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This study aims at creating an understanding of how teachers in Gambian primary schools, who have participated in Future in our hands in-service training, experience their motivation to teach. Three research question were defined to help us examining our purpose further; “Is motivation to teach a problem among Gambian teachers?”, “which factors are most important in order to create a motivational workplace?” and “which factors do the Gambian teachers experience to demotivate them in their work?“. A presentation on previous research in the field is given, which points out that motivation is a problem among many teachers in developing countries and that intrinsic as well extrinsic factors affects the motivation in both positive and negative ways. Twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted throughout The Gambia focusing on the respondents’ experiences about their motivation to teach. The collected material was analysed using Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory. The results showed that salary, interpersonal relations, lack of materials and facilities, possibilities for growth and promotion as well as workload were factors frequently mentioned in terms of creating motivation as well as demotivation to teach.

Ordet entreprenörskap skrevs in i grundskolans läroplan 2011 och ingår idag i skolans uppdrag. Entreprenörskap är i ropet såväl internationellt som nationellt och begreppet har letat sig in i styrdokument via Europarådet och regeringskansliet. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka verksamma lågstadielärares attityder till entreprenörskap i skolan för att få en uppfattning om det aktuella läget i den svenska grundskolan. Studiens frågeställningar fokuserar bland annat på hur viktigt lärare anser att entreprenörskapsarbete är i olika årskurser, om de vill arbeta med entreprenörskap samt hur de graderar elevens och näringslivets intresse gällande entreprenörskap i skolan.Det finns flertalet pågående projekt som syftar till att stimulera entreprenörskap i skolan såväl nationellt som internationellt genom organisationer som Komtek, Ung företagsamhet och Snilleblixtarna för att nämna några. Det forskas friskt på området entreprenörskap i skolan. Något som är relativt outforskat är däremot lärares attityder gentemot entreprenörskap i skolan. En del av den forskning som finns på området är gjord i Finland och Malaysia och visar i stort att lärare har en positiv inställning till entreprenörskap men upplever bristande kompetens inom området.För att kunna ställa attityder mot varandra och finna eventuella mönster valdes kvantitativ metod som grund för studien. Data samlades in via en webbenkät som skickades ut till lärare verksamma i årskurs 1-3 i ett eller flera av ämnena svenska, engelska, matematik, SO och NO.I linje med tidigare forskning visar resultaten i denna studie att lärares attityder till entreprenörskap överlag är positiv. Attityderna varierar dock och en stor del av respondenterna upplever begreppet vara värdeladdat. Resultatet visar att respondenterna övervägande anser att entreprenörskapets relevans i utbildning ökar i och med elevers stigande ålder. Detta trots att de allra flesta anser sig ha en bred definition av begreppet entreprenörskap enligt vilket entreprenörskap i skolan handlar om att utveckla grundläggande förmågor som kreativitet, innovationsförmåga och handlingskraft.

This narrative autoethnography tells the story of a small rural community over a ten year period through the ethnographic eye. It is told within the context of a primary rural school and the community that supports it. It reflects the aspirations, the pain and the dreams of the community. Within the telling of stories, lies the question of what a leader needs to ‘be’ for the people (the concept of educational leadership). This ‘being’ for the people should certainly be part of the body of thought on educational leadership. The literature review examines concepts of educational leadership pertaining to aspects or issues of change, community, teaching and learning and the inner life of the Principal. These issues are explored within the framework of the school and its community. Combining literary and ethnographic techniques allows the creation of a story that intends to devise a concept of educational leadership created by and authentic to the community to which the leadership belongs. This narrative autoethnography provides the vehicle for the researcher to explore Principal / Leadership. It connects modern day educational theory to an understanding of lived experiences – the stories lived by the people in the research. A multi-perspective approach is applied to provide analytical interpretation and reflection of the lived experience documented. The findings of this research study suggest that Principals need to reflect on the lived experiences of the communities they are within in order to understand the path of leadership. The research strongly recognizes that the formation of meaningful, ethical relationships is a vital foundation for authentic leading in an education world that is constantly changing.

This study aimed to determine the qualities of beliefs and practices apparent in a group of accomplished primary art teachers to ascertain if these may be used to inform and improve design and practice in preservice primary art teacher education programs within Australia. The participants in this study were twenty-two accomplished primary art teachers who possessed a recognised ability to successfully teach primary visual arts and who included specialist and generalist primary art teachers. Teachers were designated 'specialists' if they taught art across the school. If they taught across disciplines within the primary curriculum and taught a single class they were referred to as 'generalist teachers.' Primary school is the place in which Australian children aged four and twelve years old receive their education. The accomplished art teachers met for four group discussion sessions termed 'critical friends groups. These were facilitated by the researcher who then visited schools to observe the teachers in practice. Informal, reflective discussions involving the participants followed. The teachers' conversations were transcribed and interpreted using a critical appreciative framework that used themes to highlight qualities of practice and beliefs. These were presented as a collaged narrative including the voices of the accomplished teachers and my reflections as critic. The analogy of quilting represented the piecing together of teachers' conversations to form blocks and the analysis of these blocks in larger patterns of analysis. This research was underpinned by the belief that teaching is an art, and that accomplished teachers are artists. Models of criticism were applied to emphasise appreciation of the art teachers and their teaching. Observations, interpretation and presentation were viewed through the eyes of a critic who values the sensitivity and intuition of the creative mind. The results of the study indicated the importance of visual experiences and art appreciation in the formation of accomplished art teachers. These teachers valued individuality, creativity and ownership in children's art and respected the children as artists and visual communicators. They defined art as a process, grounded in the human need to communicate and contended that this process is teachable and that preservice art education needs to be enhanced to more adequately train future generalist art teachers. The research raised challenges to shift the focus in preservice art teacher education from linear models of instruction to a conception characteristic of risk-taking and flexibility. A stronger emphasis needs to be given to the place of art appreciation and significant visual encounters within preservice art education. Similarly, resource and studio management require greater prominence. The accomplished art teachers stressed the need to improve the profile of art education; the need for networks to overcome the isolation characteristic of primary art teachers; and greater training for generalist teachers rather than the wider introduction of specialist art teachers in primary schools. The art-based methodology of critical appreciation encouraged the development of an ethical and critical research community that enabled significant data to become apparent. The use of collaged narrative yielded a meaningful quilt that may be metaphorically moved and placed in a number of preservice art education contexts. The critical appreciative method revealed that research could be conducted within a strong aesthetic paradigm. The research indicated that accomplished primary art teachers possess considerable knowledge, skills and expertise that can be incorporated into preservice art education.

This thesis is about the teaching imagination. By this term I refer to three things. First, the teaching imagination is how teachers define and practice imagination in their classrooms. Second, it is the imagination that teachers themselves use as they teach. And thirdly, it is the imagination I am taught to identify and enact for doing social science research. / The thesis is based upon participant-observation research conducted in grade four (and some composite grade three/four) classrooms in primary schools in Melbourne, a city in the Australian state of Victoria. The research took me to five schools of different types: independent (or fee-paying); government (or state); Steiner (or Waldorf); special (for low IQ students); and Catholic. These five classrooms provide a range, not a sample: they suggest some ways of doing imagination. I do not claim a necessary link between school type and practices of imagination. In addition I conducted semi-structured interviews with each classroom’s teacher and asked that children do two tasks (to draw and to write about ‘a time you used your imagination’). / From this research I write a thesis in two sections. In the first I work to re-imagine certain concepts central to studies of education and imagination. These include curriculum, classrooms, and ways of theorizing and defining imagination. In this section I develop a key theoretical idea: that the most recent Victorian curriculum is, and social science should be, governed by what I call a logic of realization. Key to this idea is that knowers must always be understood as participants in, not only observers of, the world. / In the second section I write accounts of five case studies, each learning from a different classroom teacher about one way to understand and practice imagination. We meet imagination as creative transformation; imagination as thinking into other perspectives; imagination as representation; imagination as the ability to relate oneself to the people and materials one is surrounded by; and imagination as making connections and separations in thought. In each of these chapters I work to re-enact that imagination in my own writing. Using the concept of the ‘relational teacher’, one who flexibly responds to changing student needs and interests, I suggest that some of these imaginations are more suitable to a logic of realization than others.

This study aimed to determine the qualities of beliefs and practices apparent in a group of accomplished primary art teachers to ascertain if these may be used to inform and improve design and practice in preservice primary art teacher education programs within Australia. The participants in this study were twenty-two accomplished primary art teachers who possessed a recognised ability to successfully teach primary visual arts and who included specialist and generalist primary art teachers. Teachers were designated 'specialists' if they taught art across the school. If they taught across disciplines within the primary curriculum and taught a single class they were referred to as 'generalist teachers.' Primary school is the place in which Australian children aged four and twelve years old receive their education. The accomplished art teachers met for four group discussion sessions termed 'critical friends groups. These were facilitated by the researcher who then visited schools to observe the teachers in practice. Informal, reflective discussions involving the participants followed. The teachers' conversations were transcribed and interpreted using a critical appreciative framework that used themes to highlight qualities of practice and beliefs. These were presented as a collaged narrative including the voices of the accomplished teachers and my reflections as critic. The analogy of quilting represented the piecing together of teachers' conversations to form blocks and the analysis of these blocks in larger patterns of analysis. This research was underpinned by the belief that teaching is an art, and that accomplished teachers are artists. Models of criticism were applied to emphasise appreciation of the art teachers and their teaching. Observations, interpretation and presentation were viewed through the eyes of a critic who values the sensitivity and intuition of the creative mind. The results of the study indicated the importance of visual experiences and art appreciation in the formation of accomplished art teachers. These teachers valued individuality, creativity and ownership in children's art and respected the children as artists and visual communicators. They defined art as a process, grounded in the human need to communicate and contended that this process is teachable and that preservice art education needs to be enhanced to more adequately train future generalist art teachers. The research raised challenges to shift the focus in preservice art teacher education from linear models of instruction to a conception characteristic of risk-taking and flexibility. A stronger emphasis needs to be given to the place of art appreciation and significant visual encounters within preservice art education. Similarly, resource and studio management require greater prominence. The accomplished art teachers stressed the need to improve the profile of art education; the need for networks to overcome the isolation characteristic of primary art teachers; and greater training for generalist teachers rather than the wider introduction of specialist art teachers in primary schools. The art-based methodology of critical appreciation encouraged the development of an ethical and critical research community that enabled significant data to become apparent. The use of collaged narrative yielded a meaningful quilt that may be metaphorically moved and placed in a number of preservice art education contexts. The critical appreciative method revealed that research could be conducted within a strong aesthetic paradigm. The research indicated that accomplished primary art teachers possess considerable knowledge, skills and expertise that can be incorporated into preservice art education.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2004. / Adviser: Dennis Thiessen.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Technology, Sydney, 2002.

Research paper (M.A.) -- Cardinal Stritch College -- Milwaukee, 1971. / A research paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Education (Reading Specialist). Includes bibliographical references (p. 36-37).