Carmel Maloney

An Alternative Practicum Curriculum: exploring roles and relationships

Abstract This paper describes a curriculum change in teacher education. The challenges and successes of working with student teachers within an alternative structure, in different relationships, over an extended period of time, are reported and analysed. This paper also explores the way the participants’ roles changed to facilitate reflective practice and students’ ability to link theory to practice within the practicum component of the course. Our data were drawn from the interactive journals kept by the students throughout the twenty‐week programme; focus‐group evaluation meetings with co‐operating teachers, student teachers and university teachers; descriptive and analytic accounts of tutorial sessions; and planning and programme documents. From the data we identified the key themes of collaboration, empowerment, relationships and mentoring. By highlighting the highs and lows of the school‐based‐semester (SBS) experience for each of the stakeholder groups, we explored the roles and relationships of the...

The role of ritual in preschool settings

Ritual is a fact of school life and is enacted by teachers in their everyday classroom activities. This paper explores the various forms of ritual as they are played out in preschool settings. A key finding is that rituals have both variant and invariant qualities. The invariant order of ritual provides the stable framework that has become part of the school system, whereas rituals with high levels of variance are responsible for a more personalized and flexible approach to teaching. Classroom rituals have the potential to act as a tool through which teachers structure a particular form of practice that carries a rational pedagogical purpose for teachers.