Self Studies In Rural Teacher Education

The purpose of this book is to highlight the work of teacher educators in the field of rural education. In this book, education faculty who work in teacher education study the ways in which one’s identity impacts one’s teaching and the partnerships with rural schools. Although the field of research on teacher preparation has an abundance of studies on preparing students for the challenges of urban settings, there is much less emphasis on rural education, despite the prevalence of rural schools. This book problematises notions of rural or rurality which is often considered via a deficit or a generalised model where a stereotype of one kind of rural is outlined. Developing more multi-faceted understandings of rurality is a key to attracting and retaining teachers who understand the complexities and opportunities of living and working in rural spaces.

This book examines challenges associated with the education of teachers in and for rural places. It offers a new perspective with respect to how Canadian educators are shifting the conversation toward a hopeful discourse concerning how educators can foster meaningful rural learning environments, which will contribute to building stronger rural communities and regions. A central focus of the book is emerging reconceptualization of education, place and indigeneity in Canadian education in the wake of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Though the challenge of addressing rural teaching and learning lies partly in the nuances and complexities of unique places, there are also common threads that affect virtually all communities in rural, regional and remote educational, cultural, economic, and social geographies. Chapters in this collection provide current research in Canadian rural education including examples and stories from the field – contributed by teachers, administrators, and superintendents – on the challenges and creative opportunities that they have discovered in their own rural context, giving hope and inspiration for what is possible. The book will appeal to all readers interested in rural education and teacher education, as well as to those concerned with educational inequality and indigenous education.

This book critically explores pedagogical activities, policies, and coursework that teacher education programs can provide to more fully prepare teacher candidates and in-service educators for professional practice in urban schools. It illustrates how teacher educators from across the United States are supporting teacher candidates and in-service teachers to possess the knowledge, skills, and dispositions for equity-oriented instructional practices and advocacy for professional engagement in the urban context. Chapters share insider perspectives of urban teacher education on preparing teachers to teach in culturally, linguistically, and socio-economically diverse classrooms. They discuss teacher educators’ learning about their own practice in the preparation of teachers for city schools, preparing teacher candidates from rural and suburban contexts to teach in urban settings, and supervising practicing teachers in city classrooms. The volume also focuses on the interplay of cultural and linguistic parity between teacher educators and their preservice/in-service teacher students, implementing learning activities or coursework about teaching in urban schools, and enacting critical pedagogical practices. This book will be beneficial to teacher educators focused on teacher preparation for city classrooms and urban school districts, and researchers seeking to adopt self-study methodology in their own research endeavors.

This teacher education textbook invites preservice and beginning teachers to think critically about the impact of rurality on their work and provides an overview of what it means to live, teach, learn, and thrive in rural communities. This book underscores the importance of teaching in rural schools as an act of social justice—work that dismantles spatial barriers to economic, social, and political justice. Teaching in Rural Places begins with a foundational section that addresses the importance of thinking about rural education in the U.S. as an educational environment with particular challenges and opportunities. The subsequent chapters address rural teaching within concentric circles of focus—from communities to schools to classrooms. Chapters provide concrete strategies for understanding rural communities, valuing rural ways of being, and teaching in diverse rural schools by addressing topics such as working with families, building professional networks, addressing trauma, teaching in multi-grade classrooms, and planning place-conscious instruction. The first of its kind, this comprehensive textbook for rural teacher education is targeted toward preservice and beginning teachers in traditional and alternative teacher education programs as well as new rural teachers participating in induction and mentoring programs. Teaching in Rural Places will help ensure that rural students have the well-prepared teachers they deserve.

Self-study in teacher education is a growing field and a natural progression from the concept of reflective practice for pre-service teachers. This book is designed to introduce teacher educators to the theory and practice of self-study, in order to explore, understand and improve their teaching about teaching. With studies from an international range of contributors, this book illustrates a variety of approaches to self-study. It describes the issues that teacher educators have chosen to study, how they carried out their research and what the learning outcomes were. Throughout, the emphasis is on placing teacher educators' knowledge and practice at the centre of their academic work. This book will be of interest to all teacher educators wishing to improve their knowledge and practice.

An in-depth study of the good practices in teacher support systems around the world! What do rural school teachers need and how can they be supported in their continuing professional development? How can a teacher support system be set up and function in a certain context? What factors would guarantee success of the system? This book tries to answer these questions by taking five case studies from very different contexts and countries—Cambodia, China, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Romania—but with a common topic: ‘developing teacher support systems in rural areas for their continuing professional development’.

Study Research Methodologies for Teacher Educators is a comprehensive text that delineates a range of research methodologies. This edited volume, with many chapters written by self-study scholars who are noted in the field for particular methodological and epistemological perspectives, helps fill the gap in the literature on self-study research methods.

Over the past ten years there has been increased interest in research on various aspects of teacher education, ranging from the preparation of teachers to continuing professional development. The increase of interest in how teachers become competent in very complex social settings is a result of a general recognition by researchers and policy makers alike that teachers are the key to any serious efforts at educational reform. This book addresses a variety of issues surrounding the field of inquiry into teaching practice that has become known as 'self-study', equivalent in many ways to the 'action research' movement, but at tertiary level.