Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Queensland, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

This paper is a case study of teacher professional development in a local Hong Kong secondary school. By examining the tension among various influencing parties - i.e. Education Bureau (EDB), school sponsoring body, school, principal and teachers - as well as the dilemmas arising from the planning and implementation of professional development programs, this research seeks to explore areas of improvements and provide recommendations. The discussions centre on the needs identification and program evaluation processes, and are based on theoretical principles of organizational learning, individualization of learning, training evaluation and transfer of learning. Following analysis of the research findings, this paper goes on to suggest that school leaders should promote the principles of professional learning to all teachers. In particular, teachers should be empowered with the autonomy to manage their own professional development as their responsibility. Also, school leaders should encourage teachers to integrate school development needs with their own professional needs. The findings may be applied to other local secondary schools with staff development structures and processes at a comparable level of maturity. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

A prior study conducted by Walker (1996) showed teachers working in Primary schools in Hong-kong experienced professional development as a ‘one off’ occurrence, referring to one day out of the academic year, in the form of a workshop or course. Teachers felt that they did not take into consideration ‘teachers skills needs and involovement’ (Walker, 1996). According to the study, Principals and heads of department are usually responsible for shaping and establishing the norms for professional growth. The study revealed that the general consensus amongst principals and administrators believed that teachers should be involved in the actual planning and design of professional development. This study aims to further shed light on this phenomenon in the form of a case study at a primary school in Hong-Kong. An in depth look at how a school implements and organizes professional development can be beneficial to numerous members of the school community, including principals, teachers and administrators. Walker’s (1996) study was ultimately effective in recognizing the trends and opinions amongst principals and administrators regarding professional development. However there is limited research regarding how teachers perceive professional development and how they feel it can improve their needs. By acknowledging the lack of professional development , and it’s perceived ineffectiveness from teachers, this studies objectives is to explore how professional development is organized and developed in the school, and use such insights and opinions gained to provide a means to establish how professional development can be implemented more effectively to benefit teachers. Moreover research shows that in recent times, professional development is low on the list of teacher priorities, as they feel overwhelmed with their existing workload. Though the present study stems for the ideologies and perceptions teachers in Hong-Kong seemingly have toward professional development, majority of the research will be addressing the current effectiveness of professional development at the school, as this will enable one deduce factors that make it successful or unsuccessful. It is important to recognize that every school is different and will therefore have different needs. Thus making comparisons towards professional development regarding its policies and implementation will most likely to render obsolete, as a professional development program that is successful at one school may not be at the other. Though there is no concrete definition for what constitutes ‘effective professional development’ Desimone (2009) offers a framework that is broad enough to be relevant to most schools. Such a framework will be used as an indicator in establishing whether professional development is effective in the school (See appendix A and B). Responses from administrators and teachers from the interview questions will also be used to analyse whether professional development offered at the school is effective and productive. This study will adopt a qualitative approach primarily through the use of interviews and observations. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

This thesis explores the identity formation of three EFL pre-service teachers during their teaching practicum in a school-university partnership school in Mainland China. Drawing on the sociocultural perspective, learning-to-teach is conceptualized as student teachers participating in and becoming a member of the communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) which consist of boundary-crossing members from both activity systems of the university and the school (Engestrom, 1987, 1999, 2001). Following a poststructural perspective, the student teachers’ learning-to-teach is also conceptualized as a process of “arguing for” (MacLure, 1993) their professional identities under dominant social discourses. Foucault’s (1983, 1985) concept of ethical identity formation elaborated into a framework of four ethico-political dimensions for doing teacher identity (Clarke, 2009) is adopted to further analysethe interactions between social structure and individual identity transformation. An ethnographic qualitative case study approach was adopted. Data collection methods included ethnographic observations of classroom interactions, focus group discussions and routine school activities, semi-structured interviews of student teachers and mentors, and collectioin of documents such as university teaching practicum documents, lesson plans, reflective diaries and newsletters. Both “content analysis” and “modified analytic induction” (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007; Merriam, 1998; Patton, 2002) were adopted to conduct within-case and cross-case data analysis. The multi-method approach allowed the researcher to collect and interpret data from both holistic and in-depth research perspectives which also enabled triangulations during data analysis. The analysis indicated that historical, cultural, political and economic forces intertwined and formed general social discourses. Their influences permeated into the discourses of both the university and the school activity systems. Due to the contradictory discourses of ELT education between the two institutions, the boundary-crossing learning-to-teach activities were replete with tensions, asymmetrical power relationships, and interpersonal conflicts, which combined to become driving forces for the different transformations of the three student teachers’ identities within the school-university partnership activity system as a global community of practice (COP). Due to different individual backgrounds, inner tensions and interpersonal conflicts within the COP, the student teachers led dissimilar legitimate peripheral participation (Lave & Wenger, 1991)trajectories through identifying themselves with different local sub-cops (T-cop and S-cop) in various modes of belonging. Under the domination of contradictory institutional discourses, the student teachers exercised their creative agencies and managed to find the “spaces” for their own freedom of self-formation via four ethico-political dimensions. Through critical reflection on the relation between the care of self and the care of others, the student teachers clarified, readjusted and reinforced their telos which is part and parcel of the ongoing interactions among the four ethico-political aspects of teacher identity. Based on the contradictions identified in this research, a critical and ethical pedagogy framework for EFL teacher education was conceptualized for ELT and teacher education programmes. This thesis also serves as an attempt to address teacher identity issues from the integrated perspectives of both sociocultural and poststructural approaches (Morgan, 2007) and to introduce the concept of ethico-politics of teacher identity to EFL teacher education. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education

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