Session Information
10 SES 02 B, Programmes and Approaches: Cooperation and collaboration
Paper Session
Contribution
An early but critical stage on the continuum of teacher education is the filed experience of student teachers under the guidance of an experienced class teacher, often referred to as the cooperating teacher. It is well documented that student teachers regard the element of school placement as the most important aspect of their teacher education degree and more particularly the cooperating teacher as critical to their overall success (Kirk, MacDonald, & O’Sullivan, 2006). Internationally, there is a growing trend to move towards a system of school-based teacher education, resulting in the role of the cooperating teacher becoming more prominent (Koerner, Rust, & Baumgartner, 2002). Currently, a considerable number of countries, including England, Australia and the United States, recognise the school as the sole context for teacher education and utilise qualified teachers as the teacher educators to student. While other countries e.g. Scotland and Ireland retain teacher education within higher education intuitions (HEIs) many are experiencing the push of central policy to ensure that their students spend more time in schools. This has recently been the case within Ireland where the Teaching Council issued a directive to HEIs which required them to ensure that 25% of all students’ initial teacher education was spent on school placement (Teaching Council, 2011). Teachers who accept a student do so voluntarily and without payment. Equally no formal partnerships between teacher education institutions and co-operating teachers or schools are in place in Ireland (Conway et al., 2009). While HEIs are required to place students, schools are not formally required to accept students on placement. All HEIs are experiencing a drop in school support for placement (INTO, 2016). The reasons why teachers decline or accept a student teacher on placement remains somewhat of a secret garden.
This study paper sets out to alter this situation by presenting the voice of the teacher. It examines why Irish primary teachers chose or decline the opportunity to support a student teacher on placement. Some initial evidence on the critical biographical and contextual influences that impinge on their choice are documented This paper may be regarded as an initial mapping of a poorly understood and little explored terrain, with potential to provide greater insight into and understanding of the challenges facing reform of teacher education, as well as its positioning within the university sector in turbulent times.
Recognising that the existing research literature illuminates comprehensively commonly held conceptions of cooperating teachers’ categories of participation in school placement (Brodie et al., 2009; Zeichner, 2002), the question as to why they choose or decline to participate in the school practicum within pre-service teacher education looms large internationally. In light of this question, the research is contextualised within a naturalistic inquiry paradigm (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) as it affords us the opportunity to explore this question with teachers on their “own turf” and most significantly “in their own language” (Kirk & Miller, 1986, p. 21).
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Brodie, E., Cowling, E., Nissen, N., Paine, A. E., Jochum, V., & Warburton, D. (2009). Understanding participation: A literature review. National Council for Voluntary Organisations. Conway, P.F., Murphy, R,, Rath, A,, & Hall, K. (2009) Learning to teach and its implications for the continuum of teacher education: A nine-country cross-national study. Cork: University College Cork. Conway, P. F., & Murphy, R. (2013). A rising tide meets a perfect storm: New accountabilities in teaching and teacher education in Ireland. Irish Educational Studies, 32(1), 11-36. Fuller A, Hodkinson H, Hodkinson P, et al. (2005) Learning as peripheral participation in communities of practice: a reassessment of key concepts in workplace learning. British Educational Research Journal 31: 49–68. Ganser, T. (2002). How teachers compare the roles of cooperating teacher and mentor. The Educational Forum 66: 380–385. Graham B (2006) Conditions for successful field experiences: Perceptions of cooperating teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education 22(8): 1118–1129. Hynes-Dusel, J.M. (1999) Cooperating teachers’ perceptions about the student teaching experience. Physical Educator 56: 186–195. Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) (2016). A hundred years of teaching 1916-2016: A discussion paper. Dublin: INTO. Kirk, D., MacDonald, D., & O'Sullivan, M. (Eds.). (2006). Handbook of physical education. London: Sage. Kirk, J., & Miller, M. L. (1986). Reliability and validity in qualitative research. London: Sages. Koerner, M., Rust, F. O. C., & Baumgartner, F. (2002). Exploring roles in student teaching placements. Teacher Education Quarterly, 29(2), 35-58 Koster B, Korthagen FAJ and Wubbels T (1998) Is there anything left for us? Functions of cooperating teachers and teacher educators. European Journal of Teacher Education 21: 75–89. Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry (Vol. 75). California: Sage. Rajuan M, Beijaard D and Verloop N (2007) The role of the cooperating teacher: Bridging the gap between the expectations of cooperating teachers and student teachers. Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning 15: 223–242. Sleeter, C. (2014). Toward teacher education research that informs policy. Educational Researcher, 0013189X14528752. Sugrue, C. & Day, C. (2002). Introduction. In C. Sugure and C. Day (Eds.), Developing teachers and teaching practice (pp. xv). London: Routledge Falmer. Teaching Council (2011). Initial teacher education: Criteria and guidelines for programme providers. Maynooth: Teaching Council. Zeichner, K. (2002). Beyond traditional structures of student teaching. Teacher Education Quarterly, 29(2), 59-64.
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.