Teachers Struggle Research Articles

Strengthening teacher competence through joyful learning and innovative learning media training

A needs assessment at Muhammadiyah Middle School 9 Tanggulangin revealed that teachers struggle with creating interactive learning environments and developing innovative teaching materials. To address these challenges, a training program was conducted to enhance teachers' pedagogical skills, creativity, and motivation. The program consisted of two key activities: joyful learning training and training in the development of creative and innovative learning media. The process included several stages: preparation (needs assessment, program design, material development, and pre-test), implementation (intensive training on joyful learning and innovative media development), and evaluation. The training involved 12 teachers (4 men and 8 women). The results showed significant improvements in teachers' understanding of joyful learning concepts and their ability to create creative and innovative learning materials. This program highlights the importance of adopting innovative and enjoyable teaching strategies to enhance teacher competence and improve student learning experiences. The initiative demonstrated that targeted training could effectively address the challenges teachers face, leading to better educational outcomes.

STRUGGLES AND COPING MECHANISMS OF NON-SPED MAJOR DETAILED TEACHERS: BASIS FOR TEACHER ENHANCEMENT PROGRAM

This research was undertaken to shed light on struggles and coping mechanisms of non-SPED major detailed teachers. A total of 11 informants as total enumeration of the school’s population were selected in a study as basis for crafting a teacher enhancement program. It utilized a descriptive qualitative design through face to face in-depth interviews of the two full SPED teachers, observations for 4 weeks and a focus group discussion to all the nine receiving teachers. This specific method explicate the emic teachers’ coping mechanisms that arise in the normalcy of everyday life. Findings revealed that the learning environment, socio-economic status, instructional practices, assessment & diagnosis and parental engagement were the identified struggles of these teachers while the appropriateness of strategies and their passion are the attributed coping mechanisms. KEYWORDS: Struggles of non-SPED teachers, Coping Mechanisms of non-SPED teachers, Inclusive Education, Program Development for Special Education

Visualization of the Values of the AL Anwar Islamic Boarding School to Improve the Personal Qualities of Santri

The Industrial Revolution has changed the values of Islamic Boarding Schools which have begun to fade among students as the nation's next generation. Santri are more busy with their social media than living socially with the community in teaching and exemplifying the characteristic educational values they receive at Islamic boarding schools. In fact, the values of Islamic boarding school education have not been a reflection of improving the quality of students in society. The theory used in this research to instill Islamic boarding school values in students is visualization through documentary videos as a learning medium, so that students can easily access and remember them in everyday life. The results of this research show that there is a change in the behavior of santri in an effort to improve personal quality, namely that the santri are more motivated to learn and are happy to do good as a reflection of the santri as role models for their community. The improvement in personal quality in question is related to increasing the moral quality and knowledge of students. The true philosophy of santri is the continuation of the struggle of teachers and ulama' to guide society in religious knowledge and face increasingly competitive life

Radical imagination and reimagining the space of curriculum for democracy

School-level education in Australia, and in other parts of the world, is currently directed by forces of conformity and compliance. These forces are typically characterised by doctrines of standards and standardisation, and metrics of accountability and performance. Yet, education in Australia is simultaneously underwritten by values of democracy, equity and justice. The tension between conformity and compliance, and education for democracy produces an ethical and practical struggle for teachers. Recent research tells us that education driven by conformity and compliance de-democratises the experience of schooling for both teachers and young people, while also undermining efforts to cultivate democracy across generations. Drawing on Lefebvre, this paper offers a spatial account of curriculum that opens new spaces of possibility and imagination for doing curriculum work beyond compliance. Curriculum in this paper is theorised across a triad of conceived, perceived, and lived space. This theorisation offers a way to describe how the administrative and regulatory spaces of official curriculum and policy cut across and entangle with the everyday and lived curriculum spaces of teachers and young people. The situated intersections of these spaces shape the way curriculum is enacted and experienced in local settings. I bring bell hooks’ pedagogy of imagination into conversation with this theorisation to propose how the perceived and lived spaces of curriculum might be reimagined as radical spaces of possibility that enable an education that is at its heart democratic, and that works for democracy and social justice.

Disparity, Empowerment and Female English Language Teacher in Higher Education Context in Bangladesh: A Narrative Inquiry

The existing literature while highlighting learner empowerment, carefully gives less attention to the fact of empowering female teachers in adult English language teaching context. In most contexts worldwide teaching foreign languages is a feminine job (Ortiz &Serrano, 2020; Bashiruddin, 2018; Kollmayer et.al., 2020; Tindowen, 2019), and that mostly remains at a disadvantaged position as she works ‘within a network of power relations’. Hence it is very essential to scrutinize and understand the micro-dynamics of the female teacher’s journey of sense-making and her employment of coping strategies at the time and point of professional disempowerment. This in-depth narrative inquiry tries to investigate the issues that support a female teacher in empowering herself in professional landscapes. In this regard, I used the narrative inquiry research design and exploited semi-structured interviews with six female teachers to generate data to show how female teachers struggle(d) to achieve parity to empower themselves and their learners. Fraser’s (2008; 2009; 2012) notion of ‘participatory parity’ was used here as the theoretical ground to analyze the findings that empowerment is a theory of social change. The result has come out with the view that any attempt at school reform should be synonymous with the most active models of female teacher empowerment to advance student achievement, collegiality, and professional learning. This study thus contributes to the empowerment literature of female English language teachers in the higher education context.

Özel Eğitim ve Rehabilitasyon Merkezlerinde Görev Yapan Öğretmenlerin Karşılaştıkları Psikososyal Risklerin İş Sağlığı ve Güvenliği Açısından Değerlendirilmesi

Rehabilitation services are the process of providing disabled individuals with the highest level of integration into society. Thanks to these services, the quality of life of disabled individuals is improved and they are enabled to take a more active role in society. Special education teachers are one of the professional groups that play an important role in supporting the education and development of disabled individuals. However, this situation can also expose teachers to a range of psychological risk factors such as workload, stress, and challenging working conditions. Among the stress factors are meeting the special needs of students, communicating with families, and other social factors, as well as burnout syndrome. These factors can have negative effects on the psychological health of teachers and subsequently negatively affect their professional performance. The study shows that teachers working in special education and rehabilitation centers experience psychological problems resulting from the difficulty of their profession. The majority of teachers struggle with anxiety about the future and especially concerns about their children being born with disabilities leading to significant problems in their social lives. Additionally, a relationship between their work hours and psychological state has been identified

Opinions on grading and difficulties encountered by physical education and health teachers in relation to assessment

ABSTRACT Background: Assessment plays a key role in quality physical education and health [PEH; Leirhaug and Annerstedt (2016. “Assessing with New Eyes? Assessment for Learning in Norwegian Physical Education.” Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy 21 (6): 616–631. https://doi.org/10.1080/17408989.2015.1095871)]. López-Pastor et al. (2013. “Alternative Assessment in Physical Education: A Review of International Literature.” Sport Education and Society 18 (1): 57–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2012.713860) identify assessment as ‘one of the most fraught and troublesome issues physical educators have had to deal with over the past 40 years or so’ (57). Three main issues emerged from studies conducted in the last 15 years on PEH teachers’ assessment practices: (1) a lack of consistency between what is taught and what is assessed [Borghouts et al. (2016. “Assessment Quality and Practices in Secondary PE in the Netherlands.” Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy 22 (5): 473–489. https://doi.org/10.1080/17408989.2016.1241226); Svennberg et al. (2018. “Swedish PE Teachers Struggle with Assessment in a Criterion-Referenced Grading System.” Sport, Education and Society 23 (4): 381–393. https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2016.1200025); Williams et al. (2020. “‘I Think Everyone Is on Board with Changing How We Do Things, But We Are Yet to Find a Best Fit Model’: A Figurational Study of Assessing Games and Sport in Physical Education.” Sport, Education and Society 26 (3): 253–266. https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2020.1716212)); (2) a lack of knowledge among PEH teachers regarding assessment[(Borghouts et al. (2016. “Assessment Quality and Practices in Secondary PE in the Netherlands.” Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy 22 (5): 473–489. https://doi.org/10.1080/17408989.2016.1241226); Williams et al. (2020. “‘I Think Everyone Is on Board with Changing How We Do Things, But We Are Yet to Find a Best Fit Model’: A Figurational Study of Assessing Games and Sport in Physical Education.” Sport, Education and Society 26 (3): 253–266. https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2020.1716212)] and (3) the often intuitive and subjective nature of assessment [Borghouts et al. (2016. “Assessment Quality and Practices in Secondary PE in the Netherlands.” Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy 22 (5): 473–489. https://doi.org/10.1080/17408989.2016.1241226); Dinan-Thompson and Penney (2015. “Assessment Literacy in Primary Physical Education.” European Physical Education Review 21 (4): 485–503. https://doi.org/10.1177/1356336X15584087)]. Objectives: This article aims to describe: (1) the main difficulties encountered by PEH teachers regarding their assessment practices and (2) their opinions of the grading process in PEH. Method: An exploratory sequential mixed-method research design [Creswell (2014. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. 4th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications] was used with PEH teachers to meet the objectives of this study. The first phase of the research, the qualitative phase, consisted of a 45-min semi-structured individual interview (n = 11) followed by a 60-min interview with the double [n = 10; Brau-Antony et al. (2014. “Curriculum en Éducation Physique et Sportive et évaluation certificative au baccalauréat.” Questions Vives 22:1–16. https://doi.org/10.4000/questionsvives.1596)]. The inductive content analyses [Creswell (2014. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. 4th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications); L’Écuyer (1990. Méthodologie de l’analyse développementale de contenu: Méthode GPS et concept de soi. Québec: Presses de l’Université du Québec)] of these two interviews allowed us to develop the questionnaire used in the second phase of the research, the quantitative phase (n = 164). The data were exported into IBM SPSS statistics Version 27 software to make descriptive analyses (frequencies and means) and advanced statistical analyses (Chi-square test, Kruskall–Wallis test and two-tailed Kendall's Tau-B test). Findings: Three main difficulties to asessing in PEH are identified by teachers: (1) assessing in health education; (2) unclear ministerial expectations for assessment and (3) the cumbersome competency assessment process. Advanced statistical analyses also show that early-career teachers experience more difficulties. Two main opinions about grading also emerge from the data: (1) grading in PEH allows to see the progress of the students and (2) the lack of guidelines for grading makes it very subjective. Conclusion: In conclusion, this study contributes to existing knowledge about assessment in PEH from several perspectives. From a pre-service perspective, it seems imperative to address assessment with its challenges so that early-career teachers can adequately define their conception of assessment and its purposes. From a governmental and political perspective, it would be relevant for teachers to have clear guidelines for assessment. Finally, from a research perspective and to contribute to the improvement of assessment processes, we claim that there is an important need for future action research, which is to establish collaborations with PEH teachers to develop and experiment with simple and effective strategies to respond to certain difficulties arising from our results.

Strategies for enhancing the resilience of rural teachers from the perspective of Chinese rural school principals, in the post-pandemic period

The impact of pandemic control measures on student education in rural areas of China, particularly focusing on the challenges faced by educators. With the adoption of diverse pedagogical methods like online education during the pandemic, little attention has been given to the specific struggles of teachers in rural regions. The pandemic has exacerbated existing issues, leading to an alarming increase in rural teacher attrition. High turnover rates have detrimental effects on educational excellence, school culture, and the overall cohesion of educational institutions. Furthermore, the costs incurred to recruit and train new instructors in impoverished or remote communities pose additional challenges. As China lifts COVID-19 restrictions in 2022, a pivotal moment emerges for the advancement of rural education. To address challenges and support early-career teachers’ resilience, a comprehensive understanding of the rural educational environment is crucial. By prioritizing the well-being and needs of new teachers, education leaders can provide effective support and resources in the post-pandemic era, leading to a more optimistic scholastic atmosphere and improved student achievement.

Effective Techniques in Teaching EFL

Teaching EFL (English as a Foreign Language) is a continuous struggle for teachers in their quest to use the most learner-profitable methods and techniques. The present paper deals with 2 techniques that provided enjoyable and skill-enhancing for the learners: team teaching and email writing. Team teaching is most common in the domain of foreign language teaching. Successful team teaching has the potential to benefit all concerned. Teachers stand to gain in terms of their professional development. Team teaching provides teachers with a partner to help them set objectives, make plans, implement lessons and evaluate the results, they have someone from whom they can draw inspiration and who can provide them with constructive feedback on their teaching. Learners have 2 teachers to learn from. The e-mail provides a context for real-world communication and authentic interactions. By connecting foreign language speakers outside of the classroom, e-mail also provides a context for communicating with other speakers in authentic communicative situations. Interaction via e-mail lends a feeling of reality to students and it is much like spoken language because of its informal and interactive nature.

The role of teaching processes in turnover intentions, risk of burnout, and stress during COVID-19: a case study among Finnish University teacher educators

Previous research in teaching contexts other than Higher Education (HE) has shown that teachers struggle with stress, burnout, and intention to leave the profession. There is rather scarce evidence that HE teachers’ wellbeing is affected by their teaching processes. Thus, in this case study, how HE teacher educators’ (N = 83) risk of burnout is related to their approaches to teaching, their intention to leave teaching in HE, and the stress experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic have been investigated. Based on the correlations and regression analyses of the survey data, the results showed that the COVID-19 pandemic had increased the work stress of over half of the HE teacher educators, but only a few suffered from burnout and had intended to leave teaching in HE. The risk of teachers suffering from burnout was negatively related to having an interactive teaching approach, and positively related to having an unreflective teaching approach. Both intending to leave teaching and the stress experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic predicted HE teacher educators’ risk of burnout. This study has shown the importance of conducting more research on university teachers’ wellbeing.

The History of PGRI's Struggle to Achieve the Educational Goals of the Indonesian Nation

As prospective educators or teachers, of course, we need to know the history of the struggle of teachers to achieve the goals of Indonesian National Education. Law no. 14 of 2005 concerning teachers and lecturers in article 1, paragraph 1, that teachers are professional educators with the main task of educating, teaching, guiding, directing, training, assessing, and evaluating students. Teachers are needed as professional educational staff who are indispensable in achieving the goals of the Indonesian nation, namely educating the nation's life and developing the whole person based on the preamble of the 1945 Constitution. The purpose of this research is to find out the history of the struggle of PGRI to achieve the goals of Indonesian education. The method used in this research is historical, through a literature review in the form of books and journals. To achieve the educational goals of the Indonesian nation, teachers have an organization as a gathering place for teachers or academic staff to work together, namely PGRI. PGRI was formed from an indigenous teacher struggle organization during the Dutch era, founded in 1912, called the Dutch East Indies Teachers Association (PGHB). One hundred days after the reading of the proclamation of Indonesia, namely on 24-25 November 1945 in Surakarta, an Indonesian Teachers' Congress was held, which became the forerunner of the Indonesian Teachers' Association (PGRI). PGRI always seeks to obtain, maintain, strengthen, and defend the rights of individuals, community members, citizens, and educators. The formation of PGRI is the result of the hard work of Indonesian teachers.

The History of PGRI's Struggle to Achieve the Educational Goals of the Indonesian Nation

Introduction: As prospective educators or teachers, of course, we need to know the history of the struggle of teachers to achieve the goals of Indonesian National Education. Law no. 14 of 2005 concerning teachers and lecturers in article 1, paragraph 1, that teachers are professional educators with the main task of educating, teaching, guiding, directing, training, assessing, and evaluating students. Teachers are needed as professional educational staff who are indispensable in achieving the goals of the Indonesian nation, namely educating the nation's life and developing the whole person based on the preamble of the 1945 Constitution. The purpose of this research is to find out the history of the struggle of PGRI to achieve the goals of Indonesian education. Method: The method used in this research is historical, through a literature review in the form of books and journals. Result: To achieve the educational goals of the Indonesian nation, teachers have an organization as a gathering place for teachers or academic staff to work together, namely PGRI. PGRI was formed from an indigenous teacher struggle organization during the Dutch era, founded in 1912, called the Dutch East Indies Teachers Association (PGHB). One hundred days after the reading of the proclamation of Indonesia, namely on 24-25 November 1945 in Surakarta, an Indonesian Teachers' Congress was held, which became the forerunner of the Indonesian Teachers' Association (PGRI). Conclusion: PGRI always seeks to obtain, maintain, strengthen, and defend the rights of individuals, community members, citizens, and educators. The formation of PGRI is the result of the hard work of Indonesian teachers.

A Text Structure Analysis of Nadiem Makarim’s Speech on Teacher’s Day on 25 November 2021

This study concerns with an A Text Structure Analysis of Nadiem Makarim’s Speech on Teacher’s Day on 25 November 2021. The objective of the study is to know the types of text structure used in Nadiem Makarim’s Speech on Teacher’s Day on 25 November 2021. The writer used descriptive qualitative method to know the objective of the study that is describing of text structure used in Nadiem Makarim’s Speech on Teacher’s Day on 25 November 2021. The technique of collecting the data are by searching for the script, searching for the video and then downloading the script and the video. The technique of analyzing the data are data reduction, display the data and the last is conclusion drawing/verification. Based on the the findings, the writer found macrostructure, suprastructure and microstrucure. In macrostructure, the theme of the Nadiem Makarim’s Speech is generally talking about the struggle of teachers in Indonesia in a pandemic situasion. Then in suprastructure, the scheme of the speech consisted of opening, content and closing. Finally in the microstrucure, the semantic aspect could be found in detail.

English teacher PPT gamification skills development in Trenggalek

Teachers must overcome the challenges of engaging and interactive English instruction. However, interactive and creative learning is usually conducted online via a digital platform. Sadly, not all Indonesian schools have good internet access. In Trenggalek, East Java, English teachers struggle with a similar issue. To overcome this problem, the PKM team trained English MGMP teachers in Trenggalek to make fun and interactive language games using Power Point (PPT). Although PPT is familiar to the teachers, not many of them are competent in using it to create fun activities. Combined offline and online trainings are being held. The PPT gamification training participants said they enjoyed themselves because the information was simple to comprehend and put into practice. In addition for trainee teachers to successfully follow and implement the training materials, PPT gamification training is tailored to their requirements and abilities.

Becoming an anti-racist teacher: countering racism in education

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the who of anti-racism education by examining who the teachers are that are doing anti-racist work and what experiences influenced them to counter racism in their education practices. Taking a pragmatic approach, I use data on racism and anti-racism in schools from interviews with 27 upper secondary school teachers in Sweden to capture notions of becoming. To that end, I present five types of experiences: 1) personal experiences of racism, 2) personal experiences of other forms of oppression, 3) political socialisation, 4) encounters with anti-racism in education, and 5) experiences of racism in the professional teaching context. This plurality of experiences offers different paths to becoming an anti-racist teacher and emphasises the need to situate questions of anti-racist education in the day-to-day struggle of teachers’ lives.

Overall, a Good Test, but…—Swedish Lower Secondary Teachers’ Perceptions and Use of National Test Results of English

This article builds on a study set within the Swedish educational system and focuses on lower secondary teachers’ use of national test results when awarding final grades of English as a foreign language (EFL). In Sweden, teachers are entrusted with the responsibility of assessing their own students’ competences as well as assigning grades. To support them, there are compulsory national tests to be used as important advisory tools; however, they are not exams in a strict decisive sense. After a brief contextualization and conceptualization regarding language education in Sweden, including the assessment, teachers’ somewhat contradictory perceptions and use of results from the national EFL test for 11–12-year-olds are described and discussed. Data emanate from large-scale teacher questionnaires conducted for three years (2013, 2016 and 2019), which are analyzed from quantitative as well as qualitative angles. Results indicate that a number of teachers struggle with factors related to the language construct as well as to the educational context and consequences at individual, pedagogical and structural levels. This is discussed from various angles, linked not least to the policy, curriculum and other frame factors. Furthermore, the need for further research in direct collaboration with teachers is emphasized.

IMPACT OF WORK LIFE BALANCE OF TEACHERS DURING COVID 19 PANDEMIC ON TEACHER DEMAND AND SUPPLY

In a post pandemic Covid-19 school environment, it requires immense struggle for teachers to establish Work Life Balance. It is also high time to redefine the forces of demand and supply in teacher labor market in the light of new normal paradigm shifts in school organizational make up. The present paper analyses various factors affecting Work Life Balance and latest trends in teacher labor market. In a completely changed academic environment which was resulted in Work Life Conflicts, teacher demand and supply has taken new shapes and structures. A mixed method approach was adopted to conduct the study using interview schedule and questionnaire.100 teachers working in government, aided and private schools in Kerala and 30 academic administrators constitute the sample. The results showed that there are significant changes in Work Life Balance and those changes influenced the characteristics of key determinants in teacher labor market.

The critical evaluation of educators' struggles in the context of Covid-19: Some theological analysis

Most countries have realized that education is one of the important keys to transforming their countries, and this responsibility rests hugely on the shoulders of teachers. It is concerning that the plight of teachers who are carriers of both our children’s future and the future of this country seems not to be receiving the attention it deserves. Although teacher unions are many, it is questionable whether the teaching profession is receiving the protection and the encouragement it deserves in this country. The teaching profession faced many challenges in recent years. Just as we thought that the massive resignation trend that started in 2014 was coming to an end and that a period of stability was dawning, Covid-19 and the hard lockdown of 2020 happened and many of the teaching profession’s serious concerns were once again thrust into the limelight. This article is concerned with the struggles of teachers during the corona period; the researcher looked at, for example, the paradox of the reopening of schools while the pandemic was raging towards its peak and how it affected teachers. Teachers were promised that they could work from home till retirement if they had comorbidities and are sixty and above of age, but they were recalled to work.

ANALYSIS OF DIDACTIC VALUES IN THE TEACHER’S DIARY BY NITHIWAT THARATHORN

Abstract: The Teacher’s Diary film by Nithiwat Tharathorn raises the theme of the struggle of teachers who teach in remote school. The problem discussed in this research is didactic value. The researcher describes the didactic values found in the depiction of characters through actions, speech and mind. Didactic value analysis in this film used Ali's theory. The method used is descriptive qualitative content analysis approach. The results showed that the didactic values contained in the film The Teacher's Diary, namely intellectual / intelligence value, skill value, self-esteem value, social values / community relations / association, moral value, beauty value, divine / religious value, self-control value / emotional stability, value of behavior / customs of courtesy, the value of will / desire or ideals. Based on the research results, it can be concluded that the didactic values in this film can be used as a reflection or example for teachers to teach and educate students and understand the meaning of teacher in a complete perspective. Keywords: Didactic Value, The Teacher’s Diary, Film.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING IN POST-GENOCIDE RWANDA: A STUDY OF TEACHERS’ OBSERVANCE OF THE GRICE’S COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE

The purpose of this paper is to report about how teachers of English in Rwanda implement Grice’s cooperative principle in their classrooms, the challenges they face while implementing it, and how they deal with those challenges. The study upon which this paper is based used survey questionnaires, observations, and interviews as methods of data collection. Grounded theory analysis was employed to make sense of the data. Research findings are articulated according to four maxims including quantitative maxim, qualitative maxim, maxim of relevance, and the maxim of manner. They include the fact that teachers struggle with teaching the prescribed curriculum, communicating with students in English, and teaching what is at their students’ learning level. The paper concludes by devising implications of the findings for policy and practice.