This thesis is devoted to the teaching profession with a focus on nursery school teaching. The theoretical part contains information about teaching as a profession, focusing directly on the prestige of nursery school teachers and describes the contemporary aspects of prestige. Finally, it is described in detail the development of the profession preschool teacher, as a source of ongoing professionalisation of teaching. The main objective of the research is to compare how the prestige of pre-primary teachers evaluated by teachers from other educational levels and preschool educators themselves. Furthermore, to determine how different the results of the investigation work of the author and poll by the Centre for Public Opinion Research (Centrum pro výzkum veřejného mínění - CVVM) at the Institute of Sociology of the prestige of the profession of 2013 and 2016. Design survey is mixed. The method is a questionnaire, structured interviews and document analysis. The results show the relative agreement with research by CVVM. Respondents rated significantly differently just 4 professions and teaching professions rated slightly higher than in the original survey. Comparison of the teaching profession, as evaluated by teachers, showed that each group of teachers (according to school grades) evaluated their...

Fostering students’ creativity in school subjects has recently become a central focus of educational researchers, educators, and educational policymakers around the world. In Kuwait, educational researchers and teacher educators have supported the need to foster students’ creativity via a national curriculum. Yet, the Ministry of Education has conducted few studies to explore practitioners’ perspectives on how to foster creativity through the current curriculum. The overall aims of this study were to explore science teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and practices in fostering creativity in science classrooms as well as to investigate the influences of sociocultural factors on teachers’ beliefs and practices in fostering creativity. The study also examined the consistency and inconsistency levels between teachers’ beliefs and practices. The study has a qualitative nature that stands on an interpretive worldview. The methodology uses eight case studies, each of which consisted of a male science teacher and one of his classes. Multiple methods were used, including semi-structured interviews (pre- and post-observational interviews), student focus groups, unstructured observations, participants’ drawings, and field notes. The analysis was based on thematic analysis model proposed by Braun and Clarke (2006). Thematic findings and case studies findings were drawn from the analysis of the data collected. In general, the thematic findings indicated that science teachers are able to define the meaning of creativity and its main aspects. Professed pedagogical beliefs enforce four teaching approaches to foster creativity in the science classroom: the teaching of thinking skills, inquiry-based learning, cooperative learning, and practical investigation (experimentation). The teachers believe that these approaches could promote students’ creativity in science classroom when specific sociocultural factors facilitate the effectiveness of such approaches in terms of fostering creativity. Three interdependent categories represent these facilitating factors: (1) educational setting-related factors, (2) teacher-related factors, and (3) student-related factors. Differences and similarities appeared when these professed beliefs were compared to the applied classroom practices. The thematic analysis revealed several themes underlying the main categories. Extensive teacher-centred practices and modest student-centred practices were evident; more specifically, the observations revealed primarily teacher-centred approach inside the science classes. Meanwhile, student-centred approaches were modestly applied in comparison to teacher-centred activities. The teachers justified their practices in accordance with the sociocultural factors that mediate their beliefs and practices as well as the role of their goal orientation. The science teachers perceived the mediating factors as constraints that prevent them from applying their beliefs about fostering creativity in classroom practices. Multiple constraining factors emerged, and they were categorised into personal, external, and interpersonal constraints. Concerning the case study findings, consistencies and inconsistencies were identified using a cut-off point as an analytic technique to classify teachers’ beliefs and practices into traditional (non-creativity fostering), mixed, or progressive (creativity fostering). The case study findings identified four consistency and inconsistency levels characterizing teachers’ beliefs and practices: traditional (consistent level), mainly traditional (inconsistent level), mixed (consistent level), and mainly progressive (inconsistent level). Each level was represented by an exemplary case study. The exemplary case studies revealed that sociocultural contexts influence teacher’s belief-practice relationship with respect to fostering students’ creativity in science classroom. Further, the thematic and case study findings were discussed in relation to the existing body of knowledge, followed by an illustration of significant conclusions, including some implications, contributions, limitations, and future suggestions.

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Autism Spectrum Disorder is an increasingly common developmental disability. Students diagnosed with ASD can be challenging to incorporate into mainstream classrooms due to a lack of understanding and negative attitudes of neurotypical peers towards those students. This thesis aims to address the problem in a unit plan centered on the use of young adult literature with a main protagonist on the Spectrum in the English Language Arts classroom. Specifically, it argues the use of such texts in conjunction with a literature circles unit in providing better understanding and greater acceptance of students with ASD. The unit and lesson plans were written to reflect how Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, Bishop’s windows, doors, and mirrors , and the texts students read can influence their thinking and behavior. Using goodreads and local ELA book lists, I selected four YAL texts which portrayed the main character with ASD as they go about their daily lives. These texts were then incorporated into the twenty-lesson unit plan which aims at supporting positive attitudes and acceptance of neurotypical students towards their peers with ASD.

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En Suecia, el alumnado se ha ido volviendo cada vez más multicultural. En el aula pueden coexistir varias lenguas maternas y la pericia en inglés es muy alta. Esto se traduce en que estas lenguas podrían ser usadas como andamios para enseñar una tercera o cuarta lengua. Este trabajo final de grado, enfocado específicamente en el translenguaje pedagógico, ha sido desarrollado al alero de investigaciones internacionales sobre cómo estratégicamente potenciar el aprendizaje de idiomas.  En este sentido, el translenguaje pedagógico propone una serie de estrategias deliberadas cuya característica central es el uso del repertorio lingüístico global del alumnado multilingüe. El translenguaje pedagógico es una nueva área de investigación, por lo cual las estrategias del translenguaje pedagógico todavía no aparecen de forma explícita ni en el material didáctico ni en la enseñanza de docentes de lenguas extranjeras. Aun así, existen bastante hallazgos científicos que proponen varias ventajas al usar estas estrategias, lo que llama la atención y constituye la base de esta investigación.  Esta tesis propone investigar el uso y la eficacia de las estrategias del translenguaje pedagógico en las aulas en Suecia. El resultado demuestra que la mayoría de los docentes utilizan diferentes estrategias de translenguaje en cierto grado, aunque estas no tengan casi ningún soporte en el material didáctico ni por la integración de currículos en las escuelas suecas. / In Sweden, the student population has become increasingly multicultural, resulting in classrooms where multiple mother tongues are present alongside a high level of English proficiency. This unique linguistic context presents an opportunity to utilize the diverse languages as scaffolding for teaching additional languages. This undergraduate thesis explores the concept of pedagogical translanguaging, drawn upon international research to strategically enhance language learning.  In this sense, pedagogical translanguaging proposes a series of deliberate strategies whose central characteristic is the use of the global linguistic repertoire of multilingual students. Pedagogical translanguaging is a new area of research, so pedagogical translanguaging strategies do not yet appear explicitly either in the teaching material nor in the instruction of foreign language teachers. Even so, there are quite a few scientific findings that propose several advantages to using these strategies, which call for attention and form the basis of this research.  This thesis proposes to investigate the use and effectiveness of pedagogical translanguaging strategies in classrooms in Sweden. The result shows that most teachers use different translanguage strategies to some degree, even if they are not well supported by teaching materials and curriculum integration in Swedish schools.

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The out of field phenomenon, that is, educators who teach outside their field of expertise, adds complexity to the education environment. This growing phenomenon in South African schools impacts colleagues, learners, parents, governing bodies and school management. Teaching characteristics that ensure success in classrooms are threatened by the out of field phenomenon. It puts extra strain on school management's responsibility to provide quality management and jeopardises effective teaching and quality learning. This problem was investigated by a literature study and an empirical investigation using a qualitative approach. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with selected participants who shared their experiences of the phenomenon. Findings indicated that the existence of the out of field phenomenon should be recognised in order to provide substantial educator support and sufficient staff development programmes. It is recommended that new evidence-informed knowledge about the out of field phenomenon can contribute to improve effective decision making and policy developing in this regard. / Education management / M.Ed.

Cette recherche a eu pour objectif d’explorer les postures d’animateurs et d’animatrices scientifiques quant au dialogue « sciences en/et société » et les moyens qu’ils utilisent pour assurer ce dialogue à travers leurs interventions pédagogiques dans le cadre d’ateliers scientifiques hors scolaires. Six animateurs scientifiques ont été interviewés. Ces entretiens ont permis de recueillir des données riches sur leur compréhension de la nature des sciences, leurs postures pédagogiques en tant que transmetteur, guide ou médiateur du développement de l’alphabétisation scientifique chez les jeunes dans les espaces hors scolaires, ainsi que sur la manière dont ils perçoivent le rôle de leurs interventions pédagogiques dans le cadre du développement de l’alphabétisation scientifique chez les jeunes et de la compréhension qu’ils ont des sciences comme outil d’action sociopolitique, tel qu’entendu dans le dialogue « sciences en/et société ». Les postures épistémologiques, pédagogiques et sociales identifiées sont d’une grande diversité et révèlent des tendances qui s’inscrivent dans des spectres allant de l’empirisme au constructivisme, du divertissement à l’empowerment et de la valorisation de la place des sciences en société à la critique de sa primauté. Plusieurs animateurs scientifiques de notre échantillon ont ainsi eu des postures hybrides et parfois conflictuelles, ce qui met en évidence la valeur potentielle d’interventions éducatives qui donnent aux animateurs scientifiques l’occasion de questionner et de réexaminer de manière critique leurs pratiques. / The purpose of this study was to explore informal science educators’ position on the “science in/and society” dialogue and the means whereby they ensure that dialogue through their pedagogical interventions in out-of-school settings. Six informal science educators were interviewed, leading to rich data in terms of their understanding of the nature of science, their pedagogical positions as transmitters, constructors and mediators of children’s development of science literacy in out-of-school settings, and the manner they perceive the role of their pedagogical interventions in children’s science literacy development and understanding of science as a tool for socio-political action, as called for by a science in/and society dialogue. The epistemic, pedagogical and social positions identified range from empiricism to constructivism, from entertainment to empowerment, and from recognition of the value of science in society to a critique of its pre-eminence, suggesting great diversity among the educators studied. Many of the sampled educators held hybrid and at times conflicting positions, suggesting the potential value of educational interventions that offer a means for informal science educators to question and critically re-examine their current practices.