Kate Ferguson-Patrick

Dancing in the ditches: reflecting on the capacity of a university/school partnership to clarify the role of a teacher educator

This paper used the data collected from reflective diaries, semi-structured interviews and surveys to identify and examine common themes identified in the roles required and/or perceived for teacher educators by both teachers and teacher educators. Collaboration, discussion and critique enabled personal reflection as teacher educators worked as partners to schools in a state-sponsored teaching and learning skills project. We have termed the collaboration in such an interactive project as one of ‘dancing in the ditches’, often requiring both groups to get out of their comfortable spaces and engage with each other in constantly moving situations. The teacher educators were required to be change agents at the interface of theory and practice and their experiences reflected individual journeys, but their reflections have ongoing implications for clarifying and professionalising the role of teacher educators.

Writers develop skills through collaboration: an action research approach

Collaborative approaches designed to increase writing productivity (amount written) as well as writing quality were implemented over a period of six months with a small group of 12 six‐year‐olds in a Primary School in Newcastle, NSW, Australia. The study demonstrated the positive nature of peer interactions with an increase in quality and productivity of writing products. The classroom teacher employed action research approaches where observations informed action, which in turn was reflected upon. Some central themes emerged from this study. It was found that collaboration often meant that students shared strengths and expertise, provided encouragement and assistance, as well as provided opportunities for peer tutoring.

Contesting and Constructing International Perspectives in Global Education

This volume addresses the need for an international perspective on global education, and provides alternate voices to the theme of global education. The editors asked international educators in different contexts to indicate how their own experience of global education addresses the broad and contested concepts associated with this notion. Following the lead of the internationally acknowledged authors from North America, Europe, Africa, Australia, and Asia, perspectives were provided on a wide variety of contexts including tertiary education, and teacher education; various pedagogies for global education, including digital pedagogies; and curriculum development at school, tertiary and community levels. Contesting and Constructing International Perspectives in Global Education explores the tensions inherent in discussions of global education from a number of facets including spatial, pedagogical, temporal, social and cultural; and provides critical, descriptive and values-laden interpretations. The book is divided into five sections, “Temporal and Spatial Views of Global Education”; “Telling National Stories of Global Education”; “Empowering Citizens for Global Education”; “Deconstructing Global Education”; and “Transforming Curricula for Global Education”. It is envisaged as a starting point for a stronger international conception of global education and a way to build a conversation for the future of global education in a neo-liberal and less internationally confident time.

Integrating Curriculum: A Case Study of Teaching Global Education.

Abstract Despite widespread support for integrated approaches to teaching, classroom practice reveals a lack of implementation. This paper explores challenges and opportunities in teaching an integrated curriculum, and connects this with the contemporary notion of a twenty-first century curriculum and pedagogy. A case study of Global Education (GE) is used to delineate the complexity of issues when teachers attempt to move beyond disciplinary-based teaching approaches. We examine curriculum documents, advice for teachers on curriculum implementation, preservice teachers’ experiences in schools during Professional Experiences and national guidelines for Professional Experience. Through these data, a broad picture emerges of influences on integrating curricula in classrooms. Opportunities to integrate curriculum incorporating twenty-first century pedagogies were limited by pressures on teachers with preservice teachers rarely exposed to authentic integration. Teachers’ professional standing requires clear guidelines, which allow them to pursue important twenty-first century content and skills , for young citizens and this must begin in preservice education.

The 4Cs of Global Education for Teacher Education Students: Culture, Confidence, Context, and Crowded Curriculum

Global citizenship is an important attribute in our interconnected world, with children’s first formal introduction to global perspectives mostly occurring through schooling. Accordingly, teacher general knowledge and curricula skills around global perspectives are pivotal. We present findings from a study of preservice teachers’ global education (GE) observations and experiences during professional experiences in schools. We used qualitative data from surveys administered after they had been in schools teaching over four weeks to determine what GE teaching they had observed and conducted during their placements and what barriers to the teaching of GE they perceived. Results show that much work is needed to ensure an adequate GE focus in schools.

The importance of teacher role in cooperative learning: the effects of high-stakes testing on pedagogical approaches of early career teachers in primary schools

ABSTRACT Cooperative learning (CL) has a strong research base, but it is underutilised. This can be explained by teachers’ reluctance to experiment with pedagogies in an environment increasingly focused on high-stakes testing. Early career teachers (ECTs) need support to be innovative practitioners, particularly with such a complex one as CL. The teacher’s role is crucial in order to scaffold the students’ participation in the primary classroom in order to improve their learning and it is teachers’ pedagogical practices that help to develop these collaborative work habits. This paper explores ECTs responses relating to their role in CL instruction.

“Players in the World”: Action for Intercultural Competence in Classroom Pedagogy

A key aspect of teaching students in the twenty-first century is preparing them for an increasingly global community, global economy and global workplace. Intercultural competence is essential for such a future. As Boix-Mansilla and Jackson (2011, p. 11) observed, it is crucial that young people view themselves as “players in the world”, participating in global events – not simply observing them; taking action “to improve conditions” in the world – not simply agonising over them; and reflecting on their actions and their participation, with a view to continue to improve and enhance this participation. This requires a pedagogy for agency – an active pedagogy. The need for the development of skills for interacting and communicating with diverse audiences, including with those from diverse cultural groups, is obvious if we are to develop twenty-first century learners. This chapter investigates the extent to which the notion of some kind of “action” in the development of Intercultural competence is communicated in educational policy and curriculum, and how “action” is enacted within school and classroom contexts. Using Australia as a case study, we present data from analysis of relevant education documents, as well as surveys with pre-service teachers related to their classroom experiences with Intercultural competence. Results suggest that despite the good intentions of policy-makers, more explicit direction about implementing action is necessary in syllabus documents, including ideas for active pedagogy, in order to ensure students fully develop true Intercultural competence and become global “players”.

Where’s the Action in Global Education?

Despite the well documented variance around definitions of global education, it is generally agreed by global educators that one role of global education is to make students aware of and sensitive to the inequities which exist globally, and to encourage them to be future focussed and willing to take action for change.