Creating spaces for pedagogy : research as learning

As teacher-educators, the authors designed and implemented a small study that mapped teacher-education students\u27 understandings of their own identities and how they made sense of ethnicity and class differences among their secondary students while on teaching rounds. While the authors did not set out to \u27teach\u27 their research participants, it was during the analysis of data from the research project, that they began to realise the potential of research to create opportunities for learning. In this paper the authors speculate on the \u27conditions\u27 of knowledge production and suggest that the dialogic nature of interviews and focus group discussions can offer pedagogical spaces for learning. Research designs that incorporate opportunities for participants to re-tell narratives over periods of time, may position participants as experts in knowledge production and may reposition them and researchers in more equitable power relations. The authors present an example of one participant\u27s narrative together with their interpretations to explore how research potentially offers \u27evidence\u27 of learning. While this is tentative only, the authors suggest there is a need to create spaces for pedagogy in the design and execution of educational research.<br /

Troubling identities : teacher education students\u27 constructions of class and ethnicity

This paper reports on a research project that explored how student teachers understand ethnic and classed difference as it relates to themselves and their students. Discourses of schooling can shape students ethnic and classed identities, frequently positioning non-mainstream students as \u27other\u27 and marginalizing them. Significant numbers of our teacher education students have limited experience of diverse educational settings, having mainly attended white middle-class schools as students and as student teachers. Working with diverse student populations productively depends on teachers recognising and valuing difference. The ways in which they engage with students whose ethnic and classed identities are different from their own is important in creating learning environments that build on and engage with diversity.In a preliminary stage of the research we asked eight third-year teacher education students to explore their own ethnic and classed identities. The complexities of identity are foregrounded in both the assumptions we made in selecting particular students for the project and in the ways they did (not) think about themselves as having ethnic or classed identities.In this paper we draw on these findings to interrogate how categories of identity are fluid, shifting and ongoing processes of negotiation: troubling and complex. We also consider the implications for teacher education.<br /

Sudanese young people building capital in rural Australia: the role of mothers and community

This article draws on an ethnographic study that consisted of in-depth case studies of eight Sudanese young people of refugee background living in rural Australia. Prompted by concern over deficit views of young refugees that pervade educational literature, we aimed to understand what facilitates their successful resettlement into Australian rural communities. We were particularly interested in understanding the strengths, resources and capital they draw upon and generate through their participation in out-of-school social and learning contexts, as well as within family and community networks. Here, we focus on one of the study's participants, Samir. We highlight how his mother was instrumental in providing a safe and secure home environment where significant bonding capital was generated, as well as how she facilitated her son's participation in community and ethnic networks, thus enabling him to acquire bridging and linking social capital. We conclude by discussing the implications for schools and for research

Making sense of difference? Teaching identities in postmodern contexts

How do teachers make sense of ethnic and classed differences? Frequently students from non-mainstream cultures and of lower socio-economic status are constructed in the literature and through practice as &lsquo;deficit&rsquo; and consequently become marginalised. A range of short-term, &lsquo;quick fix&rsquo; policy and curriculum approaches have aimed to address the &lsquo;problems&rsquo; of those &lsquo;othered&rsquo; from the mainstream due to their perceived difference. These have had little effect on improving educational results for students of specific ethnic and/or class backgrounds whose outcomes remain below the national average.Poststructural theories offer opportunities to think about how teachers are positioned within discourses of identity. Our research (and others&rsquo;) suggests the need for teachers to interrogate their assumptions about class and culture and how these are played out in their pedagogical relationships with students.In this paper we report on a small research project that investigates the professional practices and personal beliefs of teachers. Empirical data from this study will build knowledge about how difference is constructed and diversity is &lsquo;taken up&rsquo; by teachers as they engage with secondary students who have Language Backgrounds Other Than English and who are economically disadvantaged.<br /

Teaching Indigenous children : listening to and learning from indigenous teachers

This article is based on the findings of a qualitative case study that examined the professional experiences and career pathways of fifty current and former Australian Indigenous teachers. Here, we draw on data obtained from semi-structured interviews with the teachers to highlight their knowledge in three key areas: ‘Indigenous ways of knowing’, ‘Indigenous learners’ lives beyond the classroom’ and ‘Building relationships with Indigenous students and communities’. We suggest that Indigenous teachers can potentially play important roles as teacher educators and as mentors to non-Indigenous teachers and preservice teachers. We argue that it is important for schooling systems and teacher education to create and formalise opportunities for non-Indigenous teachers and preservice teachers to listen to, and learn from their Indigenous colleagues

'You have to be a bit brave' : barriers to Scottish student-teachers' participation in study-abroad programmes

This article reports on a study that examined Scottish student teachers’ attitudes to study-abroad and the reasons underpinning their reluctance to participate in these programmes. Data collection comprised a mixed-methods approach consisting of a survey of 318 student-teachers in one Scottish university followed by semi-structured interviews with 12 volunteers. Descriptive and thematic data analyses revealed that the majority of student-teachers perceived international study experience as useful to their development as teachers. However, their lack of confidence and anxiety about travel were significant reasons about why they did not take up opportunities to study abroad. In particular, fear of not being understood and fear of different cultural norms and practices shaped their decision to remain in Scotland. In order to allay these fears and increase student–teacher participation, the authors suggest universities invest in intercultural competence training, language education and provide detailed briefings as part of the recruitment process into study-abroad programmes

Teachers engaging in and with research : bonding, bridging and linking

Countries across the world are reforming their systems of teacher education. Although this often takes different forms, one common theme across countries appears to be an increased focus on enquiry, evidence based teaching and teacher research (Kennedy, 2015), and Scotland is no exception. In 2011, the report ‘Teaching Scotland’s Future’ (TSF; Donaldson, 2011) was published. This policy proposed a radical redesign of teacher education provision in Scotland, at the centre of which was the ambition for teachers to become “reflective, accomplished and enquiring professionals” (Donaldson, 2011, p. 14). Central to this vision was the claim that teachers should be ‘agents of change’ and this increasing focus on ‘teacher agency’ also appears in recent curriculum policy in Scotland and internationally (Biesta, Priestley and Robinson, 2015; Priestley, 2011). Over the last five years, the vision of the teacher promoted by TSF has come to be associated with the idea of teachers becoming more actively engaged in and with educational research. This agenda has been supported and strengthened by a number of key organisations in Scottish education. For example, shortly after the publication of TSF, the General Teaching Council of Scotland (GTCS) introduced its new standard for career-long professional learning (CLPL) and a programme of Professional Update (PU), both of which require teachers to engage in and with research. Although this can take different forms, examples include reading academic literature, conducting independent research projects, and, participating in research events and conferences. In this paper, the researchers make a distinction between engaging in and engaging with research, but understand the two to be linked. The former refers to teachers contributing to research or designing their own research projects, while the latter refers to teachers reading and sharing research or drawing on evidence to inform their practice. One example of where Donaldson’s vision has been put into practice is the development of Scotland’s first school-based research centre, Hutcheson’s Centre for Research (HCR). This centre was established to provide support for teachers and pupils to conduct their own independent research. The HCR supports teachers to develop the skills they need to become researchers and to put this research knowledge into practice, and thus provides an excellent site in which to explore issues around teacher engagement in and with research. Understanding social capital as a multi-dimensional construct (Putnam, 2000), this paper utilises the concepts of ‘bonding’, ‘bridging’ (Terrion, 2006) and ‘linking’ (Woolcock, 2001) to explore the extent to which engagement in and with research appears to be facilitated or restricted by social ties, connections and networks within and outwith the school context. We also draw on the work of Emirbayer and Mische (1998) and their conceptualisation of agency as a configuration of forces from the past, future orientations and present engagement. This paper summarises the findings from the second phase of a research project carried out within the HCR, in partnership with the University of Strathclyde, which explores the development of teachers as researchers and the extent to which teachers engage with research. The first phase identified a number of perceived barriers to teacher engagement and highlighted a tension between the conceptualisation of teacher research promoted by current policy and the conceptualisation of teacher research by teachers themselves. The second phase of this project explores these issues in more depth by asking the following questions: 1) What do teachers understand by engaging in research and with research? 2) What structures or support can be put in place to facilitate teachers to engage in and with research? 3) Is the practice of engaging in and with research related to bonding, bridging or linking social capital? The majority of data from the second phase of the research project is gathered through semi-structured interviews with teachers who work in the school where the HCR is based. The teacher participant group includes individuals who are considered as ‘research active’, individuals who might be at the early stages of becoming ‘research active’ and individuals who do not engage in or with research. It is expected that ten to fifteen teachers will be interviewed in total. This paper also draws on data from the first phase of the research, which consisted of an online pilot questionnaire, completed by thirty-five teachers based within this specific school. This research is ongoing, but it is expected that our findings will provide more detailed information about teacher perceptions of barriers and facilitators to engagement in and with research in this particular school setting. Based on interview data collected thus far, we hypothesise that teachers who are ‘research active’ may also have capital in the form of social ties, connections and networks that exist out with the immediate context of the school (bridging), when compared to those who are less ‘research active’. We are now six years on from the publication of TSF, yet the vision of teachers as ‘reflective’ and ‘enquiring professionals’ continues to gain traction in national reform. Given that this is a common theme throughout teacher education reform across the globe, we hope that the findings from our study can be used to further develop school-based research in Scotland and beyond

Editorial : In Asia-Pacific journal of teacher education, v.39 n.1

In the last issue of the Asia Pacific Journal of Teacher Education in 2009, the editorial team predicted an increase in the number of quality paper submissions to the journal in 2010. This was certainly the case