Jacqueline van Swet

‘I can only learn in dialogue!’ Exploring professional identities in teacher education

This article discusses how professional identity, conceptualised as ‘stories professionals tell about themselves at a specific moment in a specific context’, can be portrayed to address its complexity as a dynamic, constructed, cognitive‐emotional, multi‐voiced, and dialogical concept. In order to construct a narrative–biographical method, eight teacher educators reflected on their professional development, using the self‐confrontation method, resulting in self‐narratives. The findings of the study indicate teacher educators’ meaningful experiences can be portrayed in a systematic way using identity components such as job motivation, task perception, task‐feeling, self‐image and self‐feeling. This method can reveal a personal or professional theme to further educators’ development, focusing both on a content level as well as an emotional level. These results were illustrated by one teacher educator’s story. Finally, suitability of this method was discussed for reflection purposes in teacher education and research goals.

Critical friendship as a contribution to master’s‐level work in an international programme of study

This article reports on an action research project in which the value of critical friendship for students doing research and writing their dissertations within an international master’s course has been explored. This course is run jointly by Roehampton University (London, UK), Charles University (Prague, Czech Republic) together with Fontys OSO (Tilburg, the Netherlands). It describes the process and the results of working with the concept of critical friendship in this master’s course since its start in 2005. Data were collected by means of various qualitative instruments and data sources: evaluation forms after tutorial sessions, reflective logs and focus interviews. The results show that the process of engaging with the research they did was enhanced and supported by the development of critical friendship groups. A number of recommendations have been formulated, such as the importance of discussing the concept of critical friend and its philosophy with the participants and of defining roles and tasks as clearly as possible.

Solution-Focused Assessment: Rethinking Labels to Support Inclusive Education.

In the Netherlands and the USA, the assessment process is changing for children who present learning and behavioural challenges in school. Evaluations for eligibility determinations and support planning are shifting along with disability models and tensions over the provision of inclusive schooling. Legislative edicts influence the assessment process differently in these two countries while both nations seem to be headed in a similar direction. This paper relates evolving disability models to the changing assessment process in each country and proposes that a solution-focused perspective offers an assessment concept which supports the goal of inclusive education. Specifically discussed are the implications of a solution-focused approach on the identification of disability, the assessment of special educational needs, individualised support planning and the essential cooperation within evolving schools as well as the environment beyond.

More than a master: developing, sharing, and using knowledge in school–university research networks

Postgraduate master’s programs for in-service teachers may be a promising new avenue in developing research partnership networks that link schools and university and enable collaborative development, sharing and use of knowledge of teacher research. This study explores the way these knowledge processes originating from master’s students’ research occurs in the school–university network of a master’s program embedded in the K–12 school environment of a Central Management Organization in the US. Questionnaires, interviews, and logs were used to collect quantitative and qualitative data at four time-points over a 10-month period. Data were analyzed at three network levels: school, dyad, and individual. Findings indicate that the school network context provided both master’s students and research advisors with a supportive context for collaboratively engaging in knowledge processes during research as well as after they graduated. However, the network context was not enough to build sustainable and productive relationships in the partnership network.

Leveraging the relationship: knowledge processes in school–university research networks of master’s programmes

This study investigated the way developing, sharing and using of research-based knowledge occurred in the school–university research network of a master’s programme for in-service teachers in the Netherlands. Over a 10-month period, a combination of quantitative and qualitative network data was collected. Data were analysed at three network levels: school, pairs of master’s students and research supervisors, and individuals. Overall, results indicate that building knowledge productive relationships in a master’s programme is a complex endeavour. Although individual master’s students and research supervisors aimed for continuing knowledge processes in school and university after student’s graduation, few actually did. The school context and the strategies of research supervisors provided students with too little support for sustaining the knowledge processes. This study shows from a network perspective the complexities, challenges and potential of developing partnership relationships in a master’s programme between schools and universities as well as between master’s students and research supervisors.

From vision to reality: managing tensions in the development and implementation of an international collaborative partnership programme for institutional change and sustainable development in inclusive education

The aim of this article is to consider the practical implications of international collaborative partnerships between and within higher education institutions (HEIs) in terms of the development of an international programme in Special Needs Education as well as its implementation. We first look at the heavy institutional demands set within national boundaries and their associated quality assurance procedures. We argue that contextualising these demands within wider international and European demands creates unforeseen challenges for the participants both institutionally and individually. Secondly, the paper focuses on the programmes response to a dilemma – how do we internationalise (working in European Union HEIs)? Thirdly, attention is paid to how fundamental tensions around internationalisation of the curriculum and knowledge-sharing and the extent to which this is being managed at the Consortium of the three universities involved.

International Collaboration as a Patchwork Quilt: Experiences of Developing Collaborative Practice and Research in an International Masters Programme.

The scope of policies within universities and professional practices is becoming increasingly global and more and more networks of professionals and researchers are conducting collaborative programmes and research projects. Translating these collaborations into flourishing practices is often more challenging than initially anticipated, especially if there is an international dimension. In these circumstances, participants often experience challenges triggered by power relations, differences in culture, contexts and perspectives on practice and research. This paper is underpinned by an educational psychology perspective and falls within an interpretive paradigm. The metaphor of the patchwork quilt is used during learning and teaching seminars to explain collaborative practice and research because the steps involved serve as a useful visual aid for further comparison and reflection. Using data from four studies, we discuss the experiences of international participants conducting collaborative research over the course of an international master’s programme in Europe and the experiences of alumni of the programme attempting to conduct research after the completion of the Erasmus Mundus master’s programme. We argue that international collaborative practice and research take time, especially in the initial stages. They have the potential to support bridging and bonding universally and lead to enrichment and enhancement for the participants.

Teacher Education’s Challenge of Changing Research Relationships With Schools

Globally, teacher education (TE) is challenged to change relationships with schools and teachers and become more collaborative in teaching and research. This study examined the way knowledge is developed, shared, and used when school and institution of higher education (IHE) partners create research networks in the context of master’s programs for in-service teachers. These knowledge processes were studied from a social network perspective and compared in two different TE contexts. During 10 months, this mixed method study obtained two school networks and 36 personal networks and 124 critical incidents from 36 individual logs and interviews. Cross-case analyses provide insight in the social network structures, interpersonal relationships, and knowledge processes among IHE’s and school’s partners as well as the challenges in developing closer research relationships in a TE context.