Bill Ussher

Involving a Village: Student Teachers' Sense of Belonging in Their School-Based Placement.

Educating a student on teaching placement involves a ‘village’, just as it takes a whole ‘village’ to raise a child. Creating a ‘village’ around each student teacher gives them greater agency, a sense of belonging and being valued as a member of that professional ‘village’. Participating students, teachers and lecturers share their perceptions of experiences in the one-day school-based placement that student teachers are required to undertake in a University of Waikato distance programme. Opportunities, relationships and a sense of inclusion are identified as influencing characteristics, “the all important human infrastructure that provides the opportunity for learners to succeed” (Campbell-Gibson, 1997, p. 8) rather than any modern technologies. Findings indicate that where the school acted as the ‘village of learning’, the perceived suitability of the placement as a site for learning teaching was conceptualised through a developed sense of belonging, accomplishment and inclusion. It is argued that greater effort should be made by initial teacher education providers to locate such ‘villages’ for student teacher placements.

Strengthening practicum conversations: Enhancing professional learning and development through returning lecturer supervisions:

Relationships between teachers, children and university lecturers must be positive, productive and professional to optimise the learning and development of student teachers in school-based experiences. The limited research into these ‘high stakes’ relationships mostly explores alternative approaches. This paper explores the perceptions of student teachers and associate teachers as they consider the value of an alternative practicum supervision approach. The lecturers supervised and mentored the student teachers in all of their practicum experiences. Findings indicate a clear preference for this approach, mostly because of reduced stress, especially in the final practicum. The lecturer was a stable influence with a greater depth of knowledge of the student’s learning journey. The later visits were future-focused, identifying next steps in developing both strengths and weaknesses. There are some current examples of this approach, but these participants suggest that it should be common practice because of the value of the professional conversations that occurred.