Teaching Vocation Research Articles

Meaning in Life and the Vocation of Teaching

Meaning in Life and the Vocation of Teaching

Understanding Motivation towards Teaching in SerProfe UDP: A First Step to Foster Equity in Teacher Education Admission in Chile

Enrollment in pre-service teacher education in Chile has dropped by 19% in the last year. To better understand the motivations and perceptions towards teaching among those students who could potentially become teacher candidates, we explored teaching vocation on 11th- and 12th-grade students in Santiago. From a total of 1112 students who voluntarily participated in an online survey including the FIT-Choice scale, 381 expressed their interest in teacher education. Afterward, 83 students confirmed their participation in our mentoring program regarding teacher education and the teaching profession. The results show that the students who chose to be mentored have greater intrinsic motivation towards teaching and a greater self-perceived ability to teach. Additionally, they have a more positive perception of the teaching profession, including work–family conciliation, and project greater satisfaction with their professional choice. However, they also belong to one of the most vulnerable population groups in Chile, those who have more difficulties accessing university education through traditional admission processes conditioned on academic performance. Thus, to foster equity in teacher education and attract students with the vocational potential for becoming excellent teachers, we need to consolidate admission alternatives and provide greater opportunities to students that—due to the inequities of the educational system—fail to complete a successful application or do not make the cut to enroll.

Education in the Arts: Debate Between the Term Artist or Teacher

The arts today have gained a lot of strength because it has been believed that they help improve student performance, favor education and learning, managing to lead the learner to the generation of significant knowledge. In this sense, this research aims to elucidate the impact and importance between the terms of artist and the figure of the art teacher. It seeks to express that both terms are related to education and the development of student learning. The results obtained will seek to make a proposal in which, based on what has been analyzed and referenced, the work of an art teacher within the school field can be defined, in addition to his artistic vocation that is completely balanced with his teaching vocation.

Learning to teach as a two-sided endeavor: mentors’ perceptions of paired practicum in initial teacher education

ABSTRACT In this article, mentors’ perceptions of paired practicum in initial teacher education in Sweden are studied. Taking the mentors’ perspective, we describe the potentials and the pitfalls of paired practicum. The pros and cons of the model are analyzed from a perspective of learning the vocation of teaching as a two-sided endeavor. Inspired by a modified Aristotelian perspective, we use the terms participant knowledge and spectator knowledge to conceptualize the learning of two different forms of knowledge. Qualitative data were gathered through interviews with five mentors and analyzed using an abductive process. The analysis reveals that paired practicum facilitates a potential for learning mainly a distanced and propositional spectator knowledge while the learning of a contextual and practical participant knowledge seems to be obstructed. For instance, paired practicum seems to prolong the peripheral position of the students and their opportunities to gain participatory knowledge. Results also show that there is a discrepancy between the pedagogical intentions of paired practicum and the concrete possibilities for realizing these in practice. The limitations of the paired practicum model, and how these can be overcome, both at individual and organizational level, are highlighted.

Табу на покликання вчителя

The work "Taboos on the teaching vocation" was read by the German social philosopher and representative of critical theory Theodor Adorno as a report on May 21, 1965 at the Berlin Institute for Educational Research (West Berlin). In this report, Adorno considered the socio-psychological and socio-cultural reasons that in the context of Western European culture have historically led to the social emergence of many psychological taboos on the pedagogical work of the school teacher. The philosopher theoretically deduced the dialectical connection between human hostility and disgust for the work of the teacher from the cultural tradition of German society, which historically developed as late bourgeois. A characteristic feature of the attitude of the overly materialistic socio-cultural system was aversion to the work of the teacher as a "hungry job", that is, to a poorly paid profession. Another factor of public disgust for the work of teachers, the philosopher called the socio-cultural tradition of society, which as a closed society willingly practiced physical violence as a means of social coercion. According to this tradition, through the use of violence, the teacher must subordinate students to his authority, subordinate to social and school ideology. The historical result of such dialectics was the socio-cultural (ideological) distortion of the image of the teacher, the castration of his image in social psychology, his self-alienation from the professional vocation and the ideological elimination of the power of his spirit. As an ideological alternative, Adorno suggested that society, if it consciously seeks democratic change, first of all take into account such young teachers who demonstrate the impulse of their individual spirit in the performance of their profession. According to the philosopher, only the spiritual freedom of such a young educator, a man who is capable of self-understanding, conscious of himself and his vocation, who reflects and is socially active, can democratize schools, devalue society and destroy dehumanized social traditions. First of all – in order to overcome the barbaric tradition of violence.

Job Perceptions Contribute to Stress among Secondary School Teachers in Southwestern Uganda

(1) Background: Teachers’ personal and strenuous working conditions reflect the realities of the teaching vocation that may result in increased stress levels and associated negative consequences, such as negative emotions. It is also well-known that teacher stress contributes to more violence against students. However, little is known about personal and school context factors that contribute to teachers’ stress. The current study examined whether, in addition to school-related factors, job perceptions, including the feeling of pressure at work and perceived school climate and teaching difficulties, contribute to teachers’ stress. (2) Methods: A representative sample of 291 teachers from 12 public secondary schools in southwestern Uganda responded to self-administered questionnaires. (3) Results: Teaching difficulties and feelings of pressure at work contributed to teachers’ stress. Furthermore, stress did not vary with teachers’ sociodemographic variables. (4) Conclusions: Teachers’ perceptions of their working conditions were associated with teacher stress levels. Therefore, more efforts need to be geared towards improving the working conditions of teachers as a way of reducing stress.

La vocación en la identidad del maestro de Educación Infantil: una revisión de la última década

Este trabajo constituye una aproximación al papel que juega la vocación docente en el proceso de construcción de la identidad profesional del maestro/a de Educación Infantil. Para ello; se ha realizado una revisión sistemática de la producción científica publicada en habla hispana sobre esta temática en los últimos 10 años. De los 909 estudios localizados finalmente se seleccionaron 40; de los cuales 33 son artículos científicos y 7 tesis doctorales. Los resultados muestran que; es entre los años 2015 y 2019; donde se registra un mayor número de trabajos; y España el país de origen de la mayor parte de ellos. Los autores apuestan; principalmente; por trabajos de investigación de carácter cualitativo. Entre los temas más investigados se encuentran: la influencia de la vocación en la elección y desempeño de la profesión; acto del prácticum en la formación inicial; y las condiciones laborales de la profesión docente. Por contra; los temas menos investigados son: el impacto del género en la construcción de la identidad y el papel de la familia en la elección y orientación profesional del maestro/a. Se concluye con la recomendación de seguir trabajando aspectos como la responsabilidad; la ilusión y la motivación para reforzar el componente vocacional del maestro.

Exploring narrative pedagogy: Story, teaching, and the development of virtue

In our ever more connected and open-access world, the vocation of teaching continually strives to rearticulate its significance. This study contributes to such ventures by drawing upon recent theology, psychology, philosophy, and literary theory to envision instruction as a uniquely narratival and virtue-formative practice, especially in Christian educational contexts. Four distinctly narratival-pedagogical approaches are illustrated, followed by a discussion of their capability for instilling and cultivating diverse intellectual virtues.

Undergraduate Students’ Perceptions on their Identity as Future EFL Teachers

To be professional EFL teachers in the future, pre-service teachers should continuously construct their identities amid various obstacles and difficulties they confront in their working circumstances. This study attempted to investigate undergraduate students’ perceptions of their identity as future teachers. One research problem was proposed in this study namely: What are the factors influencing pre-service teachers to develop their teacher identity through Micro Teaching Class? This study applied qualitative method harnessing three research instruments i.e., classroom survey, students’ reflections on their future teaching vocation, and interview to gather the data from Micro Teaching Class of the English Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta. The findings indicated that most pre-service EFL teachers studying in Micro Teaching Class were willing to nurture their identities as future educators as long as extensive supports given to them. Future researchers need to conduct more intensive studies on the relationship between agency and resilience influencing pre-service EFL teachers’ professional identity development.

Anatomy theaters in the history and teaching of surgery.

The study of anatomy has played a large part in the progress of scientific observation throughout the centuries and was pivotal in elevating anatomy from the magical thinking of the Hippocrates era and freeing it from subservience to medicine which was all-powerful in the past. Anatomy theaters appeared in Northern Italy in the 14th century and developed in Western Europe from the early 16th century to the beginning of the 19th century. Anatomy theaters lived their golden age in France during the 18th century when the Royal Academy of Surgery (Académieroyaledechirurgie) was created in 1743. These theaters were open to the public, and therefore offered the double vocation of teaching and public entertainment: they were used to teach anatomy and surgery to students and surgeons and offered distraction for the well-informed public that was fascinated by death, ever-present and familiar to all. Anatomical dissection accomplished a double ritual: the "profane" ritual of valorization of scientific knowledge and the "sacred" ritual, where mankind, obsessed with death, respected the human body considered as a divine image. Anatomy theaters declined as they became overshadowed by progress in anatomical teaching using well-illustrated works in well-equipped medical schools while exhibition of anatomic oddities for public amusement was relegated to fairs and circus sideshows. Nonetheless they opened the way to modern anatomo-clinical methods and surgery.

Construcción socio-política de una vocación docente dirigida a la transformación social: el caso de la pedagogía en el campo de la educación física

Does it make sense to talk about social and political vocation in Teacher Education in the field of Physical Education? This question is discussed in order to preserve need and validity of this issue, stating that the teaching vocation must also be understood from a socio-political perspective to ease, favor and encourage a process of reflection, regarding the teaching of professional identify which nowadays, appears to be delimited by prescriptions and normative codes, at the stage that educational policies have neglected on conceptualizing vocation linked to teaching. Socio-political dimension of teaching vocation shaping professional identity, takes on account an uncertain environment characterized by inequality and social segregation, within the Physical Education Teacher Education field. In addition, this issue is unfolded together with research proposals involving social transformative function in the Physical Education Teacher Education context that educational policies have not duly taken into account. Michel Foucault’s philosophical theory and Paulo Freire’s pedagogy, although from different epistemological perspectives, allow us to sustain why at present becomes relevant and necessary to ask us in which way socio-political teaching vocation is constructed in the field of Physical Education Teacher Education.

Vocación docente como respuesta esperanzadora en contextos de vínculos humanos frágiles

La profesión docente exige la vocación, y ambas tienen que ir estrechamente unidas, por cuanto la vocación sin profesión hace frecuentemente ineficaz y perjudicial la acción educativa, al encontrarse el educador entre la ilusión, el deseo de hacer y la ignorancia de no saber-hacer. Se realizó un estudio cualitativo de corte interpretativo sobre la Vocación docente como respuesta esperanzadora en contextos de vínculos humanos frágiles. La formación de ciudadanos autónomos y solidarios en contextos de fragilidad humana es todo un compromiso que se asume con responsabilidad, liderazgo y certeza cuando en la persona del docente hay un ser capaz de entender que su acción en el otro se multiplicará para bien o para mal. Lo sublime de la profesión docente está en la de formar ciudadanos auténticos, libres, fuertes en lo humano, líderes comprometidos, capaces de responder y dar frente a la compleja vida que Dios nos obsequió.

Emancipation and feminization of the teaching vocation in Serbia and Yugoslavia after World War II

The paper is an attempt to point out the problems faced by the new communist authorities in Yugoslavia in the years after the victory in the War and the Revolution in the process of emancipation and additional feminization of the teaching vocation, with particular emphasis on the period until the adoption of the General Law on Education (1958). Particular emphasis will be placed on policy analysis as well as concrete measures that have led to a different profile of the role of the teacher in the post-war society. On the one hand, it will highlight the concrete measures taken by the state to motivate as many women as possible to opt for the teaching job. On the other hand, they will point out the many problems faced by many teachers whose professional and professional qualities, in assessing the quality of their work, are not so infrequently subordinated to their ?moral characteristics?.

Teachers Are: Analyzing the Metaphors of Pre-Service Educators

Metaphors are often used by in-service educators to describe themselves and their work in the classroom. These metaphors can articulate in-service teachers’ fundamental dispositions and provide the vehicle for conceptualizing teaching practices. Pre-service educators (those engaged in preparation to enter the teaching vocation), however, are a different population for whom metaphors represent relatively untested assumptions about the classroom and the practices that pervade it. These metaphors should be considered an asset which, if effectively utilized, can aid in the work of teacher preparation. To that end, this study employed the Conceptual Metaphor Theory of Lakoff & Johnson (1980) within the propositional analysis framework of Steen (1999) to provide a generalizable approach to metaphor analysis that could be used in educator preparation programs.

Major Barriers and Challenges to Integrating ICT in Education

From the start of the information age, ICT has upheld an essential role in improving the quality of education. Thus, lots of countries desire to perk up the effectiveness and quality of the learning process, and consider ICT as one tool to attain that target. This role in education involves assisting students to learn and teachers to execute their teaching vocation more efficiently. As a result of quick developments in a short period, ICT has turned out to be the focus of interest for pedagogical settings. Swift developments in ICT have also led to radical conversions in education. This brings about the significance for training teachers and students for these changes in the information society. Integration of ICT is essential to upgrade the quality of education and how ICT might permit teachers to construct different pathways. In these backgrounds, educator’s shifting role in the 21st century entails a vital role, which is to be the leader for connecting technological novelties to teaching/learning process. At this point, essential competencies and the degree of willingness are key factors in the implementation process of new ICT. The major objective of this study is to get experiential data on the current use of ICT by teachers and students to come up with strategies and action plans for integrating educational technologies in the Algerian higher educational system. More purposely, the study endeavours to investigate teachers' perceptions of barriers and challenges that may influence integrating ICTs in the teaching process, . The findings will be discussed in relation to learning theories in addition to the pedagogical outcomes for the use of ICT in EFL context.

Learning how we learn

Purpose This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings It is perhaps ironic that one of the areas that we as a society have most to still learn about is in fact learning itself. Learning in the traditional sense is for the most part widely understood. The old-fashioned “chalk and talk” delivery of high school teachers has for the most part been replaced – and not just because chalk does not work so well on interactive smart boards. Modern teachers are much better drilled in the benefits of student engagement, the utilization of a variety of teaching activities, when to use repetition and when to use pair and group work. In many developed countries, years of comprehensive education policy implementation and the pressure of league tables at a local and national level have professionalized the vocation of teaching. Practical implications: Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world’s leading organizations. Originality/value The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

Construction and psychometric analysis of the Teacher Vocation Questionnaire for students (TVQ-S)

Teaching vocation is an important factor considered as a basic competence in most of the teacher training programs in Chile. here is little research addressing this issue, which led researchers to carry out this study through the construction of a questionnaire to measure teaching vocation in pedagogy students (TVQ-S). he questionnaire was built based on a comprehensive literature review and process of content analysis by referee criteria and levels of internal validation with an instrumental study. It was made up of 37 items distributed in 6 factors that measure the interest in teaching, academic achievement motivation, self-determination, intrinsic motivation, disciplinary interest and a scale of lies. he Pilot study involved 209 student teachers from the University of Bio-Bio, Chile, including 86% women and 14% men, aged between 19 and 29 years. Statistical analyzes indicate a good level of overall reliability (α = .833) as such as its factors (.419 and .799); factors also have a significant level of correlation with global instrument (between .539 and .760 Pearson, significant p> .001). It can be concluded that the instrument is valid and reliable for assessing the construct teaching vocation in Chilean students of pedagogy. KEYWORDS. Teaching vocation; pedagogy; psychometric properties; assessment. doi: 10.21703/rexe.20181734cossa61

Validación de un modelo de competencias pedagógicas para docentes de Educación Media Técnica

This article gives an account of the stages involved in validating a structural model to address teaching skills and aptitudes among instructors and professors in the field of Secondary Technical Vocational Education (EMPT – Spanish acronym). For the validity of the construct and the criteria, a questionnaire was developed that includes sentences and phrases associated with the latent variables; namely, professional action, social competence and professional teaching vocation. These variables were evaluated with the help of national and international experts. Then, the content validity index was determined, and the behavior of the conceptual assessment scale and the instrument was evaluated in a random sample, using confirmatory factor analysis. The article ends with a look at the theoretical convergence of the new structural models that are revealed, based on the initial choice of constructs adjusted to the reality of EMPT teachers in Chile who work in environments where there is a high degree of social vulnerability.

“Dedícate a Otra Cosa”: Estudio Autobiográfico del Desarrollo Profesional de un Docente Universitario de Educación Física

Los estudios autobiográficos han demostrado una contribución científica elevada y una verdadera utilidad para comprender los fenómenos educativos en Educación Física (EF). El presente trabajo analiza el recorrido formativo y profesional de un docente universitario que actualmente trabaja en la formación inicial de maestros de EF. Son tres fases periódicas principales las que se han analizado: (1) “Finalización de los primeros estudios universitarios”, (2) “Comienzo como docente en la universidad” y (3) “Tras seis años como docente en la universidad”. Como instrumento de recogida de datos se empleó el diario reflexivo del docente. Tres categorías estructuran los resultados: (1) “Concepción y reflexión sobre la EF”, (2) “Vocación y satisfacción en la profesión del docente de EF” y (3)“Objetivos, líneas de promoción y mejoras futuras”. Se refleja cómo la vocación del docente y su motivación por ser profesor de EF condujeron a la obtención de diversos méritos y de reconocimiento académico. Además, se muestra el progresivo autoconocimiento personal y profesional que el docente experimentó a lo largo del tiempo. Se concluye en la importancia que tiene un buen asesoramiento académico desde la educación obligatoria y la relevancia de la autoconfianza para conseguir los retos formativos y profesionales futuros.

Residentes como docentes en la Fundación Universitaria de Ciencias de la Salud (FUCS), proyecto de residentes formadores

IntroductionSince its foundation San José Hospital in Bogotá has had a teaching vocation and currently is an accredited university hospital and a leading teaching institution. This fact, along with the results of studies developed in various countries, requires the University Foundation of Health Sciences (Fundación Universitaria de Ciencias de la Salud) (FUCS) and the San José Hospital to create innovative programs focused on promoting teaching among residents. ObjectiveTo determine the perception residents have on their role as teachers of other residents, interns and medical students, as well as, the knowledge they have gained from fellow residents. Materials and MethodsThis study is based on the survey used by the Sánchez-Mendiola et al. study which was modified for our setting. The amount of time a resident considers he spends teaching and how much of their knowledge comes from other residents, is assessed, as well as, the academic requirements and the preferred educational strategies needed to become proficient in teaching. ResultsResidents perceive that 47.72% of their knowledge comes from other residents; they identify lack of time and excessive work burden as the main obstacles for receiving training to enhance teaching skills, but they are aware of the importance their role as teachers represent and would invest an average of 5.3 hours a week to undertake training to teach. ConclusionResidents of the Fundación Universitaria de Ciencias de la Salud are aware of their role as teachers and are willing to dedicate some of their time to learning how to teach.