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1 – 10 of 214There have been increasing calls for social studies educators to engage issues of sustainability. Proponents argue that the very survival of the planet depends on the degree to…
Abstract
Purpose
There have been increasing calls for social studies educators to engage issues of sustainability. Proponents argue that the very survival of the planet depends on the degree to which teachers can move learners away from unsustainable beliefs and behaviors to those grounded in interdisciplinary approaches to solving community and global challenges. How to implement this vision of sustainability education? The purpose of the paper is to report the results of teacher-educators' curriculum and pedagogical approaches to implement the National Council for Social Studies (NCSS) C3 framework to engage and empower prospective and practicing teachers to teach for a sustainable future.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is guided by the growing field of self-study in teacher education, a type of research undertaken by teacher-educators with the dual purpose of personal professional development and a deep understanding of teacher-education practices. Most data were derived from multiple, recursive conversations (both formal and informal) around curriculum decisions and pedagogical choices to integrate sustainability issues into teacher-education courses. Additional data sources include classroom lecture notes and PowerPoint presentations, course readings and resources.
Findings
The authors' three years of collaborative work has shown that an issues-centered, interdisciplinary approach to select and integrate global issues, the current event article analysis, young adult literature and discussion and deliberation of local sustainable development issues that are some of the most effective pedagogical tools to engage and empower teacher candidates in learning about issues that affect the sustainable development of global community. The NCSS C3 provides a powerful framework to scaffold the process of analyzing sustainable issues while also teaching social studies curriculum and standards and skills.
Originality/value
Scholars of global education have called for shifting from an anthropocentric philosophy to a bio-centric worldview emphasizing the embeddedness of humans within the environment. How can social studies teacher-educators implement this vision of global education What instructional resources strategies and learning activities can be effectively integrated into existing courses to help candidates develop competences and commitment to teaching for global sustainability The study examines the innovative approaches to addressing these critical topics in teacher education.
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Kylie Budge, Narelle Lemon and Megan McPherson
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the growing use of Twitter in academic and artist practices. The authors explore commonalities, overlaps and differences within the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the growing use of Twitter in academic and artist practices. The authors explore commonalities, overlaps and differences within the reflections on the initial and ongoing motivations, usage and learnings the authors have encountered whilst immersed in this environment.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors locate the particular inquiry by drawing on the literature surrounding digital identities, academic literacies and digital scholarship. Departing from other studies, the focus is on a narrative inquiry of the lived experiences as academics and as artists using Twitter.
Findings
Academics use of Twitter plays a distinctly social role enabling communication that connects, and fostering accessible and approachable acts. It enables a space for challenging norms of academic ways of being and behaving. In addition, the authors draw conclusions about the “messiness” of the interconnected space that incorporates multiple identities, and highlight the risk taking the authors associate with using Twitter.
Research limitations/implications
Academic practice is ever changing in the contemporary university. This initial study of academic and artist practices and the use of Twitter suggests future developments including participants using similar questions to elicit notions of practice to engage in a deeper understanding of motivations and behaviours.
Practical implications
In using social media tools such as Twitter, individual academics and their practices are modified; the impact of this practice is visible.
Originality/value
The authors contribute to emerging discussions and understandings about academics, social media and identity. The authors argue that by participating in the use of Twitter, the authors are part of the collective process of challenging what it means to be an academic and artist.
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The purpose of this paper is to relay and discuss the experiences of a teacher educator teaching critical literacy to preservice teacher candidates immediately following the US…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to relay and discuss the experiences of a teacher educator teaching critical literacy to preservice teacher candidates immediately following the US presidential election in 2016. In a time of increasing polarization in the USA, teachers and teacher educators have unique opportunities to create honest spaces for dialogue, but developing classrooms that can serve as these spaces is not an easy task.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is a self-study practitioner narrative of a teacher educator teaching a secondary literacy course.
Findings
The paper discusses the importance of addressing critical literacy in the context of particular historical moments and as more sustained, engaged work that makes room for minority voices that may not be heard across particular settings. The findings prompt teachers and teacher educators to consider whose voices are present, absent and valued during difficult conversations.
Originality/value
Making room for uncomfortable dialogues in preservice teacher education classrooms can transform the ways in which teacher candidates (and their future students) engage with written and non-traditional texts in the world around them. Promoting spaces for critical, authentic and honest dialogue requires teacher educators to model the willingness to move beyond their own comfort zones and interrogate their own deeply help beliefs. This paper is evidence of engaged self-reflection, a necessary part of transformative practice related to critical literacy.
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Jonathan Kroll and Manuel Moreno
Although the leadership training and development industry generates billions of dollars each year, some countries lag behind. This article explores one program’s attempt to expand…
Abstract
Although the leadership training and development industry generates billions of dollars each year, some countries lag behind. This article explores one program’s attempt to expand leadership training and development opportunities in Nicaragua. The Leadership Trainer Certification Program (LTCP) is designed to prepare those who are responsible for the leadership development of others with the knowledge, skills, and facilitation techniques to effectively train others in leadership. In this article, we detail qualitative narrative data from one participant’s experience to share how he translated his learning into his leadership training and development practice. This article illuminates how leadership train-the-trainer programming can re-shape the leadership landscape, especially in places like Nicaragua and throughout the Global South.
Charles Ellis and Kathryn Castle
Teacher research (inquiry) has been characterized as practice improvement, professional development and action research, among numerous names and descriptions. The purpose of this…
Abstract
Purpose
Teacher research (inquiry) has been characterized as practice improvement, professional development and action research, among numerous names and descriptions. The purpose of this paper is to support the case that teacher research is also a form of quality improvement known as continuous process improvement (CPI).
Design/methodology/approach
The paper outlines the underlying characteristics, processes and sub‐processes employed by teacher researchers. Next, the same approach is applied to the underlying characteristics, processes and sub‐processes of CPI. Lastly, an analysis is performed to identify parallels between teacher research methodology and the methodology employed in CPI to support the case that teacher research is a form of CPI.
Findings
It is believed that a defensible analytical case has been built that where teacher research is conducted, the teacher's practice and the education of the students is undergoing CPI.
Practical implications
Schools and school administrators searching for techniques to improve the learning that takes place in their school should strongly consider and support teacher research as an effective means of quality improvement.
Originality/value
The paper presents a different perspective and view of teacher research in the context of CPI, which was once considered the domain of businesses and corporations.
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Kara Michelle Taylor, Evan M. Taylor, Paul Hartman, Rebecca Woodard, Andrea Vaughan, Rick Coppola, Daniel J. Rocha and Emily Machado
This paper aims to examine how a collaborative narrative inquiry focused on cultivating critical English Language Arts (ELA) pedagogies supported teacher agency, or “the capacity…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine how a collaborative narrative inquiry focused on cultivating critical English Language Arts (ELA) pedagogies supported teacher agency, or “the capacity of actors to critically shape their own responsiveness to problematic situations” (Emirbayer and Mische, 1998, p. 971).
Design/methodology/approach
Situated in a semester-long inquiry group, eight k-16 educators used narrative inquiry processes (Clandinin, 1992) to write and collectively analyze (Ezzy, 2002) stories describing personal experiences that brought them to critical ELA pedagogies. They engaged in three levels of analysis across the eight narratives, including open coding, thematic identification, and identification of how the narrative inquiry impacted their classroom practices.
Findings
Across the narratives, the authors identify what aspects of the ELA reading, writing and languaging curriculum emerged as problematic; situate themselves in systems of oppression and privilege; and examine how processes of critical narrative inquiry contributed to their capacities to respond to these issues.
Research limitations/implications
Collaborative narrative inquiry between teachers and teacher educators (Sjostrom and McCoyne, 2017) can be a powerful method to cultivate critical pedagogies.
Practical implications
Teachers across grade levels, schools, disciplines and backgrounds can collectively organize to cultivate critical ELA pedagogies.
Originality/value
Although coordinated opportunities to engage in critical inquiry work across k-16 contexts are rare, the authors believe that the knowledge, skills and confidence they gained through this professional inquiry sensitized them to oppressive curricular norms and expanded their repertoires of resistance.
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While Black teachers have engaged in racial justice-oriented teaching for centuries and the body of research on racial justice-oriented teachers is growing, very little is known…
Abstract
Purpose
While Black teachers have engaged in racial justice-oriented teaching for centuries and the body of research on racial justice-oriented teachers is growing, very little is known about how teachers come to this work. The purpose of this paper is to focus on where and how Black teachers who teach with racial justice aims learned to engage in this work.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a narrative inquiry (Clandinin and Connelly, 2000) study that was designed and analyzed using a critical race theory lens.
Findings
Participants learned to engage in racial justice-oriented teaching from their lived experience, particularly from their K-12 teachers who showed why this kind of teaching was necessary. Additionally, participants were highly skeptical of whether or not teacher education programs could prepare White preservice teachers to engage in this kind of teaching.
Originality/value
There is very little research focusing on how Black teachers come to engage in racial justice-oriented teaching, and even less that provides insight into how Black teachers perceive teacher education programs at predominantly White institutions (PWIs). This study sheds light on when, where and how Black teachers learn to teach with racial justice aims, and it also illuminates the experiences of Black teachers in PWI teacher education programs.
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Iro Konstantinou and Elizabeth Miller
The paper draws upon autoethnographic accounts from two academic staff in a private higher education institution (HEI) in London, UK who try to make sense of their teaching and…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper draws upon autoethnographic accounts from two academic staff in a private higher education institution (HEI) in London, UK who try to make sense of their teaching and learning practices during the pandemic. Even though studies have looked into the impact of Covid-19 on teaching and learning and on students, this paper reflects on the experience of lecturers with a focus on their emotional labour and stressors during remote teaching and working.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a small case study of two colleagues from a small private institution in London, UK, which is based on autoethnography. The authors draw on personal notes, emails and other written artefacts alongside our memories of our lived experiences of the pandemic.
Findings
The authors’ reflections focus on the need for institutional collegiality as avenues to network and collaborate beyond institutions which have been limited (despite the increased interactions online) and the need to acknowledge emotional labour while providing spaces for staff to discuss their everyday experiences. The authors argue for a renewed importance for creating a sense of community during times of uncertainty and beyond. If these structures are put into place, the conditions to support teaching and learning will also strengthened.
Originality/value
There is a dearth in research which discusses emotional labour and the importance of community and collegiality on campuses and in the new way of working remotely. This paper adds to the empirical basis of such research and hopes to encourage others to share their experiences of emotional labour in the academy.
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The purpose of this study is to examine the benefits and challenges of simultaneously participating part-time in a doctoral program and teaching full-time in the K-12 classroom.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the benefits and challenges of simultaneously participating part-time in a doctoral program and teaching full-time in the K-12 classroom.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, the author used autoethnography to examine the benefits and challenges she faced as a part-time doctoral student and full-time, public high-school English language arts teacher.
Findings
The findings included that managing finite personal resources such as time and mental bandwidth constituted a challenge while simultaneously existing in both worlds created a unique perspective derived from the knowledge, ideas and events in each world constantly prompting reflection on the other. Additionally, benefits – the synergy between research and practice – and challenges – the frustration that occurred when potential crossover faced resistance – resulted from the cross-pollination between studying and teaching. Finally, inhabiting both worlds ended up changing the author’s plans, raising questions about where to go upon finishing her degree.
Originality/value
Scant research exists about part-time doctoral students in general, even less research exists on part-time students who work full-time in any profession, and even less broaches teachers’ experiences teaching full time while in a doctoral program. Given the need for classroom realities to better inform research and policy, examining the possibilities regarding part-time doctoral programs for teachers holds potential for both practice and research to speak to one another.
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