vicky randall university of winchester, uk [email protected] constructing initial...
TRANSCRIPT
Critical Incident
‘Initial teacher training is a complex system, with many contributors; where diverse policy and lack of shared vision can pose barriers to collaborative action among the stakeholders in order to effect change’ Mohan (2011)
• What constructs are believed to be significant in the professional knowledge base of ITE and what meanings do they hold?
• What contribution does school and university contexts have in the preparation of beginning teachers?
• Does higher education have a role in the future of ITE?
Research Questions
My Research Paradigm and Methods
INTERPRETIVISM
MIXED METHODS:
QUALITATIVE AND
PERSONAL CONSTRUCT THEORY APPROACH
Semi-structured interview using a repertory grid
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVSIM
“Seeks insights rather than statistical perceptions of the world” (Bell, 2005: 7)
“That our social world is produced and
maintained between people in their on-going
activities and interactions” (Cunliffe,
2008:201)
QUALITATIVE
“The world is too complex to be revealed as an object reality” (Denzin and Lincoln, 2000:25)
POST-MODERN ONTOLOGY
“A person’s processes are psychologically channelized by the
ways in which he anticipates events” (Kelly, 1955).
“A methodology involving highly flexible techniques with variable application (Pope and Denicolo,
2001)
What are Constructs?
‘Personal constructs have a bi-polar dimension which a person has created and formed into a system through which they interpret their experiences of the world’
(Fransella et al, 2004)
Literature Review
Power / Knowledge: (Foucault)
Policy: Subjected to a range of competing influences (Garratt and Foster, 2012); Private vs. public good and Neo-liberalism (Zeichner, 2010); ITE as a ‘policy problem’ (Cochran-Smith, 2005); ‘educational issue’ (Trowler, 2003)
Ideology: ‘Illusions’ or ‘False truths’ (Marx); Ideology is a ‘truth representing a set of ideas about the social world’ (Foucault)
The Content of ITE: ‘Craft’ (DfE, 2010); subject knowledge, knowing how to teach the subject matter, pedagogical knowledge, knowledge of self, social awareness and organisational competence (Darling-Hammond and Bransford, 2005 and Cochran Smith and Lytle, 2001).
Compliance and Knowledge: Schon (1983), ‘Techno-rationality’; Heggarty (2000) ‘Standardising knowledge’; (Alphonce, 1999:16) ‘Pedagogic Technicians’; (Giles, 2010:1512) ‘pathic knowledge , knowledge which feels atmosphere, reads faces, and feels the mood of different situations’
Elements of Initial Teacher Education
Time spent in school settings Time spent in university settings
Are these two things alike, or are they different?
“Elements are things or events which are abstracted by a construct and are seen as one of the formal aspects of a
construct” (Kelly, 1955)
Results and Analysis
Six participants across four UK universities
Various years of experience and expertise
85 constructs of initial teacher education were elicited
Core Constructs Peripheral Constructs
Inter-related thinking / Tips for teachers
Epistemology / Ontology Delivery model /
Empowering students Theoretical / Practice Own ideas / Follow and
copy Theoretical principles /
New teaching skills Challenging thinking /
Accepting pedagogy Personal ownership /
Accepted Deep understanding /
Tokenistic Developing student
attitudes / Tips for teachers
Creative / Positivistic Good teaching /
Following teacher Changing practice /
Fixed ideas Rooted knowledge /
Free floating Subject driven /
Exploring concepts
Interview 1
Core Constructs Peripheral Constructs
Theoretical / practical application Abstract / real life context Learning connected / Unconnected Thinking outside the box /
Repetition Artificial / Experience Reproduction / Production Breadth of practices / Same
practices Progression of learning / Isolated
learning
Required for teaching / Not required for teachingExperimental / Restricted model Predictable behaviour / Creative thinkingEstablished environment / Certain something newFacilitated / DictatedDeep understanding / Techniques and toolsReflecting / No thinkingFlexible knowledge / Fixed knowledge
Interview 5
Organise the four areas in terms of importance for you (from most to least importance)
- Philosophical perspectives
- The knowledge base- Environments for learning- The teacher as a learner
Activity
I1
I2
I3
I4
I5
I6
0
5
10
Graph Showing the Number of Constructs Elicited per Meta-Cat-
egory
Philosopical PerspectiveThe Knowledge BaseEnvironments for LearningThe Teacher as a Learner
Participant Responses: ‘Individual Construct Print’
Interview 1
Philosophical perspectives
The Knowledge Base
The Teacher as a Learner
Environments for Learning
Interview 2
Philosophical perspectives
The Knowledge Base
The Teacher as a Learner Environments for
Learning
Interview 3
Philosophical perspectives
Knowledge Base
Environments for Learning
The Teacher as a Learner
Interview 4
Philosophical perspectives
The Knowledge Base
The Teacher as a LearnerEnvironments for
Learning
Interview 5
Philosophical perspectives
The Knowledge
Base
Environments for LearningThe Teacher as a Learner
Interview 6
Philosophical perspectives
The Knowledge Base
Environments for Learning
The Teacher as a Learner
Concluding Thoughts...
Most of the constructs were about the teacher as a learner – how does this compare to the White Paper?
Tensions and challenges existed from the participants in trying to articulate their responses; as Moore (2004) describes
The university and school both had important but different roles in the preparation of teacher
References
Alphonce, N. (1999) ‘Teachers, educational reforms and the credo of managerialism: from professionals to pedagogic technicians’, Delta, 51 (2), pp. 13- 26
Bell, J. (2005) Doing Your Research Project: A Guide to First Time Researchers in Education, Health and Social Science, 4th edition, Berkshire: Open University Press
Burgess, H., Sieminski, S., & Arthur, L. (2006) Achieving Your Doctorate in Education, London: Sage
Cochran-Smith, M. (2005) ‘The new teacher education: for better or for worse?’ Educational Researcher, 34 (3), pp. 3 – 17
Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. (2001) ‘Beyond certainty: Taking an inquiry stance on practice’, in Lieberman & L. Miller (Eds.), Teachers Caught in the Action: Professional Development That Matters, New York: Teachers College Press
Cunliffe, A. (2008) in Thorpe, and Holt, R., (eds) The Sage Dictionary of Qualitative Management Research [online] http://srmo.sagepub.com/view/the-sage-dictionary-of-qualitative-management-research/n95.xml (accessed, 1st March 2013)
Darling-Hammond, L., & Bransford. J. (2005) Preparing Teachers for a Changing World: What Teachers Should Learn and be Able to Do, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass
Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln. Y.S. (2000) Handbook of Qualitative Research, 2nd eds, London: Sage
Department for Education, (2010) Importance of Teaching - The Schools White Paper 2010, CM7980, Norwich: Stationary Office
Foucault, M., (1980) ‘Truth and power’, in C. Gordon (eds.) Power/Knowledge: Selected interviews and other Writings 1972 – 1977, Brighton: Harvester
Fransella, F., Bell R., & Bannister, D. (2004) A Manuel for Repertory Grid Technique, 2nd eds., Wily: Sussex
Furlong, J., (2008) ‘Making teaching a 21st century profession: Tony Blair’s big prize’, Oxford Review of Education, 34 (6), pp. 727-739
Garratt, D and Forrester, G. (2012) Education Policy Unravelled, London: Continuum
Giles, D. (2010) ‘Developing pathic sensibilities: A critical priority for teacher education programmes’ Teaching and Teacher Education,26, pp. 1511-1519
Heggarty, S. (2000) ‘Teaching as a knowledge - based activity’, Oxford Review of Education, 26, pp. 451 – 465
Kelly, G. (1955) The Psychology of Personal Constructs, 2ndeds, London: Routledge
Mohan, R. (2011) Teacher Education, New Delhi: PHI Learning Moore, A. (2004) The Good Teacher: Dominant discourses in teaching
and teacher education, London: Routledge Pope, M & Denicolo, P (2001) Transformative Education Personal
Construct to Approaches to Practice and Research, London: Whurr Publishers
Trowler, P. (2003) Education Policy, 2ndedn, London: Routledge Zeichner, K. (2010) ‘Competition, economic, rationalization, increased
surveillance and attacks on diversity: Neo-liberalism and the transformation of teacher education in the U.S., Teaching and Teacher Education, 26, pp. 1544 – 1552
Thank you for listening