This qualitative action research study examines how critical theory defined and guided my practice as an art teacher educator while I provided inclusion training for seven preservice art teachers during their student teaching. Sources of data included a personal journal, the inclusion curriculum I created for the preservice teachers and questionnaires and interviews. Primary findings indicated that critical theory had a substantive impact on the evolving development of my teaching philosophy, in particular my attention to issues of power redistribution in the classroom and my developing notion of teaching as form of artistry. The findings of this study also indicate that the primary impact of critical theory upon the preservice teachers was the articulation of their personal narratives and its relation to the development of their teaching identities. Further, mentoring these preservice art teachers in critical theory increased their competence in solving educational dilemmas. A primary finding of this study was how significant of a role the supervising or mentor teacher plays in developing preservice teachers' identity. As this is acknowledged, valued and utilized, more collaborative relationships among these stakeholders in the education of the preservice art teacher can be forged. The study provides implications for art teacher educators as they provide inclusion training to preservice teachers. These include honoring narratives, articulating a broader notion of inclusion, and using context-specific instructional tools while preservice teachers are completing fieldwork with students with disabilities. One suggestion for future research is to conduct longitudinal studies which explore and validate the impact of critical theory upon art teacher educators and preservice art teachers during the student teaching semester and several years beyond.

The role of teacher educators is vital to education, but when the population of public-school students shifts, or progress and advances in knowledge of the field or knowledge for teaching emerge, teacher education faces challenges. One such challenge involves a continuing increase in the proportion of second language learners entering primary and secondary schools, English learners (ELs) in this case. In such situations, teacher educators often do not have deep knowledge of second language acquisition or how to integrate attention to ELs within their regular courses. One response to this challenge is to provide professional development (PD) for teacher education faculty. This qualitative study explored how faculty responded to a PD focused on developing understandings of second language acquisition with opportunity to consider how it might be taken up in their own teaching of teachers. We interviewed eight teacher education faculty members about their learning and their response to participating in this PD effort. Using data analysis methods specified by Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña (2014), we gained a better understanding of how faculty responded to the PD in general and how it contributed to their positioning as participants within the PD. The importance of this study is that it can help professional development coordinators and facilitators understand the importance of positioning or orientation of participants as they begin a learning experience. Future research could examine ways in which learning opportunities can be designed to take into account the variability in these orientations.

Heeding current best practice, many teachers prioritize student-centered instruction as the most effective pedagogy to achieve student learning. However, preservice teachers at a small, southeastern U.S. university have expressed reservations in executing student-centered instructional methods when they become lesson facilitators. The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine whether probational elementary teachers have the knowledge and skill set to execute student-centered instruction and identify the characteristics of this method based on their preservice experiences. The conceptual framework consisted of constructivist, humanism, and social learning, theories . The four research questions focused on participants' understanding of student-centered and teacher-centered pedagogical methods, whether or not their understandings changed in practice, and what factors influenced those changes. Purposeful sampling provided 5 probationary elementary teachers who had graduated from the same university. Data included 3 semistructured interviews, 2 classroom observations, and a review of instructional materials. Data were inductively coded and analyzed throughout the collection process. Findings revealed that each participant practiced and could theoretically identify the characteristics of both student-centered and teacher-centered methods; however, they could not identify these characteristics consistently in their own practices. Findings indicated that preservice teachers needed more exposure to student-centered pedagogy. Teachers who develop proficiency with student-centered pedagogy may be better able to empower students to solve problems, make decisions, advocate, and negotiate relationships with others. These characteristics are the foundation for active citizenship making positive social change possible.

In Lesotho, there are no formal opportunities for professional training of teacher educators. Consequently, the majority of teacher educators have not received a training that could equip them with professional knowledge base that is foundational to any profession. Therefore the question: what are the sources and application of professional knowledge among teacher educators appeared justifiable. Arguably, the teacher educators’ professional knowledge is intricately linked to education practice. Teacher educators have to address the discrepancy between education policy and practice through the training of student teachers who, in turn, have to contribute to the quality of the Lesotho education system. An interpretivist approach was followed in undertaking this study. Data was collected through: narratives, observations of teacher educators and analysis of the curriculum and assessment documents. The unit of analysis was eight teacher educators who are based at the National University of Lesotho’s Faculty of Education. Verification of the extent to which the topic was researchable was through undertaking a pilot study with six teacher educators who were based in the department of Educational Foundations in the same faculty. The analysis of the data revealed an immersion in the teacher educators’ professional landscape provides them ample opportunities to learn from an array of experiences. They accumulated experienced-based professional knowledge relevant to their world of work as they learn to teach, construct, apply and model it in the context that is uniquely teacher education. They have learned to teach teachers mainly from existing education practices which perpetuate what already exists. They face numerous challenges; their teaching is biased towards conventional teaching techniques of a transmissive nature and to a less extent interactive techniques; construction of professional knowledge remains a complex and challenging undertaking. Opportunities to construct own teaching research-based knowledge and supervision of student research are limited. In practice teacher educators have to rethink their pedagogy. Engaging in research adopting a “self-study” approach is unavoidable. Research will enhance their professional development and the quality of the student teachers. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Humanities Education / unrestricted

This study examined three tenured early childhood teacher educators from Northern California community colleges on how they valued critical reflection on race, ethnicity, and culture. A narrative inquiry study was conducted to gather information based on in-depth conversational interviews. A timeline identified key experiences, both personal and professional, as well as educational experiences from elementary through high school, undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate if applicable. The data was collected from the conversational interviews and then analyzed using the transformative learning theory by Mezirow (1991) in identifying key themes. The findings yielded three themes (a) exploring race, ethnicity, and culture, (b) understanding self and (c) critical reflection as an embedded practice. These identified themes indicated that early childhood teacher educator’s perceptions are related and displayed in how they processed and understood their own experiences around race, ethnicity, and culture.

In order to investigate ways pre-service student teachers (PSTs) might learn to teach with high-level tasks and effectively incorporate student thinking into their lessons a teaching experiment was designed and carried out by the cooperating teacher/researcher (CT). The intervention was for the CT to interject into the lessons of the PSTs during moments of opportunity. By interjecting a small question or comment during the lesson the CT hoped to support the learning of both the students of mathematics in the class and the PSTs. This in-the-moment interjecting was meant to enhance and underscore the situated learning of the PSTs within the context of actual practice. Essentially the PSTs learned how to manage and improve the discourse of the classroom in the moment of the discourse. This study utilized both an ongoing analysis of the data during collection in order to inform the instruction provided by the CT and a retrospective analysis of the data in order to develop an understanding of the developmental sequence through which PSTs progressed. The results suggest the interjections provided to the PSTs served multiple roles within the domains of mathematical development for the students of mathematics and pedagogical development for the PSTs. A classification of the interjections that occurred and the stages of development through which PSTs passed will be discussed. Implications from this work include increased attention to the groundwork leading up to the student teaching experience as well as an adjustment to the role of cooperating teacher to be more that of a teacher educator.

Teacher stories were once relegated to informal gatherings but more recently this aspect of teacher development is being carefully studied in more formalized settings because it is believed to be an important part of teacher development. New ways are being sought to use various aspects of storytelling to help pre-service teachers develop important teaching skills through reflection on experience, dialogue journals, case studies and autobiography. Despite these efforts at the university level, it is especially difficult for pre-service teachers to integrate and apply theories from their methods courses to actual classroom practice. Less effort has been focused on storytelling processes that may occur outside these formal approaches. This study, therefore, looked at how pre-service teachers used stories told in an informal setting to process aspects of learning to teach. This study revealed that pre-service teachers engage in story telling for reasons and in ways that are different from teacher educator intents. Using interviews and private dialogues, patterns of when, how and why six pre-service teachers used oral stories emerged that illuminate challenges to using personal and appropriated stories in coursework. The findings of this study include how oral storytelling is used by pre-service teachers to process emotion and demonstrate specific identities and personal characteristics.

Este trabalho partiu da premissa de que cursos de formação de professores devem incorporar uma dimensão lúdica possível de ser traduzida em sinais de atitude lúdica, observáveis na prática pedagógica. Por atitude lúdica foi concebido um comportamento manifesto por sinais que denotam inteireza, presença, flexibilidade, improviso, ou seja, expressões de subjetividade, compatíveis com atitudes possíveis de serem encontradas em quem joga. As referências teóricas utilizadas neste estudo foram Johan Huizinga, João Batista Freire, Lino de Macedo, Clarice Cohn, Adriana Friedmann e André Trindade. A dissertação apresenta uma pesquisa-ação realizada em um Centro de Educação Infantil do município de São Paulo, envolvendo três professoras de Mini-Grupos, atuando com crianças na faixa de, aproximadamente, três anos. Esta pesquisa foi parte constituinte de um processo de formação da área de movimento, em que se procurou refletir sobre a trindade infância, brincar e movimento e promover ações com o uso da caixa de brinquedos e brincadeiras, encarada como material de fomento à fantasia e objeto simbólico de reflexão. Seus objetivos foram investigar as relações entre o uso da caixa de brinquedos e brincadeiras e uma possível transformação da prática pedagógica e identificar, nesta mesma prática, sinais de presença ou ausência de atitude lúdica na atuação das professoras. A metodologia constou de encontros reflexivos e acompanhamento das aulas de movimento - em que se fez presente a caixa de brinquedos e brincadeiras - registrados, respectivamente por meio de depoimentos, diário de campo da pesquisadora e gravação de vídeos. Os resultados da pesquisa indicaram que o elemento lúdico incorporado na prática pedagógica favoreceu a construção de atitude lúdica, com evidências de ressignificação da prática pedagógica em movimento, no que diz respeito à ampliação da escuta e observação das manifestações infantis; ao uso de espaços e materiais que promovem liberdade e à ampliação das oportunidades de brincar, dentro de um contexto de intenções, flexibilidade e observação / The present work relies on the premise that teacher formation programs should incorporate a ludic dimension likely to be expressed in ludic attitude signals discernable in the pedagogical practice. Ludic attitude is here understood as a behavior manifest through signals that indicate wholeness, presence, flexibility and improvisation, i.e., expressions of subjectivity compatible with those attitudes discernable in game playing. The theoretical references used in this study were Johan Huizinga, João Batista Freire, Lino de Macedo, Clarice Cohn, Adriana Friedmann, and André Trindade. The dissertation presents a research-action carried out in a Center for Child Education in the city of São Paulo, involving three educators dealing with small groups of around three-year-old children. The research was part of a formation process in the Movement area, which reflected on the triad childhood, playing, and movement, and promoted the use of a toy and game box, regarded both as fantasy nurturing material and symbolic object for reflection. The research aimed at investigating the relations between the use of the toy and game box and a possible reshaping of pedagogical practice. Besides, it managed to identify, within this very practice, the presence or absence of ludic attitude by the educators. The methodology consisted of reflexive sessions and critical follow-up of Movement classes in which the toy and game box was present documented in interviews, the researchers field journal, and video recordings. The results show that the ludic element incorporated into the pedagogical practice favored the construction of ludic attitude, with evidence of redefinition of Movement pedagogical practice, regarding a more attentive observation of child manifestations, a more effective use of space and material that promote freedom, and the increase of opportunities to play, within a context of intentions, flexibility and observation

Cette thèse examine comment se manifeste l’engagement des formateurs d’enseignants en langues vivantes étrangères (LVE) qui interviennent dans la formation initiale des enseignants du primaire au regard des défis et des obstacles que ces derniers rencontrent. L’étude qualitative est située dans trois systèmes éducatifs différents de l’Union européenne : l’Angleterre, la France et l’Écosse. L’alignement idéologique des décideurs politiques européens avec l’agenda néolibéral remet explicitement en question l’engagement, les standards professionnels et les valeurs communes à la profession de formateurs d’enseignants. Cette orientation est préoccupante pour ces personnels qui ont un rôle crucial à jouer dans le système éducatif comme facilitateurs d’apprentissage des futurs enseignants du primaire et du secondaire. La focalisation se centre sur les formateurs d’enseignants en LVE, puisque les langues sont perçues comme ayant un rôle important à jouer dans un monde centré sur l’économie de marché. Les résultats des entretiens semi-structurés montrent que tous les participants manifestent un réel dévouement qui se décline en motivation, continuation et engagement. Cependant, les résultats montrent aussi que la mise en oeuvre des politiques concernant l’enseignement des LVE ne prend pas toujours en compte les enseignements apportés par la recherche. Par conséquent, dans les systèmes éducatifs qui ne donnent pas à ces professionnels la possibilité de peser collectivement et d’avoir une influence sur les politiques nationales d’enseignement des langues, l’engagement dont ces professionnels font la démonstration n’a qu’un impact limité sur la qualité et sur l’offre de formation précoce en langue étrangère. / This thesis examines how Modern Foreign Language (MFL) teacher educators working in higher education (HE) demonstrate their commitment to primary foreign language learning and teaching in the education systems of England, France and Scotland. European Union (EU) policymakers influenced by the neoliberal agenda challenge the commitment, professional standards and values of the teacher educator profession in the EU. This represents a serious concern given the crucial role these professionals play in primary and secondary teacher education. This study focuses on primary MFL teacher educators because languages are perceived to play a key role in a market orientated economy. Qualitative data drawn from semi-structured interviews suggest that all the participants demonstrate strong commitment in terms of motivation, continuation and engagement towards early foreign language learning at primary school, despite the challenges and obstacles they face as a profession. However, findings also highlight that language policy implementation does not always take into account research in the domain. Consequently, in those education systems which do not provide collective empowerment to MFL teachers in terms of national language education policy influence, MFL teacher commitment does not have a significant impact on the provision of early foreign language teaching and learning.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:58:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rosane Santana Junckes.pdf: 1167910 bytes, checksum: 2b5d5ec686fa5b4f013839b825db2caa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-12-15 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This research aims to investigate the relation that teacher educators establish with their professional knowledge in licensure courses, and it starts with the presumption that such relations affect their activity in the universities. The theoretical foundation of this research are the studies developed by André (2008), Roldão (2007), Pereira (2006), Charlot (2005; 2001; 2000), Abdalla (2006), Pimenta and Anastasiou (2005), Lüdke (2004), Tardif (2008; 2002), Gómez (2001) among others who investigate the teacher education. The data were collected by both balancing the knowledge and recurrent interviews made with teacher educators of different areas of knowledge from licensure courses of a university in the South of Brazil. Such data show that the relation the teacher educators establish with their professional knowledge emerge mainly from the institutional culture, as much in the period prior graduation as in the professional socialization in the institutions in which they act professionally. In the university atmosphere the teacher educators establish relations of conflict with the specific and pedagogical knowledge, which generate convergence and divergence spots between the theory and the pedagogical practice and they implicate in the conception of the reflective/searching teacher. The study also shows that the teacher educators are apprehensive and disappointed with the deterioration of the image and the social status of their profession, which leads them to isolation and, in some cases, to professional frustration / Esta pesquisa objetiva investigar a relação que os professores formadores estabelecem com os seus saberes profissionais nos cursos de licenciatura e tem como pressuposto que tais relações afetam a sua atividade no âmbito das universidades. Tem como base teórica os estudos desenvolvidos por André (2008), Roldão (2007), Pereira (2006), Charlot (2005; 2001;2000), Abdalla (2006), Pimenta e Anastasiou (2005), Lüdke (2004), Tardif (2008; 2002), Gómez (2001) entre outros, que pesquisam a formação de professores. Os dados foram coletados por meio da técnica do balanço do saber e de entrevistas recorrentes com professores formadores de diferentes áreas do conhecimento dos cursos de licenciatura de uma universidade da região Sul do Brasil. Tais dados revelam que as relações que os professores formadores estabelecem com seus saberes profissionais emergem principalmente da cultura institucional, tanto do período de pré-formação como da socialização profissional nas instituições na qual atuam profissionalmente. No ambiente da universidade os professores formadores estabelecem relações conflituosas com os saberes específicos e pedagógicos, que geram pontos de encontros e desencontros entre a teoria e a prática pedagógica e têm implicações na concepção de professor pesquisador/reflexivo. O estudo também revela que os professores formadores encontram-se ansiosos e decepcionados frente a deteriorização da imagem e do status social da profissão docente, o que os leva ao isolamento e em alguns casos à frustração profissional