Initial Teacher Education Partnership Research Articles

The role of schools within initial teacher education in England: an exploration of the shifting policy focus over the past 50 years

ABSTRACT Looking back at the very first issue of the Journal of Education for Teaching, it is clear that initial teacher education (ITE) was, at the time, undergoing significant change and has, in fact, been subject to political scrutiny in each of the intervening decades. Our paper traces key policy moments over the past 50 years in England, examining specifically those policies that have had implications for the role of schools and school-based teacher educators within ITE programmes. Our interest is in the broader context that has informed ITE policy-making, the content of those policies, and the implications for the role of schools. We go on to discuss how the concept of ITE partnership working has evolved over this period and then consider the pedagogic role that schools can play in the education of teachers, including the role of school-based mentors. Finally, we consider the potential impact on the practice of the most recent set of ITE reforms in England.

Agency in negotiating partnerships in initial teacher education: shifting sands

ABSTRACT Despite over two decades of research, initial teacher education (ITE) partnerships remain problematic. Our study explores the development of a mandated ITE university–school partnership in Wales amidst significant educational reform. Through qualitative research, involving focus groups with 47 teacher educators from a university and 15 schools, we investigate their perceptions and experiences, focusing on shifts in professional roles and responsibilities. Our findings reveal disparities in the impact on the staff, including differences in changes to their roles and responsibilities, perceptions and experiences of agency and in the emotional effort required in the change process. We contend these findings have implications for all stakeholders involved in development of university–school ITE partnerships. In particular, the need for support for the development of individual and joint agency for all staff involved in partnership-building efforts. By shedding light on the complexities involved, we offer valuable insights for practitioners and researchers engaged in similar initiatives.

Towards a typology of secondary school subject departments

ABSTRACT Subject departments are an increasingly important unit of analysis for research on schools and beginning teachers’ experiences. By analysing a practice-based typology of eight departmental types through an exploratory factor analysis of questionnaires completed by beginning teachers (n = 55), the authors refined the typology to four (hierarchical; open; self-promoting; divisive). Further exploration of this refined typology, through in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of six beginning teachers, allowed the authors to illustrate the departmental types in relation to their experiences. These findings highlight some of the ways in which new regimes of accountability and corporatisation are reshaping the ways in which departmental cultures are constructed and enacted. The beginning teachers in this study describe their responses and adaptations to their placement departments in ways that highlight opportunities for Initial Teacher Education partnerships to better anticipate and prepare beginning teachers for the departmentalised nature of their experiences.

School-based mentor teachers as boundary-crossers in an initial teacher education partnership

Teacher educators are constantly challenged to collaborate across organizational boundaries between higher education and schools. This study examines a school-university partnership in Norway where school-based mentor teachers are co-employed in short-term contracts as joint faculty, collaborating on subject development, co-planning, and co-instruction. The study is based on interviews with 11 school-based mentor teachers co-employed as joint faculty. A reflexive thematic analysis elicited three main perspectives on the participants' experiences: (a) professional dissonance; (b) professional contribution; and (c) professional growth. The analysis identified some of the complexities from working across organizational boundaries, as well as opportunities for innovation and professional growth.

Partnership through placement: Scottish HEI-tutors views on collaboration with schools through the initial teacher education placement experience

ABSTRACT Placement, the part of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) involving Pre-Service Teachers (PSTs) working in school, is a marked feature of ITE programmes that involve Higher Education Institution (HEI) input. In Scotland, placement is a feature of ITE, forms a major plank of the assessment of teaching quality and occurs in partnership arrangements between HEIs, schools and other organisations. As part of the Measuring Quality in Initial Teacher Education (MQuITE) research project, HEI-staff at the nine Scottish institutions offering ITE were surveyed for their views on a range of ITE matters. This paper discusses 150 respondents’ answers regarding placement within current partnership arrangements. Using positioning theory (cf) as the frame for thematic analysis and data highlighted concerns, but significant desire for continuing development of partnership as a mechanism to develop PSTs. The paper has international implications for systems that utilise placement within a standards-based approach to ITE partnership.

Associate Teachers’ views on dialogic mentoring

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to examine Associate Teachers’ (ATs) views on dialogic mentoring. More specifically it considers the views of 48 ATs who were involved in an Initial Teacher Education (ITE) partnership that has emerged in response to several changes that have occurred in Welsh education. Educational reforms in Wales have highlighted the value of mentoring and the new ITE partnership is uniquely committed to a dialogic approach. A questionnaire and three focus group interviews were used to generate data from the 48 ATs who were completing a one-year postgraduate programme. Thematic analysis was then used to interrogate the data and identify patterns of response. Adopting a dialogic approach was found to remove some of the anxiety around formal observations and help establish trusting collaborative relationships where ATs were willing to take risks. The dialogic approach was more democratic and gave ATs a stronger voice, but this also created some conflict as mentors’ own beliefs were more likely to be questioned. The dialogic approach relied on mentors being fully invested in the process and being committed to open conversations about learning.

The promoting active lifestyles (PAL) project: a principle‐based approach to pedagogical change

AbstractThis paper presents findings on physical education (PE) trainees’ and teachers’ attempts to design and implement authentic curricular experiences, within the constraints of a neoliberalist context. It involved adopting a principle‐based approach to promoting active lifestyles designed to align PE trainees’ and teachers’ health‐related philosophies and pedagogies. The promoting active lifestyles (PAL) project was framed by social cognitive theory and the social ecological model and adopted a qualitative explanatory case study approach. Participants were secondary school PE trainees and teachers involved in a University‐based Initial Teacher Education partnership in the East Midlands in England. The 32 participants were involved in professional development which included co‐constructing and implementing PAL principles in the schools in which they were employed or undertaking their placement. All participants viewed the PAL principles positively and were able to implement at least some of them. Participants experienced unanticipated benefits beyond increased physical activity such as improved pupil behaviour. Many participants described transformative and enduring changes to their health‐related philosophies and pedagogies. This low cost, flexible principle‐based approach to pedagogical change addresses calls for evidence‐based PE‐for‐health pedagogies and the development of possibilities that acknowledge the complexity of supporting physical educators to become more effective promoters of physical activity.

Constructing ‘good teaching’ through written lesson observation feedback

ABSTRACT This paper explores the ways in which ‘good teaching’ is constructed through mentors’ written lesson observation feedback during Initial Teacher Education (ITE). Written lesson observation feedback has received little research attention, yet represents a potentially powerful activity for teachers’ development. It is also an important aspect of direct university-school-beginning teacher collaboration which is common across diverse programmes and ITE partnerships internationally. Data were collected from written lesson observation feedback given to beginning teachers (n=127) on one ITE programme in England across oneyear to a total of 508 lessons, and analysed through a typology of competing conceptions of teaching defined by Winch et al.: craft, executive technician, and extended professional. These data suggest that teaching is predominantly constructed through mentors’ written feedback as a craft or technical activity. In response, we argue that there is scope to broaden the evidence considered, in particular by bringing observed insights about beginning teachers’ practice into dialogue with research evidence to construct a more expansive vision of teaching as a professional endeavour. This paper extends previous work on written lesson observation feedback through a larger scale empirical study, and by connecting the practice with broader attempts seeking to improve teachers’ engagement with research evidence.

Prompting Pedagogical Change through Promoting Active Lifestyles Paradoxes.

This study explored approaches to promoting active lifestyles (PAL) in schools which aimed to inform and develop physical education (PE) trainees and teachers’ health-related philosophies and pedagogies. Thirty-two secondary school PE trainees and teachers involved in a University-based Initial Teacher Education partnership in England participated in this study during the period 2015–2019. The participants were involved in professional development which included an introduction to research-informed PAL ‘paradoxes’ associated with promoting active lifestyles. Participants were asked to review their own health-related philosophies and practices in light of these paradoxes and were encouraged to use them to influence their own pedagogies as well as those of colleagues/peers. Participants found the PAL paradoxes interesting, surprising and perplexing; expressed a keen desire to address and solve them; and experienced the joys and challenges of influencing colleagues’/peers’ health-related philosophies and pedagogies. The findings suggest that this innovative low-cost, flexible and accessible approach to pedagogical change has the potential to engage PE teachers, increase their effectiveness as promoters of physical activity, and to greatly enhance the subject’s contribution to public health. This is significant, given calls for new pedagogical approaches and teachers’ previously reported lack of engagement in professional development in this area.

Learning from professional challenges identified by school and institute-based teacher educators within the context of school–university partnership

ABSTRACT Over the last decade, in both the Netherlands and England, national policy-driven changes have increased schools' responsibility in initial teacher education. This research gathered teacher educators' stories of challenges experienced ‘on the ground’ in these school–university partnerships. The aim was to explore the reality of working within school-based teacher education partnerships rather than a comparative study between the two countries. Challenges were identified in guiding and assessing student-teachers; professionalism and well-being of student-teachers and teacher educators; collaborative working and quality assurance. The stories revealed complexities of working across institutional borders with multiple stakeholders. Many teacher educators sought their own solution rather than discussing the challenges with others in the partnership. Resolution was sometimes beyond their control and needed to be dealt with on a different partnership level. The stories provide authentic teacher educator voices for use as a professional learning tool in developing collaborative practices in initial teacher education partnerships.

Growing Tomorrow's Teachers Together: The CaBan Initial Teacher Education Partnership

In this paper we outline the philosophy and research foundations underpinning the development of CaBan – an Initial Teacher Education (ITE) Partnership developed for the purpose of educating the teachers of tomorrow for North Wales. CaBan represents an ambitious 'learning partnership' of five partners consisting of regional schools, Bangor University, University of Chester, the regional school improvement service (GwE), and the Collaborative Institute for Education Research, Evidence and Impact (CIEREI). Each partner plays a key role in fulfilling our ambitions to contribute to Our National Mission and achieve our vision of 'Growing Tomorrow's Teachers Together.' At its core, the goal of CaBan is to support our new Associate Teachers (ATs) to become creative, inspiring and highly skilled teachers who will contribute to the delivery of A curriculum for Wales – a curriculum for life (Welsh Government, 2015). In this paper we outline: (i) our basic vision and mission as a learning partnership; (ii) the evidence to support our strategic pedagogical position with respect to growing tomorrow's teachers; (iii) the crucial role of mentoring in the development of our ATs as critically reflective practitioners; (iv) how we integrate research as a fundamental element of all we do; (v) how our programme design is underpinned by the notion of professional enquiry and career long professional learning (vi) the specific modes of learning that help nurture ATs' sense of their 'teaching self '; and crucially (vii) the importance of Welsh culture and the Welsh language in education and the role the CaBan partnership has in building capacity to help realise Welsh Government's vision for a million Welsh speakers by 2050.

Developing Professional Identity and Ethos through Research and Practice in Initial Teacher Education: The USW ITE Partnership Approach

Reform of the education sector in Wales has given university-school partnerships of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in Wales much to grapple with conceptually and practically, in order to design new programmes of ITE that can attract national-level accreditation in line with the recommendations made by Professor John Furlong in 2015. These reforms have required a system-wide rethink of ITE, based on a philosophy for new provision. This article outlines an approach to ITE inspired by the work of Lee Shulman (2005) who argued that teacher education should prioritise the acquisition of three habits, corresponding to the 'what' the 'so what' and finally the 'who' of teaching, namely an understanding of one's professional identity, ethos and character. We describe a pedagogical model for embedding these principles in ITE, based on the work of Parker, Patton and O'Sullivan (2016). Finally, we consider the implications for mentors and lecturers, noting in particular the need to see all members of the ITE partnership as learners, both to ensure effective role models for beginning teachers, and also to remain faithful to the principle laid down in social development theory (Vygotsky, 1978) that learning is interactive and symbiotic.

Trainee Teachers with Dyslexia: Results of a Qualitative Study of Teachers and their Mentors

This study explored the perceptions of trainee teachers with dyslexia, and their mentors, of their placement experiences during their initial teacher training course. The research was conducted within one initial teacher education partnership in the north of England. Data were collected through two focus groups; one of trainees and one of mentors. Trainees described the difficulties they experienced with teaching literacy (particularly phonics), difficulties with memory and difficulties with the administrative demands of placement. Mentors emphasised trainees’ weaknesses and although some mentors wanted to recognise and support the strengths of the trainees, they felt responsible as gate-keepers to the profession. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.16.12.6

Student teachers’ positionalities as knowers in school subject departments

Student teachers in England, mainly on one‐year courses, spend the majority of their time in schools. Secondary schools are primarily organised around subject departments, and these subgroups within schools have been shown to be significant for student outcomes and teachers’ experiences. However, research on school subject departments themselves is relatively limited, and developing better understandings of school subject departments is important for Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and educational research more broadly. This paper draws on an ethnographic study of three secondary school geography departments to analyse student teachers’ positionalities as knowers within departments. Opportunities for professional discussions within departments are limited, and are often dominated by immediate practical concerns. A social‐realist concept of knowledge–knower structures is used to explore the kinds of knowers accepted as legitimate in these departments. A dichotomous view of teachers as knowers was found, being positioned as knowing or not‐knowing particular areas of subject knowledge. This binary view is argued to be related to the language of the Teachers’ Standards in England. Suggestions are made for improving student teachers’ positions as knowers within departments by planning opportunities to contribute their expertise, and for developing more expansive discourses around subject knowledge to enable all to maximise opportunities to learn from the rich mines of expertise held across ITE partnerships.

Deconstructing the Carter Review: competing conceptions of quality in England’s ‘school-led’ system of initial teacher education

The commitment to establish a ‘school-led’ system of teacher education in England, announced by the Coalition Government in 2011 and relentlessly pursued thereafter, represented a radical departure from previous kinds of initial teacher education partnership. While it is entirely consistent with a neoliberal agenda, with its strong regulatory framework and appeal to market mechanisms, it is also underpinned by a particular conception of teaching as a craft – ‘best learnt as an apprentice observing a master craftsman or woman’. In 2014, the government established a Review of Initial Teacher Training, led by a primary school head teacher, Sir Andrew Carter. This signalled the recognition of teacher education as a ‘policy problem’, adopting Cochran-Smith’s term. The ensuing report, published in early 2015, was more nuanced than might have been anticipated, although a number of profound tensions emerge from a closer analytical reading; four of these tensions are similar to those previously defined by Cochran-Smith and two are newly emergent. This paper identifies and discusses these tensions as they appear in the Carter Review and relates them to wider debates about the links between teaching, teacher education, evidence and research and to policy-making processes in education.

The impact of adopting a research orientation towards use of the Pupil Premium Grant in preparing beginning teachers in England to understand and work effectively with young people living in poverty

The introduction in England of the Pupil Premium Grant (PPG) provided a stimulus to ensure that beginning teachers understand the nature of poverty and critically examine strategies used by schools seeking to overcome the barriers to academic achievement that it presents. This article explores the effects of asking student-teachers within a well-established initial teacher education partnership to adopt a research orientation towards the use of PPG funding. It focuses on the student-teachers’ experiences and developing thinking as they engaged in small-scale investigative projects and on the perspectives of their school-based teacher educators (professional tutors). Whole-course evaluation data suggest that most projects operated successfully, with the student-teachers encouraged to ask critical questions about current practices, drawing on different kinds of evidence. Three case studies illustrate the diversity of approaches adopted towards the project, reflecting the views of individual professional tutors and the complex interplay between the competing object motives of different participants.

Reimagining a School – University Partnership: The Development of the Oxford Education Deanery Narrative

We trace the recent development of the Oxford Education Deanery as an expansion of an initial teacher education partnership to include wider school-university collaboration in professional development, and in research. The current policy pressures in England are described on both school-university partnerships for initial teacher education, and on schools and universities generally. Then, using cultural historical theory, we show the recent development of a complex alliance through shared understandings of motives, which created common knowledge expressed within a common narrative. We argue that such re-imagined school-university partnerships offer an optimistic future for teacher education.

‘It’s quite liberating turning up to a classroom without a pile of papers and equipment.’ Pedagogic bungee jumping: a strategy to rethink teaching in a technology-rich age?

Initial Teacher Education (ITE) for the post-compulsory sector (PCE) in the UK is currently under review. Despite earlier plans to substantially increase the use of technology in ITE the Lifelong Learning UK (LLUK) consultation findings recommend that ‘we will expect that teachers do develop their skills in this area to a limited extent on a mandatory basis' ( LLUK, 2011b :12). This is a disappointing departure as other commissioned work such as that from the Learning and Skills Improvement Service ( LSIS) (2009 : 8) review of workforce development identified that this area was in need of continuous updating. This article will consider the need more than ever before to explore what Barnett identifies (2007: 1) as the links between teaching and learning in higher education and ‘pedagogic bungee jumping’ with the development of cultures supportive to experimental technology use in ITE focusing upon a group of teacher educators in a West Midlands ITE Partnership (higher education institute (HEI) and partner colleges).

Creating expansive learning opportunities in schools: the role of school leaders in initial teacher education partnerships

This article analyses the learning opportunities afforded pre-service teachers when participating in a primary school placement in London, England as part of their university teacher education course. Cultural historical activity theory is used as a theoretical framework to address how pre-service teacher learning opportunities are constructed. Building on a previous year-long ethnographic study which explored how and why pre-service teacher learning opportunities differed in school settings, this paper introduces a small scale pilot study. The study integrates developmental work research into an initial teacher education school/university partnership, and considers the role of the school leader in this. Possibilities for pre-service teachers, teachers and teacher educators to work together in a research process that is integral to an initial teacher education partnership are forwarded, with the aim of ensuring that critical enquiry and learning are kept at the forefront of the activity.

Surprising but not shocking: The reality of the first year of teaching

The need in many countries not merely to recruit but – critically – to retain effective teachers has been a key factor in shaping induction policies. Past reviews of teacher induction have highlighted two important sources of difficulty: novices’ own unrealistic expectations of teaching and of students, and others’ unrealistic expectations of the novices. This article, which examines the relationship between teachers’ expectations of the first year of teaching and the realities that they encounter, explores the ways in which two policies in England – school-based initial teacher education partnerships (established since the early 1990s) and formal induction arrangements (re-introduced in 2000) have impacted on beginning teachers’ experience of the transition. Drawing on data from a three-year longitudinal study it focuses specifically on how the teachers’ reflections on their experience of their first year in teaching are related to the accounts that they give of their learning over the same period.