Properly equipping our teachers for the future: re-reading research in practice as an everyday habit of professional practice (original) (raw)
Related papers
Challenging Policy, Rethinking Practice; or, Struggling for the Soul of Teacher Education
The Struggle for Teacher Education: International Perspectives on Teacher Education Governance and Reforms (Tom Are Trippestad, Anja Swennen & Tobias Werler [Eds.]) , 2017
Given the ongoing and escalating struggle for control of teacher education around the world, it is timely to re-assess the project of teacher education itself. This chapter reviews and critiques contemporary policy developments and debates in and about teacher education, and then introduces and explores a new and different perspective based on recent developments in practice theory and philosophy. The aim here is to present a richly reconceptualised understanding of teacher education as professional practice. Re-thinking and re-organising the field in accordance with an informed practice-theoretical view is proposed as an alternative to current hegemonic positions and as a means of settling arguments that appear overly invested in policy reform as the key solution to the challenges facing teacher education today and tomorrow. The chapter thus argues for a (different) practice turn in teacher education.
In defence of teacher education
2011
Everyone agrees that teachers require some basic training. This might mean completing different types of on-the-job training and mentoring programmes, or involve undertaking a range of professional and postgraduate courses. Current education policy emphasises one of the more modest approaches for training teachers: on-the-job training. The Coalition Government thus looks set to reverse the emphasis that has developed over the last sixty years, the result of which was that Higher Education had become the undisputed leader of teacher training. The Government's move has led to consternation. Not only has it made the university departments and schools of education anxious, but it's also worried those who think something more than mere training is needed for tomorrow's teachers. SCETT is the Standing Committee for the Education and Training of Teachers. Since its inception in 1981, SCETT has promoted both educating and training teachers. Yet today, few from the education status quo-especially those responsible for education policy-would argue that teachers need educating as opposed to training. This is partly a problem of meaning. Many of the words we use to talk about education no longer have any shared, clear meaning. This is why 'education' and 'training' can be used as synonyms. Their different meanings are ignored. Similarly, other associated terms, such as 'reflection', 'subject', 'theory' and even 'knowledge' and 'learning', have had their former meanings obscured over recent decades. What's needed, and what SCETT is uniquely placed to offer, is a forum for discussion to give fresh meaning to these terms. Rather than harking back to a lost past, or naïvely assuming all will be well because it superficially sounds that way, we must reinvigorate these ideas for ourselves. Without that debate, there can be no 'defence of teacher education'. These papers are inspired by the SCETT Conference, In Defence of Teacher Education, held on 26 th November 2010. They represent the beginnings of a debate about what teacher education means. The contributors are major figures in the education trade unions and Higher Education in the UK. SCETT believes there is a serious discussion to be had with the Coalition Government. This doesn't concern various technical aspects of policy, but the very meaning of teacher education. Without this discussion, the future of the teaching profession-and the future of all our children-is in jeopardy.
This paper captures the experience of implementing an educational reform strategy. The development of Deakin University's Graduate Diploma of Education (Applied Learning) (GDAL) was understood by its instigators as a platform for reform. The GDAL would respond to the challenge being put before education and training providers in late modern times: to prepare young people to create and engage with a learning society through their capacity for lifelong learning. These teacher education students would, ideally, bring skills and knowledge already gained in a professional career. While they would gain teacher registration they were better conceptualised as professional educators for an emerging post compulsory education, training and employment sector in the Australian state of Victoria: it was expected that graduates would not only teach in schools but would also move readily within the network of learning spaces that young people increasingly experience in their formal education. In the process, they would be a force for change, seeding reform within secondary schools. As a 'teacher' these graduates would have the credibility to challenge the entrenched practices of other teachers. It is the story of 'what happened' as a consequence of this specific aim that this paper concerns itself with.
Endless patience and a strong belief in what makes a good teacher.' Teacher Educators in Post Compulsory Education in England and their professional situation. This research explores the professional situation of teacher educators in Post Compulsory Education. The article reports on a project which included the largest online survey of this particular group to date, and the results provided rich insights into their values, experiences and particular working context. The results significantly extend our understanding of the characteristics and beliefs of this under-researched professional community, and they have a powerful resonance as we move into a new era for UK teacher education. teacher education are varied and somewhat haphazard, and induction / support systems for this group are limited, if they exist at all. Research by (Harkin, Cuff and Rees 2008) articulates with Noel's. A number of the questions in my survey were modelled on those used in Harkin, Cuff and Rees (2008), which provided a sound structure for generic information, as well as enabling a degree of comparison. Research by Boyd, Harris and Murray (2007); Crowe and Berry (2007);
2006
This article debates three tensions within the contemporary teaching profession in Great Britain, in terms of education policy after the 1988 Education Reform Act. The first is between prospective and retrospective identities, as defined by Bernstein (1996/2000). The second is between teachers’ expectations of professional status, and centralised and highly regulated school inspections. Finally, the article looks at vocation in the teaching profession, and how this comes into conflict with issues of self-interest amongst teachers. The article concludes by suggesting another tension that is evident throughout all three earlier strands of debate, between democratic professionalism (Whitty, 2002) and the post-1988 education landscape. The article closes by suggesting that a future education act in favour of a more humane education system may resolve this situation.
Studia paedagogica
This paper reflects on the needs of early career, pre-service and newly qualified teachers (NQTs) in the English education system, specifically the contested place of what we term the academic dimension within their preservice professional formation. This largely theoretical paper begins with a philosophical review of an established debate concerning the relationship between theory, research, and professional knowledge in teaching, arguing that the discussion is irreducibly normative. Hogan's notion of teaching as "heart work" is extended to include "head work" and the case made for teachers developing a conceptual map as part of their professional formation to guide them in making good judgements in classrooms. From this, a pedagogical problem follows, in developing new approaches to engage teachers with theory given this is relatively absent in the English context. Four themes are identified from a brief review of existing studies concerned with engaging teachers in the academic dimension of pre-service teacher education which we relate to illustrative comments we have gathered informally from our own students which suggest they may appreciate the value of critical reflection on practice promoted by universities more than some policy makers in this context recognise. We conclude by suggesting ways in which one innovation in ITE in England with which we have been involved, Philosophy for Teachers (P4T), integrates the academic dimension and developing practice which relate to the four themes found in the review of existing literature, while focused on educational theory specifically. P4T fosters, we maintain, characteristically humanistic and relational reflection that is otherwise under-represented in professional formation for pre-and in-service teachers in England.
Towards the Teaching School: Partnering to create an exciting new future in teacher education
Improving the academic performance of schools is a global preoccupation for governments. A pre-occupation that has its roots in the emergence of a global knowledge based economy which places a premium on intellectual capacity. This premium has consequently focused governments to improving the academic performance of their schools. Given the key role played by teachers in such an agenda school heads are being called upon to improve the teaching capacities of their teachers. This teaching improvement agenda is challenging because traditional approaches to teacher professional development --- the withdraw from class to workshop model--- prove ineffective and limiting in an age of knowledge production, innovation and applied creativity and constant change. In this paper we revisit the Teaching School concept (as theorised by authors such as Turner & Lynch, 2006; Smith & Lynch, 2010; Lynch, 2012) to propose a fresh approach to teacher professional learning: one that is embedded in the ‘teacher as researcher’ premise, new teaching arrangements and a partnership with a university.