Description:
The mathematical ‘landscape’ (Meaney & Lange, 2012) that constitutes pre-service teacher education is complex. Pre-service teachers enter undergraduate education courses with diverse expectations and experiences in mathematics, varying degrees of mathematical content knowledge (MCK) based on their pre-program school studies and assumptions about their roles as learners, graduates and teachers of mathematics. These University students also arrive with various attitudes to mathematics, and to mathematics education courses (Beswick, 2006, Henderson, 2012) and there is extensive research literature that suggests unless pre-service teacher have their attitudes and assumptions challenged they will ultimately teach in the same ways that they were taught (Brandenburg, 2008). Such differing attitudes and emotional responses are due to previous experiences in mathematics and the research suggests that, if the attitudes are negative they can be very difficult to change. If such negative attitudes do not change, they can also affect the way that pre-service teachers take responsibility for their own mathematical learning and the way that they teach students in their classes once they are fully qualified to do so (Henderson, 2012).
Description:
This book examines the nuanced and situated experiences of self-study researchers. It explores the ways in which ethics are dynamic, idiosyncratic and require an ongoing ethical reflexivity. In addition, the book identifies, documents and collates the collective experiences of self-study researchers and sheds new light on the role and impact of ethics, ethical dilemmas and ensuing decisions for education researchers. The book considers the ethical dilemmas that self-study researchers in teacher education face, their careful ethical considerations while conducting research, and how they form their professional judgment and understanding of what it means to be an ethical self-study researcher. For self-study researchers, there are a number of ethical dilemmas and challenges that cannot be neatly captured by the frameworks and guidelines of an ethics board. For many, this requires researchers to be ever-present and re-engaged with the ethics of their own projects, from the development, through to the dissemination of their work. Readers will gain a deeper understanding of ethics, ethical perspectives and practices in the field of self-study research.
Description:
For teacher educators, ethical dilemmas, tensions and 'pedagogical confrontations' (PCs) often arise in day-to-day teaching practice. Education research reveals that self-study researchers usually have a heightened awareness of their obligations to both identify and subsequently act on these dilemmas, tensions and confrontations (Berry, 2007; Bullough & Pinnegar, 2004; East, Fitzgerald & Heston, 2009; LaBoskey, 2004; Loughran, 2006; Pinnegar & Hamilton, 2009, 2015; Samaras, 2011 ). This self-study research focuses on the identification, categorization and analysis of 'pedagogical confrontations' (PCs) and asks what they mean for teacher educators. Through selfstudy and analysis of these 'pedagogical confrontations' we have come to understand more about the sophisticated and complex nature of teaching. Furthermore, we explore the way in which the use of PCs as a lens for researching practice, has subsequently led to new insights and led to an 'enactment in practice' (Loughran, 2006).
Description:
Abstract As with many mathematics teacher educators, I purposefully set about challenging the curriculum and pedagogical status-quo; I wanted my Bachelor of Education pre-service teachers (PSTs) to experience learning and teaching mathematics in a connected and powerful way. I initiated was Roundtable Reflective Inquiry (RRI) sessions as one key practice that enabled PSTs to reflect on their mathematics teaching experience in an ongoing, structured manner. PSTs generated discussions based on critical events and interactions, and my aim was for PSTs to learn through their own experience rather than mine. My role was to facilitate, synthesise and challenge (often) firmly held assumptions. However, as this chapter will reveal, an often unexpected outcome of pre-service teacher education is teacher educator enrichment, knowledge and transformation. While my intention, and indeed the initial focus of my self-study was to enhance PST learning and teaching in mathematics, it soon became evident that I was learning as a teacher educator and my new approach was contributing to my own pedagogical development as a teacher educator. Learning in mathematics teacher education is about coming to know and self-study enabled me as teacher educator researcher to notice, to challenge my assumptions and to name new knowledge
Description:
Being a teacher educator is a complex endeavour and it is through systematic, and evidence-based reflection in and on practice that teaching pedagogy is more deeply understood. Extant literature reveals that reflective practice plays an integral role in understanding teacher educators' work. This chapter focuses on pedagogical confrontations as a lens for reflective practice to reveal the complexity of teacher educators' work. The term 'pedagogical confrontations' (PCs) signifies incidents, interactions or events in teaching which cause us to pause and critically examine our practice. In this chapter we examine the context, descriptions and responses of participant-identified pedagogical confrontations. Through independent and collaborative analysis of the confrontations we identify three key themes: (i) professional roles; (2) the importance of relationships; and (3) the changing nature of universities and teacher education. Using PCs as a lens for reflective practice reveals the relationship between one's values and pedagogical practices and we contend that recognition and deeper knowledge of this relationship leads to richer understandings of teacher educators' work.