90 research outputs found
Out-of-Field Teaching Practices
No full textSociety perceives the role of school leaders as ‘fixers’. Yet the author poses some confronting questions: can they fix or manage the out-of-field phenomenon without having in-depth knowledge and understanding? Can educators teach the next generation of teachers and school leaders without appreciating the realities of the workplace? Can policymakers develop effective policies without a deeper understanding of the workforce issues that influence quality education beyond the obvious issues?
Many dilemmas face today’s teaching workforce and workplaces. The book takes the reader on a journey as experienced in real life by teachers and school leaders. It aims an extreme global focus on the quality of education and on governments’ achievements in providing opportunities to prepare the next generation of students for their future.
The author’s assessment exposes more concerns than assurances.
Anna du Plessis’ academic career includes more than 25 years of classroom experience across three countries. Her journey in leadership positions started during her fourth year of teaching. Her compassion for teachers, school leaders and students stimulated a search for a deeper understanding of the lifeworld and challenges facing educational practitioners.
The objective in this book is to share information that will improve education systems, strategies, decisions, policies and actions. Readers of this book might be parents, student teachers, prospective school leaders, educational directors, policymakers or teacher educators.
Only knowing and understanding can inform well-directed decisions.No Full Tex
Out-of-field teaching and education policy: International micro-education policy
No full textThis book focuses on the elusive out-of-field teaching phenomenon and its direct effects on quality education globally. Based on the experiences and concerns of teachers and school leaders, it investigates the phenomenon’s impact on everyday teaching and school practices, and offers insights into the challenges that out-of-field teachers face in maintaining their role as the “knowledgeable counterpart” in their teaching and learning environments. In this frame, it also highlights the often-overlooked importance of initial teacher education and its preparation of prospective teachers for employment in complex school contexts, subjects or year levels.
The book emphasises the need to develop specific policy strategies to effectively address the global implications of out-of-field teaching, and explores the potential of micro-education policies as targeted support resources for teachers in these challenging positions. Through this new policy lens, which renegotiates the discourse of education policy as a quality education improvement framework, the book offers readers a comprehensive understanding of the urgent need for policy to uphold all stakeholders involved in these unique and complex environments. Accordingly, the book is a valuable resource for academic advisors, decision-makers, policy-makers, and educational and school leaders in developing new approaches to improving school outcomes that promote the retention of teachers for a strong and stable teaching workforce.No Full Tex
The Lived Experience of Out-of-field STEM Teachers: a Quandary for Strategising Quality Teaching in STEM?
No full textStrategising quality teaching in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) domains turns focus to teachers’ capacity to teach these subjects (UWIRE Text 2017) when they are not suitably qualified in them. Against the backdrop of research that claims that 75% of the fastest growing occupations will require STEM skills, this investigation provides new information about lived experiences of, and those surrounding, out-of-field teaching practices in STEM subject areas, and the implications these experiences have for teaching and learning environments (Office of the Chief Scientist 2014). The out-of-field teaching phenomenon is defined in this paper as occurring when teachers teach subjects or year levels outside their fields of qualification or expertise. The qualitative investigation applies a Gadamerian theoretical philosophy to develop in-depth understanding through the shared perceptions of educational directors, principals, and the lived experiences of teachers and parents from two countries. Leadership perceptions and the complexities involved in out-of-field teaching practices in science and related subject areas are investigated through the lens of multiple interviews, observations, and document analyses. Concluding remarks offer recommendations for educational leaders, reflections on improvement strategies and educational policies. Proposals for further research of the out-of-field teaching phenomenon’s impact on STEM subject areas are offered.No Full Tex
A Handbook for Retaining Early Career Teachers: Research-Informed Approaches for School Leaders
No full textThis book addresses the global concern of teacher attrition rates, particularly those who walk away from the profession within the first five years. The author offers new knowledge about the factors that influence beginning teachers’ career decisions through an in-depth examination of their lived experiences. Using a unique lens that explores the complexities of a beginning teacher’s classroom through its many attendant axiological, structural, interpersonal, and practical contexts, the book presents strategies that address the deep matters of retention in the educational arena. Using its insights, school leaders are enabled to shift the balance of school policy understanding towards beginning teachers’ acute needs for support. Based on an empirical study of more than 2,000 beginning teachers and school leaders, this book reveals perceptions, truths, and lived experiences in order to guide the development of effective retention strategies and policies, which are fundamental to stabilising the teacher workforce
Challenges for Pedagogical Effectiveness in an Ever-Changing Education Landscape: Conceptualisation of Pedagogical Mobility and Flexibility as a Context-Consciousness
No full textThe challenges to maintaining pedagogical effectiveness in an ever-changing education landscape not only turn focus on the professional development of teachers and their teaching practices but also emphasise the preparation of pre-service teachers and their skill development to practice pedagogical flexibility and mobility while focusing on contextconsciousness [1]. Preparedness for classroom demands involves a sound knowledge foundation built on content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge, as discussed by Shulman [2,3]
Leading teachers through the storm: Looking beyond the numbers and turning the implications of out-of-field teaching practices into positive challenges
No full textThis paper claims that well informed and engaged school leaders turn the implications of out-of-field teaching practices into positive challenges. Teachers teaching outside their fields of qualification or expertise influence the quality of teaching and learning. A phenomenological approach moves beyond existing statistics on the out-of-field phenomenon towards an in-depth understanding of the lifeworld of teachers in these positions. Through various lenses of educational directors, principals, specialists, out-of-field teachers and parents, the paper examines unsettling truths about the pressures surrounding the out-of-field phenomenon. The findings offer evidence of the transformation school leaders can bring about. The paper asserts that an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon influences school leaders' decisions. Identification of tension between lived experiences and leaders' perceptions inform recommendations.No Full Tex
Design and Intervention of an Educational-Leadership Program: Student Voice and Agency, Expectations and Internationalization
No full textThis paper explores the lived experiences of a diverse student cohort enrolled in a master’s degree educational-leadership program. The program’s global focus was on the quality of teacher education, prospective teachers’ workplace preparedness and leaders in the workforce in higher education. Internationalization, real-life experiences and student voice served as an enacted intervention curriculum for an educational leadership course designed to reveal the gap between theory and practice. An epistemological diversity lens stimulated critical reflection on students’ participation in the course design and its connection to realities in the field. Diverse higher-education classrooms pose specific challenges for educational leadership programs in including effective internationalization, workplace relevance and improving the generalizability and content validity of the educational leadership course. This small qualitative exploratory investigation provides an in-depth understanding of the value of student voice in informing course and program design. Interviews, observations, two surveys and a document analysis triangulated the data and provided information on the complexities in higher-education classrooms. The findings focus on teacher-educators and higher-education classroom management as well as on the value of critical inquiry, reflection and intervention for existing course designs and transformation.</jats:p
Barriers to effective management of diversity in classroom contexts: The out-of-field teaching phenomenon
No full textThe expectation that teachers’ professional practice will effectively accommodate diversity in their classrooms has drawn attention to issues that impact teachers’ ability to manage these challenges. This paper reports on the implications out-of-field teaching practices have for the effective management of diversity in classroom contexts. The qualitative investigation involved semi-structured interviews, classroom observations and document analysis from 48 participants and seven schools. A new context-conscious understanding development theory underpins the investigation. The results and key findings demonstrate that the out-of-field phenomenon has significant implications for students’ learning needs. The paper concludes with reflections on strategies for the more effective management of diverse learning environments when the out-of-field phenomenon is in play.No Full Tex
The out-of-field teacher in context: The impact of the school context and environment
No full textSchool environments impact student behaviours and share specific goals, and they develop shared understandings through perceptions and experiences which demonstrate a specific culture in a school community (Shields 2002). Teacher support needs vary, but the adequacy of the support according to teacher needs will strongly influence whether teachers simply cope or manage their out-of-field teaching load. The challenge for out-of-field teachers, then, is how to manage to develop in-depth knowledge of the specific curriculum and how to contribute to planning and evaluating the fit-for-context/fit-for-purpose aspects of the curriculum and the school context. Supporting out-of-field teachers entails an in-depth look at the meaning of out-of-field teaching for enacting a specific curriculum and of the in-school context as a whole, with a specific focus on communication, collaboration and cooperation within the wider school community.No Full Tex
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