Against the Standards: Analyzing Expectations and Discourse of Educators regarding Students with Disabilities in a Kindergarten Classroom

This two-year ethnographic case study critically examines the language educators use to describe students with disabilities who are considered to present challenging behaviors in one classroom. Focusing on the language and practices used by one special education teacher and three teaching assistants, this paper explores how educators respond to students' behaviors by analyzing educators' utterances and the implication of such use for the education of the students. Using critical discourse analysis, this paper highlights how educators' language in the classroom reflects a discourse of expectations that is based on various social standards and pressures that educators have to juggle. Educators expressed academic and behavioral standards by comparing students' performance to the expected norm as well as through comparisons between students. Based on such comparisons, some students were constructed as always lacking and ultimately defined by the adjectives originally used to describe them. Students were perceived to embody defiance or smartness, the characteristics by which they were defined

Researching teacher educators’ preparedness to teach to and about diversity : Investigating epistemic reflexivity as a new conceptual framework

There is growing international concern about the extent to which teachers are prepared to work with an increasingly diverse student (and community) population. To date, research into the relationship between teacher preparation and preparedness to teach diverse learners has not focused on teacher educators’ understandings about teaching to/about diversity. Such understandings can be informed by epistemic aspects of professional work. Epistemic cognitions (cognitions about knowledge and knowing) allow professionals to generate perspectives necessary to tackle new and old challenges. The social lab reported in this paper investigated 12 Australian teacher educators’ perspectives about teaching to/about diversity using the 3R-Epistemic Cognition (EC) framework. The findings showed that the 3R-EC framework could be useful for capturing epistemic reflexive dialogues about teaching to/about diversity, although some aspects of the framework were identified by the teacher educators as challenging. On the basis of these identified challenges, refinements concerning communication and use of the 3R-EC framework were identified. The feedback also led to some refinements of the social lab methodology for use in the larger national study

Reflection and Reflexivity: A Focus on Higher Order Thinking in Teachers’ Personal Epistemologies

There is growing evidence to suggest that teachers’ personal epistemologies influence how they engage in teaching in classroom contexts, but especially in terms of curriculum and pedagogical choices made by the teacher to optimize deeper learning (Brownlee & Berthelsen, 2005; Hofer, 2001; Maggioni & Parkinson, 2008). Given these important connections to teaching and learning it is important to find ways to promote more sophisticated personal epistemologies in teacher education programs (Brownlee, Schraw & Berthelsen, 2011; Kang, 2008). To date little research attention has been directed to the field of personal epistemology and teaching, and even less to the mechanisms of change. This chapter, drawing on research in this volume and evidence from the broader research field, seeks to address this gap by arguing that reflection and reflexivity are cornerstones in promoting change in teachers’ personal epistemologies, measuring personal epistemology, and in new ways of conceptualizing personal epistemology for teachers and teacher education. We describe a reflexivity framework for personal epistemology which provides a new way of thinking about changing personal epistemology in teaching contexts

Critical values education in the early years: Alignment of teachers' personal epistemologies and practices for active citizenship

To date, little research has explored teaching values education for active citizenship in which young children are supported to express their own ideas and opinions and take moral responsibility for their actions. Using personal epistemology as the conceptual framework, this study investigated the nature of, and alignment between, teachers’ personal epistemologies and practices for promoting critical values education in elementary education classrooms. The study drew on interview and observational data from 29 teachers in Australia. Findings showed that four patterns could be discerned, showing complex relationships between teaching practices and beliefs. Implications for pre-service and in-service professional learning experiences are discussed

Changes in preservice teachers’ personal epistemologies

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Changes in preservice teachers' personal epistemologies

[Extract] While much has been written about the relationship between personal epistemologies and learning-teaching approaches, outcomes, and intentions, little has focused specifically on these relationships in the context of teacher education. This chapter addresses changes in preservice teachers’ personal epistemologies by overviewing this emerging body of research and arguing for a new approach to conceptualizing and supporting changes in personal epistemologies based on reflexivity. The overview includes definitions of key concepts and research traditions that have been used since the 1970s and a discussion of the emerging role of epistemic justification as a key mechanism of change in the process of belief development

Teaching for Active Citizenship: Personal Epistemology and Practices in Early Education Classrooms

Chapter 1 Active Citizenship, values education and personal epistemology\ud \ud - While investment in young children is recognised as important for the development of citizenship for a cohesive society, less is known about how early years teachers can promote this in the classroom. This chapter overviews the research which provides important insights into teaching moral values for active citizenship. We introduce the perspective of teaching practices for moral values in active citizenship and then the personal epistemology framework that underpins this book. Active citizenship requires children to experience and internalise moral and democratic values and human rights, and develop their own opinions and moral responsibility however, the early years have been neglected in research on active citizenship. This is despite the early years being an international priority and of significant policy concern (Harcourt & Hägglund, 2013; Johansson & Thornberg, 2014b). We argue for a rights-based teaching approach in which education for citizenship has to be education of the critical spirit (Giddens, 2000). Research suggests that investment in the early years is vital for all learning (Cuhna & Heckman, 2006), and specifically for developing understanding of active citizenship for tolerant and cohesive societies (Howe & Covell, 2009; Invernizzi & Williams, 2008). \ud \ud Chapter 2 Personal epistemologies in the context of teaching and learning about moral values\ud \ud - While there is a focus on values education in Australia, and internationally, what is less clear is how such education might support children to become active and responsible citizens who reflect critically on oppressive and exploitive conditions. To date, values education has often been based on psychological or developmental views with only more recent research focusing on how social contexts influence learning of moral values as well as research in the broader disciplines of social and biological sciences. We argue that part of this social context involves teachers and their engagement in critical reflection, which is linked to beliefs about knowing and knowledge (or personal epistemologies). Personal epistemologies are likely to influence critical reflection and teaching practices generally and we argue that this relationship between beliefs, critical reflection and practice may be important in teaching for active citizenship. In this chapter we overview the research related to teachers’ personal epistemologies and make a case for its significance in promoting teaching practices for learning moral values. We also examine the research related to children’s personal epistemologies. \ud \ud Chapter 3 Teachers’ personal epistemologies and teaching practices for learning moral values\ud \ud - One way to understand more about how teachers support learning moral values for active citizenship in early years classrooms is to focus on the relationship between teachers’ personal epistemologies and their teaching practices. This chapter considers the relationships between teachers’ personal epistemologies, teachers’ beliefs about teaching moral values and the nature of teachers’ practices for active citizenship in early years education classrooms (aged 5 to 8 years). Drawing on a holistic personal epistemological framework, research related to the nature of teaching practices for moral values as well as the relationships between such practices and teachers’ personal epistemologies in early years education classrooms (aged 5 to 8 years) are explored. \ud \ud Chapter 4 Children’s personal epistemologies\ud \ud - In this chapter, we focus on children’s personal epistemologies within “Teaching practices for learning moral values: A holistic personal epistemological framework”. We examine the nature of children’s personal epistemologies using research from a large scale longitudinal study of children’s personal epistemologies and moral reasoning. The focus was on understanding children’s views that something could be both right and wrong. Children’s justifications for why something could be both right and wrong showed that they acknowledged different perspectives and indicated elements of subjectivity and absolutist personal epistemologies. Complexity was evident in some absolutist responses which suggested emerging subjectivities. The findings in this chapter support the idea that children’s personal epistemologies for active citizenship need to be considered as part of the broader school context. It is likely that when teachers view knowledge as constructed and reasoned through a process of analysing evidence from different sources, including the children in their classrooms, they may be more likely to believe that teaching should engage children in actively constructing and enacting their own understandings of what it means to be an active citizen. However, using a holistic personal epistemological framework, an important aspect is how teachers’ personal epistemologies and teaching practices relate to children’s personal epistemologies. \ud \ud Chapter 5 Epistemic climates for teaching moral values: A holistic approach\ud \ud - In this chapter we further explore research which has drawn on the holistic personal epistemological framework to explore the relationships between teachers’ personal epistemologies and their practices for teaching moral values, children’s personal epistemologies and school contexts. The epistemic climates of two Year 1 Australian classrooms are explored using case study methodology. Children’s personal epistemologies for learning of moral values were explored by investigating their responses about social inclusion during scenario-based interviews. Teachers were interviewed and their classroom interactions observed to gain insights into their personal epistemologies and teaching practices for moral values. Their practices were explored by considering the extent to which they supported children to reflect critically and to be active and responsible participants. Finally, school documents related to values education philosophies and practices were examined. This chapter argues for a whole of school approach to personal epistemology and teaching practices for learning moral values. The intention is to explore, holistically, the overall epistemic climate for teaching moral values for active citizenship in each of the schools. \ud \ud Chapter 6 Promoting personal epistemologies for learning moral values: Implications for active citizenship \ud \ud - An understanding of teachers’ personal epistemologies may help to shed new light on how teachers might enact a range of teaching practices for learning of moral values in active citizenship. If teaching practices which value children as competent and agentic learners are mediated by personal epistemologies, this may have implications for teachers’ and children’s learning experiences. In this final chapter, we overview the theoretical and empirical contributions we have made throughout this book and then discuss in-depth some possible ways in which we might support evaluativistic personal epistemologies for learning of moral values in active citizenship

Understanding children’s epistemic beliefs in elementary education

Research shows that the beliefs individuals hold about knowledge and knowing (epistemic beliefs) influence learning approaches and outcomes. However, little is known about the nature of children’s epistemic beliefs and how best to measure these. In this pilot study, 11 Australian children (in Grade 4 or Grade 6) were asked to ‘draw, write and tell’ about their epistemic beliefs using drawings, written responses and interviews respectively. Drawings were analysed, with the majority of children depicting external, one-way sources of knowledge. The written statements and interviews were analysed using inductive thematic analysis, showing that children predominantly described knowledge acquisition as processes of task-based learning. Interviews also enabled children to describe a wider range of views. These results indicate that the methodological combination of ‘draw, write and tell’ allowed for a deeper understanding of the children’s epistemic beliefs which holds implications for future research