The purpose of this thesis is to describe the teacher's voluntary involvement in a current example of an educational innovation implemented in Cyprus. The broad argument of the thesis is that the teacher is the most important contributor to the successful implementation of the innovation. Chapter One introduces the problem and identifies the main research questions: • What are the views of the teachers, at both the organisational and the personal level, when confronted with an educational innovation, e.g. the ICCPC programme, concerning their own role in the setting? • Is it possible to profile the range of responses that might be anticipated among teachers when confronted with an innovation? • What are the specific implications for successful involvement of the teacher in the innovation? Then Chapter Two draws on the issues of curriculum development, innovation and change in education, in an attempt to present the main concepts that this thesis examines. Chapter Three presents the main literature review on the teacher's role in an educational innovation and change. Chapter Four presents a selected review of the literature on issues concerning the Introduction of the Computers in Education, as an example of educational innovation. Chapter Five provides the reader with certain information about the Cyprus Educational System and the structure of the case under investigation, the Introduction of the Computers in the Cyprus Primary Classroom (ICCPC). Chapter Six presents the methodological decisions of the empirical research undertaken. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were undertaken in order to enable an overall conclusion on the topic. In Chapter Seven the quantitative results as emerging from a questionnaire survey among all the teachers participating in the project are presented. Chapter Eight presents the results of the in-depth interviews that were conducted to a sample of nine teachers involved in the ICCPC. Further on, Chapter Nine presents the discussion of the results of this thesis and provides the overall view of the teacher's involvement in the innovation. It answers to the first research questions, presenting the teacher's role in the ICCPC and the teacher's profile while involved in the innovative setting. Finally, this thesis concludes with Chapter Ten, providing specific implications for successful implementation of the educational innovation and mainly successful involvement of the teacher in this setting, in a collaborative and decentralised approach.

This study is about the ways in which the term subject knowledge is conceptualised and interpreted by student teachers, university tutors and school mentors in the context of undergraduate primary initial teacher training (ITT) in two post-1992 university providers. Subject knowledge has been a consistent feature of the policy context of ITT over decades, although disparities are apparent between the rhetoric of policy directives, the theoretical knowledge base and how primary teachers’ subject knowledge is represented, and enacted, in communities of practice in primary ITT. The conceptual framework for the research is underpinned by Shulman’s (1987) theoretical knowledge bases for teaching, and draws significantly on the conceptual tools of culture, practice and agents in educational settings, provided by Ellis’s (2007) situated model of subject knowledge. The perspective of the individual is developed further by utilising Kelchtermans’s (2009) personal interpretative framework. An additional lens is provided by the external political context, within which primary ITT is located. The research adopted an inductive, interpretative approach that incorporated multiple methods to construct a bricolage. Data collection included semi-structured questionnaires, semi-structured interviews that incorporated the production of visual data, and content analysis of documents. The study indicates that subject knowledge was understood by participants as an umbrella term representing general teacher knowledge, rather than as a critically distinct concept. Overall, there was a general lack of emphasis on subject-specific pedagogical knowledge evident in the discourse around subject knowledge for primary teaching. Conceptualisations of subject knowledge were highly individualistic. The findings indicated that the culture and practice in different contexts is interpreted and experienced in very different ways by individuals to influence their interpretations of subject knowledge and its place in pedagogy. Thus, this study makes an original contribution to knowledge in the field by: 1) mapping the details of the conceptualisations of subject knowledge held by student primary teachers, university tutors and school mentors in the context of undergraduate primary ITT, to identify commonalities, and disparities, with the theoretical knowledge base; and 2) identifying and examining cross-contextual and personal influences on conceptions of subject knowledge and in so doing, extending and adapting Ellis’s (2007) model of subject knowledge, to the specific context of undergraduate primary ITT.

This evaluation research study is concerned with the quality of support and in-service development for Malawian primary teachers through the medium of radio. The study aims to evaluate the influence that the current United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded interactive radio instruction (IRI) programme has on teachers’ behaviours, with the aim of proposing some guidelines for the development of a model of continuing professional development (CPD), appropriate to the Malawian context, using IRI. It identifies the teacher as a critical entity in raising levels of learners’ achievement within the primary school and posits that through improved teacher support and development, higher levels of learner achievement can be attained. The study identifies the potential that communication technology in the form of interactive radio instruction (IRI) offers in improving CPD of teachers at a cost that could be affordable to disadvantaged school communities in the country. The study takes place in a context where the Malawi government has been challenged to provide quality universal primary education after introducing free primary education (FPE) in 1994, which resulted in a massive expansion of primary schools, resulting in acute shortages of teachers. The study has drawn on aspects of practice theory and in particular the work of Giddens (1984), Bourdieu (1977, 1978), Shatzki et al (2001) and Reckwitz (2002a) in an attempt to emphasise the role of artefacts, such as interactive radio, as part of social practice. A practice theoretic perspective has been used to highlight the contentious role played by learning-objects in teacher practice and the need for flexibility and innovation in employing learning-objects like interactive radio as part of teaching practice. To carry out a critical exploration of the issues of teacher learning and practice, a longitudinal qualitative research approach was proposed for the evaluation of the existing IRI programme in Malawi. As the researcher was also actively involved in the planning of the Malawi IRI programme from onset, he therefore maintained a dual role of researcher and co-founder throughout the research process. The empirical evidence employed within this research was elicited through three main processes: interview survey, participant observation and focus groups in order to achieve validity through methodical triangulation. The analysis of this evidence shows the considerable difficulties faced by classroom teachers in attempting to adopt interactive radio and therefore be able to use interactive/active learner-centred instruction as part of their ongoing teaching practice. The analysis, however, also highlights the possibility of exploiting interactive radio for provision of an integrated, sustainable CPD of teachers in educationally deprived school communities. Overall, the research study puts emphasis on the need for paying attention to the social practices (contextually specific) within which the use of educational technologies (such as interactive radio), are enmeshed. There is need to explicate the details of such practices (instead of adopting a narrow, technical, focus on attributes of interactive radio itself) in order to improve the efficacy of using interactive radio.