This study examines what and how classroom teachers and a music specialist learn on their own, with each other, and with their students when they engage in collaborative, multimodal teaching and learning experiences. Through excerpts from interviews, planning sessions, focus groups, and the retelling of classroom experiences, this action research-inspired narrative inquiry documents and explores the experiences of four elementary school teachers as they worked together over a 12-week period. Through a restructured music schedule—designed to facilitate sustainable integrated, multiple literacy experiences—the teachers collaborated with the children and with one another to co-construct authentic learning experiences which drew upon and expanded students' interests and inquiries, and which positioned music in new ways as another classroom language. The unfolding stories examined in this inquiry resonate with the ideas and the spirit of the atelier in Reggio Emilia schools, and they point to the importance of meaningful, collaborative relationships in teacher learning and reflection. The study has implications for the ways in which musical experiences may be structured, made more complex, and revalued in elementary schools.

This study examines what and how classroom teachers and a music specialist learn on their own, with each other, and with their students when they engage in collaborative, multimodal teaching and learning experiences. Through excerpts from interviews, planning sessions, focus groups, and the retelling of classroom experiences, this action research-inspired narrative inquiry documents and explores the experiences of four elementary school teachers as they worked together over a 12-week period. Through a restructured music schedule—designed to facilitate sustainable integrated, multiple literacy experiences—the teachers collaborated with the children and with one another to co-construct authentic learning experiences which drew upon and expanded students' interests and inquiries, and which positioned music in new ways as another classroom language. The unfolding stories examined in this inquiry resonate with the ideas and the spirit of the atelier in Reggio Emilia schools, and they point to the importance of meaningful, collaborative relationships in teacher learning and reflection. The study has implications for the ways in which musical experiences may be structured, made more complex, and revalued in elementary schools.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

Post 1994, the vision of the South African education policy terrain is to transform schools into more effective places of teaching and learning. To achieve this vision, policy suggests a shift in management practices from traditional autocratic headship to more participatory leadership practices, including the leadership of teachers. Theorizing from a distributed leadership perspective, the aim of this study was to explore the concept of teacher leadership and the challenges that are faced by post level one teachers as they operate as leaders in their schools in the South African context. The study sought to investigate how the concept of teacher leadership was understood, how post level one teachers lead in their schools and what challenges to teacher leadership are in schools. The study was conducted in one rural and one semi-urban primary school and it was qualitative in nature. A case study methodology was suitable for this study since it was aimed at gaining teachers understanding and perceptions of teacher leadership. Different methods of collecting data were used and these included interviews, questionnaires, and document analysis. Data were analyzed thematically using Grant’s (2008) model of teacher leadership. The findings indicated that teacher leadership as a concept was still new to certain teachers, even though research on the topic in the South African context is increasing. Some teachers did not think of the roles they played in a school as teacher leadership. The findings further indicated that teacher leadership was experienced differently across the two schools with teacher leadership in the rural school being more restricted than the teacher leadership in the semi-urban school, where it was more emergent. In the rural school, leadership could, at best, be described as authorized distributed leadership while in the semi-urban school, leadership could be described as dispersed distributed leadership. In addition, the findings showed that the major barrier to teacher leadership in the rural school was resistance from the School Management Team while in the semi-urban school the major barrier to teacher leadership was a lack of time. A further barrier to teacher leadership in both schools was teachers themselves who were lazy and did not want to take on additional leadership tasks. The study also found that the major enhancing factor to teacher leadership, particularly in the semi-urban school, was a collaborative school culture where teachers trusted each other and worked together in professional learning communities. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

As teacher turnover and the demands for accountability and student achievement persist, the need to hire and retain quality teachers becomes increasingly vital. The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a relationship between participation in Cross Career Learning Communities (CCLC), a type of Professional Learning Community (PLC), and teacher retention in participating Network for Enhancing Teacher-Quality (NET-Q) schools in a southeastern state. One-to-one exact matching was used to match 251 teachers in CCLC groups to 251 control teachers on eight variables including both system and individual level variables. Results showed a ten percent significant difference between the retention percentages within the state public school systems favoring CCLC teachers, χ2(1) = 21.17, N = 502, p < .05, with a medium effect size of h = .4. For teachers participating in CCLCs, a secondary research question asked if there were any differences in teacher retention in schools that had mandatory participation versus those that had voluntary participation. No significant difference was found between participation types and teacher retention. Furthermore, no significant difference was found in the attrition rates between the novice and the veteran teachers participating in the CCLCs. Based on a question from the NET-Q survey, the percentage of teachers indicating that their participation in CCLCs positively influenced their decision to continue in teaching, estimated at 31%, was statistically significant. This study extends the research on one particular type of PLC to teacher retention. The findings of this study may aid school leaders in better understanding how they can address and impact teacher retention in teaching and in their school buildings. Suggestions for future research and implications for policies addressing teacher support and retention are discussed.

Abstract Ph.D. Thesis School of Education, The University of Queensland Ira Hal Seidenstein What is the nature of embodied practice, creativity and integral learning in Professional Learning for Acting (PLA) in Australia? An overall purpose of the research and thesis is to bring illumination to a lively heterodoxy in PLA. Heterodoxy is Pierre Bourdieu‘s definition of new or alternative influences in a field. The heterodoxy in PLA now has a rich body of techniques, principles, and knowledge to revitalize the field and environment of PLA. The research and thesis encounter the complexity of Professional Learning in Acting to understand the potential of new paradigms. To locate the context of the research, Bourdieu‘s Social Theory of Education related to his definition of culture and fields as dependent on doxa - and legitimacy - have provided the semiotics for the research. The body of the research and data collection was via ethnography and a primary practice of participant-observation. An inter-connected trilogy of topics was selected as priority issues in the field of PLA. The trilogy is: Embodied Practice, Creativity, and Integral Learning. The three areas have been often developed separately, initially stemming from theorist-practitioners Konstantin Stanislavsky and Jacques Copeau in the early twentieth-century. Since that time, biomechanical research and understanding in the scope of creativity to the mind-body continuum has blossomed in other fields. Yet the frameworks for dialogue with issues related to social theory in education are based on utilitarian, industrial, didactic, and Cartesian semiotics, so that little discussion integrates the complexity of, for example, the trilogy focus of the research. Marranca, founder and editor of Performing Arts Journal since 1976, has critiqued performing arts education where PLA is located. A central criticism she offers is this, ―At its core theatre study lacks sustained intellectual rigor and breadth‖ (Marranca, 1995, p. 1). This concern for the intellectual encounter may be engaged through Embodied Practices, Creativity, and Integral Learning. Some recent developments into complex encounters includes research into Vygotsky‘s value for adult education and creativity (John-Steiner & Moran, 2002), and research into consciousness paradigms for PLA reveal new potentialities into PLA (Meyer-Dinkgrafë, 2001; Yarrow 2002). Complexity science can be used to iii create such paradigms in PLA or in Education (Davis, 2004; Davis, Sumara, & Luce-Kapler, 2000; Morowitz, 2002; Wolfram, 2002) There is a body of research, techniques and knowledge that brings together East and West theatre and acting practices. This body of information is generally outside the perimeter of curriculum in Professional Learning for Acting. The knowledge has been gathered by the luminaries of acting, yet it is rarely allowed legitimacy in academia, in practice. The East-West practices may allow for greater embodied learning as they make use of integral body-mind practices. The research had quite physical, active levels of participation-observation components in the three Case Studies that dealt with a nationally accredited course in acting, an independent actor/artist in the process of creating a performance, and an established professional acting company. The participant-observation took place within ten theatre productions, extensive physical, and vocal training, performances, and touring.

"A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Georgia Southern University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Education." Title from PDF of title page (Georgia Southern University, viewed on May 6, 2010). Delores D. Liston, major professor; Grigory Dmitriyev, Hsiu-Lien Lu, David Alley, committee members. Electronic version approved: December 2009. Includes bibliographical references (p.167-181).

Studien baseras på följande frågor för undersökning: Vilka samband finns mellan lektionsstruktur och höga förväntningar? Vilka samband finns mellan lektionsstruktur och positiva relationer med eleverna? Vilka samband finns mellan lektionsstruktur kompetensutveckling? Vilka samband finns mellan höga förväntningar och kompetensutveckling? Vilka köns-erfarenhets- och kompetensskillnader finns i relation till a) struktur b) höga förväntningar c) positiva relationer d) kompetensutveckling? Den teoretiska delen identifierar fyra fokuskategorier vilka definierar framgångsrika ledargärningar hos lärare. Den empiriska delen genomfördes i en liten kommun i Sverige och innehöll en enkät där lärare skattar sig kring sitt ledarskap i fyra fokuskategorier. Dessa var ”lektionsstruktur”, ”höga förväntningar” på eleverna, ”positiva relationer” till eleverna och ”kollegialt lärande”. Studien visar att det finns relativt starka samband mellan en tydlig lektionsstruktur, höga förväntningar, positiva relationer till eleverna och kompetensutveckling. Lärare som har en tydlig lektionsstruktur genom att ha en noggrann planering för varje lektion med tydliga mål och vilken har en igenkännbar struktur på lektionen och genomgångar av ämnesspecifika begrepp inför nya arbetsområden har också positiv och stöttande relation till alla elever. Dessa lärare skapar också en positiv klassrumsmiljö som präglas av trygghet och studiero. Lärare som har en tydlig lektionsstrukturhar och synliggör lärandet har också höga förväntningar på sina elever. Där höga förväntningar betyder att kontinuerlig återkoppling kopplade till kunskapskraven ges till eleverna. Läraren anpassar också undervisningen efter elevernas behov och säkerställer att eleverna vet att förväntningarna på dem är höga. Lärare som har passion för sitt läraruppdrag och utvecklar sitt lärande utifrån elevernas behov och även tycker att kollegialt lärande utvecklar hens ledarskap har även höga förväntningar på eleverna. Dessa lärare ger eleverna kontinuerlig återkoppling till eleverna kopplat till kunskapskraven. De anpassar sin undervisning efter elevernas behov och säkerställer att eleverna vet att det har höga förväntningar på dem. Slutsatsen ger en nulägesbild av lärares ledarskap i klassrummet. Denna kunskap kan användas för att stärka lärares ledarskap på vissa områden så som lektionsstruktur, höga förväntningar, återkoppling och kollegialt lärande. / This study is based on following questions: Which connection is there between structure of a lesson and high expectations? Which connection is there between structure of a lesson and positive relations with students? Which connection is there between structure of a lesson and collegial learning? Which connection is there between high expectations and collegial learning? What gender- experience- and – competence differences is there concerning a) structure b) high expectations c) positive relations to students d) competence development? The theoretical part identify four focuscategories which defines successful leadership among teachers`. The empirical part was implemented in a little municipality in Sweden and it contained a questionnairy in which teachers` valued their leadership within four focuscategories. These were “structure of lesson”, “high expectations” on students, “positive relations” to students and “professional development”. The study shows that there is relative strong connections between a distinct structure of a lesson, high expectations, positive relations to students and collegial learning. Teachers` with a distinct structure of a lesson, such as an accurate planning for each lesson with clear goals and a relatable structure on lessons and briefing specific notions also have a positive and supportive relations with all the students. These teachers` also create a positive classrooms environment which imprint security and calmness. Teachers` with distinct structure of lessons and visible learning also have high expectations on the students. In which high expecations means to give the students continuous feedback connected to knowledge requirement. The teacher also adapt the teaching to students needs and makes sure that students know that the expectations on them are high. Teachers` that have passion for their mission and develop their own learning external students needs and approve to collegial learning and develop their own leadership also have high expectations on students. These teachers` give students continuous feedback connected to knowledge requirement. They adapt their teaching to students needs and makes sure the students know that there are high expectations on them.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:40:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissALSM.pdf: 1113809 bytes, checksum: 1f9485ec65a6da7d028f17b4d409abaa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-02-24 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / The present master s degree dissertation is structured around the following question: What do the works presented on ANPEd and ENDIPE say about the process of professional learning of teaching taken place in the beginning of the career? To answer it, a time cut-out equivalent to a decade of research (1995-2004) was performed, that is, a search on the annals of the last ten ANPEd Annual Meetings and the last five ENDIPEs was conducted, looking for the works that presented as main discussion focus the beginner teacher and its professional learning process, regardless of teaching level. The framework on which the research is based privileges three categories: the teacher formation models, advocating for the model of the teacher as an intellectual critic, that is, a teacher that recognizes the controversial nature of education, not conceiving it as a mere reproducer of the dominant ideology, but also as propelling spring of the social transformation; the characteristics of the beginning of teaching, such as, the feeling of reality shock, marked by the feelings of survival and discovery and the teaching knowing, which comes from various sources and is built, not only during the initial period, but throughout the whole career. Analyzing the results presented by the selected studies, it was possible to verify that: a) the prevailing teacher formation model is the practical epistemology, especially the one that understands the teacher as a practical reflexive professional; b) the characteristics of the beginning of teaching, pointed by literature, are confirmed, especially regarding the feeling of reality shock; c) the teaching knowing is plural, composite and heterogeneous, resulting from several sources (family, previous schooling, initial formation, experience). The data analysis allows pointing out also, as more emphasized aspects in the analyzed works: the professional socialization, the teaching knowing and the feelings of survival and discovery that strongly mark this career beginning, among others. Less emphasized aspects include: the relations between initial formation and professional insertion moment and the learning ways developed by the beginner teacher. Finally, silenced aspects include, among others: the continuous formation and professional development politics, diversity/difference questions, cultural plurality and multiculturalism, pedagogical practice analysis of the teachers of young and adults and the existing relation between the beginner teacher and its professional acting model. The model of the teacher as an intellectual critic, advocated by this work, was also absent from the discussions about the teacher in the beginning of career. / A presente dissertação de mestrado estrutura-se em torno da seguinte questão: O que dizem os trabalhos apresentados na ANPEd e no ENDIPE sobre o processo de aprendizagem profissional da docência ocorrido no início da carreira? Para respondêla, efetuou-se um recorte temporal equivalente a uma década de pesquisa (1995-2004), ou seja, buscou-se nos anais das dez últimas Reuniões Anuais da ANPEd e dos cinco últimos ENDIPEs, os trabalhos que apresentaram como foco central de discussão o professor iniciante e seu processo de aprendizagem profissional, independentemente do nível de ensino em que atue. O referencial teórico no qual a pesquisa se baseia privilegia três categorias: os modelos de formação de professores, advogando o modelo do professor como um intelectual crítico, isto é, um professor que reconhece a natureza contraditória da educação, não a concebendo como mera reprodutora da ideologia dominante, mas também como mola propulsora da transformação social; as características do início da docência, como, por exemplo, o sentimento de choque da realidade, marcado pelas sensações de sobrevivência e descoberta e os saberes docentes, que são provenientes de variadas fontes e vão sendo construídos, não somente no período inicial, mas ao longo de toda carreira. Ao analisar os resultados apresentados pelos estudos selecionados, constatou-se que: a) o modelo de formação de professores preponderante é o da epistemologia da prática, especialmente o que compreende o professor como um profissional prático reflexivo; b) as características do início da docência, apontadas pela literatura, são corroboradas, mormente no que se refere ao sentimento de choque da realidade; c) os saberes docentes são plurais, compósitos e heterogêneos, oriundos de diversas fontes (família, escolarização prévia, formação inicial, experiência). A análise dos dados permite apontar, também, como aspectos mais enfatizados nas pesquisas analisadas: a socialização profissional, os saberes docentes e os sentimentos de sobrevivência e descoberta que marcam fortemente este início de carreira, entre outros. Como aspectos pouco enfatizados encontram-se: as relações entre a formação inicial e o momento de inserção profissional e as formas de aprendizagem desenvolvidas pelo professor novato. Por fim, como aspectos silenciados destacam-se, entre outros: as políticas de formação continuada e de desenvolvimento profissional, questões de diversidade/diferença, pluralidade cultural e multiculturalismo, análise da prática pedagógica dos professores da educação de jovens e adultos e a relação existente entre o professor iniciante e os seus modelos de atuação profissional. O modelo do professor como um intelectual crítico, advogado por este trabalho, também esteve ausente das discussões sobre o professor em início de carreira.

Orientador: Roseli Aparecida Cação Fontana / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Educação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-15T03:47:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Kopcak_SarahCristinaPeron_M.pdf: 1315307 bytes, checksum: 61f52d681221e6960debd05d12fc52a9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Resumo: A pesquisa objetivou compreender as elaborações sobre a infância e o trabalho na Educação Infantil produzidas por monitoras, a partir das interlocuções vividas no Curso de Aperfeiçoamento para Monitoras de Educação Infantil da Rede Municipal de Campinas, realizado entre os anos de 2003 a 2006. O Curso pautava-se na articulação entre os saberes teóricos sistematizados da profissão com os saberes práticos e cotidianos das monitoras. Assumindo Bakhtin (1986, 2003) como principal interlocutor teórico-metodológico, buscou-se levantar, através de entrevistas realizadas após a finalização do curso, indicadores de como os conceitos relativos à infância e à Educação Infantil, compartilhados no Curso, foram apreendidos e estão sendo elaborados pelas cursistas e de como estes conceitos mediatizaram sua identidade e prática profissionais. A partir dos indicadores levantados, destacaram-se, do ponto de vista da profissionalidade, o reconhecimento da dimensão educativa do cuidado e da função de monitora como educadora infantil, a reivindicação por maior participação do segmento profissional no planejamento das unidades de Educação Infantil e a requalificação dos cursos de formação continuada destinados a esse segmento, tendo em conta a dimensão teórica da formação do educador, articulada à dimensão prática. O acesso aos conhecimentos sistematizados a respeito da infância mostrou-se fundamental sob dois aspectos: a possibilidade de compreender e ressignificar a atividade da criança e as escolhas feitas pelas professoras em seu trabalho, questionando ou referendando tais escolhas, a partir do conhecimento pautado pela formação. Esta compreensão, de acordo com as monitoras, possibilitou-lhes participar das atividades educativas, mediando-as a partir de escolhas fundamentadas e mais autônomas, vislumbrando uma maior valorização deste segmento profissional, não objetivando resolver os conflitos, mas permitindo que as tensões históricas entre professoras e monitoras de Educação Infantil sejam constantemente re-elaboradas por estas profissionais. / Abstract: Taking Bakhtin (1986, 2003) as the main theoretical and methodological interlocutor, this research aimed to understand the elaborations on the childhood and the work on Child Education produced by educators (monitors), from interlocutions lived in an Improvement Course for these professionals, organized and conducted by the Training Coordination of the Campinas Municipal Education Network, between the years 2003 to 2006. After the conclusion of the course, based on the link between the systematic theoretical knowledge of the profession with the practical and everyday knowledge of the monitors, it was raised, through interviews with the Course Educators, indicators of how the concepts related to childhood and the Child Education, shared in the course, were seized and are being drawn up by them, and how these concepts mediated their identity and professional practice. From the indicators raised, stood out, in terms of professionalism, the recognition of the educational dimension of care and the role of the monitor as a child educator, the demand for greater participation of the professional sector in the planning of the units of Child Education and the retraining of the Continued Formation Courses destined to this segment, given the theoretical dimension of teacher training, linked to the practical dimension. The access to the systematic knowledge concerning childhood proved to be crucial in two aspects: the possibility to understand and re-signify the child's activities and the choices made by teachers in their work, questioning or endorsing such choices. This understanding, according to the monitors, allowed them more based and autonomous interventions in their work, which contributed to a greater appreciation of this professional segment and the re-elaboration of the historical tensions between teachers and monitors. / Mestrado / Ensino e Práticas Culturais / Mestre em Educação