Carmen Montecinos

Paradoxes in multicultural teacher education research: students of color positioned as objects while ignored as subjects

There is a paucity of research describing the needs and concerns that teachers of color present to multicultural teacher preparation. In this essay the author reviews the research on multicultural teacher preparation to uncover research practices that make teachers of color invisible. In this analysis, it is contended that this body of research has created a discontinuity between the principles of multicultural education, multicultural teacher education, and current efforts to diversify the teaching force.There is a paucity of research describing the needs and concerns that teachers of color present to multicultural teacher preparation. In this essay the author reviews the research on multicultural teacher preparation to uncover research practices that make teachers of color invisible. In this analysis, it is contended that this body of research has created a discontinuity between the principles of multicultural education, multicultural teacher education, and current efforts to diversify the teaching force.

The construction of parents and teachers as agents for the improvement of municipal schools in Chile

This article examines how teachers and parents in 10 municipal schools serving students growing up under conditions of social vulnerability represented themselves, and others, as valid agents for charting school improvement. In four schools parents and teachers saw each other as trustworthy and collaborating to provide an education that could transform students’ life chances. In the other six schools, social relations were marked by distrust, staff constructed students as lacking the resources necessary to benefit from a rigorous academic programme, and parents in leadership positions shared with teachers the belief that school failure could largely be attributed to uncommitted parents. These results suggest that the impact of quality assurance policies tends to be associated with the social capital of municipal schools, thus educational policy needs to consider developing and strengthening social capital within schools.

Master teachers as professional developers Managing conflicting versions of professionalism

As education’s main workforce, teachers have been the target of policies designed to shape and affirm new versions of professionalism. This paper examines this issue as it is exemplified by the Teachers of Teachers Network (TTN), a program developed by Chile’s Ministry of Education. As a program designed to identify and reward high quality teachers, it draws from New Public Management’s version of professionalism, which promotes managerial cultures based on individual, test-based incentives. TTN members are granted the opportunity to become entrepreneurs, offering professional development (PD) services to other teachers. As a program designed to develop high quality teachers, it draws from a sociocultural version of teacher professionalism based on the development of interpersonal relations that enhance the collective capacity to solve problems. The results of the current study highlight limitations of implementing teacher quality policies that simultaneously draw from contrasting ideas of professionalism. The five TTN teachers participating in the current study resolved these contradictions by concealing their TTN status and (re)presenting themselves as members of the regular teaching force (peers). Through these discursive moves they subverted the possibility of trust, a key nutrient for collegial learning. These findings are interpreted through Hargreaves’ capital theory of school effectiveness and improvement.

Condiciones de la formación práctica de los futuros profesores.

This study presents the results from an analysis of the conditions of the practicum for primary and secondary prospective teachers in relationship with the types of classroom management in which they developed the practicum activities and the modalities of support offered by ten of the institutions which educate teachers in Chile. The results describe these participants’ expectations for faculty support; contrasting them with the types of support they reported having received. Based on these findings, it was concluded that there were variations in terms of how the fieldwork was monitored by the universities, the interactions between faculty members and students, and the types of activities realized to develop teaching competencies, starting from the field-based teacher preparation.

Análisis Crítico de las Medidas de Presión Propuestas para Mejorar la Formación Inicial de Docentes en Chile por el Panel de Expertos para una Educación de Calidad

The July 9th, 2010 report from the P anel of Experts for Quality Education offers nine recommendations to strengthen initial teacher education (ITE) in Chile...The July 9th, 2010 report from the Panel of Experts for Quality Education offers nine recommendations to strengthen initial teacher education (ITE) in Chile. Six of them promote the use of tests at admissions and at graduation from a teacher education program (pressure) and the other three propose resources to improve the conditions for ITE (support). This article discusses how pressure measures extend devices already in use in the school system: standardization, evaluation, competition, and accountability. Acknowledging the limits of such pressure measures and their ideological underpinning, it is argued that the exams proposed (PSU and INICIA) must comply with evaluation standards and accountability. With respect to the recommendation regarding the development of a network of clinical schools, the evidence suggests the need of advanced policies that afford sustainability to partnerships between institutions of higher education and the school system.

The History of Initial Teacher Preparation in International Contexts

This chapter examines the history of teacher education in five nations – South Africa, Singapore, Chile, Finland, and United States – representing different continents, histories, political structures, cultures, levels of wealth, and economies. The nations were selected, in fact, because of this variability; Table 2.1 shows how widely they differ on a number of indicators. We hope the chapter will generate discussions about the role teacher education has played in national development and what teacher educators in different nations might learn from each other.

Transitando desde la observación a la acción pedagógica en la práctica inicial: Aprender a enseñar con foco en el aprendizaje del alumnado

espanolEste estudio examina la trayectoria de aprendizaje profesional de seis estudiantes de pedagogia participantes en un programa de innovacion en la practica inicial. La innovacion se sustento en el enfoque sociocultural de aprendizaje. Se realizo una version abreviada de investigacion evolutiva en el trabajo (Engestrom) en los talleres de practica semanal donde ellos participaron junto con tutores universitarios, profesora mentora e investigadora Notas de campo y analisis de las conversaciones evidenciaron como la incorporacion de tareas autenticas a la labor docente y herramientas de mediacion con voces de la academia y del centro escolar, movilizaron a los practicantes desde un foco en su ensenanza hacia un foco en el aprendizaje de sus estudiantes. Estos resultados ejemplifican la importancia de construir nuevas configuraciones para el curriculo de la practica inicial que enfrenten a candidatos a tareas autenticas al quehacer docente, con mediacion conjunta de pares, profesores mentores y tutores, que fortalezcan su agencia profesional. EnglishThe current study examines the professional learning trajectory of six teacher candidates in their first school placement. They were participants in a redesigned practicum component guided by sociocultural learning theory. Data were collected through the use of an abbreviated form of the Development Work Research (Engestrom) during the weekly meeting of candidates, cooperating teachers and university practicum supervisor. An analysis of field notes and transcripts of the conversations among participants evidences how performing tasks authentic to teaching and the mediating tools used by cooperating teachers and supervisors moved candidates from a focus on their teaching to a concern for how much their students were learning. These findings exemplify the importance of designing and implementing the initial practicum course as a space that enables teacher candidates to work on authentic teaching tasks, with the joint mediation of peers, cooperating teacher and university tutor, to strengthen professional agency.

Using Action Research to Foster Preservice Teachers’ Reflection on Themselves as Learners: Examining Beliefs and Changing Practices

Abstract Addressing preservice teachers’ beliefs about learning is a key task of initial teacher preparation. In this chapter, we describe and reflect on the use of action research as a learning activity/assessment to address those beliefs within a required course on learning theories. Through this activity, preservice teachers engage in a cycle of observation-reflection-planning-action-evaluation to change practices deemed ineffective. This use of action research has not been reported in the literature and we discuss our success as well as challenges in its implementation.

Critical Analysis of the Pressures for Improving Initial Teacher Education Proposed by the Panel of Experts for a Quality Education in Chile

The July 9th, 2010 report from the P anel of Experts for Quality Education offers nine recommendations to strengthen initial teacher education (ITE) in Chile...The July 9th, 2010 report from the Panel of Experts for Quality Education offers nine recommendations to strengthen initial teacher education (ITE) in Chile. Six of them promote the use of tests at admissions and at graduation from a teacher education program (pressure) and the other three propose resources to improve the conditions for ITE (support). This article discusses how pressure measures extend devices already in use in the school system: standardization, evaluation, competition, and accountability. Acknowledging the limits of such pressure measures and their ideological underpinning, it is argued that the exams proposed (PSU and INICIA) must comply with evaluation standards and accountability. With respect to the recommendation regarding the development of a network of clinical schools, the evidence suggests the need of advanced policies that afford sustainability to partnerships between institutions of higher education and the school system.

Análise crítica das medidas de pressão propostas para melhorar a formação inicial de professores no Chile pelo painel de Especialistas para uma educação de qualidade

The July 9th, 2010 report from the P anel of Experts for Quality Education offers nine recommendations to strengthen initial teacher education (ITE) in Chile...The July 9th, 2010 report from the Panel of Experts for Quality Education offers nine recommendations to strengthen initial teacher education (ITE) in Chile. Six of them promote the use of tests at admissions and at graduation from a teacher education program (pressure) and the other three propose resources to improve the conditions for ITE (support). This article discusses how pressure measures extend devices already in use in the school system: standardization, evaluation, competition, and accountability. Acknowledging the limits of such pressure measures and their ideological underpinning, it is argued that the exams proposed (PSU and INICIA) must comply with evaluation standards and accountability. With respect to the recommendation regarding the development of a network of clinical schools, the evidence suggests the need of advanced policies that afford sustainability to partnerships between institutions of higher education and the school system.