What is caught rather than taught: messages of professionalism communicated by teacher educators

Internationally, there is a growing recognition of teacher educators acting as both agents of and subjects to centrally devised policy reforms. In an Irish context, in which a rhetoric of policy veils teacher accountability behind standards/codes of professionalism, this study sets out to explore how professionalism is communicated to pre-service teachers during their School Placement practicum by teacher educators. This was achieved by examining a sample of teacher educators’ written reports of observed lessons (N = 429) and interviews with a sample (N = 10) of teacher educators from one Irish university. This study found that messages regarding the looking the part of a professional and fitting-in were communicated by teacher educators. While these messages appeared to be communicated from a position of care to ease students’ transition into the professional space, these messages also contained suggested sentiments of power and conformity. This study draws conclusion based on the professional agency of teacher educators and how their enactment of standards in programme design may communicate more than initially intended

Examining supervising field instructors\u27 reporting and assessment of technology use by pre-service teachers on school placement

The full text of this article will not be available in ULIR until the embargo expires on the 19/11/2022This study examines supervising field instructors’ reporting and assessment of technology use on School Placement. The research examined a sample of reports by supervising field instructors containing their assessment of pre-service teachers’ use of technology in their teaching. Findings highlight that technology was seen exclusively as a presentation aid for teaching and concerns were expressed by the field instructors about ‘overuse’ of technology by the pre-service teachers. While highlighting the need for further professional development, the paper also highlights the complex interplay of both school-related and university-related factors that influence how pre-service teachers use technology.ACCEPTEDpeer-reviewe

An Irish perspective on initial teacher education: How teacher educators can respond to an awareness of the ‘absurd’

Internationally, initial teacher education has experienced shifts towards competence and school-based programmatic reforms. As a result, literature on the role of teacher educators operating within the academy suggests a sense of doom as market-based and political distrust of the academy grows. For now, initial teacher education in Ireland is largely housed within the academy. However, several governing policies have recently been published which subtly seek to marginalise the role and practices of teacher educators. Drawing on Camus’ understanding of the absurd as emerging from the interaction between the longing of human beings for clarity and the universe’s indifferent and silent reply, this paper sets out to investigate possible methods that teacher educators may select in responding to an awareness of the absurd

Exploring pre-service teachers’ justifications for one-to-one technology use in schools: Implications for initial teacher education

Set against the backdrop of a succession of educational technology policies in Ireland, influenced by international discourses, this study aimed to explore how Irish pre-service teachers justify the use of mobile technologies in schools. In order to achieve this, 23 pre service teachers were presented with a vignette that asked them to justify the use of a one-to one tablet initiative in school. The research found that pre-service teachers tended to justify the initiative, as they saw the increasing technification of schools and society as an inevitable process. In addition, they presented pragmatic reasons for using the technology rather than highlighting their educational/pedagogic value. This study points to the need to challenge pre-service teachers’ innovation-centric and techno-centric attitudes towards technology use. It also highlights the need for teacher educators, as a whole, to take a more active role in addressing this issue in teacher education programme

Examining supervising field instructors' reporting and assessment of technology use by pre-service teachers on school placement

This study examines supervising field instructors’ reporting and assessment of technology use on School Placement. The research examined a sample of reports by supervising field instructors containing their assessment of pre-service teachers’ use of technology in their teaching. Findings highlight that technology was seen exclusively as a presentation aid for teaching and concerns were expressed by the field instructors about ‘overuse’ of technology by the pre-service teachers. While highlighting the need for further professional development, the paper also highlights the complex interplay of both school-related and university-related factors that influence how pre-service teachers use technology

The futile quest for honesty in reflective writing: recognising self-criticism as a form of self-enhancement

Reflective writing tasks are commonly employed across higher education programmes, yet despite their use, they are often accompanied by concerns that students simply performance manage by constructing positive accounts of their practice in their reflections. To address this, students are encouraged to be ‘honest’ in their reflections based on the assumption that reflections that engage in greater self-criticism are more honest. Through a presentation of a spectrum of techniques used for self-enhancement in student reflections (ranging along a continuum from self-criticism to self-praise), the paper contends that self-criticism and self-praise are two sides of the same coin. Both approaches can be used by students in reflective writing to performance manage. Therefore, efforts at promoting ‘honesty’ and ‘authenticity’ in reflective practice need to pay greater attention to the performative nature of both self-praise and self-criticism in reflective writing

Not ‘just consumers of content’: early insights into the policy enactment of the Digital Learning Framework

In Ireland, as with many international jurisdictions, digital technology is firmly positioned at the core of educational discourses. However, despite a rise in ‘techno-positivity’ among professionals in schools, these positive attitudes do not seem to permeate through to practice nor in effective learning outcomes. As a result, given the introduction of the Digital Learning Framework in the Irish schooling system, this study focuses on the initial experiences of those who lead the initiative within their respective schools and the contextual nuances they must navigate in the design of the enactment. This qualitative study comprised in-depth interviews with the Digital Learning Leaders of 10 different schools. Data evidenced the initial organisational considerations a leader must reckon with during the planning phase, and early indications of pedagogical impact, leading to a conclusion regarding contextual literacy. The research also highlights the subtle policy shift of embedding digital technologies within school evaluation mechanisms, heightening a sense of accountability associated with successful enactment

Illusions of online readiness: the counter-intuitive impact of rapid immersion in digital learning due to COVID-19

Framed from a socio-cognitive perspective, and the contemporary increased salience of digital learning readiness and competence, the purpose of this study was two-fold: to validate Online Learner Readiness Scale in a new context and to explore potential variances in online readiness within a student-teacher population between less (pre-COVID) and more experienced (during COVID) groups. A CFA was used to examine the suitability of the OLRS in an Irish context, and variances between groups based on gender and professional experience were explored. Two cross-sectional datasets were gathered from student teachers from a university teacher education programme in the Republic of Ireland (n1 = 281, n2 = 154). The analysis demonstrated significantly lower perceived online readiness in the more experienced ‘during COVID’ cohort compared to ‘pre-COVID’ cohort. This counter-intuitive finding is in direct contrast to prior research, and potential influencing factors include the sudden immersion in an entirely digital learning environment. The more experienced cohort reported significantly lower online readiness across all five components of the OLRS. The findings are discussed in the context of a major shift in the student-teacher learning experience due to COVID-19. Implications for future research are explored in the context of increasingly digitised teaching and learning environments during and after the COVID-19 pandemic

Exploring the introduction of the Framework for Junior Cycle: A longitudinal study. Interim report No. 2

This report is the second of a series of reports from a 4-year longitudinal study exploring the implementation, enactment and impact of the Framework for Junior Cycle in post-primary schools in Ireland. The study employs a mixed-methods, multi-dimensional research design that aims to capture the views of teachers, principals, students, parents and wider educational stakeholders. This second interim report draws primarily on the research data collected from the twelve case study schools in the Spring of 2022.  This data is complemented by the data set from the first phase of the teacher surveys. </p