A pilot project concerning the establishment of ‘advanced’ Education Training Schools - dilemmas and problems for the Swedish Teacher Education

Author(s):

Eva Leffler(presenting / submitting)Gudrun Svedberg(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 01 A, School Based Teacher Education and University-School Partnerships (Part 1)

Paper Session to be continued in 10 SES 02 A

Time:

2016-08-23

13:15-14:45

Room:

NM-G107

Chair:

Susann Hofbauer

Contribution

The importance of well-educated and qualified teachers, and thus a high-quality Teacher Education who can respond to these demands, are highlighted in policies (e.g. European Commission, 2013, 2014; Swedish Ministry of Education and Research 2010), as well as in research (e.g. Harris & Muijs, 2005; Timperley, 2011; Darling –Hammond, 2006; Valliant and Manso, 2013; Ievers et al., 2013; White, Dickerson & Weston, 2015). The challenges to educate and develop student teachers with valid qualifications, both on a practical and a scientific level are issues discussed in Swedish teacher education as well as in other European countries (Råde, 2014). There seems to be a consensus of the importance of improving the initial training of student teachers, as well as the institute-based teacher educators (IBTEs) at the universities, and the school-based teacher educators (SBTEs) in the municipalities (Valiant & Manso, 2013; Ievers et al., 2013; White et al., 2015). A crucial aspect is how the cooperation between universities and schools can be improved. Another aspect is how IBTEs and SBTEs skills and knowledge can be increased (European Commission, 2013). It may both be about sharing essential values of research (Protector, 2015), and to actually improve schools through research (Swedish Ministry of Education and Research 2010).

The University of Umeå is one of fifteen universities in Sweden participating in a National Project over five years concerning the establishment of ‘advanced’ education training schools. There are three neighboring municipalities (Umeå, Skellefteå and Örnsköldsvik) connected to this pilot project.

The teacher education at the University of Umeå initiated a pilot project with the purpose to raise the quality of teacher education and to develop student teachers’ professional connection. The goal is threefold: to develop teacher education with a focus on developing the school based studies (VFU) for student teacher, to increase the knowledge and skills of the SBTEs and IBTEs by offering in-service education and to initiate research programs with the participating municipality schools (Umeå teacher education application document, 2014).

The purpose with the present study is to explore the challenges that emerge and to study how teacher education at the University of Umeå is facing these challenges. Certain questions appear in the initial overview of the pilot project:

- How will the cooperation develop in the encounter between teacher education and the municipalities?

- What challenges are visible?

- From where do these challenges emanate?

Method

The present study is the first part of a process evaluation of a pilot project on School Based Studies (VFU) in teacher education at the University of Umeå Sweden, which was launched in 2015 and will be finished in 2019. The focus is on stakeholders on different levels. One level is the project organization at teacher education; a second level are stakeholders at the three municipalities connected to the university and a third level are the local coordinators for the student teachers school based studies (VFU). Inspired by Blossing (2004) our investigation was conducted in two steps. The first step was to map the project organization. The second step was to get in contact with vital stakeholders both from the university level and the municipality level. For that reason we used the “snowball sampling” (Bryman, 2002).The methods used are observations and interviews (Patton, 1987). Information meetings led by representatives from teacher education were observed, and the stakeholders and the local school based coordinators were interviewed. Field notes from the observations have been a complement to the interviews. The third step was to analyse our experiences by defining categories. Two main categories were seen: dilemmas and problems.

Expected Outcomes

The results show that the project organization is facing both dilemmas and problems in this initial phase of this pilot project. With the category “dilemmas” we refer to aspects where two premises constitute contradictory alternatives where the organizers might only be able to affect, or choose to relate to the dilemma in a conscious way. Exemplified: one dilemma is the municipalities’ different prerequisites concerning “education for supervising teachers (SBTEs). On the one hand they have a commitment with teacher education to let their teachers participate in the in-service education; on the other hand they have poor economic and practical conditions to fulfill this obligation. There is thus a risk that the pilot project will not reach its goals. With the category “problems” we refer to such difficulties that can be solved. The problems we encountered have in a large part to do with the lack of communication and information and the lack of effective and transparent communication channels. As an effect, there is an uncertainty from the municipalities about their own contribution, and they also raise unrealistic expectations of what the teacher education can contribute with to scientifically develop the local schools. To summarize, the analyses show that the challenges which we have categorized as “dilemmas” largely emanates from the encounter between two different structures; the teacher education and its complex structure, the municipalities and practicing schools ruled by the Swedish far-reaching decentralization. The results also show that improved communication on different levels is crucial, and also possible, in the forthcoming work of the pilot project.

References

Blossing, Ulf (2004). Skolors förbättringskulturer. Karlstad: Karlstad University Studies. Bryman, Alan (2002). Samhällsvetenskapliga metoder. Malmö: Liber. Darling – Hammond, Linda (2006). Constructing 21st –Century Teacher Education, Journal of Teacher Education 57(3), 300-314. European Commission (2013). Supporting Teacher Educators for better learning outcomes. European Commission. Education and Training. European Commission (2014). Initial teacher education in Europe: an overview of policy issues. European Commission: Directorate-General for Education and Culture, School policy/Erasmus+ Harris A. & Muijs, D. (2005). Improving Schools Through Teacher Leadeship. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Ievers, M, Wylie, K., Gray, C, Ní Áingléis & Cummins, B. (2012). The role of the university tutor in school-based work in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. European Journal of Teacher Education, 183-199. Patton, Quinn Michael (1987) How to Use Qualitative Methods in Evaluation. Newbury Park, Calif: Sage Publications. Protector, R. (2015). Teachers and school research practices: the gaps between the values and practices of teachers. Journal of Education for Teaching. Råde, A. (2014). Final thesis models in European teacher education and their orientation towards the academy and the teaching profession. European Journal of Teacher Education 37(2), 144-155. Swedish Ministry of Education and Research (2010) Top of the class: new teacher education programmes. Government Bill 2009/10: 89. Timperley, H. (2011). Realizing the Power of Professional Learning. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Valliant, Denise & Manso, Jesús (2013). Teacher Education Programmes: Learning from Worldwide Experiences. Journal of Supranational Policies in Education, 1, 94-115. White, E., Dickerson, C & Weston, K. (2015). Developing an appreciation of what it means to be a school-based teacher educator. European Journal of Teacher Education 38(4), 445-459.

Author Information

Eva Leffler (presenting / submitting)

Umeå University, Sweden

Gudrun Svedberg (presenting)

Umeå University

Applied Educational Science

Umeå

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