Research on mentor education for mentors of newly qualified teachers : A qualitative meta-synthesis

The aim of this meta-synthesis is to deepen the understanding and knowledge of qualitative research focusing on education for mentors of newly qualified teachers. Altogether, 10 studies were included and synthesised. Four common themes emerged in the initial analysis: School and mentoring context, Theory and practice, Reflection and critical thinking and Relationships. Furthermore, three overarching dimensions were found as a final synthesis guiding the further development of mentor education: 1) Contextual dimensions, 2) Theoretical-analytical dimensions, and 3) Relational dimensions. The synthesis stresses the importance of a systematic, long-term and research-informed mentor education that develops mentors' (self-)understanding of teaching and mentoring.Paid Open Acces

Att kvalificera sig till mentor : perspektiv på kompetensbehov och utbildning av mentorer för nya lärare

Akseptert fagfellevurdert versjon (postprint).Dette er manusversjonen av artikkelen Aspfors, J. & Fransson, G. (2015). Att kvalificera sig till mentor: perspektiv på kompetensbehov och utbildning av mentorer för nya lärare. Psykologi i kommunen, 50(2), 17-27. http://www.fpkf.no/tidsskrift

Att kvalificera sig till mentor : perspektiv på kompetensbehov och utbildning av mentorer för nya lärare

Akseptert fagfellevurdert versjon (postprint).Dette er manusversjonen av artikkelen Aspfors, J. & Fransson, G. (2015). Att kvalificera sig till mentor: perspektiv på kompetensbehov och utbildning av mentorer för nya lärare. Psykologi i kommunen, 50(2), 17-27. http://www.fpkf.no/tidsskrift

Dignity at stake – relatives’ experiences of influencing dignified care in nursing homes

Background - Dignity, in the care of older nursing home residents, has been an increasingly part of the public discourse the recent years. Despite a growing body of knowledge about dignity and indignity in nursing homes, we have less knowledge of how relatives experience their role in this context. This study is a follow-up to a previous study in nursing homes, which gave rise to concern about the relatives’ descriptions of residents’ dignity. The aim of this current study is to critically discuss relatives’ experiences of influencing the dignified care of residents of nursing homes. Methods - Methodologically, the study is informed by a critical hermeneutic stance, where the analysis is guided by a qualitative interpretive approach and a humanizing framework. This is a secondary analysis that includes data from five semi-structured focus groups from a previous study. The participants were 18 relatives of 16 residents living in two nursing homes in rural northern Norway. Results - The main theme in this study, preventing missed care when dignity is at stake, is identified when relatives of nursing homes experience that they are able to influence dignified care by (a) pinpointing to prevent missed care and (b) compensating when dignity is threatened. Conclusions - Despite their stated good intentions to safeguard dignity, relatives of nursing homes experience being alienated in their attempts to change what they describe as undignified and unacceptable practice into dignified care. The relatives’ observations of dignity and indignity are, contrary to what national and international regulations require, not mapped and/or used in any form of systematic quality improvement work. This indicates that knowledge-based practice in nursing homes, including the active application of user and relative knowledge, has untapped potential to contribute to quality improvement towards dignified care

Early Career Teachers’ Experiences of Developing Professional Knowledge - from research-based teacher education through five years in the profession

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Induction practices : experiences of newly qualified teachers

The thesis consists of four studies (articles I–IV) and a comprehensive summary. The aim is to deepen understanding and knowledge of newly qualified teachers’ experiences of their induction practices. The research interest thus reflects the ambition to strengthen the research-based platform for support measures. The aim can be specified in the following four sub-areas: to scrutinise NQTs’ experiences of the profession in the transition from education to work (study I), to describe and analyse NQTs’ experiences of their first encounters with school and classroom (study II), to explore NQTs’ experiences of their relationships within the school community (study III), to view NQTs’ experiences of support through peer-group mentoring as part of the wider aim of collaboration and assessment (study IV). The overall theoretical perspective constitutes teachers’ professional development. Induction forms an essential part of this continuum and can primarily be seen as a socialisation process into the profession and the social working environment of schools, as a unique phase of teachers’ development contributing to certain experiences, and as a formal programme designed to support new teachers. These lines of research are initiated in the separate studies (I–IV) and deepened in the theoretical part of the comprehensive summary. In order to appropriately understand induction as a specific practice the lines of research are in the end united and discussed with help of practice theory. More precisely the theory of practice architectures, including semantic space, physical space-time and social space, are used. The methodological approach to integrating the four studies is above all represented by abduction and meta-synthesis. Data has been collected through a questionnaire survey, with mainly open-ended questions, and altogether ten focus group meetings with newly qualified primary school teachers in 2007–2008. The teachers (n=88 in questionnaire, n=17 in focus groups), had between one and three years of teaching experience. Qualitative content analysis and narrative analysis were used when analysing the data. What is then the collected picture of induction or the first years in the profession if scrutinising the results presented in the articles? Four dimensions seem especially to permeate the studies and emerge when they are put together. The first dimension, the relational ˗ emotional, captures the social nature of induction and teacher’s work and the emotional character intimately intertwined. The second dimension, the tensional ˗ mutable, illustrates the intense pace of induction, together with the diffuse and unclear character of a teacher’s job. The third dimension, the instructive ˗ developmental, depicts induction as a unique and intensive phase of learning, maturity and professional development. Finally, the fourth dimension, the reciprocal ˗ professional, stresses the importance of reciprocity and collaboration in induction, both formally and informally. The outlined four dimensions, or integration of results, describing induction from the experiences of new teachers, constitute part of a new synthesis, induction practice. This synthesis was generated from viewing the integrated results through the theoretical lens of practice architecture and the three spaces, semantic space, physical space-time and social space. In this way, a more comprehensive, refined and partially new architecture of teachers’ induction practices are presented and discussed

Solo, collaborative or collective? Newly qualified teachers’ experiences of being stirred into induction practices

This study investigated newly qualified primary and lower secondary school teachers with a master’s degree in Norway and how they experienced being stirred into induction practices in their school. The theory of practice architectures was the theoretical framework used in the analysis, and the term ‘stirred into’ refers to the dynamics of entering and becoming a practitioner of a specific practice. A thematic analysis of 42 interviews revealed three induction practices: 1) solo practices where the teachers plan and evaluate the teaching alone, 2) collaborative practices where the teachers plan and develop the teaching through collaboration with a few colleagues and 3) collective practices where the teachers can discuss their teaching with all their colleagues and engage in mutually beneficial and productive interactions. The study identifies how the schools’ site-specific practice architectures prefigures and shapes newly qualified teachers’ practices during the induction phase

Designing communicative spaces – innovative perspectives on teacher education

The issue of lack of consistency between teacher education and professional practice has been a subject of debate for a long time. In Norway, like many other countries, both scientific communities and governing bodies have put this on the agenda. The current study is qualitative, using a phenomenological-hermeneutical approach. The aim is to deepen the understanding of a communicative space between student teachers and pupils, both face-to-face and online, in order to develop student teachers’ interaction competence. The data comprise reflection logs, group interview and video recordings from both live and online meetings with student teachers and pupils, and is analysed by using qualitative content analysis. The findings demonstrate that online communication is different from ordinary classroom communication and therefore student teachers need to interact with pupils online in order to develop these skills. Reflecting on these kinds of situations while still in education helps student teachers to develop their ability to reflect critically on their own practice and prepare them for their future work as teachers