Previous Pedagogical Beliefs Of Freshmen Of Teacher Education
Conference:
ECER 2013
Format:
Paper

Session Information

10 SES 14 A, Pedagogical Beliefs and Practices

Paper Session

Time:
2013-09-13
15:30-17:00
Room:
A-201
Chair:
Judith Harford

Contribution

This paper is part of a research project about how students of teacher education elaborate their professional identity. Through a inquiry on their life stories, the research aims to understand and analyse the experiences of these students along their primary and secondary education, their experiences in university classrooms, and the incidence of these experiences, as well as those generated in schools, in the early years of his teaching career. The project, called “the professional identity of the teacher education”, involves the universities of Almeria, Cadiz, Cordoba, Granada, Jaen and Malaga, in Andalusia (Spain) and the universities of the State of Santa Catalina and Santa Catalina Federal, in Brazil.

It addresses the fact that students who begin their studies in teacher education, come with ideas and beliefs of their experiences in the years as pupils _ at  Primary and Secondary Education. In these circumstances, the initial phase of teacher education is a complex process in which many students have to give up preconceived ideas about the nature of teaching. These ideas can act as constraints in the learning process as future teachers. Students usually do not have the possibility to see how teachers facing major changes in their teaching strategies based on reflection on practice, since the model of education in Universities is primarily academic and literary. For this reason they have trouble to deepen the possible unsuitability of their previous ideas about education. Also the students' prior beliefs prepared about teaching decisively influence how they interpret the didactic training received in college.

Furthermore, these students' prior beliefs about teaching have a very important influence on how they interpret the didactic training received in college. Therefore they reproduce, in their performance as students, the same patterns learned in school. In this way the professional learning that has taken place in their school years is strengthen.

We suggest the appropriateness of dealing the analysis of the students of teacher education previous pedagogical beliefs of through the following objectives: a) Understanding and analysing the personal and formative profiles of freshmen teacher education; b) determining what effects have the previous pedagogical beliefs of students the first year of teacher education on how to integrate the professional lessons received in college c) encourage teacher education students the development of criteria to enable them to recognize and analyse beliefs they have on the previous teaching and justify their opportunity.

Method

The methodological strategy used to learn about the experiences of students in pre-university stage was autobiographical account. Life stories have been drawn describing their experiences in Primary and Secondary education. To select these life histories several descriptive variables were considered: demographics, type of schools, possible family ties with teachers, gender, academic records and their characteristics with respect to diversity. These accounts have been written at the beginning of their university education. It was drawn spontaneously without any previous scheme or suggestions regarding the content by researchers. The findings provided by the analysis of the autobiographies are being analysed using the qualitative analysis software NVivo, from the categories emerging in the accounts. Subsequent interpretations are to be analysed and discussed in focus groups, in which will be involved both members of the university academic community, and members of the school community. The authors of the accounts, voluntarily involved in this process, also will participate in discussion.

Expected Outcomes

Based on the objectives, we intend to get some clues and indicators that provide insight into the biographical profiles and pedagogical students grade. We are also interested in understanding the prior beliefs that students bring with regard to education, and the way they affect their training as future teachers and how they were built. With these results it seems to us very important to open a wide debate between universities and education authorities to adapt the academic curriculum of teacher education to educative needs of students. An important aspect of this change is to promote processes of reflection of the students on the lived experience, as a strategy for transforming teaching practices of teachers. This research provides conceptual and practical issues to implement this change. In this reflection process the understanding of the educational model that students bring is a crucial issue. Equally important are their cultural values, the way they understand the educational relationships, how they conceive learning, educational strategies, pedagogical authority, etc. In this way we hope to have evidence to reconstruct their educational beliefs and address their education from alternative models. This is particularly relevant in the context of reforms that both Spain and Brazil are involved.

References

Alsup, J. (2006). Teacher identity discourses. Negotiating personal and professional spaces. Mahwat, N. J.: Lawrence Erbaum. Clandinin, D. J., et al. (2006). Composing diverse identities: Narrative inquiries into the interwoven lives of children and teachers. New York: Routledge. Feiman-Nemser, S. (2001). From Preparation to Practice: Designing a Continuum to Strengthen and Sustain Teaching. Teachers College Record, 103(6), 1013-1055. Knowles, J. G. (2004). Modelos para la comprensión de las biografías del profesorado en formación y en sus primeros años de docencia. Ilustraciones a partid de estudios de caso, en Goodson, I. F. (ed.). Historias de vida del profesorado. Barcelona: Octaedro, pp. 149-205 MacKenzie, Sarah K. (2011). Playing Teacher: Artful Negotiations in the Pre-service Classroom. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 12(1), Art. 30, http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1101306. Pérez, M. y Quijano, R. (2010). La cultura escolar en los centros de secundaria: Implicaciones del profesorado. Revista Edetania, pp. 57 – 72. Rivas, I. (2009). “Narración, conocimiento y realidad. Un cambio de argumento en la investigación educativa”. En J. I. Rivas & Herrera, D. (eds.) Voz y educación. La narrativa como enfoque de interpretación de la realidad. (pp. 17-36). Barcelona: Octaedro. Rivas, I. et al. (2012). The Professional Identity In Teacher Education. Conference: ECER. Cadiz, 17 al 21 de septiembre. Rivas, I. et al. (2010). La configuración de identidades en la experiencia escolar: Escenarios, sujetos y regulaciones. Revista de Educación. nº 353, septiembre-diciembre, pp. 197-209 Rusznyak, L. (2009): Confronting the ‘pedagogical immunity’ of student teachers, Education as Change, 13:2, 263-276. Soreide, G. El (2006). Narrative Construction of Teacher Identity: positioning and Negotiation. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 12 (5), pp. 527-547. Stard, A. & Prusak, A. (2005). Telling Identities: In Search of and Analytic Tool for Investigating Learning as a Culturally Shaped Activity. Educational Researcher, 34, pp. 14-22.

Author Information

Jose Ignacio Rivas (presenting / submitting)
University of Málaga, Spain
University of Jaen, Spain
University of Malaga, Spain
University of Jaen, Spain
Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación, Universidad de Málaga, España
Departamento de Didáctica y Organización Escolar
Resistencia

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