Pedagogies of Inclusion in Teacher Education: Global Perspectives

Abstract: Professional development that aims to build school change capacity requires spaces for collaborative action and reflection. These spaces should promote learning and foster skills for distributed leadership in managing school change. The present study analyses the case of the Seminar for Critical Citizenship (SCC) established by teachers of infant, primary, secondary and higher education to experiment with and share innovative practices. A focus group was formed first to identify which factors SCC participants perceived as influencing the development of this leadership for change, and second, to verify whether the SCC offers a space where the development of distributed leadership is promoted. We find that while it enables a network for collaboration, egalitarian dialogue and empowerment, certain tensions persist between theory and practice, and in attitudes towards innovation and school culture.

Abstract: esoteric, and out of touch with the conflicts and struggle that teachers, students, and activists act on” (p. 247). Although specific descriptions of teacher educator practices were not described by Apple (2000), he nonetheless warned that teacher educators who use critical pedagogy may unintentionally exclude students from adopting the critical pedagogical teaching approach due to the criticism stated above. Therefore, a critical question is, how does one know whether or not, and to what degree, the critically minded professors mentioned in the above studies, practised effective socially just pedagogy? Were these teacher educators aware of the problem of abstract language and the potential of students being “out of touch” with critical pedagogical theories and goals? Content (subject matter) and teaching methodology (the ways in which the subject is delivered) coalesce to construct a learning environment which will, in one way or another, affect the learning experiences of preservice teacher candidates. This study explored and connected the key critical pedagogical teaching approaches that shaped the developing CC of preservice teacher participants. While the overall historical patterns, shown in the meta-analysis by Castro (2010) suggest that preservice teacher candidates lacked the ability to frame diversity and equity in complex ways, recent studies have nuanced this theme. For example, the degree of preservice teacher candidates’ tolerance, acceptance, and prejudice toward diverse cultures and socially just pedagogies has shifted according to some of the studies reviewed (Castro, 2010). For example, Castro (2010) reports that the studies conducted between 2000 to 2007 indicated that millennial preservice teacher candidates showed a greater acceptance toward socially just oriented pedagogies and cultural diversity, and an

Abstract: Background: The aim of the present study was to evaluate teacher perceptions on the training received in intercultural education. Methods: The article presents a quantitative, non- experimental and ex-post-facto type of research; directed to inquire about the perceptions of the teachers of primary education in Andalusia (Spain) in relation to the intercultural training received. Based on the descriptive survey method, two questionnaires were administered to a sample composed of 320 students and 80 teachers. Results: The results show certain strengths of the training teacher programs in the field of interculturality (encouragement of reflection, participation and collaboration …), as well as weaknesses (decontextualization, inflexibility, primacy of theoretical learning, non-transversal character, etc.). Conclusions: Despite strengths, intercultural teacher training continues to be a challenge in Andalusia.

Abstract: This study engaged grounded theory methodology to explore how critical pedagogy shaped and influenced the development of critical consciousness among preservice teacher candidates. The teacher participants revealed that facilitating critical consciousness was a complex process influenced by pedagogical and institutional mechanisms. The pedagogical mechanism of coercive power and the institutional mechanism of compressed time both limited opportunities for student agency and constrained the development of critical consciousness. Two professors were successful in countering the negative consequences of these institutional and pedagogical mechanisms by enacting a legitimate form of power and facilitating dialogical learning contexts. These efforts are highlighted in the paper as key attributes of consciousness raising learning experiences among the preservice teachers. Keywords: preservice teachers, critical pedagogy, critical consciousness, Faculty of Education, course-based learning experiences Cette etude, qui repose sur une methodologie inspiree de la theorie a base empirique, explore la mesure dans laquelle la pedagogie critique a influence le developpement d’une conscience critique chez des enseignants en formation. Les enseignants participants ont revele que la promotion de la conscience critique est un processus complexe qui est influence par des mecanismes pedagogiques et institutionnels. Le mecanisme pedagogique du pouvoir coercitif et le mecanisme institutionnel du calendrier comprime limitent tous les deux la marge de manœuvre des etudiants et contraignent le developpement de la conscience critique. Deux professeurs ont reussi a contrer les consequences negatives de ces mecanismes institutionnels et pedagogiques en exercant une forme de pouvoir legitime et en facilitant des contextes d’apprentissage dialogique. L’article presente ces efforts comme etant les caracteristiques principales des experiences d’apprentissage ayant favorise la prise de conscience chez les enseignants en formation. Mots cles: enseignants en formation; pedagogie critique; conscience critique; faculte d’education; experiences d’apprentissage basees sur les cours

Abstract: Introduction 1 Freedom's Just Another Word 2 The Construction of Consent 3 The Neoliberal State 4 Uneven Geographical Developments 5 Neoliberalism with 'Chinese Characteristics' 6 Neoliberalism on Trial 7 Freedom's Prospect Notes Bibliography Index

Abstract: The achievement gap is one of the most talked-about issues in U.S. education. The term refers to the disparities in standardized test scores between Black and White, Latina/o and White, and recent immigrant and White students. This article argues that a focus on the gap is misplaced. Instead, we need to look at the “education debt” that has accumulated over time. This debt comprises historical, economic, sociopolitical, and moral components. The author draws an analogy with the concept of national debt—which she contrasts with that of a national budget deficit—to argue the significance of the education debt.

Abstract: There is a common belief in the educative value of firsthand experience. We say things like “that was a real learning experience,” “practice makes perfect ,” “ experience is the best teacher,” and “let experience be your guide.” Common sense casts experience as both the means and content of important learnings. This implicit trust in firsthand experience is particularly evident in discussions about learning to teach. Teachers claim that most of what they know about teaching came from firsthand experience. In short, they learned to teach by teaching. When teachers look back on their formal preparation, they generally say that student teaching was the most valuable part. In deference to this belief, teacher preparation programs give more and more time to classroom experience, while in-service programs stress teachers’ sharing their experiences with one another. Increasingly, states are proposing alternative routes to teacher certification whereby college graduates can replace formal preparation with a yearlong internship. But is experience as good a teacher of teachers as most people are inclined to think? To answer this question, we must take into account commonly used informal strategies of inference and judgment, the immediate impact of personal memories and classroom realities, the instructional purposes of teacher educators, and the normative context of schools as institutions. This article focuses on the contribution of firsthand experience in the preservice phase of learning to teach. The discussion rests on a broad view of learning to teach as a process that begins before formal teacher preparation and continues afterward. Thus preservice field experiences are part of a continuum that includes powerful early experiences with parents and teachers as well as the learning that inevitably occurs on the job.