Representing critical reflections in teacher education

This critical action research study explores the professional growth of a middle school teacher and two teacher educators. It focuses on a professional development program in which one author (Bev) had the role of student, one of teacher (Peter), and one of the teacher's 'critical friend' (David). The program's epistemology was based on Habermas' theory of 'knowledge and human interests', emphasising the 'emancipatory' interest's potential for creating empowering learning environments. The teaching and learning roles of the participants, with their professional development and new understandings, are explored with reference to a 'critical incident' that sparked this inquiry. Narrative accounts are used to explore the sometimes conflicting meanings constructed by the authors, highlighting the complex nature of their educative discourses and problematising notions of emancipatory curriculum and student empowerment

Embodying our values in our teaching practices: Building open and critical discourse through computer mediated communication

Computer mediated communication—including web pages, email and web-based bulletin boards—was used to support the development of a cooperative learning community among students in a web-based distance education unit for practicing science and mathematics educators. The students lived in several Australian states and a number of Pacific Rim countries. They reported increased satisfaction with their studies, decreased feelings of isolation, and better support for their learning processes. This article describes the iterative processes of research and design involved in developing and refining the unit, which was based in a social constructivist/constructionist conception of teaching and learning, between 1997 and 1999. Issues and implications for others planning to develop web-based teaching units, including the time and energy commitment involved, and the challenges of credibly assessing online participation, are also considered

Virtual teaching or virtually teaching? Does Internet-based teaching require multiple metaphors of mind?

At the time of writing the abstract of this paper, I (a teacher-researcher) am becoming increasingly mindful of the need to examine the epistemological standpoint governing my teaching role in an innovative Internet-based virtual learning environment. I have a growing concern about the epistemology governing the interactive learning activities of a postgraduate coursework unit for professional teachers learning at a distance. The 'constructivist' metaphor of mind ('knowing as thinking'), which shapes my pedagogy, might be marginalising unduly my teaching role. This is evidenced by my predominantly 'episodic' teaching actions in the Discussion Room (DR) of the Internet site; actions which involve writing fortnightly summative perspectives on learners' discursive activities. By modelling the absence of a dominating voice (or being silent) have I abandoned unwittingly the important teaching role of modelling the discursive practices that I value? Perhaps it might be fruitful to adopt an alternative metaphor ('knowing as co-participation') arising from a 'constructionist' epistemology in which mind is regarded as being distributed socially

Arcs, braids and webs: Exploring constructed narratives in a web-based distance education unit

Different media tell their tales in different ways. Interactive educational sites on the World Wide Web combine some of the linearity of text with the dialogical nature of a conversation. In such an unfamiliar context, metaphors and narratives tend to be used by both the students and tutors in the unit to make sense of their learning experiences. Such narratives are to some extent imposed by the constraints and potentials of the medium, and to some extent by the values and choices of the web developer, but they are also co-constructed throughout the unit by the interactions and negotiations of the tutors and students. I wish to explore, using several different metaphors, my own narrative intentions as the unit developer, and the intersections and renegotiations of that narrative with those co-constructed with my co-tutor and with the students. I will suggest that the most useful unit of analysis and evaluation for such a project is not the learning of the individual, nor even a dyadic relationship (although these are an important part of the unit), but the story - recognising always that stories are constructed rather than found

Creating a professional community of reflective inquiry: Tales of reform via the World Wide Web

In this paper we explain the ongoing development of our web-based teaching and illustrate how, over 3-4 years, key critical events precipitated the incremental transformation of our online teaching. Our narrative tells how we moved from inviting voluntary student participation in online collaboration to requiring and assessing participation. How we struggled with achieving the right balance between individual and collaborative student learning. How we developed increasingly powerful conceptual tools (metaphor, autobiography, framing, re-visioning) for engaging students in critical reflective inquiry. How we engaged students as managers of their online discourse community. We illustrate how our collaborative action research into the transformative possibilities of innovative web-based teaching has taken us forward as teachers and learners

Writing Our Lived Experience: Beyond the (Pale) Hermeneutic?

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Writing our lived experience: Beyond the (pale) hermeneutic?

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Promoting open and critical discourse in on-line learning

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Writing our lived experiences: Beyond the (pale) hermeneutic

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Teaching as a moral activity: Critical reflections in teacher education

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