices in different countries can be described as ‘translations’ of European policies, with innovative potential in glocal developments. This article explores some issues of the European dimension of teacher education, reporting the qualitative findings of the study, underpinned by a theoretical framework encompassing globalisation and social ecological studies. In the four case study contexts, the focus is on secondary teacher education; when a subject perspective is required, it concerns the area of modern languages, considering their transversal role in European education policies. Findings from the national case studies come from a limited empirical sample, but can be of interest in showing emerging tensions and trends.

La Mejora Equitativa de la Educación y la Formación del Profesorado

La mejora equitativa de la educación y la formación continuada y coherente del profesorado son asuntos clave para garantizar a todos el derecho a una buena educación. El texto, en la primera parte, ofrece una reflexión contextual sobre la mejora, conecta con la tradición más reconocida en este campo y particularmente con la justicia social, que es proyectada sobre el currículo y la enseñanza, derivando de ello determinadas implicaciones políticas, escolares y docentes. La segunda aboga por una formación continuada del profesorado que busque la coherencia con la mejora equitativa. Para ello se establecen análisis y consideraciones sobre las políticas del profesorado y las responsabilidades de los poderes públicos, los elementos de los programas y actividades formativas y su despliegue por los centros como lugares de trabajo. Las comunidades profesionales de aprendizaje en los centros son propuestas como una perspectiva articuladora de contenidos, tareas y actividades colegiadas de formación y mejora.

Getting Our Own House in Order

Similar to our predecessors and those before them for the past decade, our editorial team has assumed leadership of the Journal of Education (JTE) in times of extreme criticism of educational research and of both preservice and inservice teacher education. Critics from within like Arthur Levine proclaim that everything is broken (Levine, 2011), that there is research into what kind of training produces successful teachers (Levine, 2011), and that schools of education lack both rigor and relevance (Levine, 2006). Headlines from The New York Times proclaim of Teachers is Flawed ... (Lewin, 20l 1) or Teacher Training Termed Mediocre (Medina, 2009). One article features anecdotal in support of an alternative teacher education program while citing an economist who claims no research he can think of has shown a teacher-training program to boost student achievement. So why invest in training when, as he told me recently, 'you could be throwing your money away'? (Green, 2010). Educational research, and particularly research in teacher education, clearly is in crisis. The refrains of no conclusive evidence and little research exists ... are all too common in our handbooks and research reports (see, for example, Cochran-Smith & Zeichner, 2005; Wilson, Floden, & Ferrini-Mundy, 2001). This criticism influenced our vision for the journal as JTE is in a unique position to shape how teacher education, and more specifically how research in teacher education, is viewed both within and outside the profession. The journal has a well-deserved reputation of publishing quality scholarship in teacher education, with a standing of 18 out of 177 education and education research journals based on impact in the field of education (Thompson Reuters, 2011). Our challenge is to build on this foundation with the ultimate goal of publishing quality research that points the way to excellent teacher education practice and constructive policies. If we make progress in attaining this critical goal, we would also make great strides toward establishing teacher education as a distinct field with knowledge, histories, research methodologies, and practices that are recognized and recognizable. Reaching the goal requires a balance of a range of content and topics; diversity of voices represented by teacher education researchers, practitioners, and policy makers; attention to both preservice and inservice teacher education; and sensitivity to providing an outlet for beginning authors as well as for those who have a long history of publishing in teacher education. We hope to bring together the three dimensions of teacher education--practice, policy, and research--in challenging and productive ways so that considerations of issues or challenges in teacher education are enriched by careful attention from these multiple frames of reference. Our audience consists largely of teacher education practitioners, researchers, and policy makers in national and international contexts. For teacher education practitioners who do not do research, or for teacher education researchers who do not engage in the practice of teacher education, the connections may sometimes be weak. When teacher education researchers are also practitioners, the connection between research and practice may be strong but may lack a policy perspective. Policy makers, however, may lack a concrete grounding in the everyday realities of practice. We need all three perspectives to address the complex problems facing teacher education today. JTE provides a forum to highlight relationships among all three perspectives. We are particularly aware of the power of policy as the bridge that links research and practice in teacher education. Although we are separate and independent from our parent organization, the American Association of Colleges of Education (AACTE), in our ability to manage the direction and focus of the content of the journal through the use of the double-blind, peer-review process and our selection of themes and special issues, we recognize the power of collaborating with AACTE in matters related to policy. …

The Use of Didactic Sequences and the Teaching of L1: An Analysis of an Institutional Program of Teaching Writing at School.

A competitive program called “Writing the Future (Escrevendo o Futuro)”, developed with the aim of improving written production at Brazilian public schools may gain importance in a context where meaningful reading and writing skills are considered key factors to social inclusion and to personal, educational and professional achievements. This paper will begin by presenting an overview of the Brazilian Competitive Program “Writing the Future (Escrevendo o Futuro)” developed using a genrebased approach, before proceeding with the following objectives: a) to analyze written texts produced by students who used the Program's didactic sequence as a learning tool of the didactic intervention work, and b) to debate critically teaching writing at school with such a program. Didactic sequences are defined as a group of school activities systematically organized within a class project (Dolz & Schneuwly, 1998: 93) aimed at developing students' language capacities. The texts were analyzed according to two dimensions: a) the criteria established by the program itself; b) the language plans that constitute any text (according to Bronckart, 2003). As a preliminary result, the levels of (in)adequacy of the texts produced in the genre taught in the didactic sequence may be stressed, as well as the type of difficulty of linguistic accuracy in general. Another result is the kind of pedagogic practice underlying the proposal, together with the different dimensions of teacher education it may involve.

Life Histories of Latino/a Teacher Candidates

Background/ContextIn this article, we explore the life histories of two Latino/a prospective elementary teachers in a large Midwestern university; examine their knowledge, strengths, and needs as teachers; and consider how teacher educators might capitalize on these. We explore how these prospective teachers’ prior family, home, K–12 schooling, and university experiences have forged their identities and affected how they think about campus peers and classroom colleagues, and their obligations to their students.Research QuestionsIn analyzing these life histories, we ask: What knowledge, strengths, and needs do Latino/a teacher candidates bring to campus when enrolling in teacher education, and how do prospective teachers negotiate these? What implications do Latino/a teacher candidates’ experiences have for teacher educators?Conclusions and RecommendationsOur findings suggest that teacher educators turn their attention to five dimensions of teacher education: whom we hire as teacher educators, how we model classroom pedagogy for students, how we help all prospective teachers excavate their identities, how prospective teachers’ language skills and cultural backgrounds are taken into account on campus and in school experiences, and how we deploy experiences with various cultural communities for prospective teachers. Whom we hire as teacher educators is significant because the course content, assignments presented to students, and ways that they take into account the concerns of all students are related to the identity and experiences of the teacher educator. Modeling classroom practices that honor prospective teachers’ prior knowledge, experiences, and questions is significant because how they are taught paves the way for what possibilities they see for including all students in their future classrooms. Our analyses also suggest that all teacher candidates require careful reflection on their identities and standpoints, and what these mean for their interactions with and understandings of the viewpoints of peers, colleagues, families, and students. We also encourage teacher education programs to take into account prospective teachers’ language and cultural knowledge when placing students in classrooms and devising assignments for their teaching. Further, we encourage community experiences for all teachers that include interactions with families of different heritage and social class backgrounds so that they might develop more and deeper understandings of various families and communities.

Have conceptual reforms (and one anti‐reform) in preservice teacher education improved the education of multicultural, multilingual children and youth?

This article examines three conceptual reforms in US teacher education (competency‐based teacher education (CBTE), reflective teacher education (RTE) and constructivist teacher education (CTE)) for their effects on the education of multicultural, multilingual youth, as well as considering alternative certification (AC), known here as an ‘anti‐reform’. The author suggests that although each reform made incremental improvements in the ways that preservice teachers are prepared to teach multilingual and multicultural learners, none significantly altered the education of under‐served children and youth. For instance, CTE points out the importance of prior knowledge, but fails in connecting its core concepts with culturally relevant instruction. CBTE, while also generally failing to alter teacher preparation for multicultural learners, did try to make explicit connections for preservice teachers. RTE made explicit the moral consequences of working in diverse communities but fell short when it altered the apprenticeship–mentor relationship. AC of teachers is presented as the work of neo‐liberals whose largely successful efforts to deregulate teacher preparation offer both an improvement and retrenchment for urban children and youth. Finally, the article links the field’s focus on the preparation of teachers for diverse students and the moral dimension of teacher education, concluding that such a connection may be the only way to maintain the professional school preparation of teachers.

Student teacher professional agency in the practicum

Teachers are encouraged to be active professionals in their work. Consequently, the development of professional agency in student teachers is an important dimension in teacher education. This paper reports on a study where the practice of six early childhood student teachers enrolled in a Bachelor of Education (Teaching) course was analysed, using Giddens' concept of agency, and each was found to have operated with agency. However, when additional criteria pertaining to early childhood professional practice were applied by means of a triadic viewpoint only three of the student teachers were deemed to have operated with ‘professional’ agency. Factors that were perceived to have contributed to or detracted from the student teachers' capacity to operate with professional agency were identified. Arising from these factors, this paper argues for in‐depth student teacher preparation for the practicum in order to develop professional agency.

The reflective dimension in teacher education

The terms “reflection” and “reflective practitioner” are now common currency in articles about teacher education and teachers’ professional development, especially in British and North American research. In this chapter, the term “reflection” as it relates to teachers and teacher education will be problematized, drawing particularly on Schön's (Educating the reflective practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass) terms “reflection-in-action” and “reflection-on-action.” Differing definitions of reflection will be put forward, their inter-relationship explored, and how these relate to courses of initial teacher education in a variety of countries and cultural contexts. Questions about the value and purpose of reflection will also be raised, as well as to its practical relevance to teacher education.

The Political Dimension in Teacher Education: Comparative Perspectives on Policy Formation, Socialization and Society

Teacher Education Policy in England, Maeve Landman and Jenny Ozga Teacher Education, Reform and the Politics of Knowledge in the United States, Thomas S. Popkewitz Teacher Education in Search of a Metaphor: Defining the Realtionship Between Teachers, Teaching and the State in China, Lynn Paine Sociopolitical Realities and Teacher Education in New South Africa, Beverly Lindsay Student Teaching as Social Reproduction: An Ethnography in Appalachia in the United States, Linda Spatig Preparing Teachers for Gender Politics in Germany: The State, The Church and Political Socialisation, Rajeshwari Raghu Contradictions, Resistance and Incorporation in the Political Socialisation of Educators in Mexico, Mark B. Ginsburg.

The European dimension in teacher education

The European dimension in teacher education

Preparing Principals to Manage Productive Schools: A Neglected Dimension of Teacher Education

Preparing Principals to Manage Productive Schools: A Neglected Dimension of Teacher Education

Developing a global dimension in teacher education: The Florida international university experience

(1982). Developing a global dimension in teacher education: The Florida international university experience. Theory Into Practice: Vol. 21, Global Education, pp. 212-217.