Nature Of Teacher Education Research Articles

The contribution of Teacher education to universities: a case study for international teacher educators

ABSTRACT This paper reports on the initial stage of a research project which aims to develop deeper understanding of the contribution teacher education, as a sub-discipline within Education, makes to Higher Education in England. The study is located in the intersection between the domains of teacher education and higher education scholarship, which in England represents a contested and ambiguous professional space. Tensions between competing accountability measures, pulling away from university-based to exclusively school-based teacher education, are exacerbated by proposed policy changes arising from the government's recent market review. Findings drawn from analysis of qualitative data from a national survey are discussed in the context of Elizabeth Povinelli's critique of late liberalism and previous scholarship on the nature of teacher educators’ work. Evidence from the study demonstrates numerous benefits to higher education of hosting teacher education departments, including contributions to standard metrics, regional development and knowledge exchange within a strategic social justice agenda. However, teacher educators themselves may find articulating these benefits difficult, because of marginalisation from the dominant ways of achieving and accounting for excellence in the modern university. These findings offer a cautionary tale to international colleagues whose governments may be embarking on equivalent paths of teacher education reform.

Teacher Educator’s Qualities for Successful Teaching: Students’ Perspectives on Teacher’s Personal Traits in Nepalese Context

The nature of teacher education in Nepal is being questioned by various critics because they argue that it only focuses on the formal or theoretical knowledge of the teachers rather than considering practical and behavioral aspects of teachers’ professional development. On this ground, this phenomenological research primarily aims at identifying students’ perspectives on personal qualities/characteristics of teacher educators and investigating how such personal qualities/characteristics contribute to successful teaching in the context of Nepal. The data has been collected through personal and structured interview taken with 10 students (who are prospective teachers as well) purposively selected from the 5 campuses of Kailali district that run B. Ed. and M. Ed. Programs. Through the interpretation and analysis of the data, the study reveals that personal characteristics of teacher educators are essential for successful teaching and learning. Such qualities should be recognized as the formal parameters of assessing teacher’s qualification for improving the entire course of teacher education.

Teacher Education, Teacher Preparation and Professional Development of Secondary Schoolteachers in Light of Recent Global Trends

The purpose of this study is to present a brief overview of the nature of teacher education and preparation programs, and the professional development of secondary schoolteachers in the Arab world, and to offer insights into recent global trends in the matter.By examining some of the relevant literature and scholarly work, this study’s main objective is to provide a comprehensive picture of the teacher-program-related policies offered by education colleges/institutions in the region in the light of global trends. To achieve this, the researchers surveyed most of the existing related studies conducted in the region. This was pursued through analysis of evidence, methodologies, underlying ideologies, and indicators of examined literature. Similarly, an analysis of publications relating to recent global trends was undertaken.Results suggest that a comprehensive “five-year” teacher programs is ideal to be integrated into higher education in the Arab world due to its feasibility, affordability as well as lower financial costs. It was found that that the components of existing teacher programs must be subject to evaluation and review for further development. However, the results indicate not only that the strategy of candidate admission and enrollment in colleges are not based on appropriate criteria, but also that a clear policy for teaching licensure is ignored.The study emphasizes the need to establish fully equipped teacher training centers. To attain this, we strongly suggest selecting or creating well-equipped and administratively affiliated schools to the colleges to provide an experimental environment for candidates to practice what they have learned. Achieving a balance between different course packages should be considered.

Understanding Identity and Context in the Development of Gay Teacher Identity: Perceptions and Realities in Teacher Education and Teaching

The way a teacher perceives relational justice—the feeling of being treated equitably and being included—in their work context is central to understanding the negotiation and enactment of teacher identity. For LGBTQ teachers, the degree to which they are out of the closet with their students and colleagues leads to many possible outcomes. These outcomes, ranging from feeling like they need to live duplicitous lives to being activist teachers that subvert the heteronormative assumptions in schools and curricula, are studied here by examining the identity development of a group of gay teachers and their perceptions of the schools in which they work. This article is based on a dissertation study that theorized that the heteronormative nature of teacher education is a limiting factor for gay teachers’ abilities to work and thrive in school contexts. The study included in depth case studies of four gay teachers and their journeys as gay men and teachers. The goal of the study was to answer the question: Does the enactment of gay teacher identity interrupt heteronormativity in schools? The study also sought to answer two ancillary questions: (1) How do gay teachers negotiate gay teacher identity in schools? and, (2) How do school contexts impact gay teachers’ perceptions of identity-based motivation and relational justice? This article will focus on Peter Ryan’s (pseudonym) case study, specifically because of its emblematic nature in summarizing the intent and implications of the overall study.

As Educators of Teachers, Where and When Do Our Responsibilities End?

Quality education is a basic right of every South African learner, though despite many positive changes in the country since 1994, the legacy of low-quality education in many historically disadvantaged parts of the school system remains. It is, therefore, not surprising that the quality of teacher education itself is becoming a crucial point of debate. The purpose of this research was to explore the perceptions of teacher educators at a teacher education institution in South Africa regarding the nature of their responsibilities as educators of teachers.This paper offers insight into the nature of teacher education and the importance of researching teacher education practices. A qualitative research design was utilized to gain a deeper understanding of the context and the participants' categories of meaning. The paper outlines what it means to professionally develop as a teacher educator as well as the ways in which teacher educators' perceive their own professional development and the extent of their responsibilities.

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The changes observed in the early 1990s have altered the conceptions of learning and teaching in the 21st century, which in turn have raised questions about the nature of teacher education and the core knowledge and skills to be taught to student teachers. Gaining insights about how student teachers project themselves as teachers of 21st century and how they assess their teaching capabilities became crucial for teacher educators and policy makers. This study was conducted with 40 pre-service teachers of English as a foreign language to investigate how they assess their teaching competences and how they project themselves as teachers of future. The study employed a convergent parallel mixed-method design. The findings from quantitative data indicated that their perception related to various teaching competencies were uniform and they feel themselves competent enough in teaching. However, they needed further help in classroom management. The qualitative data can be interpreted as a signal that our participants will possibly adopt a constructivist approach to language teaching.

Professionally Developing as a Teacher Educator

There is growing interest in the professional development of teacher educators as the demands, expectations, and requirements of teacher education increasingly come under scrutiny. The manner in which teacher educators learn to traverse their world of work in the development of their knowledge, skills, and ability is important. This article outlines some of the crucial shaping factors in that development, including the transition associated with becoming a teacher educator, the nature of teacher education itself, and the importance of researching teacher education practices. Through a careful analysis of these features, a framework for better understanding what it might mean to professionally develop as a teacher educator is proposed. The framework is designed to draw serious attention to the major aspects of teaching and learning about teaching that are central to shaping scholarship in teacher education and offer insights into the ways in which teacher educators’ professional development might be better understood and interpreted.

Teacher preparation to proficiency and beyond: exploring the landscape

Concerns around the provision and retention of quality teachers are global. Amongst these concerns are the preparedness of graduate teachers and the quality and nature of teacher education. The purpose of the article is to focus questions of teacher preparedness and education within a wider discussion around the professional life-cycle of teachers. Initial teacher education is viewed as the first phase of the professional life-cycle of a teacher; part of a professional continuum of learning and expertise, rather than a distinct preparatory phase. We do not present a detailed model for this continuum; believing there is still significant work to be done on defining and delineating the levels of expertise. Such work is beyond the scope of this paper. We do provide a starting point for further consideration. Further, we suggest a scaffolded transition, determined by the learning needs of teachers, between initial teacher education and induction, moving to in-service learning, with closer connections between providers and schools to mitigate against a disconnect between these phases of development. The potential role of professional standards in supporting teacher learning across the professional life-cycle is also discussed.

Historically Black Colleges and Universities in Teacher Education Reform

As for all teacher education programs, historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have been subject to a host of policy mandates for reform over the past three decades. As a group their approach to these changes has differed from those of majority institutions and their voice in the policy reform dialogue has been muted or absent. This article examines the consequences of HBCU exclusion and calls for more active participation from these institutions and a more receptive climate for their contributions. Keywords: teacher education reform, education policy, teacher education policy, historically Black colleges and universities Introduction Perhaps one of the most difficult, yet effective, approaches to accomplishing a goal is to recognize past success, acknowledge past failure, and proceed with the collective knowledge garnered from these experiences. For the past 30 years the African American community and its colleges and universities have focused attention on the survival, maintenance, and advancement of their teacher education programs and the representation of African Americans in the teaching force. The implicit goal has been to rescue, support, and leverage those PK- 12 students whose academic achievement is unrealized. Some of the initiatives that HBCU and other supportive organizations employed have met with success while others have been less effective. During this time of major change in the PK- 12 and postsecondary education sectors, it seems appropriate to examine the accomplishments and problems in some of these efforts to inform new and on-going efforts. In recent decades, a host of socioeconomic and political issues and factors have prompted unprecedented discussion and debate regarding the quality of teaching. All colleges and universities that train individuals to teach must make adjustments, but their approaches and strategies vary by mission, goals, size, affiliation and vicinity. Although HBCUs are a subset of all postsecondary institutions, their historical roots bind them in significant ways. Therefore, it is not surprising that one finds the HBCU approach distinctly different than that of majority institutions (Dilworth, 1984, 1986). This article focuses on the approach of HBCUs to teacher education reform over the past three decades and speculates how and why these institutions by and large are often marginalized or absent in the discussions and debates of the day. Reflecting on the key issues and trends of the past and the needs of all institutions, this author argues that the absence of an HBCU voice in the educational policy arena has disadvantaged a number of teacher quality initiatives and that there are compelling reasons for these institutions to continue to do what they do best in the preparation of educators, but to simultaneously consider new directions, strategies and missions. The author approached this work with the highest regard for all those who work to advance the quality of teaching for all children. While the observations and comments are derived largely from the literature they are influenced by this author's significant involvement in the teacher education reform initiatives of recent decades. This article begins with a discussion of the mission and goals of colleges and universities that train teachers for the nation's schools highlighting the various strategies that colleges of education, generally, and HBCUs, specifically, have developed to sustain their programs. The discussion moves to a review of select events that have influenced the expectations and nature of teacher education over the past three decades, noting HBCU accomplishments and missed opportunities. The author concludes with suggestions for leveraging the HBCU presence in today's teacher quality dialogue. MISSION AND PURPOSE Nearly 30 years ago, Garibaldi (1984) argued that HBCUs need to reinforce their traditional missions and goals in order to stay viable in the postsecondary sector. …

On becoming a teacher educator

This paper is designed to offer an Australian perspective on the nature of teacher educators’ work based on the observations and experiences of the author, who has been involved in the field for the past two decades. In so doing, the paper is designed not only to offer insights into how teacher education in Australia has been challenged and shaped in recent times, but also to begin to illustrate how the nature of teacher educators’ work simultaneously shapes their identity.

Revolution, What Revolution? Contextual Issues in Citizenship Education in Schools in England

This article sets out some of the key obstacles facing the successful implementation of education for democratic citizenship in England in the light of claims about its radical potential. It argues that citizenship is indeed not like other subjects because it has wider implications for the purposes of schooling and the way that schools and classrooms are organised. It discusses evidence of progress on the implementation of citizenship education and then considers a series of serious structural impediments to its radical potential that exist within the wider education system - teacher supply and the nature of teacher education; curricular issues including the national curriculum, teaching controversial issues and the role of Personal, Health and Social education; school councils and racism. It concludes by noting that a curriculum innovation such as citizenship needs considerable time to become embedded and develop in an education system but that possible political change poses a significant threat to its continued existence.

The Massachusetts Coalition for Teacher Quality and Student Achievement: An Introduction

In 1999 the United States Department of Education provided funding for “teacher quality enhancement grants” that would enable higher education institutions to collaborate with under-resourced urban districts to improve teacher quality. This essay describes contextual information on the origins of the grants and the processes that grant writers from seven colleges and universities and three urban school districts used to acquire funding for a new enterprise entitled the “Massachusetts Coalition for Teacher Quality and Student Achievement.” In the following years, the Massachusetts Coalition developed as an important intermediary institution that enabled schools and universities to improve collaborations with arts and sciences faculty, promote the school and community-based nature of teacher education, increase pupil literacy, recruit a diverse teaching force, and conduct and disseminate research.

A personal journey: TGfU teacher development in Australia and the USA

This paper examines teacher development of TGfU in teacher education programmes in Australia and the USA by taking a cross-sectional snapshot across a sequence covering the final two years of a teacher education programme in which TGfU is emphasised, and the first two years of teaching after graduating from the same programmes. It explores the interrelated nature of the pre-service teachers' prior dispositions toward PE teaching, their reasons for adopting TGfU and their experiences of TGfU teaching. Conducting this research in two distinctly different cultural and insitutional settings provides a means through which we also explore the situated nature of teacher education and the effect that different cultural and institutional settings might have on TGfU teacher development.

The synthesis of subject and pedagogy for effective learning and teaching in primary science education

The issue of science subject knowledge, and how to address the demands of this for both practising and trainee primary teachers, has constituted a core research enterprise in recent decades. The Professional Standards for Qualified Teacher Status entail considerable conceptual demands for many primary trainees. Generating meaningful causal explanations of scientific phenomena lies at the heart of both the scientific endeavour itself, and of effective classroom teaching. To focus on knowledge acquisition per se in teacher education, however, obscures the critical issue of subject‐related pedagogical knowledge that ultimately influences classroom practice. This article explores the development of both subject knowledge and subject‐related pedagogical knowledge in science education. It is informed by science education literature, as well as by a substantial body of empirical research into trainees' learning of aspects of physical science accumulated over a five‐year period. Learners' perspectives of the synthesis of subject and pedagogy raise important questions concerning the nature of teacher education.

The ‘FENTO Fandango’: national standards, compulsory teaching qualifications and the growing regulation of FE college teachers

In the last ten years further education has moved from a sector characterised as being in a state of ‘benign neglected’ by central government to one which has grown in importance to policy makers and in turn has become more and more regulated. Below I describe and critically analyse these changes, focusing on the initial training and professional development of further education teachers. The analysis sets the context and traces the development of national standards for FE teachers and the formation of the Further Education National Training Organisation (FENTO), the introduction of compulsory teacher qualifications and other recent initiatives launched by the DfES, such as the Standards Unit which wishes to radically change the nature of teacher education for the post-compulsory sector. The article welcomes many of the recent developments, yet calls for more strategic planning and warns of the danger of over-regulating a sector that is characterised by its diversity of learners and learning contexts.

Becoming Science Teachers: an evaluation of the initial stages of primary teacher training

This 3‐year evaluation study explores the development of trainee primary teachers’ attitudes toward the teaching and learning of science during the early stages of their professional education. We demonstrate that science is, for many students, a potentially problematic area of the curriculum in which their past learning experiences are particularly prominent in the development of negative attitudes and feelings of apprehension towards the subject. Through a combination of questionnaire data and reflective writing, origins of attitude development and the impact of both course provision and teaching practice are explored at depth. A dichotomy between student expectation and experience of science teaching is demonstrated and the implications of this are examined with respect to the nature of teacher education, course provision and primary partnership initiatives currently being developed between higher education and primary schools.

Skills without understanding: a critique of a competency‐based model of teacher education in relation to special needs

Rita Jordan, Lecturer in Autism at the University of Birmingham, and Stuart Powell, Reader in Educational Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, consider the implications of the move towards a skills‐based model in teacher education. They take as their focus pupils with autism and offer an alternative perspective on the nature of teacher education in relation to special needs.

Progress in the Reform of Initial Teacher Education in England and Wales

Summary This article reviews recent progress in the reform of initial teacher education in England and Wales. The first part outlines the development of government policy, with particular emphasis on changes announced in the speech of Kenneth Clarke, Secretary of State for Education, to the North of England Education Conference in January 1992. The second part presents an analysis of the policy, identifying its roots and some conceptual and practical difficulties. Part three surveys ways in which provision of initial teacher education in institutions of higher education has been responding to internal and external pressures for change, with emphasis on developments since 1989. The final part makes proposals about the future direction of policy, arguing that there remain key questions to be addressed about the nature of teacher education, the process of change, and the relationship of teacher education to higher education.

Studying the Professional Development ofTeachers: How Conceptions of the World Inform the Research Agenda

The knowledge base about the profes sional development of teachers has been confused with the research on teacher effectiveness. Although teach ing and teacher education are intimately related, they are also separate. The authors describe the differences be tween the two phenomena and discuss the implications of research findings for teacher education programs. Further, Zimpher and Ashburn assert that the study of the professional development of teachers will proceed in a more sys tematic, comprehensive, and effective manner if that research is informed by multiple conceptions ofthe world. These conceptions allow for differing and at times competing research directions, and they can serve to stimulate a research agenda responsive to the com plex nature of teacher education.