Robyn Brandenburg

Roundtable Reflections: (Re) Defining the Role of the Teacher Educator and the Preservice Teacher as ‘Co-Learners’

This paper is an account of one aspect of a self-study—the ‘roundtable reflections’—conducted over two semesters with two cohorts of Bachelor of Education preservice teachers at the University of Ballarat. An innovative approach to learning and teaching mathematics based on negotiation, ‘commuting’ teaching experience, and systematic reflection was introduced with each cohort and roundtable sessions provided the reflective space for the systematic ‘unpacking’ of the learning. Analysis of these roundtable sessions has developed understandings of the impact and effectiveness of this approach in redefining the role of both the pre-service teacher and the teacher educator as ‘co-learners’. The implications for those involved in teacher education are explored as a means of further understanding the nature of teaching and learning about teaching.

Examining Assumptions About Teacher Educator Identities by Self-study of the Role of Mentor of Pre-service Teachers

The role of university-based mentors providing support for pre-service teachers (PSTs) on professional experience placements has long been an element of teacher education programs. These mentors often face challenging situations as they confront their own assumptions about teaching and learning, while also supporting PSTs who may be experiencing stressful placements in classrooms. In this article, we examine the learning undertaken by two teacher educators participating in a professional experience mentor program in a regional university in Australia. The research was conducted as a self-study in two phases. The first phase involved gathering data (email correspondence, mentor entry and exit surveys, meetings) and discussions throughout 2010; the second phase was a retrospective analysis of 10 critical emails. Identification and analysis of our assumptions revealed both the dominant categories of assumptions that underpinned our beliefs and practices, and the tensions and challenges we faced in our roles as mentors. Data analysis generated five themes that characterized our experiences as mentors: (1) ideals and reality; (2) emotions and assumptions; (3) transition to new leadership roles; (4) transitions as transformative experiences; and (5) tunnel vision. By systematically examining our practice, we developed a deeper understanding of the powerful ways that taken-for-granted assumptions influence our practice; we have also exposed the crucial influence of emotions and transitions on the growth of our professional identities.

Rattling the Cage: Moving beyond ethical standards to ethical praxis in self-study research

The ethical practice underpinning self-study research has been addressed extensively in the literature of self-study of teacher education practices. Less attention has been paid to how researchers deal with ethical tensions and dilemmas when they arise unexpectedly during self-study research. In this article, we examine how the extrapolation and examination of one critical incident in the process of conducting self-study research challenged our ethics as researchers and led us to new understanding and knowledge. Our focus is on the initial acknowledgment of what we considered to be an ethical dilemma as it had rattled our cage. We were uncomfortable, disturbed, and challenged. We analyzed the data using critical incident analysis and discussed the outcomes in relation to being ethically responsive as researchers. Our responsiveness has led us to ethical praxis, whereby we now routinely and intentionally incorporate ethical dilemma identification and data analysis into our research designs. This study also highlights that our responsibilities as researchers are both private and public. By distilling the essence of a single critical incident, we can contribute new knowledge to the conversation about ethical practice.

Transcribing the unsaid: Finding silence in a self-study

Self-study is an emerging methodology in researching teacher education, and central to the practice of self-study researchers is reflection in and on teaching and learning. Studies are predominantly qualitative and methods include field notes, interviews, journal writing, surveys and observations. While excerpts of talk are used in reports of self-study, the use of transcription and transcripts is under-addressed in considerations of self-study methods. This paper considers how transcription informed a self-study. Reflection on the approach to transcription is used to argue that transcription and the development of transcripts is a valuable analytic tool. It can provide powerful insights into a researcher’s classroom practice through a process of structured inquiry that employs the transcription process.

Teacher Education Research and the Policy Reform Agenda

Research into teacher education is an Australian government high priority and teacher educators are increasingly called to use research to demonstrate the effectiveness and the impact of their teaching, their programs and ultimately, the impact on student learning. While teacher education researchers endeavour to share their research, their work is often critiqued as being self-serving, small-scale and generally not responsive to government policy directions. This chapter specifically examines these three areas: the research policy context; an examination of the current critique of teacher education research and a critical analysis and discussion of the research conducted by teacher educators within this volume. As evidenced within the chapters, many teacher educators have located their research studies within the current Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group (TEMAG, Action Now: Classroom Ready Teachers, 2014) reform agenda. What the studies also reveal is how reform agendas are taken up by different institutions and the importance of providing the rich contextual discussion of their findings. While the majority of the studies are small-scale, viewed collectively however, they have much to offer the broader education research community. More opportunities for connected small-scale studies that highlight both macro and micro levels of teacher education are recommended.

Toward Transformative Reflective Practice in Teacher Education

This chapter advances the contention raised throughout the book, that reflective practice, despite its pervasiveness in teaching and teacher education, is often applied to a wide range of distinct, and sometimes incongruent practices. In this chapter, the work of the authors contributing to this volume is drawn upon, alongside extant literature in the field, to examine what is meant by “reflective practice” and what forms of reflective practice are appropriate for whom, and when. Consideration is also given to who and what is driving the reflective practice agenda evident in teaching and teacher education, globally. The implications for teacher education and teacher professional learning of these considerations is examined, and a call for less politicized and more authentic and transformative approaches to reflective practice and its concomitant outcomes is argued.

Using Critical Incidents to Reflect on Teacher Educator Practice

The purpose of this chapter is twofold – first, to examine the ways in which critical incident identification and analysis can reveal more about the sophisticated complexity of teaching and, second, to provide an exemplar of reflective practice inquiry in teacher education based primarily on experience and reflection (Dewey J, How we think: a restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educative process. Henry Regenry Co., Chicago, 1933). In this chapter we examine the influence of using critical incident identification and analysis to reflect in and on our practice as teacher educators. Critical incidents were defined as incidents in our practice as teacher educators that caused us to pause and reflect on our work and were collated during an intense period of institutional change. Using self-study methodology, we collated and analysed 32 critical incidents and identified key themes including: the tensions evident in institutional and personal expectations, contrived versus organic collaboration and valuing the teacher as a researcher. In this chapter, we highlight the way the combination of a reflective inquiry lens, a research methodology (self-study of practice) and custom-designed strategies and tools highlights the practicalities and powerful influence of reflective practice.

When Their Experience Meets Ours

To fully understand the impact of learning and teaching within the current university context, we need to examine our assumptions about students as they embark on and complete their degrees. Are they primarily consumers, customers, clients or “studentshoppers” (Hil, 2012) who purchase a product (degree), who maintain a sense of entitlement about the ultimate procurement of the degree, and who expect academics to deliver the content and knowledge necessary for their chosen profession or outcome? Are they active, engaged co-learners who wrestle with concepts and ideas, who problem-pose and question the status-quo, who create learning communities as part of the university experience and who take on responsibility for their learning? Are they something, or someone, else?

Environmental Science and Experiential Learning

Peter Gell is Professor of Environmental Science and Associate Dean (Research) in the School of Science, Information Technology and Engineering at the University of Ballarat. He directs the Centre for Environmental Management and is the leader of the Regional Landscape Change element of the University’s Collaborative Research Network. He is leader of the Water theme in the International Geosphere Biosphere Program project Past Global Changes (PAGES) – a group that focuses on human-climate-environment interactions. Within this group, he coordinates research programs that use palaeoecological approaches to understand the nature, rate and trajectory of change to aquatic ecosystems and water resources.

Pedagogies for the Future

Learning and teaching form the core of university work. Although such a statement may seem a truism, it is ultimately through teaching that the university derives its raison d’etre. This truism also directs us to a relatively un(der)examined aspect of university life: that is, the many and complex issues that either directly or subliminally impact on the learning experiences of tertiary students, together with the no less complex role played by their teachers in providing and sharing in those experiences.