Teacher Education Policy Research Articles

Teacher Leadership Interrogates Teaching Policy: Comparing the Voices of Low-Income Schools with National Teacher Policies in Argentina

This article analyses how low-income schools and teacher education policies in Argentina describe the idealised “good” teacher. One of the crucial foundations of teacher leadership is related to teachers’ professional abilities. This study aims to problematise the fragile discursive constructions of what counts as effective and good teaching in both low-income schools' actors and teacher education policy documents. As previous research has confirmed teacher ability is contextual and a highly controversial topic. How low-income school actors describe, interpret and enact good teaching might differ from national teaching policy guidelines and standards. This study attempts to address the following research questions. First, what factors do low-income school actors and Argentinean educational policies highlight regarding teachers’ professional ability? Second, does a teacher’s professional ability refer to teacher leadership? Finally, what are the implications of the gap between the perspectives of low-income schools and the official teaching policy for knowledge production and educational policy? The findings provide a framework to understand the current limited status of teacher leadership in Argentina. Through the historical normalist genesis of the Argentinean educational system that fostered homogenisation as a crucial technology of schooling, and an epistemological bias that deemed the low-income perspective as unscientific the article shed light on the status of teacher leadership. Finally, the research suggests bridges to foster dialogues between teaching policies and low-income schools.

ANALYSING THE NATIONAL EDUCATION REPORT CARD AS A QUALITY MANAGEMENT INSTRUMENT

This research aims to discuss the crucial role of analysing the National Education Report Card as an instrument of education quality management. The focus is on the importance of consistency in deciphering report card data to evaluate student, teacher and overall education policy performance. Through this approach, the article illustrates how appropriate analyses can provide an in-depth view of education trends, identify potential improvements, and support data-driven decision-making. The report also highlights the impact of consistency in research on the efficiency of the national education system, providing a basis for developing more effective strategies to improve learning quality sustainably.

Dictature militaire, réforme universitaire et formation des enseignants au Chili : l'émergence historique d'une structure dysfonctionnelle

The article deals with the evolution of public policies related to teacher education in Chile during the period of the military dictatorship (1973-1990), and the paradoxical impact on such education of a university reform at the end of the 1960s. Both processes are connected to examine the roots of the inability of the teacher education system to respond to the requirements of a reform of the structure of the school system that also took place at the end of the 1960s. This reform extended primary education by two grades, thereby broadening and complexifying both the curriculum and the needs of students. The response to this change on the part of teacher education policies, as well as the teacher preparation institutions themselves, did not take place either at the beginning of its implementation, which coincided with the political crisis that culminated in the coup d'état, nor during the following quarter of a century. Long duration that established a dysfunctional structure of teacher education, which did not respond to the structure of the school system it sought to serve. In terms of its analytical and interpretative purpose, the paper combines historical policy analysis, sociological interpretation of the dynamics of higher education, and categories and interpretation of the knowledge bases of the teaching profession.

Analysis on the Development of Teacher Education Policies in Modern and Contemporary China

Education policies have always played a crucial role in the evolution of teacher education in China. This article mainly focuses on the developing process of teacher education policies in modern and contemporary China and the factors influencing policy changes. In the past century, the development of teacher education policies in China can be divided into four stages: the Republic of China period (1912-1949), the early establishment of the People’s Republic of China period (1949 1978), the reform and opening-up period (1985-1992), and the 21st century period (2000-now). The entire development process has been twisted and turned, experiencing exploration, transformation, decline, reconstruction and improvement. It can be found through research and analysis that teacher education policies in China are determined by the national conditions of a specific period and will be continuously revised and improved in practice. Overall, teacher education policies in China are presenting the characteristics of shifting from a focus on quantity to quality, from imbalanced to balanced, from borrowing from foreign countries to having Chinese characteristics, and reflecting a people-oriented educational philosophy. In the future, teacher education policies in China are expected to move from high-quality to extraordinary, emphasizing innovation while paying attention to educational equity.

Teaching in a COVID-19 pandemic: perceptions and practices of university faculty in Spain

The full impact of the COVID-19 crisis on higher education remains unclear, with some topics still under-researched. This research explores the challenges faced by Spanish academics during emergency remote teaching and is a pioneering study in this context due to the number of participating universities and variety of profiles of university faculty. Three focus groups were conducted to gain a deeper understanding on two dimensions: academic (methodology, materials, assessment, workload and institutional response) and personal (socio-emotional dimension, work–life balance and learnings). The main findings revealed the extensive adaptation of university faculty to the new situation and collected a series of teaching strategies. The conclusions reflect on the role that universities should play in the coming years, not only in the Spanish context but also at an international level. Most importantly, our findings can be taken into consideration for further research and teacher education policy in higher education.
 Received: 15 March 2022 Accepted: 24 July 2023

Preparing Community Teachers Early: Exploring Aspiring Teacher Learning and Identity Development in a Grow Your Own Program

ABSTRACT This qualitative study examined a group of aspiring teachers who completed a pre-collegiate Grow Your Own (GYO) teacher program. The goals of the GYO program were to recruit and introduce high school students to the teaching profession and facilitate their transition to a teacher education program and eventually back to teaching in their communities. Findings showed that learning foundational knowledge about teaching and engaging in teaching activities in the GYO program provided early opportunities for participants to experience various aspects of being a teacher and begin constructing identities as teachers. Participants also developed an increased awareness of diversity and equity issues related to education in their communities and started accumulating knowledge and strategies as culturally responsive, community-oriented teachers. Mentorship from their teachers further fostered their sense of belonging to the teaching profession and ongoing teacher identity development. Research implications and recommendations for teacher education programs and policy makers to strengthen and sustain GYOs and district-university-community partnerships in teacher preparation were discussed.

“Are we there yet?” 25 years of reform (and reform, and reform, and reform) of teacher education in Australia

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the reform of initial teacher education (ITE) policy in Australia over a 25-year period from 1998 to 2023. It examines policy shifts and movements over this timeframe and aims to better understand the ongoing reforms in the changing contexts of their times.Design/methodology/approachThe paper engages a critical policy historiography approach, focusing on four “policy moments” each linked to a review commissioned by the Commonwealth government of the day. It draws upon the reports and government responses themselves, along with media reports, extracts from Hansard, and ministerial speeches, press releases and interviews related to each of the four policy moments, asking critical questions about the “public issues” and “private troubles” (Gale, 2001) of each moment and aiming to shed light on the complexities of these accounts of policy and the trajectory they represent.FindingsThe paper charts the construction of the problem of ITE in Australia over time, highlighting the discursive continuities and shifts since 1998. It traces the constitution of both policy problems and solutions to explain the current policy settlement using a historical lens.Originality/valueIts value lies in offering a reading of the current policy settlement, based on a close and systematic historical analysis. Where previous research has focused either on particular moments or concepts in ITE reform, this analysis seeks to understand the current policy settlement by taking a longer, contextualised view.

Pre-service Teachers’ Perceptions of Their Future Refugee Students

Present study aimed at investigating the perceptions of pre-service teachers regarding the refugee students who are possibly the participants’ future students when they start their career. In order to examine the issue in depth, a mixed methods design was adopted. Numerical data were gathered through “Refugee Student Attitude Scale” from 168 pre-service teachers, and the written responses of the same participants for the open ended questions constitute the qualitative data. During the analysis procedure, mean scores and standard deviation for the variables were estimated, and the content analysis was performed. Results of the study showed that most of the participants do not approve the idea of involving refugee students in classes for the fear of possible problems. The participants also stated not being ready to teach refugee students in their future careers. In light of these findings, implications for different groups such as teacher education programs, policy makers, and ministry of education were also suggested in the end of the paper.

The search for professional digital competence in Swedish teacher education policy—A content analysis of the prerequisites for teacher educators’ dual didactic task

The search for professional digital competence in Swedish teacher education policy—A content analysis of the prerequisites for teacher educators’ dual didactic task

Role of continuing professional teacher development (CPTD) on teachers’ and learners’ achievement in South Africa: A literature review

Continuing Professional Teacher Development (CPTD) refers to the ongoing learning and development of teachers throughout their careers. It involves a range of activities, programs, and initiatives designed to help teachers improve their knowledge, skills, and effectiveness in the classroom. CPTD programs can take many different forms, such as workshops, seminars, mentoring programs, online courses, and peer networks. This desktop review paper examines the role of CPTD on teachers' and learners’ achievement. The paper reviews among others the following; the nature and concept of CPTD, the importance of CPTD, South African teacher education policy framework and CPTD, the educational achievement and CPTD, school effectiveness and CPTD, learner and teacher learning and CPTD. The paper uses social learning theory as a theory that underpins the paper and makes some plausible recommendations.

Pushing crisis response towards sustainable transformation? Reflections from a case analysis of crisis-framed policy actions on teacher education in three European settings

ABSTRACT This paper explores the mobilisation of crisis response and related rhetoric in contemporary European teacher education. Using a critical vertical case analysis of illustrative national, regional, and institutional crisis-mediation settings (Switzerland, Germany, Ireland), we examine how crisis-informed policy response addresses global challenges like teacher shortages and digitalization. Employing an assemblage approach, we foreground how such responses exemplify moves to rethink, remake and redesign teacher education systems and programmes. Our discussions underscore the potential and the problematic aspects of crisis-based policy action to reshape teacher education and emphasize the role of universities and administrative institutions in fostering sustainable change. The study reveals particularly the influence of local contexts and cultures in shaping policy solutions and the dangers of excluding key actors within university teacher education from these conversations and actions. This discussion aims to inspire innovative and culturally-responsive transformations in teacher education practices and policies within Europe, and beyond.

Addressing Language Diversity in Early Years Mathematics: Proposed Classroom Practices through a Live Brief Assessment

There is a growing emphasis on the role of language in teaching and learning mathematics, most significantly in classrooms with increased language diversity. Consequently, teachers face considerable challenges in accommodating diverse needs and must employ strategies to support all students. It is, therefore, crucial to provide prospective teachers with opportunities to enhance their pedagogical approaches while raising their awareness of the relationship between language and mathematics. In this respect, Live Brief assessments in Higher Education, which involve students working on authentic projects/tasks from a school, may be a promising avenue. This research draws on the 19 Live Brief group presentations prepared by a total of 118 Year 1 prospective primary school teachers, specifically focusing on the language-related challenges faced by a local school in early years mathematics. The data encompassed prospective teachers’ proposed practices, including one-to-one, small group and whole class activities, that aimed to address language diversity. Data analysis was informed by Moschkovich’s three perspectives on the relation between language and teaching and learning mathematics, namely lexicon, register and situated-sociocultural perspectives. While a lexicon perspective was commonly evident in the activities, the manifestation of a situated socio-cultural perspective mainly in the one–to-one activities is noteworthy, given its social and discursive nature. Three themes encapsulated a range of practices suggested in the findings: explicit vocabulary teaching, different strategies of scaffolding and utilising multi-sensory approaches. While the lexicon and register perspectives were commonly evident, the situated socio-cultural perspective was much less commonly manifested in the practices. We offer implications to initial teacher education curriculum, future research and policies about teaching and learning mathematics.

Discursive Norms and Incentives for Equipping Students with Religion and Worldview Literacy in Swedish Preschool Teacher Education Policy

The increasing societal diversity of religions and worldviews (R&W) in Swedish preschools affects what competencies today’s preschool teachers need and what needs to be taught in Swedish Preschool Teacher Education (PTE). The study aims to investigate the content and discursive norms regarding religion and worldviews in Swedish PTEs on a national policy level and contribute to knowledge in the research field of Religious Studies and Higher Education. The PTE curricula of all the twenty Higher Education institutions offering PTE in Sweden in 2022 are investigated using text-centred discourse analysis, together with a theoretical and analytical tool for analyzing different dimensions of the PTEs and the potential for them to function as socially sustainable communities of care. The results show that even though there might be implicit incentives for teaching about R&W, all but one of the educational curricula of the twenty PTEs in Sweden lack explicit mention of ‘religion’. Based on the results, we can see that at a national policy level, the content of the educational curricula reproduces liberal secular and humanist worldviews as norms for the PTEs. There is also a lack of explicit policy-related incentives for the PTEs to promote social sustainability regarding equipping students with proper knowledge and skills for developing care-centered and norm-critical R&W literacy.

Perceptions and beliefs of Indian secondary school teachers regarding story telling

ABSTRACT India’s long tradition of storytelling is well integrated into the social and cultural lives of people. It is a recognized resource for religious and secular moral education. While the desirability and usefulness of storytelling as a general pedagogical tool finds mention in national school and teacher education policy, there is limited research on teachers’ beliefs and actual practices. Writing tends to be directive, based on deficit assumptions regarding practice. This paper presents perspectives and beliefs of secondary school government teachers from one State in India. It is based on an exploratory study involving observations of two schools and interviews with seven teachers. Observation and interview data were thematically analysed. Five thematic areas are presented: teachers’ personal experiences and related beliefs; their beliefs about usefulness; their views regarding suitability in their school; their own preparedness as storytellers; and their current practices. In conclusion we note that all teachers recalled having positive personal experiences of listening to stories as children, yet they were sceptical about usefulness for “serious subjects”, practicality in large classroom settings and risks of failing as performers in front of the class. A few exceptional teachers were able to foster interaction in large classroom using stories.

Examination of Studies on Critical Thinking in Teacher Education: a Bibliometric Analysis

The purpose of this paper is to examine the studies conducted on critical thinking in teacher education using bibliometric analysis method. Education Educational Research category of Web of Science was preferred as the database. 2,717 publications published between 1989 and 2022 were analyzed using citation, bibliographical coupling, and co-occurrence techniques. Obtained results reveal that the earliest works on critical thinking in teacher education were published in 1989. It was determined that critical thinking in teacher education was met with increased interest after 2010, and that 2019 was the year when the published papers reached a record high. An examination of the citation years of the studies showed that 2021 saw the highest number of citations. USA was found as the country with highest number of publications on critical thinking in teacher education. Most researchers publish their works on the field in the form of articles, and English is the most preferred publication language. The author with the highest citation figures in the field is found as Hwang, Gwo-Jen, while the most frequently cited work was written by Fang in 1996. Document with the highest number of links was authored by Gomez-Jarabo and Sosa in 2018. The keywords with the highest popularity in the studies of researchers in recent years, which have the highest total number of links, were identified as teacher education, higher education, education, learning, curriculum, professional development, creativity, technology, and pedagogy. In this context, researchers who will perform studies in the field are especially advised to prefer keywords with high citation rates in literature review stage. Similarly, researchers are recommended to examine the documents with high citation and link scores in the field. Finally, in their efforts to regulate teacher education policies and programs, countries are advised to find examples in national settings with high total link scores as regards critical thinking approach.

Creating space for teacher voice: insights on professional development in two diverse settings

ABSTRACT This paper explores how child-centred practices introduced through international agencies into classrooms in post-conflict Cambodia and for Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, were perceived by the teachers tasked with implementing them. Using a case study methodology, data for both studies were drawn primarily from interviews with teachers in Cambodian primary schools and UNWRA schools, Jordan. Findings suggest that the pedagogical practices promoted are absent of contextual issues, including school/classroom environments and cultural understandings of teaching and learning. Our contention is that for teacher education programmes and policies to have their desired effect a central role for teachers must be prioritised.

Wither Pre-service Teacher Education in Zimbabwe? Object Lessons from Teacher Education Systems in the United Kingdom, United States and South Africa

After pragmatically tinkering with quantity-oriented models of teacher education since early 1980s, Zimbabwe now seems to be faced with quality challenges, necessitating change of policy direction. In recent years, disquiet has been voiced about the declining quality of school education, a trend widely attributed to the low quality of teachers. This has put teacher education provision in Zimbabwe in the spotlight of critical and in some instances derisive scrutiny. Under such circumstances, one would reasonably expect teacher education policy-makers to be diligently seized with change efforts. However, teacher education policy-makers seem to be dithering indecisively in relation to suggesting new directions for teacher education in Zimbabwe. This paper attempts to break the deafening silence in the teacher education policy community by suggesting some objects lessons for the teacher education system in Zimbabwe on the basis of insights derived from analyzing teacher education systems in the United Kingdom, United States and South Africa.

Conceptualisation of learning to learn competence and the challenges of implementation: The Estonian experience

AbstractThe importance of students' learning to learn competence for academic achievement, as well as their well‐being at school and in life, is increasingly emphasised by educators and policy makers in national curricula and educational strategies. In an uncertain and complex world, learners need to become autonomous, be able to analyse challenges and apply knowledge in different contexts, address complex tasks, and create new knowledge. This article explores concepts and approaches to the development of students' learning to learn competence in the context of education in Estonia. First, the conceptualisation, model and dimensions of learning to learn competence are described and related challenges for teachers are analysed. Second, an overview of Estonian teachers' current practices, beliefs, knowledge, skills and occupational standards relevant to students' learning to learn competence is provided. We discuss how Estonian teacher education policy may enhance or inhibit the work of teachers when supporting students to develop learning to learn competence. Future directions for teacher educators and how to prepare teachers to support the development of students' learning to learn competence are suggested.

Understanding teacher identity in teachers' professional lives: A systematic review of the literature

AbstractThis article presents a systematic review of a substantial body of literature that considers the ways in which the concept of teacher identity has been used to understand and explore teachers' professional lives. The aim of the review was to go beyond the limitations of specific areas of teachers' practice to explore the broad and rich field of teachers' professional lives. Drawing on 412 articles from 2000–2021, the review demonstrates the growth in teacher identity research, particularly since 2010. Results from the review are categorised into seven thematic groups that span key areas related to teachers' professional lives: (1) Models and frameworks of professional lives; (2) Narratives of professional lives; (3) Becoming a teacher; (4) Contexts; (5) Communities; (6) Change, transition and conflict; and (7) Subject specialisms. The review reveals gaps in teacher identity research, such as: few research studies from Global South countries; a limited number of studies focusing on non‐core curriculum subjects, including arts, history, geography and physical education; fewer studies focusing on primary school and early years teacher identities; and a divide between identity scholarship and research, and policy and practice. The article concludes with a call for teacher identity research to be expanded and broadened with the aim to facilitate the progress of identity work in scholarship, policy and practice. Context and implicationsRationale for this studyIn the context of a growing body of research on teacher identity, particularly in the last decade, there remains a paucity of identity‐focused systematic reviews. Existing systematic reviews tend to focus on specific fields such as subject specialisms, teacher education and beginning teachers. However, far fewer reviews span the broader field of teachers' professional lives; this article responds to this gap in the literature.Why the new findings matterThe findings from this review are important in highlighting the most commonly explored areas in teacher identity research as it relates to teachers' professional lives. As such, the findings can inform policy and practice for teacher education and professional development at local, national and international scales. The findings also highlight gaps in the literature and the implications this may have on teacher identity scholarship.Implications for educational researchers and educatorsFirstly, educational researchers can identify key themes arising from existing teacher identity research studies. This can help them to focus on specific areas that would benefit from further research as well as providing them with a single space from which to draw on the existing corpus of research studies. Secondly, teacher identity research is important for the professional lives and practice of educators and this review provides educators with an opportunity to understand the teacher identity scholarly landscape and, in turn, apply findings from the research to their own professional practice.

Teachers as Readers: Baseline Profile Types with Regard to Skills, Habits, and Dispositions

This paper shares findings drawn from data generated over a period of five years on self-reported reading skills, habits, and dispositions of pre-service and in-service K-12 teachers (primarily middle and high school) across content areas (N = 854). Using latent cluster analyses, we created a Teacher Reader Profile Type (TRPT) model that illuminates distinct differences between teachers in different content areas and across status (i.e. undergraduate v. graduate). Our results suggest five distinct TRPTs, each with relative strengths and areas for growth. We provide five recommendations for teacher education programs and policy makers to consider. In addition, the measurement tool in this study could be used for key assessment related to teachers as readers. Future research could focus on how to improve teacher progress toward reading maturity, and the extent to which TRPTs relate to their own students’ literacy development.