Power and Education

In this article, we look at three teacher education programs across three countries—Australia, Bhutan, and Canada—to examine how reflection is cultivated in pre-service teachers (also referred to as teacher candidates) through a pedagogy of self-assessment. We begin from the premise that a cornerstone of effective teaching is the capacity of an educator to reflect on their practice and to use their reflections for professional growth and development. Qualitative data were collected from teacher candidates from one teacher education program in each country to obtain the views and reflections of teacher candidates about the power and pedagogy of self-assessment to inform their learning and development. Analysis of results led to three overarching themes: (a) consistent learning priorities of pre-service teachers as they engage with reflection; (b) pedagogical features that leverage self-assessment strategies to enhance reflective practice; and (c) the possibilities for reflection to facilitate a professional stance towards learning. Each theme is discussed with consideration for teacher education practices and theory.

This exploratory study sought to investigate how beginning teacher educators (BTEs hereafter) constantly examine and reframe their identities when transitioning from being a classroom teacher to being a teacher educator of pre-service teachers. Through interviews of nine participants selected from Jamaica, England and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the paper presents a cross-cultural discourse. Beginning teacher educator identities were examined using Goffman’s Impression Management Framework (1968). Findings presented highlight the experiences and expectations that underpinned the beginning teacher educators’ period of transition from K-12 teaching to teaching pre-service teachers. Although educational research acknowledges that social perception processes are relevant in understanding and evaluating situations, impression management has not been used as a lens to understand beginning teacher educator experiences so far. This study attempts to open new perspectives in understanding how BTE identities are shaped and redefined in the higher education context and discusses implications for teacher education.

The comparative, mixed methods international and cross-cultural study aimed to determine the factors that motivated teachers in Jamaica, Poland and Turkey to choose teaching as a career and ascertain what motivated the teachers at different stages to remain in teaching. Data were collected through the use of the questionnaire, which experts validated and had an overall reliability coefficient of 0.77 and focus group interviews. A total of 186 teachers participated in the quantitative phase of the study, whilst 75 participated in the qualitative phase. The findings showed that extrinsic, intrinsic, and altruistic motivation, roles and responsibilities, and opportunities were the main reasons teachers in the three countries chose the teaching profession. Teachers in the different stages of their careers remain in the profession because of a strong sense of vocation, a passion for teaching, a need to make a positive difference in students’ life, job satisfaction, and connected with its rewards of being a teacher. It was recommended that researchers interested in this area could use a more representative sample size to generalize the findings.

Teacher education has gathered interest globally and nationally among teachers, educators, researchers and policy makers. Madalinska-Michalak, O ’Doherty and Assuno Flores (2018) observe that regional/ national, social, economic, political and historical factors impact upon teacher education and ‘it is also impacted by global problems and tendencies’ (pp. 567). This paper builds on these debates and examines the effects of global discourses of teacher education in the national contexts of developed and developing countries, for example, Guyana, Japan, South Africa, United States of America (USA) and the United Kingdom (UK). This includes consideration of teacher education and training before and during the current global Covid-19 pandemic (UNESCO, 2020). The paper concludes that teacher education continues to be under scrutiny due to global and national expectations, the demand of and how they are positioned in preparing teachers for the 21st century. Notwithstanding, as globalisation becomes more integrated in societies globally teacher education curricula not only has to retain its emphasis on standards, but equally its agility to ensure that the needs of all learners are met.

Teacher education and training vary across the world, yet research from diverse cultures supports the development of reflective teachers. Claiming that the complex dynamics of the 21st-century classroom can be managed best by reflective teachers. Through the reflective process, teachers are empowered as change agents to modify learning environments to benefit their students. Teachers hold the power to influence student learning. Therefore, it is important to understand the training processes that serve to produce reflective practitioners. In conducting rigorous cross-cultural comparative research, identifying common evaluative indicators underpinned by a theoretical framework is critical. Hence, the principles of the pre-service emerging reflective teacher training (PERTT) model were explored quantitatively and explained qualitatively to specifically focus on teachers’ perceptions of their experiences of the psychosocial interpersonal process outcomes of the teacher-training environment (i.e. reflective practices, instructional scaffolding, guidance and support, modelled behaviours and reinforcement) provided during their teacher training. Such an exploration is critical because the philosophical underpinnings of the PERTT model have not been interrogated outside of Barbados. The findings demonstrate that there is merit to key theoretical principles of the PERTT model based on the lived experiences of the teachers in Antigua and Barbuda, England, and Canada during their teacher training.

This paper presents the findings of a comparative study carried out in 2018, which aimed to explore and compare teacher educators’ perceptions of initial teacher education (ITE) programmes in Jamaica, Greece and Nigeria. This study endeavoured to add intercultural perspectives to the study of ITE and to underlie the idea that ITE has become increasingly bound up in the processes of neo-liberalism and globalisation. A comparative research design was used to investigate the similarities and differences in ITE programmes available in these three countries. Specifically, this was a quantitative survey study, and the participants (n = 135) were teacher educators who were purposefully selected. Based on what the findings revealed, it is argued that, while features of national culture, tradition and institutional politics have a significant role to play in the detail of the approaches taken in ITE programmes, there is nevertheless evidence of significant convergence between the three countries in terms of the type, modality and duration of ITE, as well as the current issues facing ITE programmes and the areas that need improvement. This, it is suggested, reflects trends associated with neo-liberal ‘globalisation’.