Search results for: Communities

This article investigates how preservice teachers developed a relationships with country. The author has described preservice teachers who participated in an elective subject Engaging Koori Kids and their Families. The goal of this elective subject was to motivate preservice teachers to experience a journey of Aboriginal ways of knowing, learning and behaving. The findings reveal that the elective subject demonstrated how teachers could implement and contribute to a holistic localised Aboriginal perspective originating from Country. The goal of this study is that preservice teachers take their story learnt from Country and implement it into the classroom. Each preservice teacher then has the experience to work with a range of Aboriginal community members.

This article examines the orientations of prospective teachers (PSTs) toward students’ family and their home and community experiences , as they relate to teaching mathematics. The results indicate that PSTs recognize the importance of connecting with parents, understanding home and community practices, and building on these practices to support children’s mathematical learning. Yet at the same time, they also exhibit inconsistent perspectives, at times indicating a lack of understanding as to why some families appear to be less able to support students’ academic efforts. The authors also found that some PSTs believe that at least some responsibility for success in school mathematics lies at home with the parents. The authors argue that teacher educators need to be aware of the orientations that PSTs bring with them to mathematics methods classrooms.

The current article describes a collaborative professional development experience with student teaching supervisors. The participants were 98 preservice teachers and 16 early childhood supervisors from early childhood teacher education program at a large, public university in the southeastern United States. The findings reveal the strengths and weaknesses of the project. The findings offered some suggestions to improve the collaborative professional development. The authors conclude with the recommendation that university-based personnel must understand the complexity of school-based supervision and work to find ways to foster more collaborative and supportive relationships with supervisors.

This research depicts different reform initiatives which were conducted in middle school at the fourth-largest urban center in the United States over the decade from 1999 to 2009. The study focuses on teachers’ experiences of three reform endeavors and how tensions in teacher knowledge and community developed as a consequence of each. The participants were Nineteen educators, including several main teacher participants as well as some supporting teacher and administrators.