In a world where the teacher’s voice is often ignored, this study focuses on the narratives of four Trinbagonian female primary school teachers. Using an interpretive (qualitative) epistemological perspective, I employ a life history methodology with narratives and poetry inquiries as part of the data collection, analysis and representation process. I use the theoretical lenses of feminism and postcolonialism to deconstruct the narratives. Through the lenses of feminism, the narratives reveal how the teachers’ identities, philosophies and pedagogies were shaped by feminine influences. Through the lenses of postcolonialism, they disclose how colonial factors are connected to the attitudes and behaviours in our post- colonial educational spaces. As the researcher, who was once herself a primary school teacher, I suggest that teachers can de-colonise their educational spaces through Freire’s (1973;1985) concept of ‘conscientisation’; that is, becoming aware that they have the power to transform their own lives, and those of their pupils/students. They can achieve such transformation by understanding the role that their colonial, historical past played in the development of present educational policies and practices. They should also comprehend how broader forces such as globalisation and other international interferences factor into the agencies that seek to keep them silent. I also submit that self-transformation must advance to philosophical and pedagogical changes and a willingness to break from a colonial stranglehold that makes them outwardly reticent while they scream inwardly.

The aim of this research is to explore the everyday narratives for two year 5 teachers in a primary school when asked to implement a lifelong learning project into their classroom. Teachers have few opportunities to pause and reflect on their professional practice, so the two year 5 teachers were highly motivated to engage with the research given that the Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory (ELLI) was being piloted in their classes. With this purpose, I undertook a narrative approach. There was also a strong rationale behind providing the teachers with a space in which to have a reflective conversation to allow their narratives to be told. This came from an underlying concept within ELLI, that students have the opportunity to reflect upon their own learning and yet it is not naturally inbuilt for the teachers. The teacher participants constructed a narrative over time as they explored both the negative and positive aspects of implementing a lifelong learning project. In my analysis I was interested in both the structural element to how the narrative is spoken but also what significant themes are produced across the narratives and the commonalities found. The analysis is a combination of work based on Gee (1991), Mischler (1995) and Riessman (2008) and includes my own part in the co-construction of the narrative. The narratives allow the teachers to explore their pedagogy and belief system into lifelong learning not only for the children but also for themselves. I identified and interpreted the significant themes from the teachers' narratives, reflecting how they link to the literature review and the identified learning dimensions within ELLI. Although the experience is around the lifelong learning project, the narrative that unfolds goes far beyond this and reflects very much the individual belief systems, ethical viewpoints, experience, culture and pedagogy as teachers. Key words: narrative, lifelong learning, reflective conversation, ELLI, teachers, professional practice.

This study offers an insight into the experiences of three newly qualified Primary teachers (NQTs) and their pupils as they worked together to develop dialogic talk in their lessons. Within this research I draw upon a range of literature from the field of classroom talk, with a particular focus on the work of Robin Alexander, to underpin discourse analysis of periodic video recordings of talk in these classrooms. Supplemented by teacher interviews, I examine: the way in which each teacher interpreted and enacted strategies to facilitate dialogic talk; the factors that these teachers considered to be inhibitors to and enablers of dialogic talk; and the ways in which some pupils exercised agency within classroom interactions to undertake interpersonal or identity work during dialogic talk sessions. I also examine the extent to which the research approach, which sought to enact dialogic principles, was facilitative of dialogic classroom interactions. During the research, the teachers increased their use of dialogic bids such as prompts, probes and low control acknowledging moves and enabled the pupils to increase their use of linking phrases and displays of reasoning. The teachers felt that time pressures and a difficulty in identifying suitable knowledge-accountable opportunities for dialogic talk within their planning inhibited progress. However, they felt that exposure to dialogic principles within teacher training, supported by school values and shared video analysis and action planning were key to success. Finally, some pupils’ agentive acts within discourse sometimes served to resist or stabilise the teacher’s drive towards dialogic talk, and interpersonal and identity work was simultaneously enacted within this context. Cognisant that teacher/pupil interaction is both complex and open to multiple interpretations, the study concludes that talk in the research classrooms fulfilled both interpersonal and pedagogical functions. Furthermore, professional dialogic discussion and analysis of videoed teaching supported by a colleague can facilitate NQTs in the journey towards becoming more dialogic teachers. The study recommends thatsuch discussion might be underpinned by the analytical framework, developed as part of this research, providing a metacognitive resource for reflecting upon classroom dialogic talk behaviours. Future research should consider how such professional dialogue might be supported by the development of video examples, to be used not as models for imitation but as a starting point for professional discussion and should also seek to find out what teachers consider to be the most effective models for promoting such professional dialogue.

Conceptions of what teachers need to know have a bearing on classroom practice, governance and policy. In India, the question of what teachers need to know at elementary school level plays an important but largely implicit role in efforts to improve educational quality and professionalise school teaching. This study examines the conceptions of teachers' knowledge as uderstood and used by teachers to teach geography, and as articulated in teachers' occupational context in government schools. Focusing on subject knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge, the thesis examines how these conceptions relate to the notion of teaching as an activity, within the distinctions of craft, technique and profession. Adopting a qualitative approach and employing ethnographic techniques over eight months of fieldwork in four government schools, I observed the classroom teaching of six teachers and held interviews with them to understand the meaning and conceptions they hold regarding subject knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. To situate teachers' conceptions within their occupational context, I also undertook participant observation, studied trainings and teacher meetings, and interviewed educational officials at different levels of the education system (local, district and regional state). The findings suggest that conceptions of teachers' knowledge are generally circumscribed and limited to knowledge of the textbook they are supposed to teach. Teachers' own perspectives and practices differ depending on whether pr not they have a qualification (graduate and above) in the subject they teach- a difference that is ignored in recruitment and deployment policies, due to which most teachers teach subjects they have only studied up to grade X. Teachers. education officials, and policy documents do not generally recognise a space or need for subject-specific forms of pedagogical knowledge in grades VI, VII and VIII. The emphasis lies on teaching techniques that ostensibly originate from child pedagogy.

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The context for this qualitative case study is the primary school classroom and the Wider Opportunities instrumental teaching programme. The rational for the research is based on the premise that there is real potential for professional collaboration in the teaching of music when two bodies of knowledge are brought together, combining the class teacher’s expertise in pedagogy and the visiting instrumentalist’s expertise in music. The study investigates the nature of the professional collaboration between the generalist class teachers and the visiting instrumentalists in five primary schools in an outer London borough. The theoretical bases developed from the literature are framed by the concept of collaboration; the theories of behaviourism, progressivism and constructivism and their contribution to learning and teaching; and the writings of Swanwick (1979, 1988, 1994, 1999) on music education. The methodology used to examine the experiences of class teachers, head teachers, pupils, instrumental teachers, associates connected to the local music education hub and experts from the field of music education comprised questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and the observation of twenty Wider Opportunities lessons over a twelve month period and analysed using thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006, 2012; Howitt and Cramer, 2011). The themes that emerged from the data included detached collaboration; uncertainty about the aims of the Wider Opportunities programme; incomplete discourses of music education; and missed opportunities for professional learning. The key findings from this study identified that rich collaborative practices were an underused resource in the schools. Several factors prevented meaningful collaborations, including a crowded curriculum which limited the time available for curriculum planning and professional discussions, and the status given to arts and music education in primary schools. Although rich collaborative practices were not fully embedded in the case study schools, there was evidence to suggest that some teachers would have welcomed closer collaboration. The Conclusions to the study highlighted the need for closer communication between the music education hubs and the schools involved in the Wider Opportunities programme in order to clarify the aims and approaches. Furthermore, the promotion of professional collaboration in the Wider Opportunities programme should be strengthened in schools by providing more opportunity for professional discussions between teachers and the sharing of expertise.

The focus of this study is the development of an ICT training package for novice female primary teachers in Saudi Arabia. In recent years, the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia has placed a lot of importance on increasing the use of ICT within schools. Evidence suggests however that little attention has been paid to the provision of ICT training, particularly in primary education. Furthermore, in the general research literature; whilst there is much talk about the need for training, very little evidence is provided regarding what kind of training is effective. The purpose of this study therefore was to systematically design and evaluate an ICT training package that was informed by learning theory, research evidence and user needs. The study was conducted in two phases: 1) determining the ICT training needs of novice female primary teachers in Saudi Arabia; 2) designing, piloting and evaluating a training package based on identified needs and preferences, in-service teacher training literature and common learning theories in the field. In phase one, a qualitative survey that employed a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews was conducted. There were 135 participants in the questionnaire and 20 interviewees. The survey findings of revealed a great gap in both the technical and pedagogical skills of teachers. Furthermore, the data identified some factors that either limit or motivate teachers’ use of ICT. The participants’ preferences for their future ICT training were also determined. These results were used to inform the design of a training package. Key design features of the training package included: covering both technical and pedagogical content; using a blended approach that combined face-to-face and online delivery and using iv social constructivism and experiential learning to underpin its pedagogy. Twenty-two teachers participated in the pilot training. Evaluation data collected from a range of sources suggest that the teachers responded well to the design features of the training package and that the training had some positive influence on their practice. Using the literature review and the training needs data as well as the data generated from my own study I have identified five key design criteria that I believe can be applied to designing similar training packages in the future: Ownership; Shared learning; Contextualisation; Transformational potential and Evidence-based.