This thesis examines students’ experiences of learning to teach mathematics as they complete a primary Postgraduate Certificate in Education to gain qualified teacher status. The research data are drawn from students’ accounts of learning to teach mathematics, which include email communications during their studies and interviews with eight students at the end of the course. Analysis is informed by post-structuralist feminist understandings of discourse, power and knowledge. These tools are used to explore the complexities of learning to teach, the ways in which beginning teachers are ‘produced’, what counts as mathematics and the effects of power relations within pedagogical encounters. I use a reflexive approach to methodology, acknowledging the ways in which my own subjectivity permeates the enquiry, and the ways in which power permeates the research process. The study found performances of gender in students’ accounts of their experiences of the course, both on campus and in schools. Dominant discourses of teaching and mathematics create tensions for students and act as a form of control and categorisation as they strive to be recognised as legitimate mathematics teachers. It is argued that students’ subjectivities are shaped by discursive practices and peer and pedagogical relationships in the context of the course and that students are constituted as mathematical subjects often in inequitable ways. They are both powerful and powerless in different instances as they take up competing discourses, positioning themselves and their peers in shifting locations. Some students are silenced, categorised and marginalised within discourses of mathematics. Most report complying with the established practices of the school and class teacher and focused on the struggle to achieve legitimacy as successful student teachers. They 2 demonstrate both compliance with and resistance to dominant discourses as they are caught between the tensions and inconsistencies of competing and conflicting discourses. A key implication of this study is that teachers, teacher educators and student teachers need opportunities to explore their own gendered subjectivities as learners and teachers and to acknowledge that learning to teach mathematics is not solely a cognitive endeavour but one deeply located in social relations and contexts. Within teacher education more spaces need to be opened up to enable student teachers to embody themselves as mathematics subjects and primary teachers differently.

This thesis reports the findings of a research study conducted in an initial primary teacher education college in Dublin, exploring how teacher education students experienced and constructed meaning from a pre-service RE course which recognized the importance of a focus on their inner lives. The study, which adopted a qualitative interpretive approach, was conducted using semi-structured interviews with twelve past students from a recently-graduated year group of one hundred students. The study hoped to uncover how a focus on the inner life was taken up by the research participants in relation to their personal and professional wellbeing and their role as educators in general and religious educators in particular. While it did not seek to generalise as a result of the findings, confined as it is by time and circumstance, nevertheless aspects deemed worthwhile by the research participants may also be deemed worthwhile by the reader and indeed may not be confined to the domain of RE. The findings have been framed generally against the three themes of ‘particularity’, ‘inner-ness’ and ‘ongoing-ness’. The theme of ‘particularity’ relates to the participants’ epistemological journey, as it is concerned with how concrete elements of the course supported inner life work. The theme of ‘inner-ness’ relates to the participants’ ontological journey, as it is concerned with how participants experienced and made meaning from the space provided by the course for inner life work. The theme of ‘ongoingness’ relates to the total RE journey from primary and secondary school to college and into their teaching lives and its impact on participants’ inner lives. What is clear from participants’ responses is that the RE course, and particularly the elements of the RE course that had a focus on the inner life, had a significant impact on participants’ identity, both personal and professional, at an important stage of their development and personal story. The study demonstrates the importance of inner life work for teacher education students and contributes a level of insight into how students appropriate and construct meaning from a created and creative space that supports a focus on that inner life.

This study used Activity Theory (AT) as a lens to explore how administrative and academic activity systems worked in a university, in schools and in the university-school partnership to support Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in Saudi Arabia. It examined the perspectives of partnership coordinators, university tutors, head teachers, cooperating teachers and student teachers involved in the ITE partnership programme at Umm Alqura University. The study was conducted under the umbrella of the interpretive paradigm. Case study was used as the methodology of the study. The study employed multiple methods of data collection: questionnaire, interviews and documentary evidence. Maximum variation sampling was used to select the participants to take part in the current study. The total number of the whole sample with all sub-groups was 187. Ten in-depth interviews were conducted with volunteer interviewees. The study yielded various findings. Participants’ expectations were influenced by their history and background. In addition, student teachers were supported in learning about teaching in the university, school and through the partnership between school and university. However, different kinds of challenges were identified. These included: extreme centralisation in running the partnership activity system, lack of awareness of the importance of the partnership and of the need to address contradictory points of view about teaching and learning to teach in a constructive way. These challenges were symptoms of unresolved contradictions inherent in the partnership activity system. Despite these contradictions, many opportunities for professional development were highlighted by all partners. Using AT as an analytical tool, several implications for all partners were identified. The study concluded with the idea that for effective teacher education, not only is it important to understand the interaction between university and school but also how, within each, administrative and academic activity sub-systems operate and interact. This is because clear understanding of all aspects of the academic and administrative elements of the partnership, and of their relationship, is essential for a successful teacher education.

This thesis examines what it is that enables postgraduate student teachers to promote the recently introduced curriculum innovation, dialogic talk, in primary classrooms. Drawing on literature relating to the way talk has been enacted in English classrooms for the last thirty five years, it suggests that patterns of verbal interaction have continued to prove resistant to change, despite policy imperatives and university courses. Adopting a collaborative action research approach, data were collected in three cycles over three years to investigate the perceptions of three successive cohorts of postgraduate students of the role of talk in learning, and the place of the teacher in developing it. Using a sociocultural lens, students’ conceptual and pedagogic understanding of dialogic talk, and their ability to promote it, is examined in depth through nine case studies, as are the factors which the participants themselves identify as enabling or inhibiting engagement with innovation. It is suggested that the lack of a commonly agreed definition, and of readily available theoretical guidance, has reduced dialogic talk to just another label. As such, it can play no significant part in developing practice beyond rapid question-and-answer routines of ‘interactive teaching’ and the potentially reductive IRF (Initiation, Response, Feedback) script recorded by researchers (Mroz et al, 2000; Myhill, 2006) before, and after the inception of the National Literacy Strategy (1998a). Turning to the role of the university, it questions the place of the ‘demonstration lesson’ and whole cohort lectures, urging that significant changes need to be made to the role of the teaching practice tutor, and the nature of ‘partnership’ between schools and university departments. Finally, it speculates that without a significant change in the way university departments examine, and address, the values, attitudes and memories of talk that student teachers bring with them from their own primary classrooms, there will continue to be replication of practice.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T14:31:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Elize Keller Franco.pdf: 1274152 bytes, checksum: 2ba3ee8d9e881a586d97eb9143a41a8b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-07 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The recurrent complaint that the preparation offered in initial training courses are not offered appropriate responses to the new demands of teachers' work in contemporary society and the challenges faced by teachers in their daily practices have raised doubts about the revision of curricula that prepares these professionals . In this context, this study aims at a critical analysis of an alternative curriculum organization that has been developed in the courses of initial teacher development, specifically in the courses Science Undergraduate, Art & Language and Communication of Federal University of Parana - Coastline campus. For this, we chose the guiding question as in what extent the proposal being developed in UFPR Coastline brings elements with potential to contribute to a new curricular paradigm in initial teacher development. The adopted methodological approach for this study is the qualitative research approach in the form of case study. To obtain the data, we focused on document analysis and discussion groups with students and teachers. Authors such as Garcia (1999 ) , Tardif (2011 ) , Masetto ( 2003, 2006 , 2007, 2009 , 2012) , Gatti (2010 ) , André ( 2005, 2009 , 2010) , Diniz - Pereira ( 2007, 2010 ) , Romanowski ( 2010, 2012 ) , Imbernon (2009 ) , Saviani ( 2005, 2009 ) , Tanuri (2000 ) , Carbonell (2002 ) , Silva (2007 ) , Moreira (2006 ) , Lopes and Macedo (2011 ) supported the construction of the theoretical framework concept that guided the research from theirs theories on innovation , teacher formation and curriculum. The data indicate that the curriculum reform in progress manifests with characteristic movements of change with innovation in a set of core and relevant elements such as design and curriculum organization , teaching knowledge , models of formation , practical activities / stage and methodological principles. The character of building in movement of the curriculum, open to the collective intelligence of educators in their institutional contexts find room for diversification and innovation, confronts us with the possibility of a new paradigm in process. Thus, this research contributes to the field of curriculum theory and practice analysis to bring an experience that puts into action directions that have long putting to the curricula in initial teacher development / A recorrente denúncia de que o preparo oferecido nos cursos de formação inicial não tem oferecido respostas adequadas às novas exigências do trabalho dos professores na sociedade contemporânea e aos desafios enfrentados pelos docentes em suas práticas cotidianas tem colocado em questão a revisão dos currículos que formam esses profissionais. Nesse contexto, o presente estudo tem como objetivo a análise crítica de uma organização curricular alternativa que vem sendo desenvolvida nos cursos de formação inicial de professores, mais especificamente, em cursos de Licenciaturas de Ciências, Artes e Linguagem e Comunicação da Universidade Federal do Paraná - Unidade Litoral. Para isso, escolheu-se como questão orientadora investigar em que medida a proposta que vem sendo desenvolvida na UFPR Litoral traz elementos com potencial de contribuição para um novo paradigma curricular na formação inicial de professores. Adota-se como caminho metodológico para este estudo a abordagem qualitativa de pesquisa na modalidade de estudo de caso. Para obtenção dos dados, privilegiou-se a análise documental e grupos de discussão com alunos e professores. Autores como Garcia (1999), Tardif (2011), Masetto (2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012), Gatti (2010), André (2005, 2009, 2010), Diniz-Pereira (2007, 2010), Romanowski (2010, 2012), Imbernón (2009), Saviani (2005, 2009), Tanuri (2000), Carbonell (2002), Silva (2007), Moreira (2006), Lopes e Macedo (2011) deram suporte à construção do marco teórico conceitual que orientou a pesquisa a partir de suas teorias sobre inovação, formação de professores e currículo. Os dados indicam que a reforma curricular em andamento se manifesta com movimentos de mudança com característica de inovação em um conjunto de elementos centrais e relevantes, tais como concepção e organização curricular, saberes docentes, modelos de formação, atividades práticas/estágio e princípios metodológicos. O caráter de construção em movimento do currículo, aberto para que a inteligência coletiva dos educadores em seus contextos institucionais encontre espaço para a diversificação e a inovação, coloca-nos diante da possibilidade de um novo paradigma em processo. Dessa forma, essa pesquisa contribui para o campo da teoria e das práticas curriculares ao trazer para análise uma experiência que coloca em ação direcionamentos que há tempos vêm se colocando para os currículos na formação inicial de professores

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:42:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Adriana Parravano Neves.pdf: 1028496 bytes, checksum: 2e5a2cc2cdc758b411b3da5578f47a45 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-08-05 / The central object of the present research is the supervised internship in a pedagogy course as a guideline for the constitution of interdisciplinary experiences in initial teachers‟ education. This work analyzed a teacher-training course, Pedagogy, in the city of São Paulo, to confront theoretical aspects of the necessity of initiating an interdisciplinary posture in the orientation for initial teacher education. For this, it was made a bibliographic review, utilizing authors focused on themes about Teacher Education, Interdisciplinary Subjects, Curriculum and Supervised Practice Internship, in addition to field research, where I utilized the fieldnote as data collection tools, in which I registered the routine of the classes observed of the course. A five-question questionnaire was applied with the aim of reflecting about the ideas of the theory and practice developed in the course. During the analysis, it was possible to observe the difficulty students in pedagogical training have in relating theory with practice, using as an argument the lack of stimulus, the observed practice in formation and the perception of the current context. The internship was revealed as fundamental for the students to be exposed to projects and proposals, which gather reflections, and interdisciplinary analyzes during initial teacher education, becoming their formation more coherent in relation to the contemporary needs of a thought and an action more complex. Among results, it was perceived the student s perspective before the internship in this initial teacher education course, as well the significance of the interdisciplinary issue in the context of formation, cause, although students did not have the chance to experience the interdisciplinary challenge, they have brought concerns about it. / A presente pesquisa tem por objeto central o estágio supervisionado no curso de Pedagogia como eixo norteador para constituição de experiências interdisciplinares na formação inicial do professor. Foi analisado um curso de formação de professores na capital paulista para confrontar os aspectos teóricos da necessidade de desencadear uma postura interdisciplinar presente nas orientações para formação inicial de professores Para tanto, foi feita uma revisão bibliográfica, utilizando autores centrados em temas sobre Formação de Professor, Interdisciplinaridade, Currículo e Estágio Supervisionado; além da pesquisa de campo, onde utilizei como ferramentas de coleta de dados o caderno de campo, em que registrei a rotina e as aulas observadas do curso, além da aplicação de um questionário com cinco perguntas voltadas à reflexão sobre a ideia de teoria e prática e de documentos do curso de Pedagogia. Durante as análises da coleta, foi possível perceber a dificuldade que os alunos em formação pedagógica possuem em relacionar a teoria com a prática, argumentando falta de estímulo, prática observada na formação e percepção do contexto atual. O estágio revelou-se como fundamental para que os discentes sejam expostos a projetos e propostas que congreguem reflexões e análises interdisciplinares durante a formação inicial, tornando mais coerentes a formação em relação às necessidades contemporâneas de um pensamento e uma ação mais complexos. Dentre os resultados, foi possível conhecer o olhar dos alunos perante o estágio no curso de formação inicial bem verificar a importância da questão interdisciplinar no contexto de formação, pois embora não tivessem a possibilidade de vivenciar o desafio interdisciplinar, os alunos trouxeram inquietações nesse sentido.

Submitted by Rosina Valeria Lanzellotti Mattiussi Teixeira (rosina.teixeira@unisantos.br) on 2016-08-23T11:55:23Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Patricia Lascani Y¿red.pdf: 1316247 bytes, checksum: ae8f7ba1cf6dd70c0a789c98af008cf0 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-23T11:55:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Patricia Lascani Y¿red.pdf: 1316247 bytes, checksum: ae8f7ba1cf6dd70c0a789c98af008cf0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-05-04 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This research is part of the teacher-training discussions and focuses on a group of teacher-trainers who teach in an undergraduate Parfor-Pedagogy Program, part of the National Plan for the Training of Basic Education Teachers (Parfor) at a Confessional University in Baixada Santista (SP). This program was created by the Ministry of Education (MEC) as an emergency plan, and was implemented by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Level Staff (CAPES), with the purpose of achieving the goals of the National Plan for the Training of Basic Education Teachers, by offering scholarships for teachers who teach in public schools. We chose to investigate the implications of teaching in the Parfor-Pedagogy program for teacher professionalism of teacher-trainers. The authors who served as a solid foundation for this study were: Freire (2009), Gatti, Barretto & André (2011), Imbernón (2011), Mizukami (2005-2006), Roldão (2005), Tardif (2011), Tardif & Lessard (2005), among others. The approach for the research was of qualitative aspect. For data collection, we created a discussion group, composed of five trainers, and analysis of two accounts published as books, about the training practices developed by two members of the faculty. Data analysis was developed under the perspective of content analysis, proposed by Franco (2012). Data highlights what teacher-trainers do and what they think of the student-teachers as well as the activities that are developed on the training locus. Student-teacher profiles, as regards to the functional situation of the schools where they work and also to the lack of knowledge about cultural heritage and symbolic aspects of language, has required further search for answers concerning the training needs of these student-teachers. This has led teacher-trainers to develop teaching strategies in order to enhance student-teachers learning and also to articulate academic-theoretical knowledge. This practice has shown that teaching in the Parfor Program has encouraged trainers to rebuild their knowledge and their practices. It is highly desirable that the actions and teaching practices that have been developed by these teacher-trainers at Parfor are properly recorded, discussed and shared, so that it can help to improve teachertraining policies. / A presente pesquisa insere-se nas discussões sobre formação de professores e tem como foco um grupo de professoras formadoras que atuam em um curso de Pedagogia do Plano Nacional de Formação de Professores da Educação Básica (Parfor), em uma instituição de educação superior confessional da Baixada Santista (SP). O programa Parfor foi instituído pelo Ministério da Educação (MEC), em caráter emergencial, tendo sido implantado pela Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), com o intuito de atender aos objetivos da Política Nacional de Formação dos Profissionais da Educação Básica, com o oferecimento de bolsas de estudo para professores em exercício na rede pública de ensino. Optou-se por investigar as implicações da atuação no curso de Pedagogia Parfor para a profissionalidade docente das professoras formadoras. Os principais autores que subsidiaram o estudo foram: Freire (2009), Gatti, Barretto e André (2011), Imbernón (2011), Mizukami (2005-2006), Roldão (2005), Tardif (2011), Tardif e Lessard (2005), dentre outros. A investigação utilizou-se de uma abordagem qualitativa. Para a coleta dos dados, foi realizado um grupo de discussão composto por cinco formadoras, além da análise de dois relatos sobre as práticas formativas desenvolvidas por duas docentes do curso, publicados em forma de capítulo de livro. A análise dos dados foi realizada na perspectiva da análise de conteúdo proposta por Franco (2012). Os dados obtidos colocam em destaque o que as professoras formadoras fazem e o que pensam dos estudantes-professores e das atividades desenvolvidas no lócus de formação. O perfil dos professores-estudantes em relação à situação funcional nas redes em que atuam e à falta de domínio dos bens culturais e simbólicos da língua exigiu a busca de respostas no que se refere às suas necessidades formativas. Esse movimento possibilitou que as professoras formadoras desenvolvessem estratégias didáticas que contribuíssem para o aprendizado dos professores-estudantes e para a articulação do conhecimento teórico-acadêmico com a prática, evidenciando que a docência no programa Parfor levou essas profissionais a reconstruírem seus saberes e suas práticas. É desejável que as ações e práticas de ensino desenvolvidas por professores formadores do Parfor sejam registradas, discutidas e compartilhadas, contribuindo, assim, com o aprimoramento das políticas de formação de professores.

<p>This study follows student teachers from initial teacher education into their first teaching jobs, with the aim of gaining insights how student teachers become teachers of mathematics and science. The study has in two stages. In the first part focus, the focus is on the beliefs and conceptions – termed here as ’personal didactics’- that student teachers have about teaching and learning mathematics and science. These are captured by open-ended interviews on completion of initial teacher education. Stage 1 is thus subject specific. Findings indicate that student teachers have an applied approach to mathematics and science. Findings of the study challenge teacher education to develop mathematics and science as a more democratic, moral and cultural enterprise. It is suggested that closer connections are needed between different parts of initial teacher with a continued discussion about how and in what areas subject teaching can develop in teacher education. The second stage of research - two years later – involved data collection through observation, field notes and post-observation interviews. This stage is a follow-up study building on the stage 1 and has a more sociological emphasis inspired by Bernstein’s concept of educational codes. The research shows how the structure of schools influences teachers and their possibilities to enact teaching that is consistent with their understanding of mathematics and science as school subjects. Schools have different codes and teachers’ practices were constrained by the opportunities that each school offered as well as each teacher’s personal didactics. Most of the teachers in the study worked in schools organised in such a way that new teachers have considerable autonomy over their own teaching. After two years of practise teachers generally felt freer to organise science teaching and put more planning and preparation of science lessons as compared to mathematics. The overall study illuminates the relationship between initial teacher education and school practice, and suggests an enhancement of initial teacher education and professional development as a unity.</p>

This study follows student teachers from initial teacher education into their first teaching jobs, with the aim of gaining insights how student teachers become teachers of mathematics and science. The study has in two stages. In the first part focus, the focus is on the beliefs and conceptions – termed here as ’personal didactics’- that student teachers have about teaching and learning mathematics and science. These are captured by open-ended interviews on completion of initial teacher education. Stage 1 is thus subject specific. Findings indicate that student teachers have an applied approach to mathematics and science. Findings of the study challenge teacher education to develop mathematics and science as a more democratic, moral and cultural enterprise. It is suggested that closer connections are needed between different parts of initial teacher with a continued discussion about how and in what areas subject teaching can develop in teacher education. The second stage of research - two years later – involved data collection through observation, field notes and post-observation interviews. This stage is a follow-up study building on the stage 1 and has a more sociological emphasis inspired by Bernstein’s concept of educational codes. The research shows how the structure of schools influences teachers and their possibilities to enact teaching that is consistent with their understanding of mathematics and science as school subjects. Schools have different codes and teachers’ practices were constrained by the opportunities that each school offered as well as each teacher’s personal didactics. Most of the teachers in the study worked in schools organised in such a way that new teachers have considerable autonomy over their own teaching. After two years of practise teachers generally felt freer to organise science teaching and put more planning and preparation of science lessons as compared to mathematics. The overall study illuminates the relationship between initial teacher education and school practice, and suggests an enhancement of initial teacher education and professional development as a unity.

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are common in schools worldwide in the 21st century, in both developed and developing countries. A number of initiatives have been made in the development of ICT related training in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes. These initiatives aim to develop future teachers’ ability to teach and deliver the school curriculum, including using ICT in the classroom. Sufficient field experience is essential since the process of undergoing such placements would prepare them in creating new ideas and implementing strategic ways as to how they can effectively incorporate the use of ICT in their lesson plan, class management, and in teaching. The key research question in this study is “Do pre-service teachers in a New Zealand and a Malaysian ITE programme use their field experience to develop their potential to integrate ICT in schools and, what are the similarities and differences between these case studies?” Effective use of ICT in teaching and learning requires the teacher to understand how ICT weaves with pedagogy and content. The Technological, Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) theoretical framework introduced by Mishra and Koehler (2006) clarifies the need to understand and develop TPACK to inform integration of ICT in teaching. This research provides two case studies of ICT in ITE in the Asia Pacific region, one in a developed country, New Zealand, and the other in a developing country, namely Malaysia. Both case studies are of ICT in an ITE programme with a particular focus on field experience in secondary schools, within which there are embedded cases of ITE students. This study illustrates how pre-service teachers’ experience and development of ICT knowledge and skill and their understanding of TPACK can support an increase in their teaching competencies. This research provides evidence that field experience is important to support pre-service teachers to develop their teaching competencies with ICT and understanding of TPACK in ways that are transferable into their own practice. This study has also contributed to increased reliability and validity of TPACK instrumentation. The comparative findings of the New Zealand and Malaysian case studies indicate the importance of a range of contextual factors, which suggest that the Initial Teacher Education programme, school curriculum and ICT availability as well as student maturity contribute to the development of TPACK.