The impact on teacher identity of international connections

Paper presented within the symposium: 'Changing teacher professionality through support for teacher leadership in Europe and beyond' at ECER 2014. This paper is linked to a doctoral study focussing on the impact of international networking and knowledge exchange on the professional identity of teachers. The perspective is shaped by the author’s experience of teacher union activity and involvement in international networking related to work for the British Council and the International Teacher Leadership initiative as well as on a twenty year career as a teacher. This paper involves analysis of data drawn from interviews with three teachers from Britain who have been involved in working with fellow teachers from other nations largely teachers from the Balkans. It explores the extent to which these teachers share a common professional identity with teachers from other nations and also whether this therefore constitutes a professional community. The paper includes a consideration of the implications for international networks and international teacher exchange programmes. It is also envisaged that the paper will support a discussion about ways in which the cultivation of international links may contribute to the global 'Education for All' campaign

Understanding professional community and professional identity through the experiences of Bahraini teachers working with British teachers in a partnership project

This paper is an exploration into the nature of the professional community that is formed when teachers from different nations work together. The research presented here consists of the findings from a small-scale exploratory case study that is the scoping study for a larger piece of research on this same theme. This larger piece of research is my doctoral study that I am currently undertaking at Cambridge University. This paper specifically involves the presentation of data drawn from interviews with teachers from Bahrain who have been involved in working with teachers from Britain via programmes run by the British Council and others. In this paper I discuss how identity is constructed within a professional community that crosses national boundaries. I conclude by suggesting that teachers who are working with colleagues from other nations build their professional identity together in innovative and exploratory ways. I also suggest that they actively construct professional communities with these colleagues and that they find this rewarding and significant. This paper responds to several of the identified themes of the ECER Conference 2015. These include ‘ways in which teachers learn and develop throughout their professional career’. In relation to this, this paper also addresses issues around the conference title 'education and transition'

Travel, emotion and identity: an exploration into the experiences of students in post 16 education for whom studying in English means working in a foreign language and culture

This paper involves an exploration into the experiences of students in post 16 education taking traditional academic subjects, in the UK, for whom studying in English means working in a foreign language and culture. The students who formed the sample were high achieving students aged sixteen and seventeen from China, Vietnam and Thailand who had come to study in the UK in order to proceed to a British University. In the first part of this paper, the author proposes a conceptual framework suitable for this study. The second part of the paper consists of a summary of the findings from semi-structured interviews conducted with the six participants. In this paper a variety of issues are explored related to the experience of living and studying in England. Although grounded in the specific context of students from three nations studying in the UK. This paper should inform our understanding of appropriate teaching strategies and pastoral and pedagogical approaches for students in a range of multi-linguistic settings

History teaching in the UK (Cách dạy và học sử tại Anh)

This is a short conversational article in a journalistic style in which I discuss approaches to history teaching in the UK. The newspaper it is written for 'vnexpress' has a high readership among teachers in Vietnam and is closer in style to the 'Times Educational Supplement' than it is to an academic journal. In this article I discuss teaching strategies in the UK in terms of secondary history teaching. The article is intended to provide a starting point for reflection and discussion among fellow teachers in Vietnam. The published article in Vietnamese is included here as is the original English version, prior to translation

Searching for commonalities in the teaching of critical thinking skills, from Masters’ to sixth form to primary

This discussion paper was written for the participants at the University of Northampton, School of Education Partnership Conference 2015. It was written in order to facilitate discussion about the teaching of critical thinking skills. In this paper I first describe a small project involving four current teachers and one lecturer regarding the teaching of critical thinking skills in their specific context. The project involves looking at how this is done across a wide range of age groups and searching for teaching strategies and approaches that can inform teaching in other contexts. I first identify issues and challenges that this small group identified in terms of teaching critical thinking. I then describe and discuss a workshop for primary teachers where I presented two strategies commonly used in the secondary and sixth form classroom. I refer to their responses as to whether these strategies could also be relevant for the primary classroom. The two strategies referred to are the origin, purpose, value, limitations approach to using sources and the zones of relevance (Counsell, 1998) approach to planning essay writing

Some thoughts on the challenges faced by newly qualified teachers (NQTs) and those who support them: a discussion paper

This short paper was written in order to introduce the main theme for discussion at the conference: Association of Global Teachers: international conference on supporting new teachers – Dedham, UK, 24 October 2015. This theme was ‘ways in which we can support newly qualified teachers (NQTs) so that they remain in the profession’. It is influenced and inspired by colleagues who I have worked with over a career in education which is now over twenty years long. It is influenced by teachers I worked with in schools. It is also and most significantly influenced by current colleagues at the University of Northampton, where we run a course for Newly Qualified Teachers, that is now a deeply embedded part of our practice in working with the teachers who work in schools in our local community. As these sentences above illustrate this is a paper shaped by the experiential knowledge and reflections on the working practice of colleagues as revealed through conversations we have had over the past two years. It is written in an informal and, at points, anecdotal tone with the aim of provoking discussion. However, it is not a paper about the mechanics of our NQT programme, but rather about the ideas, personal reflections and experiences that shaped its design. Three themes are presented for discussion as follows: the pressures of the workplace; seeing oneself as a teacher; and reflections on a recent past. In the conclusion I link these to another theme for discussion: degrees of freedom - degrees of support

Exchanging knowledge and building communities via international networking

This paper is linked to a doctoral study focusing on the impact of international networking and knowledge exchange on the professional identity of teachers. It explores the experience of teachers from the Balkans working with colleagues in the UK. In this paper I first outline a conceptual framework which illuminates some of the challenges and rewards of constructing a professional identity within a professional community that crosses national boundaries. Previous studies have often portrayed professional relationships as being by definition unequal when involving nations in differing economic positions but these have not presented the entire picture. In fact the levels of self-efficacy and self-confidence amongst teachers engaged in such programmes from all nations can be very high. The paper explores the proposition that these teachers may not primarily be interested in transferring practice but may have a broader democratic agenda reflecting a self-perception as skilled professionals and societal leaders and also that they may have valid reasons for participation in terms of their own professional growth. The data for this paper was drawn from interviews with three education professionals from the Balkan nations (specifically from Macedonia) who have been involved in working on and developing teacher leadership programmes in their own settings in connection with larger international programmes. The discussion of data includes an exploration of a series of interrelated themes derived from the concept framework. These encompass a discussion of the extent to which these teachers share a common professional identity; whether this therefore constitutes a professional community and whether involvement in networking projects was significant in shaping their professional identity in other ways. Also discussed are issues and challenges related to the exchanging of knowledge between teachers working in different cultural contexts

Why do we engage in international comparison? A review of the motives researchers in education have for comparing nations

This article was originally published in 'Chorus'. Chorus was ‘a peer-reviewed, open access, online journal based at Sana'a University in Yemen. It link[ed] doctoral researchers from Sana'a University with doctoral researchers from British Universities, it [was] supported by the British Council.’ (Chorus, 2010). Chorus is now defunct and this article can no longer be accessed from its original source. In this article I survey a wide range of published and unpublished research which involves comparing education in different nations. The article was intended to provoke discussion among early career researchers in education working across nations. To some extent it captures a moment in time. However, many of the issues are still relevant today in 2015

Road to Nowhere or Jurisprudential U-Turn? The Intersection of Punitive Damage Class Actions and the Due Process Clause

This Article analyzes the likely impact of recent Supreme Court jurisprudence applying substantive and procedural due process limits on punitive damage awards to class action punitive damage Lawsuits. In BMW v. Gore and State Farm v. Campbell the Supreme Court adopted a tripartite analysis to determine whether punitive damage awards were excessive under the Due Process Clause. Just last year in Philip Morris v. Williams the Court took a step further by imposing the additional \u27procedural limitation that requires trial courts to take steps to ensure that juries do not punish a tortfeasor through an award ofpunitive damages in one case for harm caused to anyone other than the plaintiff. There has been some recent scholarly speculation that these cases signal an end to the punitive damage class action by insistingu pon an individualizedf ocus for punitive damages thatp recludes class-wide determinations. In the last year, some lower federal courts have agreed with this view and denied class certification. This Article offers a very different reading of these recent Supreme Court opinions, illustrating that the Court\u27s primary concern in these cases has been the possibility of redundant awards ofpunitive damages by multiple juries in different cases. Thus viewed, increased certification ofpunitive damage class actions provides a more effective and efficient means of avoiding the redundant punishment problem. Further, Philip Morris creates a paradoxical command to trial courts-to permit juries to consider evidence of third-party harm in order to assess the reprehensibility of a tortfeasor\u27s misconduct but not to allow the jury to use that same evidence to set the award ofpunitive damages. This dictate will prove impossible for lower courts to implement and actually offers defendants no benefit. Certification of class actions, however, avoids this inexorablep roblem by transformingt he third-parties i nto litigantc lass members, thereby rending moot the needfor the subtle distinctions embodied in Philip Morris. In essence, rather than portend the death of the punitive damage class action, the recent Supreme Court jurisprudence creates powerful new arguments in favor of the aggregate model of punitive damage adjudication that offers a route back toward the viable use of class actions in mass tort scenarios