Session Information
Contribution
Round Table Proposal for ECER 2007: Teacher Education and Children's Rights - a joint network session Proposer: Jim McNally, University of Stirling, Scotland This roundtable session will explore connections between research findings on children's views of beginning teachers and the emerging field of children's rights. In order to optimise focussed and informed discussion, the roundtable will bring together researchers from networks 10 and 25. The aim is to develop a set of ideas that will inform a policy and research agenda for placing children's rights within teacher education. Findings from a substantial ESRC research project (UK) on the early professional learning of teachers in the UK, which features teachers as researchers, make it clear that children are central in the major themes of relationality, emotionality and identity formation of new teachers. There appears to be a gradual development in which new teachers knowingly struggle to get the relational 'balance' right (strict first, gradually more 'democratic' etc). The quantitative indicator of children's views developed as part of this research indicates that children tend to have a strong sense of fairness and want teachers to ensure they can work without undue disruption in their classes.Furthermore, the language and perceptions of new teachers are different from official policy documents governing standards and support and many experience tension between their 'whole child' ideals and the standards agenda. This is reflected in another specific, related focus, the uncertain transformation in Swedish teacher education. Recent ambition (2004) to focus on a holistic sense of the child, including efforts to highlight children's rights, has been followed by a change in government (2006) that appears to focus more on discipline.An emerging picture, therefore, is that (new) teachers are fundamentally engaged in the task of developing a holistic sense of the children they 'teach', of their social and emotional lives and that their natural aspiration to become good teachers is about developing their ability to acknowledge and respond sensitively to these children. We shall explore how this relates to the developing field of children's rights and challenge ourselves to identify issues in children's rights that come to the fore in the context of teacher education and in the particular nature of the child-adult relationship. A particular issue might be, therefore, how our collective evidence can a) be accommodated within policy guidance on teacher education and children's rights, and b) offer an agenda for further relevant research and development.Through our discussion we shall take a critical perspective on the quality of the research we draw on. Specific attention will be given to 1) the actual research process itself 2) the statistical basis of any quantitative claims 3) where these sit in relation to children's rights.This network collaboration will need additional time for mutual understanding of different perspectives and negotiating a concluding statement for further work. An exceptional request is made for a 90 minute slot. practitioners as researchers interviews indicators of professional development policy document evaluation The main outcomes will be1) to identify issues in children's rights in the context of teacher education2) an assessment of how our collective evidence can a) be accommodated within policy guidance on teacher education and children's rights b) offer an agenda for further relevant research and development.3) to reach a critical perspective on the quality of the research we draw on , including a) the actual research process itself b) any statistical claims c) relevance to our topic. Brembeck, H.,Johansson, B. and Kampmann, J.(eds.), (2004),Beyond the competent child. Exploring contemporary childhoods in the Nordic welfare societies, Roskilde University Press, Denmark Corbin B. et al (2006) The Pupil Evaluation of Teacher Effectiveness Project (PETE): processes, outcomes and issues EPL dissemination seminar, University of Stirling Early Professional Learning website http://www.ioe.stir.ac.uk/EPL/index.htm ESRC funded research project in the Teaching and Learmning Research Programme Phase 3 (accessed 2007) Gray P. & Blake A. (2007) Brief statistical summary of children's views indicator (CEPSATI) in the EPL Project, University of StirlingHögskoleverket, (2003). FN:s barnkonvention angår högskolan: rapport från ett regeringsuppdrag, Stockholm I'Anson J. and Allan, J. 2006 'Children's Rights in Practice: a study of change within a primary school', International Journal of Children's Spirituality, 11:2, pp. 265-79. Lister, Ruth.(2003) Investing in the Citizen - workers of the future: Transformations in Citizenship and the State under New Labour,In Social Policy & Administration, VOl. 37, No 5,PP. 427-443 McNally J. (2006) From informal learning to identity formation: a conceptual journey in early teacher development Scottish Educational Review Special Edition 37, 79-90 McNally J. (2002) Developments in teacher induction in Scotland and implications for the role of higher education Journal of Education for Teaching 28, 2, 149-164 either European / international or special network collection
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