Implications For Teacher Education Research Articles

Teachers as street-level bureaucrats: Navigating language ideologies and restrictive language environments

ABSTRACT This critical literature review employs a novel combination of theoretical perspectives to examine the ways teachers navigate restrictive language policy. Specifically, we examine the documented effects of California’s Proposition 227 on pre-service and in-service teachers’ language ideologies and classroom practices. In our investigation, we explored the link between restrictive language policy and language ideologies by addressing an overarching question: How are language ideologies related to restrictive language policy? We also sought to answer the questions: How did teachers’ language ideologies impact the implementation of Proposition 227? And, how did Proposition 227 affect teachers’ language ideologies and practices? We discuss our findings and how pre-service and in-service teachers, as street-level bureaucrats, possess agency to resist harmful language policies in restrictive language environments. Finally, we conclude with implications for teacher education, highlighting the role teacher educators play in helping to foster educational equity.

Investigating preservice teachers’ attitudes toward lesbian, gay, and bisexual students in Luxembourg

AbstractLesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) students face victimization in multiple contexts, including the educational context. Here, teachers can serve as an important resource for LGB students. However, teachers who are prejudiced against students from sexual minorities might not be able to fulfill this role. Accordingly, it is important to find out more about teachers' attitudes and their correlates, as such information can provide starting points for sensitization interventions in teacher education programs, which have the potential to improve the situation of LGB students in the school setting. In the present preregistered questionnaire study, we investigated the attitudes of 138 preservice teachers from the University of Luxembourg toward LGB students and tried to identify predictors of teachers’ attitudes. Results suggested that Luxembourgish preservice teachers hold mostly positive attitudes toward LGB students. Using correlation and multiple regression analyses, we identified the frequency of participants’ contact with LGB people in family or friend networks, hypergendering tendencies, sexual orientation, and religiosity as reliable predictors of attitudes toward LGB students. Age, gender, and right-wing conservatism did not reliably predict preservice teachers’ attitudes in the regression models. Our findings thus offer support for intergroup contact theory and have implications for teacher education in Luxembourg.

How constructivism influences pre-service teachers’ beliefs and practices and child self-regulation

ABSTRACT Project Construct is a learner-centered constructivist framework that emphasizes positive teacher-student relationships, autonomy, and child-led experiences. Constructivist pedagogy promote cognitive, behavioral, and academic outcomes. Yet, novice teachers struggle to grasp constructivist teaching practices and tend to emphasize teacher-directed activities. The present study investigated whether the opportunity to learn and apply constructivist teaching approaches in an elementary school setting would affect education students’ understanding of constructivism and children’s self-regulation. Eight education students participated in a 4-week summer undergraduate class in a public-school setting. Students’ understanding of constructivist principles was assessed through a 30-statement questionnaire. Kindergarten classrooms were randomly assigned to either the Project Construct classroom where Education students participated in or the control classroom. Children’s self-regulation skills were assessed through the Head Toes Knees and Shoulders (HTKS) Task before and after the 4-week class. Results revealed that Education students’ knowledge of principles of constructivism grew significantly from the beginning to the end of this semester. Children’s performance on the HTKS grew significantly in the Project Construct and control classrooms, although there were no significant differences between the Project Construct and control classroom. These findings have implications for teacher education and how constructivist pedagogy can affect child self-regulation.

Affordances, translanguaging and the international preservice teacher

ABSTRACT Pedagogical translanguaging (TL) represents a contemporary and valuable instructional approach for bi/multilingual students. Researchers have identified the instructional practices and their affordances among bi/multilingual teachers who share a home language with their students, the dominant language used in the students’ home or community, and those who do not. However, research set in the United States into bilingual, international preservice teachers (PSTs) has not been forthcoming. This article reports on findings from two PSTs enrolled in a university practicum teaching course. One PST shares a home language, Spanish, with her students while the other, who is an international multilingual PST, does not. The aim of this research was to deepen an understanding of how each describes the affordances connected to pedagogical TL in their 15-week university practicum course and the connected practicum teaching experience. Data collection included interviews and weekly written assignments from the university course. Drawing on multi-case study design, findings revealed the ways that a linguistic repertoire, which included the ability to use Spanish, was instrumental in how they described the affordances related to pedagogical TL both in their classroom and in the connected practicum teaching site. Implications for teacher educators in multilingual education are given.

Supervisory Relationships, Constructing Academic Identity, and Transition to the Researcher: An Interpretative Single-Case Study

The present interpretative case study aimed to explore constructing researcher identity through successful dyadic supervisory relationships. The only participant in the current single case study was Ako, a recently graduated doctoral student who published some papers with his supervisor and kept that intimate and fruitful relationship after graduation. The data were collected through in-depth interviews, journals, and narration. Thematic analyses (Braun & Clarke, 2006) were conducted to analyze the collected data. In line with Wisker’s (2012) framework, the findings generated four themes, including _supervisor's qualities, supervisor’s affective expectations, supervisee’s journey, _and _relationship enhancement. _The results revealed that a full-fledged and intimate supervisory relationship, in both formal and informal settings, contributed to developing researcher identity. The results have some implications for teacher educators, university managers, supervisors, and doctoral students.

TEACHERS’ BELIEFS ABOUT CLASSROOM LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT: COLLABORATIVE DISCUSSION AS A MEDIATIONAL SPACE

In recent years, numerous studies have been conducted on language teachers’ beliefs about language assessment; however, teachers’ collaborative discussion as a mediational tool has received scant attention. The present study aimed to investigate non-native language teachers’ beliefs about classroom language assessment regarding features of effective assessment, assessment of learners by teachers, peers, and themselves, benefits of assessment, informal assessment vs. formal assessment, and continuous assessment. Participants of the study were positioned in two collaborative discussion groups of novice and experienced teachers. Analysis of the data indicated that the teachers in each focus group held similar beliefs about most of the issues on classroom language assessment. The findings also demonstrated that the participants believed in the important role of classroom language assessment for different purposes, the utilization of both informal and formal assessment, and the utilization of continuous assessment as a fair mode of assessment. Furthermore, they believed that classroom language assessment should accurately assess what is taught in the course while focusing on all four language skills and sub-skills. Although they had positive attitudes toward teacher assessment and self-assessment, they were not in favor of peer assessment. The results of this study have implications for teacher education as adequate attention should be paid to teachers’ assessment beliefs due to their vital role in classroom assessment. Collaborative discussions can be enacted in teacher education to shape and reshape teachers' assessment beliefs.

The Social Justice Core Practices of Philadelphia Educators: A Modified Delphi Study

To live justice-oriented commitments in teaching practice, approaches spanning Social Justice Teacher Education, the Core Practice Movement, and Context-specific Teacher Preparation might dovetail by identifying “social justice core practices” (SJCPs) novices learn to enact. At the intersection of the situated and critical perspectives underlying these three approaches, this study investigates the SJCPs of Philadelphia educators and how they characterize their contextuality. A modified Delphi study drawing on the expertise of 27 local social justice educators revealed group consensus on 13 SJCPs. Further qualitative analysis surfaced four patterns related to contextuality: SJCPs as responses to macrosociopolitical inequities, manifesting critical praxis; the role of school, district, and professional constraints; the need to situate and adapt SJCPs for the subject area and grade level; and the inseparability of identity and positionality from enactment. From this site-specific approach positioning local educators as experts, implications for teacher education’s role in shaping a more justice-oriented profession are discussed.

Evidence-based teaching: effective teaching practices in primary school classrooms

Understanding and measuring effective teaching practices in low- and middle-income countries is a complex process that requires a contextualised knowledge of teaching quality, as well as adaptable instruments that can reliably capture teachers’ varied classroom behaviours. One approach developed with these purposes in mind is Teach Primary, a classroom observation framework designed and revised in 2021 by the World Bank. This framework captures the time teachers spend on learning and the quality of teaching practices which help to enhance pupils’ cognitive and socio-emotional skills, as well as aspects of the physical environment which may influence teaching quality. Using the Teach Primary framework, this article examines evidence regarding effective instructional practices in primary school classrooms, with highlighted examples from low- and middle-income countries. It also sheds light on the criticality of instrument contextualisation, given variations in how practices can be valued and implemented in different settings and how structural quality factors can influence teachers’ use of strategies. Challenges and limitations relating to the use of the Teach Primary framework are discussed, along with implications for teacher education and evaluation.

Reimagining teacher education for immigrant students in the context of global migration: Teacher educators’ perspectives

Global migration presents a pressing need for teachers and teacher education to become responsive to the changing demographics of schools in many countries. Yet, teacher education has been slow in developing practices to prepare teachers to meet the needs of immigrant students. Using humanizing pedagogy as a lens, this study draws on interviews with 22 teacher educators from Türkiye, the United States, and Hong Kong to examine how they prepare teachers to teach immigrant students. Findings highlight: (1) personal and professional contexts; (2) professional practices; and (3) supports for/barriers to change. Implications for teacher educators and teachers are discussed.

Epistemic governance of community readiness in ITE discourse

ABSTRACT This critical discussion paper explores the epistemic governance of “community readiness” in and for teacher education. Classroom ready is often interpreted as technical skill which places emphasis on practice to the detriment of more complex interpretations of the relational nature of teachers’ work, leading to a potential narrowing of teachers’ professional roles. Importantly, classrooms do not exist in a vacuum. We seek to untangle the discursive clusters and processes that can be taken for granted in terms such as “community” and the implications for teacher education that serves quality education and teaching.

The emergence of autonomy in intertwingled learning environments: a model of teaching and learning

ABSTRACT Nelson and Nelson (1987) coined the term “intertwingularity” to express the complexity of interrelations between the various facets of human knowledge. This theoretical paper explores the intertwingularity of learning environments by proposing a model for understanding and operationalising the relationship between learning environments and their relative degrees of cooperative freedoms and the learning technologies used by teachers and students. Two case studies demonstrate that these types of learning environments generate far more complexity, in the form of recursion and iteration, than do traditional learning environments. While these types of distributed learning networks have been observed in adult learning settings, they have only been rarely observed in K-12 classrooms. Implications for teacher education and teacher education research are discussed.

The self-sought professional learning experiences of secondary school teachers in Malta

ABSTRACT With the introduction of the sectorial agreement signed between the Maltese Government and the Malta Union of Teachers in 2017, Maltese teachers have been incentivised to accelerate their salary scale progression following engagement in self-sought professional learning. The theory of affordances was applied in this mixed-methods research to explore the importance attributed by secondary school teachers towards self-sought learning. Following data collection of 166 questionnaires and 14 teacher interviews, quantitative and qualitative data were analysed using SPSS and MAXQDA respectively. Results suggest that while the majority of teachers are intrinsically motivated to pursue self-sought professional learning, they seek incentives and, in particular, monetary support. Other important barriers that hinder teachers in furthering their professional learning beyond school hours are family responsibilities and lack of time. This study provides insights into teachers’ conceptualisations of professional learning and implications for teacher education.

Applying the concept of ‘PE-for-sport-literacy’: exploring pre-service teacher identities with a new way of teaching sport

ABSTRACT We explored how a physical education teacher education (PETE) programme at an Australian university influenced physical education pre-service teacher (PEPST) sport teaching identities. Our methodology utilised Elias’s [2012a [1970, 1978]. What is sociology? Collected works (Vol. 5). University College Dublin Press] personal pronouns as a figurational model which shows how social group (‘we’) identity relates to outsiders (‘they’) as well as individual members (‘I’) within communities. We also drew upon the concepts of figuration [Elias, N. (2012b [1939]). On the process of civilisation, collected works (Vol. 3). University College Dublin Press], habitus [Elias, N. (2010 [1987]). The society of individuals, collected works (Vol. 10). University College Dublin Press] and established and outsider theory [Elias, N., & Scotson, J. L. (2008 [1965]). The established and the outsiders. Collected works (Vol. 4). University College Dublin Press]. By examining if and how the ‘I’ pronoun was used in a written assessment task, we sought to ascertain the extent PEPSTs might apply the concept of ‘PE-for-sport-literacy’ (PE4SL) in their future careers. Just over half the participants wrote ‘I’ statements about how they would enact sport teaching in convincing and believable ways, the remaining PEPSTs provided descriptive narratives, suggesting a limited engagement with PE4SL, using writing styles more akin to academic writing, with little or no use of the ‘I’ pronoun. Our findings are important because, there have been limited studies about the process of teacher identity formation in teacher education [Beauchamp, C., & Thomas, L. (2009). Understanding teacher identity: An overview of issues in the literature and implications for teacher education. Cambridge Journal of Education, 39(2), 175–189] and fewer studies about the construction of PEPST identity [Liu, J., & Keating, X. D. (2022). Development of the Pre-service Physical Education Teachers’ Teacher Identity Scale. European Physical Education Review, 28(1), 186–204] and PE teacher identity [Virta, J., Hökkä, P., Eteläpelto, A., & Rasku-Puttonen, H. (2019). Professional identity among student teachers of physical education: The role of physicality. European Journal of Teacher Education, 42(2), 192–210]. Our findings then, add to the finite stock of knowledge concerning PEPST teacher identity development, by drawing attention to the varied ways our participants engaged with PE4SL. This study reinforces previous research that highlighted that as teacher educators, the knowledge we teach does not automatically translate into beginning teacher practices [Brown, D. (2005). An economy of gendered practices? Learning to teach physical education from the perspective of Pierre Bourdieu's embodied sociology. Sport, Education and Society, 10(1), 3–23; Fernández-Balboa, J.-M. (2009). Bio-pedagogical self-reflection in PETE: Reawakening the ethical conscience and purpose in pedagogy and research. Sport, Education and Society, 14(2), 147–163].

CHALLENGES FACED BY CHINESE TEACHERS TEACHING CONTINUATION WRITING TO SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

This study aims to identify teachers' challenges while teaching senior continuation writing (CW) in China. The study involved ten teachers at L School in Guangxi Province, China. A semi-structured interview was used to conduct the research, which revealed that teachers face several challenges in teaching CW. These challenges include students' need for English vocabulary and grammar knowledge, a heavy teaching workload, a lack of training, and the absence of teaching materials. Pedagogical implications for teachers and L schools to address these challenges are put forward. Firstly, English teachers can use specific teaching strategies to target vocabulary and grammar deficiencies. Providing diverse materials, like diaries and film clips, can also help guide writing. Secondly, collaborating with other teachers to find materials that match students' proficiency levels can help alleviate workloads. For school leadership, providing ongoing professional development for teachers on writing and teaching skills in CW is crucial. Reducing workload through smaller class sizes and well-arranged schedules is also recommended. Offering CW materials at different proficiency levels is essential for supporting student learning and teacher teaching. Finally, fostering a positive atmosphere that encourages teacher teamwork and experience sharing is vital.

From development work to research publication: a case of Norwegian teacher educators developing research literacy

ABSTRACT The importance of research capacity-building in teacher education is highlighted to enable teachers to be change agents who continually develop their own and the school’s collective practices, which again presupposes that the teacher educators themselves are research literate. However, teacher educators come from different backgrounds and have varying levels of experience with conducting research. They are also often challenged by competing demands from teaching and conducting research. This article examines four teacher educators who conducted developmental projects in their program while simultaneously participating in a series of structured workshops in research methods and academic writing. The article reports on interview data and logs from the participants and investigates how the workshops contributed to their development of research literacy. The findings indicate that the participants required and appreciated the structured scaffolding they were given, and they highlighted the importance of positive group support. The participants also expressed that the workshops contributed not only to building capacity for conducting research for them individually but also for building research capacity within their home institutions. Implications for teacher education are discussed, and the authors argue that targeted and individualized support beyond what is currently the case might be needed.

Pre-Service Teachers Notice Student Thinking: Then What?

Research has demonstrated that pre-service teachers (PSTs) can learn to notice students’ thinking in sophisticated ways by analyzing videos of classroom interactions. What is less clear is how PSTs use what they notice about student thinking to inform how they respond. Secondary math and science PSTs from three teacher preparation programs were invited to analyze a video clip identifying noteworthy moments of student thinking and describing an instructional move they might make and why. A qualitative analysis of their responses indicates that the PSTs overwhelmingly noticed both the substance and the source of students’ ideas. However, the patterns in their responses to these moments varied. These findings suggest that PSTs would benefit from spending more time unpacking what it means to respond to students’ thinking. The study provides implications for teacher education with respect to the careful selection of classroom clips and tools to support novice teachers developing responsive teaching practices.

Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Teacher Education

This essay explores the profound impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on teacher education, tracing the evolution of this intersection from its inception to the present day. It delves into the definition of AI in education, emphasizing its transformative potential in reshaping the teacher training landscape. The essay underscores the importance of teacher education in preparing educators for an AI-driven future, focusing on personalized learning, adaptive systems, and AI-driven content creation. It examines the benefits of AI in teacher education, such as improved accessibility and data-driven decision-making, while also addressing the challenges and ethical considerations that arise. Through case studies and real-world examples, the essay provides insights into successful AI implementations and lessons learned from failures. Furthermore, it glimpses into the future, highlighting emerging AI trends and their implications for teacher education. In conclusion, this essay illuminates the dynamic and promising role of AI in redefining teacher education, ultimately enhancing the quality of education and fostering educators’ readiness for the digital era.

Models of conceptualizing and measuring statistical knowledge for teaching: A critical review

Since it has become necessary for each individual to be statistically literate, statistical education research has taken teachers’ competencies into its agenda. The knowledge needed to teach statistics differs from the knowledge needed to teach mathematics since statistics is different from mathematics. Teachers and researchers need to consider these differences and be aware of the challenges of statistics teaching. This article focuses on the nature of statistical knowledge for teaching (SKT). Models of conceptualizing and measuring SKT from research literature were reviewed critically. The strengths and weaknesses of models were discussed. The article concludes with some implications for teacher education and research.

Facilitating Preservice Biology Teacher Development through Material-Based Lesson Planning

Lesson planning is a core task for preservice teachers and simultaneously a major challenge due to the complexity of the planning process. This complexity can be reduced by using preselected teaching materials (material-based planning). To explore its potential, think-aloud protocols of material-based planning on the topics of photosynthesis and digestion by 13 preservice biology teachers at a German university serve as the main data source. The data were coded using qualitative content analysis, whereby a superordinate distinction was made between core and secondary dimensions of lesson planning. The results reveal a focus on core dimensions such as instructional strategies (visible structures) and student understanding (deep structures), while secondary dimensions like reflecting task authenticity are comparatively rare. This shows the potential of material-based planning, which enables preservice teachers to concentrate on central planning dimensions due to a reduced workload. Further analysis of the code frequencies shows an imbalance between visible and deep structures, which is more commonly observed in the planning of photosynthesis and is interpreted as an indicator of students’ overload due to the complexity of the topic. Successful planning by preservice teachers is therefore dependent on both planning task and topic selection. Corresponding implications for teacher education are discussed.

Grandmother Cedar as Educator: Teacher Learning Through Native Knowledges and Sovereignty Curriculum

As Indigenous-led education mandates proliferate globally, understanding how educators teach Indigenous perspectives and sovereignty remains urgent. Learning and integrating such knowledge proves difficult for non-Native teachers, given their lengthy participation in settler colonial schooling and society. What does learning to implement Native sovereignty curriculum entail? Codesigned with eight Native education leaders, this qualitative study examines five non-Native K–12 teachers’ learning processes with Washington’s Since Time Immemorial curriculum across three schools, using interviews, observations, and other data. Findings indicate six themes of learning supporting meaningful implementation, one potential catalyst for overall growth, and two distinct learning trajectories that suggest outward, rather than inbound, directionality. Implications for teacher education and educational leadership clarify needed steps for teacher learning and curriculum implementation.