The Role Of Self In Teacher Development

Reflects some of the major transition points in becoming a teacher and focuses explicitly on how issues of self and identity bear on these different points.

This book explores the concept of the "best-loved self" in teaching and teacher education, asserting that the best-loved self is foundational to the development of teacher identity, growth in context, and learning in community. Drawing on the work of Joseph Schwab, who was the first to name the "best-loved self," the editors and their contributors extend this knowledge further through the collaboration of their group of teacher educators, known as the Faculty Academy, who have been involved in examining teacher education for over two decades.

This book presents some highlights from the deliberations of the 2003 conference of the International Study Association on Teachers and Teaching (ISATT). Part 1 presents the five keynote addresses of the conference, while Parts 2 through 4 present selected papers related to each of three sub-themes: knowledge construction and learning to teach, perspectives on teachers’ personal and professional lives, and teachers’ workplace as context for learning. The chapters in this book provide an array of approaches to understanding the process of teacher learning within the current context of the changing workplace environment. They also provide an important international perspective on the complex issues revolving around the international educational reform movement. Basically, they show how teachers’ workplace (inside and outside schools) are more than ever subject to continuous change and that, subsequently, standards for teaching must be flexible to these changing conditions. This asks for a redefinition of teacher professionalism in which the role of context in teacher learning is emphasized as well as the improvement of the quality of teacher thinking and learning. Related to the ever-changing context of teaching, a dynamic approach to teaching and teacher learning is required, in which identity development is crucial. Researchers have an important role to play in revealing and explaining how teachers can build their professional identity, through self-awareness and reflection, in the ever-changing educational contexts throughout the world.

Against the backdrop of a pull toward external standards and accountability, this collection of chapters re-grounds us in the importance of bringing the 'self' to the foreground of the discourse of teaching, teacher education and practitioner research.

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.

Chapter one will review teacher development in Sudanese state primary schools, as well as the poor resources available to teachers. It discusses the need for teacher development and training to help with the transition to a new curriculum written for these schools, and the challenges faced by the teachers, as the new curriculum is quite different from the previous one taught in state schools. This chapter describes a case study using a qualitative ethnographic research methodology that examines the significant role of developing resilience and grit within a pre-service teacher education program. Chapter three discusses the broad interface between the concepts of agency, professional identity and creative insubordination. It presents discussions about the agency and professional identity of teachers in narrating their actions of creative insubordination. It aims to map and analyze written narratives, identifying insubordinate actions revealed by teachers teaching mathematics and discuss how these attitudes, incorporated into teaching practice, contributed to the effectiveness of teaching statistics in their mathematics classes in Elementary School. The following chapter will employ a critical analysis of an instrumental theory-building pre-service teacher case-study as the foundation of a theoretical-based, cyclical, self-reflective teacher cultural competence professional development model. In this chapter, attention will be paid to the modern environment, which is a complex phenomenon revealing many interesting trends. The spate of events, civilizations progress, the cult of performing different tasks, and professional duties all disrupt the rhythm of work and rest. These disproportions take their toll on everyday existence in the teacher`s profession. The final chapter uses evidence from reports prepared for governments quality agencies, plus papers and seminars given by the author, to document the changing face of teacher education in Lithuanian and Latvia, from 2003 to date.

Teacher-Centered Professional Development is a hands-on guide to collaborative skill building for educators. It introduces the Teacher's Choice Framework, a model that empowers teachers by helping them choose and initiate professional growth activities according to their schedules, strengths, and needs. The book describes a wide variety of professional development strategies, including mentoring, journal writing, peer-to-peer coaching, and seminars. For each strategy, the author provides: * A brief history of the research base * A step-by-step guide to implementing the strategy * Sample handouts and assessment forms * Examples from the field of the strategy in practice With this book, teachers at all levels can quickly learn how to set up development teams, conduct action research, and engage in other activities to further their skills. In addition, the Teacher's Choice Framework helps educators prioritize their needs and choose the strategies that best suit those needs. Teacher-Centered Professional Development offers both a perfect introduction to staff development options and a commonsense method for choosing among them. Note: This product listing is for the Adobe Acrobat (PDF) version of the book.

Powerful Pedagogy: Self-Study of a Teacher Educator’s Practice is the outcome of the author’s systematically questioning her assumptions about teaching and, in various ways, gives voice to the many individuals who have had an impact on the development of the author’s pedagogy as a mathematics teacher educator. Using self-study as both a lens and a methodology to research her practice over the past three years, the author examines the impact of reflection and reflective practice in pre-service teacher education; voice, silence and that which remains “unsaid”; the ways in which teacher identities emerge and develop, and the role of authority and power in learning about teaching.