Lecture 4 Teacher Identities

Teacher identities //Professional Experience

Dr Megan [email protected]

Dr Jackie [email protected]

Overview

• Teacher identities

•Observing, learning, reflecting, growing

•Observation days

•The school community

•Preparing for the teaching profession: portfolios, applications, interviews.

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A word to the wise ...

•This lecture is presented in parts

•Take notes as we go because you may be asked to discuss things with a buddy during proceedings

•Write down things that interest, provoke, intice, challenge, confuse

•Feel free to interrupt with focused questions at any stage

PART I

WHO WANTS TO BE A TEACHER?

What kind of teacher will you be?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3PhJDxvgJM

Teacher stereotypes

Teacher stereotypes

•Teachers, like other groups, get stereotyped

Stereotypes may be based on

•Gender

•Age

•Ethnicity, race, religion

•Sexual orientation

•Social class/status

•Subject (Maths, French, English, Woodwork, PE, etc.)

Stereotypes

•Teachers may also stereotype their students based on the same things

The problem with stereotypes

•They don’t account for complexity

•They can lock people in

•They can even affect how you see yourself

•This is why you need to explore your identity as a teacher

You need to ask yourself

• How do I see myself as a teacher?

• How do others see me as a teacher?

• What impacts will this have on those I teach?

• On parents? On other teachers? On the school community in general?

Source: López, Mónica, Diego Valdez, Veronica Olea, Andrea Mosqueda, Mónica Gutierrez. What is technology? Slideshow presentation. Available at http://www.slideshare.net/diegovaldez/what-is-technology-2937682. Accessed 1 February 2010.


Key discourses in teacher ed


•The discipline you are coming into is neither ahistorical nor apolitical

•We can trace different discourses in teacher ed

Moore, Alex. 2004. The Good Teacher. Dominant discourses in teaching and teacher education. London: RoutledgeFalmer. p. 40


•Discourses are a little different from stereotypes.

•Discourses are “limits of acceptable speech” (Judith Butler) and they affect the stories we tell about ourselves



•There have been some key discourses about teachers and teaching in teacher education over the decades



•1980s: ‘charismatic’, ‘ready-made’ discourse

•Early 1990s: ‘educational’ discourse

•Late 1990s: ‘training’ discourse

•Post-2000: ‘pragmatic’ discourse


‘Charismatic’discourse (1980s)

•Saviour teacher

•Inspirational teacher

•Carer/guardian

•Sorcerer’s apprentice


‘Educational’ discourse (early 1990s)

•Reflective practitioner

•Teacher as learner or theorist


‘Training’ discourse (late 1990s)

•Skilled craftsperson

•The organised organiser

•Apprentice technician


‘Pragmatic’ discourse (post-2000)

•‘Effective’ teacher

•Eclectic teacher

•Teacher as non-political


‘Pragmatic’ discourse (post-2000)

•‘Effective’ teacher

•Eclectic teacher

•Teacher as non-political


Conceptions of teaching

•Discourses sit inside an historical, political, social context

•Individual conceptions of being a teacher, however, are much more personal and themselves sit inside discourses


•There are ‘stages of development’ identified with different conceptions of teaching

1.Limited conception

2.Intermediate conception

3.Complete conception

Prosser, Michael, and Keith Trigwell. 1999. Understanding Learning and teaching. The Experience in Higher Education. Buckingham: Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press. p 144

Limited conceptions

•Imparting information

•Information delivery

•Information transmission

•Covering the syllabus

•“You will learn if I tell it to you”

Prosser, Michael, and Keith Trigwell. 1999. Understanding Learning and teaching. The Experience in Higher Education. Buckingham: Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press. p 144

Intermediate conceptions

•Developing concepts and their inter-relations

•Illustrating application of theory and practice

•Encouraging active learning, discussion-focus

•Helping students acquire a) teacher’s knowledge and b) syllabus concepts

•Transmitting informationProsser, Michael, and Keith Trigwell. 1999. Understanding Learning and teaching. The Experience in Higher Education. Buckingham: Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press. p 144

Complete conceptions

•Bringing about conceptual change

•Active learning, experiential focus

•Activity aimed at changing understandings of the world

•Exploring ways of understanding from different perspectives

•Developing capacity to be an expertProsser, Michael, and Keith Trigwell. 1999. Understanding Learning and teaching. The Experience in Higher Education. Buckingham: Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press. p 144


•Biggs and Tang (2007) describe this development differently

1.What the student is

2.What the teacher does

3.What the student does

4.Megan’s addition: what education is

Biggs, John and Catherine Tang. 2007. Teaching for Quality Learning at University. What the Student Does. 3rd edition. Buckingham: Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press. ch 2.


•Biggs and Tang (2007) describe this development differently

1.What the student is (vessel to be filled -- transmission)

2.What the teacher does (responsibility for ‘getting it across’ -- transmission)



3.What the student does (and how it relates to teaching)

4.Megan’s addition: what education is (as a shared human enterprise)



ANY QUESTIONS SO FAR?

Watch again (we’ll go slow)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3PhJDxvgJM

•Write down some of the attitudes.

•Which are acceptable, which not?

•Why might teachers display such attitudes?

•Which ones do you currently (or already!) hold? Is that going to be a problem for you? your students?

Anyone want to share or comment?

Let’s check our Twitter feed!

PART II

PREPARING FOR THE PROFESSIONJACKIE WALKINGTON

Image referencesCover image http://www.aare.edu.au/00pap/Image28.jpg

Barcode http://extranet.cryptogramophone.com/images/cg137-early-reflections-barcode.jpg

Mr Thompson http://www.slapupsidethehead.com/wp-content/media/2006/05/teacher_survey.jpg

Discourse http://sjcspeech.pbworks.com/f/1252967111/speech%20logo.jpg

All other images are royalty- and copyright-free. yay!