Overcoming ‘Roadblocks’ to Developing as an Effecting Cooperating Teacher: The Role of one Mentoring Community of Practice in Ireland

Author(s):

Eimear Holland(presenting / submitting)Kathleen Armour

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 08 D, Research and Collaboration in Teaching Practice

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-25

09:00-10:30

Room:

NM-Theatre P

Chair:

Stefan Müller-Mathis

Contribution

Ireland’s educational system has traditionally suffered from a “prevalence of professional insulation and isolation” (Teaching Council, 2010, p. 26). This has lead to a “fear of evaluation” and teachers are reluctant to share innovations for fear of being deemed arrogant (Hogan et al., 2007). This coincides with a culture of ‘competitive individualism’ (Coolahan, 2003), where “knowledge hoarding” dominates (Cross, 1996, p. 230). More than three decades ago, there was an increased momentum on the prioritisation of teacher education in Ireland. It was highlighted that for change to be implemented, “timing is…significant and requires professional skill and ‘feel’ for the right moment for action” (Coolahan, 1995, p. 12). It was also argued that: “change in the domain of education must take into account the lessons from the past” (Michel, 1995, p. 80).Yet, when the Teaching Council of Ireland (2013) published ‘Guidelines on School Placement’, there were questions about the feasibility of their introduction, in such a turbulent political and economic context (Mulcahy and McSharry, 2012). Over this same period, the Teaching Council also published other policies and codes, all of which promote the “three I’s” (“innovation, integration and improvement”) as core to all stages of the teacher education continuum (Teaching Council, 2013, p. 11). Teachers were asked to engage with these guidelines at a time of major political and economic upheaval where there have been a whole battery of assaults on the profession such as: unprecedented cuts, capped salaries, limited resources, fluid contracts, redeployment and redundancy threats (Mulcahy & McSharry, 2012). The global economic crisis brought the “Croke Park” and “Haddington Road” agreements which further eroded working conditions, resulting in a further loss of good will and volunteerism (ASTI, 2014). To compound the issue further, there are enduring questions about the quality of continuous professional development (CPD) in Ireland and indeed, there in a lack of consideration of the commitment and responsibility of the teacher educator in CPD (MacPhail et al., 2014). This does not bode well for the development of student teachers or cooperating teachers or the implementation of the new guidelines.

There are well-documented benefits for engaging in and with a community of practice (CoP), some of which are fiscal (Parker et al., 2012) and socio-cultural (Teaching Council, 2010). Moreover, the Teaching Council (2010) recognises ‘communities of practice’ (CoP) as a site for challenging the dominant approach to CPD and supporting teachers to take responsibility for their own learning. It has been agreed internationally that mentoring and being mentored can play an important role in the transition to more of a “knowledge sharing” culture in teaching (Cross, 1996, p. 230). Moreover, there have been particular calls for using CoPs to develop “a vision of emancipatory teacher education practice” (Gillette and Schiltz, 2014, p. 236). The study reported in this paper aimed to develop a mentoring CoP of cooperating teachers who intended to develop their practices and to support one another to identify (Lewin, 1948) and solve problems as a community (MacPhail et al., 2014). It aimed to consider if: engaging in and with a mentoring CoP could support members to overcome roadblocks to their development as effective cooperating teachers?

A participatory action research (PAR) approach provided a framework for CoP activities and development. A cyclical process of systematically engaging in and with problem exploration, problem solving and managing conflicts and change was employed (Chevalier and Buckles, 2013).

Method

12 passionate cooperating teachers from 11 School Placement Partnership Schools came together as a community to engage in PAR. PAR is most powerful as it is focused on enacting change rather than merely deepening understanding (Cohen et al., 2007) Negotiating what the syllabus should be, they attended three workshops in order to develop their craft as mentors. Teachers, as co-researchers, were supported by an external researcher alongside other co-researchers to cyclically engage in and with "observation, reflection, and action” (Stringer, 1996: 17). As they engaged in self-critical collaborative inquiry, they are made accountable, making their results public and are supported by their peers to problem set and solve (McNiff, 2013). In each workshop, cooperating teachers shared the roadblocks that they had faced and / overcome since the previous workshops and the community discussed possible solutions and actions. Multiple methods were used to support triangulation (Denscombe, 2010). Participants completed a ‘Mentoring Community of Practice Questionnaire’, which they reflected on via a ‘stimulus recall entry’ at the start of workshop two and three to consider if any change was occurring in their practice and / perceptions related to a mentoring community of practice. They completed pre-workshop questions in order to reflect on their position prior to delving into a topic of interest. Workshops were recorded and observed and all artefacts generated from the PAR activities were photographed. They completed a ‘Learning Journey’ plan setting targets and reflected upon their progress / or lack thereof in a ‘Learning Journal’ with some choosing to reflect individually and others sharing their reflections on an online ‘Reflective Wall’. Finally, participants engaged in focus group discussions firstly for the purpose of respondent validation of key findings and to seek further data (Silverman, 2006). Codes were checked for ‘inter-rater reliability’ by an external researcher and three participants. Ethical approval was granted by the University of Birmingham Ethics Committee. The collaborative social research approach to Qualitative data analysis was taken (Berg, 2004) using a multi-experiment approach (Thomas et al., 2005). The ‘inductive-deductive’ approach (Mouly, 1978) was taken to ‘constant comparison’ of categories and codes (Glaser and Strauss., 1967). Whilst the data unveiled a significantly deep and wide ranging list of both roadblocks and benefits for engaging in a mentoring community of practice, this paper will identify how engaging in a mentoring community of practice supports cooperating teachers to overcome those roadblocks.

Expected Outcomes

There were a number of findings that support the research on the benefits of mentoring and teacher education (Taherian and Shekarchian, 2008; Zachery, 2009). This paper, however reports findings on: 1) the roadblocks to their development as effective mentors and this was categorised by two overarching areas: a) gaps and b) conflicts. A whole range of stakeholders and ‘partners’ were identified as acting as barriers to the development of good mentoring practice including: The Department of Education and Skills, the Teaching Council, Unions, the Higher Education Institution, Student Teachers, Teacher Colleagues (within their department and across the school), and Middle and Senior Management in schools. The main findings from this study however, relate to how engaging in a PAR mentoring community of practice supported them to overcome those roadblocks, which they faced. CoP members reported that the PAR mentoring CoP supported them to overcome roadblocks related to their development: i) CPD was less costly from a time and fiscal perspective; ii) their attitude to engaging in and with CPD in Ireland improved; iii) the CoP helped them to overcome a lack of and / or gap in: interest, value and motivation by colleagues for mentoring in school; iv) they were in a better position, with a more powerful status within the school to influence others, and as such the collaborative school culture, making their development easier and; v) a tighter partnership served to alleviate issues related to both professional insulation and isolation. In conclusion, this study has highlighted that a combined CPD strategy of PAR through CoPs is a powerful vehicle for implementing perhaps ill-timed change, by enabling CoP members to overcome fiscal and socio-cultural roadblocks.

References

ASTI, 2014. ASTI Submission to the Teaching Council on the Continuum of teacher education. ASTI. Chevalier, J.M. and Buckles, D.J., 2013. Participatory Action Research: Theory and Methods for Engaged Inquiry. Routledge, London. Cohen, L., Manion, L. and Morrison, K., 2007. Research Methods in Education, 6th ed. Routledge, New York. Coolahan, J., 2003. Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers: Country Background Report for Ireland. Coolahan, J. (Ed.), 1995. Policy Formulation and Implementation: Overview of the Irish Context, in: Issues and Strategies in the Implementation of Educational Policy: Proceedings of a Bicentenary Conference. St. Patrick’s College, Dublin, p. 8–17. Denscombe, M., 2010. The Good Research Guide for Small Scale Social Research Projects. Open University press, Berkshire, England. Gillette, M.D. and Schiltz, B.D., 2014. Do you see what I see? Teacher capacity as vision for education in a democracy, in: Cothran-Smith, M., Feiman-Nemser, S., McIntyre, D.J., Demers, K.E. (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Teacher Education. Enduring Questions in Changing Contexts. Routledge, New York, p. 231–237. Glaser, B.G. and Strauss, A., 1967. The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Aldine, Chicago. Hogan, P., Brosnan, A., De Róiste, B., MacAlister, A., Malone, A., Quirke-Bolt, N. and Smith, G., 2007. Learning Anew: Final Report of the Research and Development Project. Teaching and Learning for the 21st Century, 2003-07. NUI Maynooth, Maynooth. MacPhail, A., Patton, K., Parker, M. and Tannehill, D., 2014. Leading by Example: Teacher Educators’ Professional Learning Through Communities of Practice. Quest 66: p. 39–56. McNiff, J., 2013. Action Research: Principles and Practice, 3rd ed. Routledge, London. Mulcahy, C. and McSharry, M., 2012. The Changing Face of Teacher Education in Ireland: A Major Overhaul or a Cosmetic Review? Educational Research EJournal 1, p. 91–103. Parker, M., Patton, K. and Tannehill, D., 2012. Mapping the Landscape of Communities of Practice as Professional Development in Irish Physical Education. Irish Education Studies. 31, p. 311–327. Silverman, D., 2006. Interpreting Qualitative Data: Methods for Analysing Talk, Text and Interaction, 3rd ed. Sage, London. Taherian, K. and Shekarchian, M., 2008. Mentoring for Doctors. Do its Benefits Outweigh its Disadvantages? Medical Teacher 30, p. 95–99. Teaching Council, 2013. Guidelines on School Placement. Teaching Council, Maynooth. Teaching Council, 2010. Draft Policy on the Continuum of Teacher Education. Teaching Council, Maynooth. Thomas, J.R., Nelson, J.K. and Silverman (Eds.), 2005. Research Methods in Physical Activity, 5th ed. Human Kinetics, Leeds.

Author Information

Eimear Holland (presenting / submitting)

Dublin City University, Ireland

Kathleen Armour

University of Birmingham

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