Contribution
Description: In comparing teachers in public elementary schools in Lille and its agglomeration (situated in northern France) we bring the diversity of pedagogical practices into question. The comparison of teachers at a micro-local level brings us to consider the influence of personal backgrounds and experiences on how classes are conducted, and therefore how knowledge is transmitted to the students. First we evaluated pedagogical practices proposed in primary schools today (a multitude of actions and propositions which go beyond the prescribed official framework). Then we studied the influence of two variables on teaching practices: the school and personal backgrounds and experiences.
Methodology: Our presentation will be constructed using the data collected from our doctoral thesis (currently being written) which looks at connections between teaching philosophies, teaching styles and the role of the personal experiences and backgrounds of the teachers. Our sample consists of 101 teachers as well as 177 interns currently in their second year in the IUFM (national teacher training program) a sample representative of elementary school teachers in Lille and its surrounding communities. The method of investigation used is the quantitative approach, organized around two questionnaires asking about their practices, their academic backgrounds, and their personal point of view concerning this knowledge, the implication of their families, their work in class and in the school and so on. The questionnaire for the teachers is composed of 92 items while the questionnaire for the student-interns features 48 items (given that their professional experience is less involved). Both questionnaires were designed to bring out the similarities or dissimilarities between the two levels of practice.
Conclusions: In revealing the strong independence of personal backgrounds and experiences, that is to say its central influence on pedagogical practices, several conclusions will be drawn. First, we see that the school itself (especially concerning organization: number of classes, levels, national classification, etc.) is less important in explaining the diversity of teaching practices between schools. Afterwards we expect to be able to use the results to examine the notion of establishment and cultural orientation in the production of scholastic knowledge: we may see, for example, the role of the establishment can be relative to the scale of the analysis itself (if our analysis shows that the relative role of the establishment is less important than the teacher's personal background and experience, it may be due to the micro-localization of our study). Finally, the influence of the teachers' experiences and backgrounds on the presentation of scholastic knowledge brings us to reconsider the question of pedagogical practices. In other words, the knowledge produced is much more a result of acts of transmission than a reflection of the academic program.
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