Ruth Kane

Telling Half the Story: A Critical Review of Research on the Teaching Beliefs and Practices of University Academics

A critical review of research on teaching beliefs and practices of university academics revealed that the espoused theories of action of academics have not been distinguished from their theories-in-use in some studies. It is our contention that research that examines only what university teachers say about their practice and does not directly observe what they do is at risk of telling half the story. Our review revealed several unsupported claims about university academics’ teaching practice, raised concerns about data gathering and analysis methods, and found that research on primary and secondary teachers’ beliefs has been used infrequently to inform research in tertiary settings. The review identifies implications for understanding university academics’ development as teachers and provides direction for further research.

Inclusive education policy in New Zealand: reality or ruse?

New Zealand, like many countries, is beginning the journey towards a more inclusive education system. This paper examines inclusive education in New Zealand, and in particular policy related to inclusive education. New Zealand has the chance to make inclusion a reality, but as Skrtic (1991) points out this will require a different way of thinking based on a different knowledge base than that of traditional special education paradigms. It is argued that this change must be based on recognition of exclusionary forces within schools and societies and the purposes these are serving.

Finding A Way Through The Swamp: A Case For Self-Study As Research*

The point, or points, at which a ‘self-study’ might become ‘research’ is a matter of some discomfort and ‘dissensus’ even among those who work and write in the self-study of teaching and teacher education areas. Those of us in the practitioner research, teacher researcher, action research and self-study in teacher education communities all forage somewhat nervously in the swamplands between the apparently infertile deserts of positivist detachment and the impenetrable jungles of postmodern de/con/structive self-inspection. In our interests we straddle precariously a perceived chasm between the high theory of academe and the rich chaos of situated practice, and in so doing, we often buy into, at the same time as resenting, an unhelpful binarism that opposes rather than reconciles the university to the school, theory to practice, the academic to the teacher and, the researcher to the practitioner.

Making Sense of Learning at Secondary School: Involving Students to Improve Teaching Practice.

Consulting students on their experiences of learning and teaching in schools, while signalled as a potentially valuable research practice fifteen years ago by Michael Fullan, is now gaining prominence in educational research within New Zealand. The Making Sense of Learning at Secondary Schools research began with the premise that to improve classroom practice in secondary schools we need to ask for and attend to the needs and views of students. This paper draws on aspects of one research project to consider the ways in which teachers can examine and improve their own teaching practice through involving students in the identification of how they make sense of learning in the classroom and how teachers can make it happen. We demonstrate how this research project reflects values, principles and conditions that support authentic student involvement.

Teacher action research and student voice: Making sense of learning in secondary school

The Making Sense of Learning project began with the premise that for teachers to understand the ways in which their practice influences student learning, they need to invite and listen to students’ accounts of their learning experiences. Initiated by classroom teachers, supported by a university researcher, and informed by student voice, this teacher action research involved the empirical-reflective (self-) study by teachers of their practice as interpreted and critiqued by their students and themselves. This article explores how researchers challenge teachers to move beyond taken for granted conceptions of teaching, learning, and roles of students, to engage in learning-centered dialog with their students and through this, transform classroom practice. Supported by the researchers, teachers and students gain a sense of empowerment as they deepen their relationships and negotiate new roles as partners and coresearchers making sense of learning in their classrooms. Teachers and students come to situated understandings of the complexity of teaching and learning that reveal transformative and emancipatory outcomes.

Making the tacit explicit: A teaching intervention programme for early career academics

This paper1 describes the results from a research project designed to enhance the practice of novice science lecturers by making use of expertise already present in the University of Otago. The first phase involved the identification and study of excellent teachers from Division of Science departments. The second phase consisted of a teaching intervention program (TIP) utilizing videotapes of the excellent lecturers teaching and discussing their teaching. Participants in the TIP undertook a number of activities designed to assist them in investigating themselves as teachers (the personal); articulating their aims and intentions in the classroom; making their tacit theories about teaching and learning explicit; and, developing habits of reflective practice. Evidence from the TIP session transcripts, TIP evaluation, initial interviews, and stimulated recall interviews demonstrates that the programme assisted the novice lecturers to articulate their aims, intentions and beliefs, to interrogate their teaching practice and to formalize a plan for the future.

Preparing teachers for professional learning: is there a future for teacher education in new teacher induction?

Today the quality of teachers is held to be increasingly important yet there continue to be doubts about whether teacher education programs graduate teachers ready to meet the challenges of their initial years of teaching. In some jurisdictions, other agencies (Ministries of Education, school districts, and private providers) are supplementing the work of teacher education through the introduction of new teacher induction programs which have become favoured policy initiatives to enhance new teacher transition, retention and quality. Evidence suggests that induction and mentoring increase teacher retention and ensure more effective socialisation of new teachers into the school culture. In spite of their growing popularity, the degree to which induction programs complement teacher education and/or impact new teacher professional learning remains unclear. In this paper the authors report a secondary analysis of data from an evaluation of the New Teacher Induction Program in Ontario, Canada to consider the implications for the future of teacher education by asking: What are the challenges facing new teachers? In what ways does the induction program support new teacher professional learning? What are the major implications for the future of teacher education?

Nailing Jello to the Wall: Articulating Conceptualizations of Social Justice.

This article presents conceptualizations of social justice expressed by a group of teacher educators in New Zealand and seeks to reinforce the importance of placing social justice on the agenda of teacher education. It is presented in the form of a readers theater script designed to elicit discussion and encourage others to reflect critically on their own conceptualizations of social justice. The script is a product of doctoral thesis research, influenced by poststructural theory, which used individual interviews and group discussions to examine participant conceptualizations of social justice in teacher education contexts. The presentation of the readers theater script is followed by discussion of the range of discourses that the participants drew upon in their accounts of social justice and consideration of some of the effects of a discourse of responsibility. We invite educators to conduct multiple readings of the script or produce their own scripts with their colleagues and students as a means to trouble the often taken‐for‐granted underpinnings of conceptualizations of social justice in teacher education contexts.

“It’s My Safe Space” Student Voice, Teacher Education, and the Relational Space of an Urban High School

White Canadian teacher candidates are brought into direct dialogue with urban high school students through a yearlong immersion in a high school with a “demonized” image in the broader community. Interviews with students reveal experiences of school as “my safe space” and the predominance of a student culture not characterized by resistance, but by a positive experience of school as an autonomous relational space. We argue that attention to student voices through extended immersion in urban high schools enables teacher candidates to experience schools as uniquely situated spaces and disrupts the tendency to essentialize urban students and their schools.

The Positioning of Students in Newly Qualified Secondary Teachers' Images of Their "Best Teaching".

Asking newly qualified teachers (NQTs) to provide images of their ‘best teaching’, and encouraging subsequent reflection on these images, has the potential to enhance their understanding of themselves as teachers as they explore their often unconsciously held assumptions about students and classrooms. This paper reports aspects of a study of 100 New Zealand secondary NQTs as they constructed and explained images of themselves when ‘teaching at their best’ at three points over the first 18 months of full-time teaching. The article shows how these images of ‘best teaching’ may represent the NQTs’ pedagogical creed, and explores the nature of relationships and ways of working with students described within this developing pedagogy. It concludes by indicating implications from this study for teacher education pedagogies and programmes.