Search results

In illustrating and reflecting on my use of constructivist grounded theory methodology, this chapter explores findings of a study involving perceptions of learning of eight career changing trainee teachers enroled across four one-year primary or secondary postgraduate initial teacher education (ITE) programmes in England. Through four sets of unstructured interviews over the course of 10 months, qualitative findings suggest that this group of trainee teachers experience a similar learning process of convergence, change, consciousness and confidence. Diagrammatic modelling of data plays a key role in enacting a constructivist approach to grounded theory by demonstrating coding relationships through constant comparison leading to theory generation. Along with other observations, significant findings include how career changers without prior education experience may adapt and adopt new, professional identities with more confidence more quickly than those with extensive prior education experience, and, alternative teaching placements that occur in the ‘middle’ of a postgraduate course may have a significant effect in a career changers perceived confidence in ‘being a teacher’. Recommendations for ITE programmes, future teacher recruitment policy and researchers employing grounded theory are included. Recommendations for postgraduate researchers in education are scattered throughout this chapter.

Diversifying the teaching profession has been of international concern for several decades. While most attention has been devoted to issues of ‘race’ and ethnicity, in comparison, social class has been relatively invisible. Research suggests that those from working class backgrounds experience challenges with regard to belonging in what has been regarded as a middle class teaching profession. An area unexplored has been the complexities of researching with student teachers from under-represented groups, including those from working class backgrounds. This chapter draws on research conducted as part of the Access to Post-primary Teaching (APT) project funded under the Higher Education Authority's Programme for Access to Higher Education (PATH): Strand 1 – Equity of Access to Initial Teacher Education. APT supports the participation of student teachers from lower socio-economic groups in initial teacher education. Following the introduction and literature review, we provide information about the methodology of the overall project, as well as the data upon which we draw in this chapter. Next, we present a critical reflective analysis of working with APT participants over the last six years, drawing on our own critical reflections as researchers, as well as the voices of our participants through the project's research strand. Here we highlight concerns pertaining to relative researcher-participant positionality, and issues of identity and disclosure. Finally, we interrogate our analysis using the methodological literature about researching with marginalised groups and end with recommendations for supporting researcher reflexivity.

Lesson studies, a methodology originally developed in Japan, has been used in an increasing number of contexts, both in relation to initial teacher training and in the context of ongoing professional development. However, the research reported on the use of lesson studies in the training of physical education teachers is very limited. The aim of this review is to identify and analyze published studies on physical education lesson studies and to describe the advantages of using the methodology in the context of this discipline.

Exploratory searches were carried out in four multiple-search databases, and 14 publications were found. Information was collected about authors, year of publication, origin and type of study, purposes, concept of the lesson study, methodology and results.

The results of the different studies point in the same direction – potential of lesson studies in physical education in initial training and professional development; valuing collaborative work, contextualization and continuous nature; lesson studies as a significant experience; need to create conditions for teachers’ participation in lesson studies; need for further investigation.

The research reported on the use of lesson studies in the training of physical education teachers is very limited. This review is intended to cover all studies related to the theme of physical education lesson studies published in indexed journals.

In the context of a highly regulated teacher education system, this chapter offers an alternative vision for a ‘better normal’ for teacher education in England. It foregrounds the need for teacher educators and teacher preparation curricula to promote ‘a way of being’ that enables teachers and teacher educators to have agency, develop as ‘thinking’ professionals and be resilient in an ever-changing policy context.

This paper shares findings from a constructivist grounded theory study, exploring Trainee Teachers’ perceptions of their teaching and learning experienced during university-based teacher education programmes, specifically the theoretical components. Findings led to the development of a model of program design, pedagogy and teaching strategies that were successful in creating opportunities to build Professional Capital. This paper aims to share this model, highlighting the significance of Professional Capital amidst challenges in English Teacher Education, and to suggest implications for application of the model within broader workforce development.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 trainee teachers from four English universities. To support the development of the theoretical framework, researchers employed inductive and iterative constant comparative methods aligned with constructivist grounded theory to sensitise concepts and codes, which were verified using theoretical sampling.

Informed by the findings of this study, a model is presented which highlights that participants developed human, social and decisional capital during their academic programs helping them to widen their perceptions of what counts as educationally important, beyond narrow performativity measures that are pervasive in a school system. By actively adopting a transformative pedagogy and employing constructivist approaches to curriculum design and delivery, optimal learning environments for learners to build their professional capital can be provided.

These findings may prove valuable to Higher Education academics as a model when designing and delivering professional, student-centred programmes. There are also implications for policymakers seeking to redesign initial teacher education towards schools-led and practice-oriented approaches, who wish to consider the perceptions, values and motivations of trainee teachers.

The findings highlight the significance of teacher trainees’ active engagement with academic literature and theory, in terms of contributing to the development of their professional capital, resilience and professional commitment.

This chapter outlines research conducted by Karan Vickers-Hulse (KVH) as part of an educational professional doctorate; Marcus Witt (MW) was one of her supervisory team. Participants were from two initial teacher education (ITE) routes (School Direct and university-led) leading to a PGCE primary teacher qualification. The research was set within the context of continuously evolving policy on the training of teachers and the subsequent impact on developing a professional identity. The introduction of new ITE routes in England (DfE, 2015) aimed to offer a wider range of pathways into teaching, attract more applicants and mitigate the impact of teacher shortages. The research discussed in this chapter explored the experiences of trainees on these routes and the impact on their professional identity formation. This chapter begins with an overview of the literature in the field of professional identity formation, followed by a discussion of the chosen methodology and methods. This chapter concludes with several recommendations for teacher training providers as well as recommendations for future research that may be useful for doctoral students interested in the field of professional identity formation.

This chapter provides an illustration of doctoral case study research and insights to how practitioner research can capture the localised impact of policy shifts.

This article aims to identify and describe the research outcomes of studies that have employed the theoretical framework of lesson study (LS) in initial science teacher preparation programs. The focus is on the impact of LS on preservice teachers’ (PST) pedagogical and content knowledge, beliefs, routines and norms for professional learning and instructional practices.

A systematic approach was employed to compile pertinent literature by initially searching scholarly databases using specific keywords and phrases related to prospective science teacher preparation. Seventeen studies, encompassing both qualitative research and mixed-methods research, met the inclusion criteria and significantly contributed to the study’s findings. The authors independently conducted a coding process, applying a predefined code scheme based on Lewis et al.'s (2019) theoretical framework. The outcomes of the coding process were compared, and reliability tests were conducted to ensure the consistency of the coding.

In preservice science teacher (PSST) education, LS proves transformative, enriching pedagogical and content knowledge, shaping beliefs, fostering collaboration and influencing instructional practices. Its collaborative, reflective and iterative nature significantly contributes to the professional growth of preservice science teachers, preparing them for effective, student-centered teaching practices. Further investigation is warranted in the realm of LS, particularly concerning preservice science teachers and their beliefs.

This literature review on science PSTs is one of the pioneering efforts to employ the professional development framework crafted by Lewis et al. (2019).

This research seeks to explore the potential of Lesson Study as a vehicle to support professional development (PD) in a rural, Irish primary school. Lesson Study was utilised to design and implement integrated STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) lessons with young children (ages 4–7 years).

Three teachers were introduced to and participated in four cycles of Lesson Study over the course of one school year. Qualitative data were generated from interviews, collaborative weekly meetings and observation sheets.

Analysis suggests that Lesson Study supported the development of a culture of collaboration and provided an opportunity for teachers to share their knowledge. Findings also reveal that Lesson Study motivated teachers to reflect on their role within the classroom and enabled them to move away from teacher-led approaches. Although teachers perceived Lesson Study to be a beneficial form of PD, factors constrained their engagement, including practical, cultural and sustainability challenges.

The study explores the adaptability of Lesson Study in first level education in the context of STEM education. It reveals teachers’ first experience of Lesson Study, given its stark contrast to more “traditional” PD experiences they are accustomed to. This article will, therefore, be of interest to teachers, school leaders and policy makers.

This paper contributes initial findings to a currently under-researched area, Lesson Study in a rural context. This study also combines Lesson Study with STEM education, which has not been widely explored.

Widespread support exists for the view that teaching is a complex task (Schulman, 2004), that learning is a complex, dynamic phenomenon and that classrooms are ‘complex systems’ (Hardman, 2010). Systems behaving in complex, emergent ways cannot be successfully ‘managed’ by rigid, scripted practices but demand flexibility, responsiveness and in situ judgement. However, these dispositions appear only fleetingly, if at all, on professional standards rubrics and statutory descriptors of effective teaching. Discretionary judgement is implied but rarely emphasised. Drawing on the first author's doctoral study of ‘emergent learning’ in a primary school classroom, we demonstrate the importance of pre- and in-service teachers developing expert in-the-moment professional judgement to navigate the emergent and complex nature of classroom learning and argue that professional judgement should enjoy a more prominent, less tacit, position in pre-service initial teacher education (ITE) and in-service Continuing Professional Development (CPD). This chapter briefly describes and presents findings from the doctoral research which focused on how learning emerges bottom-up through classroom interactions, discusses the implications of this for teachers and concludes by setting an agenda for future research into teachers' experiences of agency and autonomy.

The broad aim of this paper is to use Noddings' theory of ethical care to analyse mentors' caring experiences. More specifically, it aims to analyse how physical education (PE) mentors provide care, how they are cared for and how this impacts their role within the context of secondary PE initial teacher training (ITT).

Semi-structured interviews were used to generate data from 17 secondary PE mentors within the same university ITT partnership in the north-west of England. Questions focused on the mentors' experiences of care and the impact this had on their wellbeing and professional practice. A process of thematic analysis was used to identify, analyse and report patterns in the data.

The participants reflected established definitions of mentoring by prioritising the aim of developing the associate teachers' (ATs) teaching rather than explicitly providing support for their wellbeing. This aim could be challenging for mentors who face personal and professional difficulties while supporting the training of an AT. Mentors frequently referred to the support of their departmental colleagues in overcoming these difficulties and the importance of developing interdependent caring relationships. Receiving care did not impede mentors from providing support for others; it heightened awareness and increased their desire to develop caring habits.

Teacher wellbeing has drawn greater attention in recent years and is increasingly prioritised in public policy. These findings highlight the value of mentor wellbeing and how caring professional relationships can mitigate the pressures associated with performativity and managing a demanding workload.