Teacher Education Partnerships Research Articles

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.

The Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership: The Power of a Networked Improvement Community to Transform Secondary Mathematics Teacher Preparation: A Review

The Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership: The Power of a Networked Improvement Community to Transform Secondary Mathematics Teacher Preparation: A Review

Rethinking student teachers' professional learning in Wales: Promoting reflection‐in‐action

AbstractNearly forty years ago, Stenhouse argued that the function of the curriculum was to stimulate teachers' everyday reflection about and learning from practice. This suggestion, alongside his support for teachers as researchers, aligns with the Welsh Government's commitment to build an evidence‐informed profession as part of ongoing major education system‐level reforms, including the implementation of the new Curriculum for Wales from September 2022. University initial teacher education (ITE) partnerships are playing an important role in building collaborative research capacity. This paper describes a case study of one such partnership which aims to promote research‐informed, reflective practice among its postgraduate primary student teachers. We use one of Stenhouse's principles of empirical study to frame our discussion of how student teachers' reflective practice is supported through brief conversations with their teacher educators (mentors) during lessons. Using a mixed methods approach, the findings show that student teachers value in‐the‐moment feedback. The intervention also helps them to question aspects of teaching and learning, although such reflection is at a technical level. Our study is useful for teacher educators who are interested in supporting reflective practice through coaching and mentoring. It also cautions school leaders and policymakers implementing major curriculum reforms not to lose sight of Stenhouse's view that ‘it is teachers who, in the end, will change the world of the school by understanding it’. The paper concludes by discussing the research implications in shaping emerging practice and policy in the context of ongoing system‐level reform and curriculum implementation in Wales, with potential applicability and portability to other contexts and jurisdictions.

From traditional to clinical approach toward continuing professional development: Academia‐field partnership in teacher education

AbstractThe current study sought to characterize three partnership models in Israeli academic institutions—the traditional, the academia‐classroom, and the clinical field‐focused models. 42 interviews were conducted with educators (teacher educators; mentor teachers; program heads) at 14 Israeli colleges and universities where the programs take place. Differences between the models were found in relation to the role definition of the mentor teacher, the relationship between the pre‐service teacher and the mentor teacher, the contribution of the practicum to the pre‐service teacher, and the connection between theoretical and practical knowledge. Furthermore, the contribution of each of the three models is reflected in the scope of the experiential‐clinical component of the practicum; school‐academia partnerships; and the role of the principal of the training school. The study highlights the value‐added meanings and contributions of the experiential‐clinical component in teacher education programs in general and in the practicum in particular.

Bracing Ourselves: Embracing Policy Changes through a Long-Standing University–Schools Teacher Education Partnership in England

We articulate the principles behind our practices as teacher educators for an Initial Teacher Education (ITE) provider in South-West England working in partnership with local schools. We position them as ‘braces’ that enable us not only to withstand but ‘embrace’ the challenges of the current policy environment, which imposes braces of its own. All ITE providers in England must present their curriculum and teaching plans for approval by the Department for Education, one of many significant changes to ITE required in England over the last decade. Furthermore, for such plans to be approved they must assume a model of schooling based on knowledge acquisition in tension with not only our own motivations but also a broader (global) conversation among teacher educators critical of policy priorities for schooling and professional teacher formation that prioritise success in high-stakes tests and international league tables. The braces/principles emerge through articulating our collective understandings of and concerns with the policy braces. Our principles connect to the processes we feel confident are necessary aspects of ‘becoming’ teachers and can hold our Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) together, going forwards. The braces—becoming an informed educator; becoming an ethical actor; becoming a reflective practitioner—have a distinctive form of reflexivity at their heart and should apply to everyone across our partnership: us, as university-based teacher educators; school-based colleagues; and pre-service teachers. We offer our approach and the braces/principles we have developed to others also struggling to reconcile their own notions of good teacher education with national policy imperatives.

Inservice teachers’ experiences within a university/school district teacher education partnership: Collaborative inquiry, generative tensions, and emergent praxis

We sought to understand the experiences of inservice teachers in teacher education/school district partnerships. Classroom teachers collaborated with teacher candidates to explore literacy practices in situ. We employed case study methodology collecting data through interviews and field notes. Teachers described: how a supportive community helped them take risks in their practice; (re)conceptualizing their practice through in situ co-planning, co-teaching, and co-reflecting; growing in their confidence as mentors and learners; witnessing equity-oriented pedagogy in action; and navigating tensions which offered opportunities for professional growth. This study highlights the potential of such initiatives for teachers’ professional learning, practice change, and praxis.

Evaluating boundary-crossing collaboration in research-practice partnerships in teacher education: Empirical insights on co-construction, motivation, satisfaction, trust, and competence enhancement

This study examined boundary-crossing collaboration in a research-practice partnership (RPP) in initial teacher education in Germany, exploring improvements for the theory-practice link. This study aimed to evaluate this particular cooperation format, especially to identify success factors for RPPs and differences between actor groups. Characteristics examined include motivational factors, collaboration aspects, co-constructive knowledge acquisition, competence enhancement and satisfaction. The study drawed on a quantitative survey with 78 participants from four groups: school practitioners, researchers, teacher students, partners from extracurricular organizations. A one-way ANOVA was conducted, and a path model on effective relationships was calculated. Results revealed that RPPs are collaboration “on equal footing”; participation enables professional development in teaching, assessing, and innovation; sharing practical experiences is the dominant factor in knowledge co-construction and main driver of success; and motivation to participate is mainly regulated intrinsically. This study contributes to the international debate on RPPs and advocates their establishment in teacher education.

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.

“Writin’ain’t my thang”: creating high school student writers with ongoing support through an urban school–teacher education partnership

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of a year-long writing intervention located in an urban high school in partnership with a university teacher education professor and the students. The goals were as follows: to increase student self-efficacy about writing overall; to increase the number of students who successfully improve scores on writing assessments; and to increase ACT exam scores, making students more qualified candidates for college admission.Design/methodology/approachThe main method used for the research is a quantitative longitudinal study method, which involves collecting from each student, at pre-intervention and post-intervention, a writing sample. There are 54 students in the study.FindingsFindings showed an increase in student proficiency overall, with an increase of 0.53 holistically. Effective writing instruction asks students to write often to develop their writing will and skill. There are many more factors beyond the teaching of “ACT prep” writing skills that must be considered, particularly when teaching marginalized groups. This study found that the following are important: building and sustaining positive rapport; using their language as part of the learning process; creating space for students to write regularly; writing on a variety of topics; reflecting on and monitoring their writing; and receiving timely and targeted feedback.Originality/valueThis paper discusses the impact of the writing intervention and describes the practices that were a part of the intervention for marginalized students in an urban school to increase their writing scores.

Reclaiming the Narrative and Re-professionalising the Teacher: Responding to the Homogenous and Prescriptive Policy in ITE in England

The aim of the Department for Education's recent market review of England's initial teacher training (ITT) was ostensibly to enable the provision of consistently highquality training in line with the ITT core content framework (CCF). Its intention may possibly have been welcomed had it built on the judgments from Ofsted at the time, which concluded that every single teacher education partnership was already 'good' or better. However, this was not meant to be. The outcomes from the review led to a chorus of concerns voiced across the sector. A move to a single, potentially homogenous national approach to the ITT curriculum, its delivery and its assessment was considered detrimental and central dangers were cited, such as the loss of autonomy and the investment partner schools have in ITT. Nevertheless, these concerns fell on deaf ears, with all ITT providers being required to undergo formal reaccreditation despite their long track records of teacher training success. In this paper, we consider the prescriptive, homogenous nature of the ITT CCF to which providers must demonstrate fidelity in order to secure accreditation. We offer the University of Manchester's Secondary Postgraduate Certificate of Education with Qualified Teacher Status programme (PGCE with QTS) as a case study. The paper illustrates the capacity of an academic and professional teacher training programme to extend beyond providing the prescribed minimum entitlement and to develop trainee teachers as research informed, critically reflective practitioners.

A Short Summer Research Experience for Secondary Education Mathematics Majors at a Small Liberal Arts College

One of the best ways for STEM students to understand the methods and thought process of their discipline is through participation in an undergraduate research project. However, mathematics secondary education students at Hood College are historically less likely to self-select for these types of supplemental experiences than traditional mathematics majors. Hood’s Noyce STEM Teacher Education Partnership (NSTEP) sought to address this by designing a shortened summer research experience specifically for secondary education students in mathematics. The Summer Research Experience in Mathematical Modeling (SREM2) was a 4-week summer research project that provided this opportunity at a small college. Here we describe the benefits of such an experience and present the design of our program and its outcomes.

Enquiring into a teacher performance assessment: towards intelligent professional responsibility in initial teacher education

Teacher education is broadly seen as a policy problem in that it has failed to produce sufficient ‘classroom ready’ teachers. One accountability measure that has been introduced in Australia to address this purported problem is the capstone teacher performance assessments (TPAs). All Australian pre-service teachers must pass this hurdle assessment to be eligible for teacher registration, and all teacher education providers must provide evidence of the effectiveness of their programmes in producing classroom ready teachers to maintain accreditation. The research presented in this article investigated the experiences of a consortium of teacher educators from four Australian universities that implemented a nationally endorsed TPA known as the quality TPA (QTPA). Intelligent professional responsibility was used to consider the experiences and possibilities for educators working in a policy context characterised by increasing accountabilities. Our findings suggest that the introduction of the TPA in Australia created momentum for building collaborative national teacher education partnerships with a focus on improving programme quality and graduate readiness to teach. Our data illustrate how the introduction of a TPA policy mandate in Australia created an external accountability context that allowed for teacher educators to bolster the quality of teacher education programmes from within.

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.

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.

Intergenerational music teaching and learning among preservice music teachers and senior adult musicians

The purpose of this study was to examine the intergenerational interactions between preservice music teachers and senior adult musicians engaged in music teaching and learning in a New Horizons ensemble within one university’s music teacher preparation program. This intrinsic qualitative case study included written reflections and observational data of 16 current undergraduate music education students and verbatim interview transcripts of 5 current and former students serving as teaching assistants who taught and conducted their university’s New Horizons ensemble. Findings distilled from the data included (a) how younger-aged preservice music teachers responded to generational differences while learning how to interact with senior adult musicians, (b) the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) learned and developed by participants as a result of teaching in a New Horizons ensemble, and (c) the connections made by participants teaching senior adults to their future careers as professional music educators. Future discussion and directions from this study highlight emerging connections of research between adult and community music settings and music teacher education. Implications include (a) how to create best practices so that the missions and objectives of both music teacher education programs and cooperating community adult ensembles support and enhance each other, (b) fostering outcomes that prepare music education majors for experiences in adult music education, and (c) reimagining New Horizons and music teacher education partnerships that result in more national, racial, cultural, and musical diversity and inclusion.

Covid-19 as a catalyst for sustainable change: the rise of democratic pedagogical partnership in initial teacher education in Ireland

While challenges faced by school leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic have been extensively discussed, this article explores ways in which student teachers have demonstrated ‘adaptive expertise’ in response to a changing educational landscape that have enabled them to support schools during this public health emergency. Discerning school leaders have over the past twelve months looked to student teachers on school placement to demonstrate teacher leadership in supporting schools during the COVID-19 education crisis. This qualitative research draws on in-depth interviews with school leaders [10], co-operating teachers [10] and student teachers [10] across ten case study schools on a teacher education programme in Ireland. It highlights the way in which the COVID-19 pandemic has provided an impetus for the development of democratic pedagogical partnerships in ITE triggered by a need for collaborative engagement underpinned by responsive pedagogy and digital enhanced learning. The data also supports the view that the expertise that student teachers can offer schools in relation to their digital competence can significantly assist in fostering collaborative and reflective practice and bridge the perennial theory/practice divide.

The School–University Nexus and Degrees of Partnership in Initial Teacher Education

Current international policy documents on teacher education are peppered with the word partnership and there seems to be an assumption that there is a common agreement regarding understandings of ‘partnership’. Traditionally the university has been the decisive voice in educational partnerships which has often led to a power differential as well as a failure to fully maximise the potential of the partnership. Based on interviews with school leaders [n = 10], student teachers [n = 10], co-operating teachers [n = 10] and university tutors [n = 10] associated with an initial teacher education (ITE) programme in a university in the Republic of Ireland, this article provides a synthesis of this range of stakeholders’ views on how school-university partnerships can be optimised. The major themes that emerged from the research data included: (1) misconceptions about degrees of partnership in ITE and of roles therein; (2) the key role of the co-operating teacher and ‘close-to-practice’ research in fostering a ‘third-space’ in ITE and (3) a sense of malaise in relation to levels of pressure, change over-load and lack of adequate resources.

School-university Partnerships in Teacher Education

Myanmar, a country of developing status, is facing many challenges in reforming its education system. This article investigates the current practices of school-university partnerships from the perspective of student teachers and mentor teachers in Myanmar, where there is an ongoing process of teacher education reform. The aim of this article is to investigate the practices of school-university partnerships and the tension between partners in the training of pre-service teachers within the context of teacher education. A qualitative research method is applied in this study where six candidates were interviewed individually. Participants include three student teachers from educational universities and three mentor teachers from basic education high schools in Myanmar. The results showed that, except for student teachers’ practice teaching, there is no intensive collaboration between schools and universities. Trust is a major problem between student teachers and mentor teachers. Different opinions and perspectives towards teaching and learning are also causing tension between partners. Although there is tension between mentor teachers and student teachers, they handle this through alternative collaboration activities and negotiation between partners.

University–preschool collaboration in pre-school teacher education in Iceland

Developing a third space in preschool teacher education is fundamental for a true partnership to thrive. Strong partnerships between stakeholders in teacher education can empower student teachers and influence their professional development. However, research indicates a disconnection between the theory that students learn and their practical applications in the field, which affects students’ teaching practice. This study shed light on partnerships in preschool teacher education in Iceland, as partnership is the basis on which a shared learning space can develop and grow. The findings from focus group interviews with relevant stakeholders (on-campus preschool student teachers, remote preschool student teachers, university-based educators, school-based mentors, and preschool principals) indicated that partnership between universities and schools regarding preschool teacher education is weak. However, stakeholders seem to be genuinely interested in improving collaboration and establishing a stronger university–preschool partnership.

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.