Editorial

This issue of Teachers and Teaching consists of papers contributed by scholars from various parts of the international academic diaspora, including Chile, Spain, Finland, the United States, Wales (UK) and China (and Hong Kong). Between them, they raise important and emerging issues of teacher education such as multicultural education practices; the role of research for teachers; self- and co-regulated learning for teacher learning and development; the cultivation of practical wisdom for teachers (Lee & Day, 2016); collaboration processes for teacher research groups; transfer problems experienced by first-year teachers; as well as experiences and impact of initiatives such as the ‘funds of knowledge’ approach and the ‘Teach First’ project.

The paper ‘Elementary Teachers’ Beliefs about Multicultural Education Practices’ by Emily Aragona-Young and Brook E. Sawyer investigates how in-service elementary teachers from three schools in the United States defined, endorsed and understood multicultural practices as well as factors that affected these practices. Based on Banks (1999) continuum of multicultural approaches ranging from contribution, additive to transformative or decision-making and social action approaches, a 20-item survey with five scenarios was designed to investigate teachers’ multicultural education practices. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses of open-ended items were conducted. The findings revealed that while a majority of teacher respondents (more than 70%) tended to support ‘access or advocacy’, they neither endorsed low-level practices such as ‘isolated cultural presentations’ nor high-level multicultural education practices such as ‘cultural integration’ and ‘reviewing instructional materials for gender bias’. In relation to open-ended responses, five themes were identified. One theme suggested that teachers were inclined to see the development of diversified cultural knowledge and pride as an important classroom instruction goal. The second and third themes indicated that student-directed exploration and discussion related to culture and teacher-directed multicultural activities were significant practices. Beyond content and instruction, the fourth theme focused on establishing classroom community related to the classroom environment. The fifth and sixth themes highlighted constraints, which were related to resource availability, especially time, but also teachers’ incomplete understandings and unwillingness. It was notable that racial or ethnic background did not seem to be associated with teachers’ multicultural education practices, though it was suggested that more efforts could be given to building up inclusive classroom communities and promoting student ownership.

‘Pre-service Elementary Teachers’ Perceptions of Conducting and Consuming Research in Their Future Professional Practice’ by Macarena Yancovic-Allen addresses the relationship between education research and practices in the Chilean context where teachers are encouraged to conduct pedagogical research. Adopting a phenomenographic approach and analysing the interview data from pre-service elementary teachers from a Chilean university, the research identified three dimensions of variations including ‘use of research’, ‘foreseen impact’ and ‘teachers’ role in relation research’; and four categories for the research activity: (1) not useful and being disconnected from the future professional teaching practices; (2) useful for understanding education-related problems and improving practices; (3) useful for solving education-related problems; and (4) useful for creating education-related knowledge. When teachers viewed research being useful for solving educational problems through practitioner research involving their own and external sources of research, they were both producers and consumers of research with impact within school and classroom. When teachers’ perceptions of research as creating knowledge, usually a combination of practitioner and academic research on broad educational issue, the impact was likely to be extended from classroom to school and society. These findings suggest a more close alignment between teacher education programmes, the role of research and research standards for teachers.

In ‘Feedback from First-year Teachers: Rethinking the Transfer Problem in China’ Wangbei Ye, Xujing Song and Fan Li studied the transfer or transition problem from university to school experienced by novice teachers in their first year after graduation from a teacher education programme in Shanghai, China. The study was conducted in two stages: a questionnaire survey was conducted in the first stage while another similar questionnaire survey supplemented by interviews was arranged in the second stage. As revealed by the study, there was a trend that after the first year of teaching, teachers tended to perceive a decreased helpfulness of the teacher education programme for their teaching practices as well as a decreased helpfulness of facilitating factors and an increase in the difficulties such as suitability for teaching, examination pressure, constraints by class size and mentors as well as the lack of support from students. Four response patterns were also identified in this study. Firstly, teachers’ perceptions of their skills tended to be associated with locations of practicum where teachers were less confident when having their practicum outside the city of Shanghai. Secondly, teachers’ perceptions of higher level of helpfulness of teacher education learning tended to be linked with urban and Han background compared with their counterparts with rural and minority backgrounds. Thirdly, teachers’ employment of non-traditional teaching methods tended to be associated more with those with urban background than their rural first-year peers. Finally, male first-year teachers perceived less benefit from professional learning communities and encountered more challenges in schools. These findings revealed differences in the impact of the teacher education programme on rural and ethnic backgrounds of first-year teachers.

‘Understanding Teacher Collaboration Processes from a Complexity Theory Perspective: A Case Study of a Chinese Secondary School’ by Rui Yuan, Jia Zhang and Shulin Yu examines the developmental processes of teacher collaboration as a complex and dynamic system which entails an evolution through self-organisation and interaction with school management and university researchers in a wider context (e.g. Clarke & Collins, 2007). Through studying the collaborative practice in an English Teaching Research Group (TRG) in a secondary school in Shanghai, China over a two-year period, three stages of teacher collaboration were identified: ‘breaking the ice’, ‘everything is out of control’ and ‘learning how to collaborate through collaboration’. The results showed that self-organisation was essential for evolving and enhancing teacher collaborations such as the principal’s intervention, the provision of time and space and the TRG Head’s negotiation with school management to provide more autonomy for teacher collaboration. In addition, the involvement of university researchers in university–school collaborative research projects was found to promote teacher collaboration. There was also a cyclical movement from disequilibrium to balance in the process of collaboration. These findings pinpoint the importance of teacher collaboration systems through mutual and dynamic interactions as well as provision, autonomy and structural support between school management, university teachers, TRG Heads and teachers.

‘Student Teachers’ Emotional Landscapes in Self- and Co-regulated Learning’ by Emmi Saariaho, Henrika Anttila, Auli Toom, Tiina Soini, Janne Pietarinen and Kirsi Pyhältö addresses an important issue of self-regulated learning in the context of curriculum reform, teacher education and lifelong learning. Through interviewing Finnish student-teachers, the paper explored the academic emotions embedded in their self- and co-regulated teacher education learning experiences Self- and co-regulated learning entailed ‘goal-setting and task analysis’, ‘strategy use and monitoring’ and ‘regulative reflection on learning’ while emotional experiences were grouped into ‘activating’, ‘neutral’ and ‘deactivating’. The findings revealed that student-teachers who engaged in self- and co-regulated learning tended to experience positive emotions such as ‘enthusiasm’, ‘satisfaction or belonging’ alongside negative emotions such as ‘exhaustion’ and ‘anxiety’. It is notable that student-teachers’ emotional experiences were triggered by encountering ‘challenges during teacher studies’, when receiving ‘social support from peers’ or when engaging in ‘innovative learning and knowledge construction’. These findings suggested that more sharing of problem-solving and creative learning situations would be desirable for nurturing student-teachers’ self- and co-regulated learning.

‘Descriptive Inquiry: Cultivating Practical Wisdom with Teachers’ by Cara Furman discusses how descriptive inquiry could help enhance teacher’s practical wisdom which is defined as a teacher’s ability to handle ‘elements’ in an ‘interlocking’ manner which entails ‘philosophical frame’, ‘particulars’ and ‘actions’ (Lyons, 1990; Nussbaum, 1992). This means that a teacher with practical wisdom could draw on the philosophy of teaching to engage with the students and teachers involved with appropriate content in the school and classroom settings and to employ appropriate methods. This involves a ‘descriptive review’ and close study of learners’ and teachers’ work, ranging from work samples to teacher practices and books, ‘anecdotal recollection’ and ‘reflection on a word’. The paper illustrates how descriptive inquiry was used through the study of a child, William, under the philosophy of ‘caring’, with William as a ‘connector’ in ‘writing with others’.

‘Teachers’ Perceptions of the Benefits, Limitations and Areas for Improvement of the Funds of Knowledge Approach: A Qualitative Study’ by Mariona Llopart, Josep Maria Serra and Esteban-Guitart Moises uses study group as a focus, examining the positive and negative aspects, as well as the potential for the funds of knowledge approach (González, 1995) as an educational intervention. This approach involves home visits and study groups which facilitate better understanding of the historical and social contexts of the learner such that the teacher could prepare appropriate pedagogy. The approach was applied in the Province of Girona, Spain. The findings revealed that the funds of knowledge approach had brought about benefits such as ‘improvement of family-school relationships’, change in teachers’ belief and students’ attitudes. However, this approach was also found to have limitations of time investments as well as difficulties in unpacking the cultural codes and accessing the experiences of the families. In addition, more feedback needed to be provided to families, together with involvement of all school staff in the programme, arrangement of training and dissemination of information and activities.

‘Disrupting the Habitus? Media Representations and Participant Experience of Teach First: an Exploratory Case Study in Wales’ by Alex Southern discusses the media representations of the Teach First programme (which enables ‘top graduates’ or graduates from ‘leading universities’ to teach in disadvantaged schools) and the positive impact of this initiative. By drawing on Bourdieu’s (1989/1996, 2002) concept of habitus and interviewing participants, the paper explored the impact of Teach First and the professional identities reflected by these participants. The results showed that there were some challenges such as the difficulty for Teach First participants to strike a work–life balance, the heavy workload and the lack of time and expertise to choose appropriate strategies and to cater for the needs of individual students. These participants, however, were able to overcome such challenges through ‘self-leadership’, ‘reflection’, ‘honesty’ and ‘taking responsibility’.

By employing powerful theoretical perspectives and conceptual lens such as complexity theory (e.g. Clarke & Collins, 2007), the concepts of habitus (Bourdieu, 2002) and academic emotions (Pekrun & Linnenbrink-Garcia, 2012) as well as innovative approaches to multicultural education (Banks, 1999), descriptive inquiry (Traugh, 2009) and the funds of knowledge approach (González, 1995), papers in this issue have provided insights into the complexity and challenges of teachers’ work, both academic and emotional, and the roles of teacher education in teachers’ professional learning and development under a wide array of societal, educational, schools and classroom contexts. Taken together, they provide useful insights and possible pointers for future teacher education and development.

John Chi-Kin Lee
The Education University of Hong Kong
[email protected]