published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Education / Master / Master of Education

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This thesis explores the early twentieth century beginnings of the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia, when that university first accepted responsibility for the education of secondary teachers. The university's participation came in successive stages, beginning with summer school sessions, moving to a shared training responsibility for high school teachers with the Normal School, and eventually to total responsibility for the training of high school teachers. In addition to documenting the steps by which high school teacher training became established as a program of university studies, this study analyzes the academic, social and political forces that combined to create a perceived need for, and then to legitimize, the creation of a new university department. The University of British Columbia's acceptance of responsibility for this training was a culmination of a complex social interaction of three groups (including the state, the teachers, and university administrators and faculty) all of whose values were shaped by the newly dominant ideology of professionalism. Accordingly, fundamental assumptions about "appropriate" training for teachers were embedded in a social milieu where professionalization, bureaucratization, and gender issues were compelling forces. The perceived centrality of professionals in a increasingly technocratic society led to pressure being exerted from a number of quarters in British Columbia for the institutionalization of high school teacher training in an appropriately scientific arena - the university. This study focuses on the theoretical principles underlying the dialectic of ideological determinism and human agency, as well as the historical evidence of the way that one such ideology (professionalism) shaped the transition of social policy (high school teacher training). The study concludes by utilizing contemporary theoretical perspectives to discuss the premises which inform not only the ideology of professionalism but also any metanarrative which purports to identify the true way for training teachers and by expressing hope that, as the type of knowledge associated with social power shifts, those who establish any new framework for teacher education will not repeat the mistakes of the past.

The purpose of the study was to examine francophone high school teachers' motivation and to test the Job Characteristics Model, a model of factors that affect the satisfaction and motivation of workers, to determine its possible utility as a diagnostic tool in the field of education. / The study is based on a sample of 136 high school teachers from a francophone high school. The data collection instrument used in this study was the Job Diagnostic Survey developed by Hackman and Oldham (1980). / The findings revealed that the Job Characteristics Model and the JDS instrument have some utility in the field of education. Proposed relationships between job characteristics and psychological states, between psychological states and motivation and satisfaction outcomes were found to exist. Psychological states appeared to mediate between job characteristics and outcomes. Among core job characteristics, task significance was the most important motivating factor for teachers followed by autonomy, skill variety, task identity, feedback from the job and feedback from agents. Among the critical psychological states, the most motivating factor is experienced meaningfulness of the work followed by experienced responsibility and, lastly, knowledge of the results. For the outcomes, internal work motivation was the best motivator followed by growth satisfaction and general satisfaction. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

This study describes, discusses and analyses the Rwandan lower secondary school teachers’ responses to the introduction of inquiry as a teaching approach in the science curriculum as one of the changes that the curriculum in Rwanda has undergone through in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide. The study investigates the science teachers’ understanding of inquiry-based science teaching, their attitudes towards the introduction of inquiry into the science curriculum, the activities they are engaged in with regard to inquiry-based science teaching and learning, the factors influencing their current teaching practices and their perceptions about what may be done for a better implementation of inquiry-based science teaching. Guided by a pragmatic research approach, I believed that collecting diverse types of data would provide a deeper understanding of the research problem and therefore adopted a two phases’ sequential explanatory mixed methods design. During the first phase, data were collected by means of a survey questionnaire administered to a purposeful sample of 200 science teachers at lower secondary school in Rwanda. Findings from the survey informed the second phase consisting of data collection by means of semi-structured one-to-one interviews with 15 purposefully selected teachers from the sample used in the first phase then supplemented by a contextual observation in their schools. The data from the questionnaire were subject to a descriptive statistical analysis while data from interviews were subject to analysis involving transcribing and reading interview transcripts, coding and categorizing information, identifying patterns, and interpreting. The data analysis produced five main assertions providing answers to the research questions. Participant teachers displayed varying understanding of what inquiry-based science teaching is, associating it with a number of its characteristics such as a learner centred teaching approach mostly based on experiments and practical work. There were a few teachers who did not have accepted understandings of inquiry-teaching. Furthermore, teachers had a positive attitude towards the introduction of inquiry and favoured the change even though they indicated a number of factors preventing them from adequately implementing the new teaching approach. As for their practices, traditional classroom activities were more frequently used than inquiry-based activities and when they made use of inquiry, they followed a specific order of activities that led to a more structured type of inquiry. The study further identified a number of factors influencing both positively and negatively the implementation of inquiry. The positive aspect was that they find teaching through inquiry more enjoyable while the shortage of time, the lack of teaching resources and the lack of confidence associated with inadequate training, influenced negatively the way they implemented inquiry-based teaching. Teachers highlighted a number of interventions they felt would make the implementation of inquiry based teaching more effective. The improvement of resources provision to schools and the implementation of adequate professional development programmes were the most highlighted. Despite the several impediments to the implementation of effective use of inquiry, teachers were optimistic towards the future of science teaching and learning in Rwanda. It is envisaged these findings will be valuable to a wide range of audiences including science teachers, curriculum developers, science teacher educators as they may inform them about the implementation of the new curricula that require teachers to focus on inquiry given the controversy surrounding this issue in science education. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

South African schools during the era of apartheid were characterized by hierarchical and bureaucratic management structures that, for the most part, stifled the leadership potential of all those within the organization. With the onset of democracy in South Africa in 1994, there has been a radical shift in education policy and legislation which propagates making schools democratic organizations in which distributed leadership practices and collaboration is the norm. Within the distributed leadership framework, leadership is not synonymous with the work of those in formal management positions but rather the work of leadership involves multiple individuals. As such there is now a platform for the definitive engagement in the promotion of teacher leadership in South African schools. However, despite this enabling policy framework, teacher leadership practices are not embedded in the culture of many South African schools. This could be attributed to teacher leadership being its infancy stage in South Africa and the notion of teacher leadership not being valued. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.