International Teacher Education: Promising Pedagogies (Part B): Volume 22B

The theory-practice problem manifests itself in education generally and in teacher education specifically. The divide is evident in diverse literatures internationally. The theory-practice split, which is one of many expressions used to describe the phenomenon, cannot be apprehended in a material sense. Instead, it emerges as a perennial problem that educators live through the stories they tell of their lives. This chapter particularly captures the struggle over rigor versus relevance in teacher education. It offers five different categories of pedagogies (teacher leadership, diversity, family, social justice, and technology), which together comprise this volume, International Teacher Education: Promising Pedagogies (Part B). These five pedagogies join five earlier categories of pedagogies (teacher selection, reflection, narrative knowing, teacher identity, and mediation and mentoring), which are found in International Teacher Education: Promising Pedagogies (Part A), and a new lineup of promising teacher education pedagogies that will appear in International Teacher Education: Promising Pedagogies (Part C). In all cases, the featured international pedagogies are not recipes to follow. Rather, they are contextualized artifacts that produce a synergy between teaching and learning and show promise where international transferability is concerned.

An analysis of traditional authoritarian preservice teacher development approaches in Pakistan demonstrates that they develop teachers as technicians who carbon copy the same authoritarian training model in their classrooms. The more contemporary approaches to teacher education with leadership development focus are mostly limited to in-service teacher education programs. The key dilemma with in-service education is that once the teachers have received higher qualification they tend to move out of the classrooms to assume management positions. What Pakistan requires is classroom teacher leaders who have the capacity to initiate and sustain school improvement. I propose the pedagogy of transformation, which is based on the principles of participation and emancipation suited to develop preservice teachers as active professionals who have the capacity to influence and drive improvements in their own learning and in the learning of the children. The transformation pedagogy encompasses five specific instructional strategies for nurturing teachers’ leadership skills in the current preservice teacher preparation program in Pakistan. These are: encourage active involvement and delegation of authority among preservice teachers, engage preservice teachers in critical analysis and meta-cognitive tasks, building collaborative teams and professional networks among preservice teachers, providing preservice teachers with experience of working with real-life teacher leaders, and develop preservice teachers’ moral and ethical reasoning. I bring the discussion to a closure in the form of a framework which encompasses key elements of the proposed pedagogy. The framework can be adopted or adapted to give due considerations to the complexities of the contexts where it is being implemented.

Educational research and many aspects of the educational system in Germany are facing a challenge. With Germany’s participation in large-scale assessment studies such as PISA, the German educational discourse is increasingly incorporating international developments in terms of educational standards, accountability, and students’ performance testing. At the same time, the long-standing history of German Didaktik has influenced and shaped teacher education programs in Germany for decades. Research conducted at a German university shows how these two concurrent developments can be fused – without neglecting their distinct differences. A crucial aspect revealed in this work shows that preservice teachers are prepared for their future profession in a rather output- and standard-based educational system in inquiry-based classes. In these classes, their research-based reflective thinking, didactic expertise, and their leadership skills in the sense of didactic ownership are strengthened.

This case study aims to examine the discourses of Early Children Education (ECE) curriculum and preservice teachers’ teaching practicum in Hong Kong to explore issues of developing preservice teachers as leaders for their future career. Adopting the qualitative case study methodology, semistructured interviews and documentation were mainly used for data collection to address the following research questions: (a) To what extent are preservice teachers in ECE in Hong Kong aware of the needs of leadership development for their future career? (b) To what extent are the preservice teachers in ECE in Hong Kong able to be developed as leaders in the process of teacher education? (c) What are factors influencing the leadership development of preservice teachers in preschools in Hong Kong? Documents such as program handbooks, field experience handbooks, and student participants’ teaching portfolios were collected for analysis. Both teacher educators and preservice teachers were invited for individual interviews to reflect on their experiences of supervising or participating in teaching practicum. The findings revealed that both teacher educators and preservice teachers were aware of the importance of developing preservice teachers as leaders. The teaching practicum provided various opportunities for preservice teachers to develop leadership skills. However, personality and learning experiences provided in the curriculum will also impact on leadership development. This study also informs policymakers, curriculum developers, and teacher educators about possible curriculum changes and potentials of developing preservice teachers as leaders for their future career.

The underlying assumption of this chapter is that the pedagogical leadership of school principals is a cornerstone for preservice and practicing teachers’ professional education in schools. The theory–practice divide in teachers’ performance (Koutselini & Persianis, 2000) can be overcome by changing the school ethos and culture from loose associations of students and teachers to communities of learning, a shift which cannot be achieved unless school principals value this effort and support teachers’ leadership in the learning communities of schools. The in-service training program RELEASE, which was funded by the European Committee (Project ID: EACEA-521386: Toward achieving Self-REgulated LEArning as a core in teachers’ In-SErvice training in Cyprus) is presented as an effective project for developing teachers’ leadership, as well as a rewarding experience for student teachers during their School Experience Program or Practicum. The program lasted one school year and aimed to enhance both the school principals’ pedagogic role in supporting participating teachers’ (preservice and in-service teachers’) professional development and leadership for changing teaching routines and enhancing students’ performance. This project productively shaped the life and work of schools, forming a foundation for powerful preservice pedagogies that will follow.

This chapter is an examination of research as teacher education. I present the experiences of preservice teachers/education students engaging in term-length research projects focusing on a student of a cultural or social background different from their own, while also documenting their own experiences of conducting research in their student teaching settings as part of their coursework. Recognizing the possibilities and addressing the challenges encountered by preservice teachers when engaging in research to learn about socially and culturally diverse students contributes to the body of teacher knowledge needed for all educators in an increasingly diverse local and global community. Students in the student teaching component of their teacher education program are professionally positioned to access firsthand the complexity and nuances of diversity in a school community. Examination of their experiences highlighted benefits of including research, namely narrative inquiry research, to engage preservice teachers in learning about issues of diversity and curriculum in ways that are highly relevant to their own teaching contexts, while at the same time, gaining a framework and assuming an inquiry stance that will serve them well throughout their careers. I also explore challenges of engaging preservice teachers in research to learn about diversity in classrooms and schools.

Hollie (2011) maintains that pedagogy is the most frequently overlooked facet of culturally responsive teaching. This chapter puts forward a promising pedagogy for working with diverse learners, particularly those from ethnic minorities. It opens by providing a brief background to the New Zealand context in which my research has been conducted, before moving on to identifying key UNESCO principles relating to cultural and linguistic diversity, and examining key tensions and challenges that impact on the development of relevant pedagogies for diversity in different international contexts. Relevant pedagogies identified in the international literature are then summarized. Next, examples from case study data on teachers in New Zealand schools are presented. These data highlight four key aspects of a promising pedagogy: knowing, doing, being, and belonging. Consideration of how these aspects influence the pedagogical objective of becoming suggests that, while generating relevant practices (doing) is more effective in combination with theoretical input (knowing), this is insufficient without concurrently engendering a sense of being with and belonging in diverse communities of learners. The final model for a promising pedagogy is therefore more than just a simple, linear process, but the components doing, knowing, being, and belonging are viewed as part of a dynamic, interactive, and cyclical model.

This chapter focuses on pedagogies of working with diversity centers on West-East reciprocal learning through a Reciprocal Learning Program in preservice teacher education between a Canadian university and a Chinese university. By presenting our initial analysis of fieldwork with our Teacher Education Reciprocal Learning Program participants through excerpts from newsletters, surveys, and interviews, we explore how participants from both China and Canada made sense of their learning from the other cultural and educational system through the Reciprocal Learning Program within broad educational, social, and cultural contexts. We argue that both global and multicultural dimensions are cultivated in reciprocal learning that infused the lived experiences of both Canadian and Chinese preservice teacher candidates. We discuss the pedagogic implications for working with diversity and believe that reciprocal learning can take place while working with people from different cultures with an attitude of mutual respect and appreciation and an appetite for learning in our increasingly interconnected world.

With shifting student demographics in Turkey, which will include many more international higher education students, together with increasing refugee migration to the country, professional development intended to assist teachers to move toward intercultural competency is becoming increasingly important. In this chapter, local in-service teacher educator initiatives and associated cultural adaptation facilitation tools are explored as a means to find ways to build cultural dialogue in the Turkish higher education environment, and, practically, for teachers in the field. While this chapter draws on an in-service teacher education case, much of what is presented is applicable to preservice settings as well. The chapter concludes with a look at changes in Turkish higher education, particularly in the facilitation of cultural convergence transferable to different educational environments and their applicability to international situations.

There is a long history of school failure for Aboriginals¹ in the U.S. educational system. Culturally relevant/responsive pedagogy affords opportunities for Aboriginal students to achieve academic success through building upon their cultural heritages and Native ways of knowing. School systems adopting this pedagogy empower Indigenous students to connect with essential knowledge for academic success in today’s world. This enhanced pedagogy creates classrooms of involvement that promote Aboriginal students’ achievement. Preservice teachers employing this pedagogy will experience success with their Indigenous students and learn about Aboriginal communities, lifeways, and values. Mutual respect is engendered as long-perpetuated negative stereotypes of Native Americans are undone. Culturally relevant/responsive pedagogy can be tailored to specific populations by incorporating their own Aboriginal knowledge, languages, and practices into teaching praxis.

The basic legislative frameworks determining the cooperation between school and parents at the elementary school level in Slovenia are presented in this chapter. Parents have a special role in the school council and the parents’ council where they are involved in (co)decision-making in the organization and the content of the elementary school programme. The organization of parents’ meetings and individual consultation hours which enable a direct formal form of the cooperation between school and parents is of outmost importance besides the legislative provisions which manage the informing of parents about school achievements and the behaviour of children, the inclusion of parents in the formation of school education plan and school regulations. The partnership model of cooperation between teachers’ and parents’ is perceived as the most productive model for developing constructive involvement of parents. Teachers should have appropriate attitudes towards cooperation with parents and possess suitably developed interpersonal communicative, cooperative and organizational skills, all of which are prerequisite to establishing and maintaining quality cooperation between teachers and parents. The results of the empirical research on the cooperation between schools and parents, based on representative sampling of both teachers and parents, showed the basic advantages and obstacles related to this cooperation, along with challenges facing more high-quality cooperation in the future.

In this chapter, I take up Smith’s (2012) conceptualization of pedagogy as “the thinking and practice of those educators who look to accompany learners; care for and about them; and bring learning to life” (np). I first make visible my thinking about parents and families which underlies my pedagogy. Here, I use Green and Christian’s (1998) notion of “accompanying” and Noddings’ (2002) notion of “caring about” to elaborate on my metaphorical understanding of the position of educators as one of walking alongside parents and family members in the education and schooling of their children. I then reflectively turn to my practice with undergraduate teacher education students to discuss what I do, in my own walking alongside, to live out a “curriculum of parents” (Pushor, 2011, 2013) with students. I use my course, Teaching and Learning in Community Education, to provide a live example of my pedagogy in practice and, finally, I reflect on my experiences within this pedagogy of working with parents and family to pull forward considerations that I feel are worthy of “deeper noticing” (Bateson, 1995).

Set in the Indian context, this chapter speaks of the wider concern expressed in teacher education more generally, that of increasing the efficacy of preservice teacher education for social justice. In India, equity in education has been a central concern within the striving for social justice since independence in 1947. Schools now include vast numbers of culturally diverse students, who were once excluded. However, notions of “standardization” and “homogenization” that tend to ignore their diverse voice, make transaction in the classroom an alienating experience for them. These normative ideas are challenged by emerging multicultural and critical perspectives in education which recognize linguistic and cognitive diversity and the need to create spaces for learners’ self-expression by nurturing their cultural identities in school. My chapter analyzes the effect of the collision of these two perspectives on an in-service ESL teacher and the culturally diverse learners she teaches. It then examines in what ways this pedagogy is promising for preservice teacher education that seeks to promote teaching for social justice.

This chapter elaborates a “pedagogy of narrative shifting” as conceptualized by Li, Conle, and Elbaz-Luwisch (2009) in a course that seeks to foster dialogue across difference in an Israeli university located in a highly polarized setting. The approach draws on personal life stories as a vehicle for examining multiculturalism in teacher education, in the context of the multiple and overlapping identities, conflict and narratives of exclusion that characterize Israeli society. For prospective teachers, the opportunity to tell an important personal story and to have that story heard and validated by others, contributed to both personal and professional development. Working with their stories in a small-group format allowed students to develop their own “internally persuasive discourse” (Bakhtin, 1981) in discussions of controversial issues. Prominent themes emerging in the work included “recognition” (Taylor, 1994) and “resonance” (Conle, 1996). Engaging with bodily experience and with the imagination helped participants to transcend limited understandings and create shared visions of their present and future. The course afforded a unique space for dialogue that can be adapted for other contexts, to allow teacher educators to engage with their students in new and creative ways.

In this chapter, the issue of social justice in teacher education is addressed from a Swedish perspective. The chapter begins by briefly describing the Swedish educational context in schools and teacher education, with a specific emphasis on the task of educators and teacher educators to promote social justice and as a consequence to this counteract various forms of social violence: such as violation, including bullying, harassment, and discrimination. The second section introduces evidence on fruitful strategies for counteracting social violence in school, based on a national research study that takes into account international research. Following this, we exemplify how these findings are interlaced the pedagogies of teacher education in Sweden. The chapter ends with thoughts on such pedagogies in an international context, and a brief conclusion.

In recent years, we have seen a paradox. No matter how much the government strives to incorporate technology into classrooms as a learning resource for students, both national and international reports prove that this is a difficult aim to achieve purpose. Training both preservice and in-service teachers is vitally important for technology to become part of everyday school life. But to achieve this, we must move away from the techno-centric focus of technology. This chapter analyzes the importance of focusing on implementing technologies in the learning activities that teacher-trainers design to prepare preservice teachers. We describe seven types of activities: assimilative, informative management, applicative, communicative, productive, experiential, and evaluation. All of these technology-based learning activities, organized in learning sequences, potentially help teachers to come to terms with technological knowledge in their pedagogical content area.

This chapter presents a brief overview of education in Brazil and discusses the potential of creating animations, which are an excellent way of storytelling, in learning situations. The work addresses the importance of creative and artistic pedagogies in education and teacher education. The importance of Freire’s philosophy is emphasized and the discussion adds to what is known about working in situations involving material and economic constraints.

This chapter introduces the efforts in the field of teacher education in the Czech Republic that focus on developing preservice teachers’ professional vision using a video-based e-learning environment – VideoWeb. First, the current developments in the field of education in the Czech Republic are presented. Next, preservice teacher education in the Czech Republic is briefly summed up. Drawing on this and on the description of the local context, the rationale for the approach is addressed – both the theoretical and the practical considerations. VideoWeb is an e-learning environment that uses video cases integrated into thematic modules in order to improve preservice teachers’ professional vision and help them orient themselves in the complexity of classroom situations. The implementation of VideoWeb was accompanied by research focusing on student teachers’ acceptance and evaluation of VideoWeb, on the benefits of working with VideoWeb they perceived, and also on the actual changes in their professional vision. The findings are briefly introduced. The chapter closes with a discussion of the assets and drawbacks of using VideoWeb in the way it is being implemented at the moment, what changes to our practices might be beneficial, and where our efforts might aim in the future.

In this chapter, we first describe an innovative teacher-training system that focuses on the uses of educational ICT at the level of a Swiss Canton and provide illustrations of its implementation. In the second part, we synthesize, from 10 years of enactment, the main results of the evaluation of the effects of the particular training on students and teachers. A third part of our chapter discusses these results and proposes avenues of interpretation and possible actions. This approach sets out to highlight the positive aspects of this important experience so that it can be renewed and adapted in contexts different than our own.

In this chapter, two reforms in initial teacher education at the University of Oslo are contrasted and compared with regard to the use of digital technology and the underlying ideas of teaching and learning. Reflecting different time periods of technology development, these reforms initiated in 2000 and 2012, respectively, offer valuable insights into how initial teacher education is influenced by technologies in the society and how conceptions of teacher professional learning are changing over time. This study highlights the constraints and affordances of the technologies for changing and bridging practices in teacher education. For the uptake and use of digital technology, the findings point to the necessity of critically examining the way in which the approaches to teaching and learning in initial teacher education and the constraints of how the technology designs are influencing student teachers’ learning.

This chapter restates the purpose of the three-volume series and discusses themes that reoccur in chapters and sections of Part B, which first appeared in chapters and sections of Part A of the series. While Part A of the three-book set focused on pedagogies of teacher selection, reflection, narrative ways of knowing, identity, and mentoring and mediation, Part B of the three-volume series centers on pedagogies of preservice teacher leadership, diversity, parents and family, social justice, and technology. Ideas having to do with traveling stories, the theory-practice split, and the praxical nature of pedagogies are taken up. To conclude, the model for traveling pedagogies, which was first proposed in Part A of the series, once again appears, with a few sub-themes added from International Teacher Education (Part B), which support the already identified framework in International Teacher Education (Part A).