Practice teachers do
not feel competent in theoretical themes, so they do not connect practice to
theory very much. They tend to focus on practical advice and discussions on
what works in practice.
Secondly, Roald
Tobiassen had a talk on "Portfolio as practice in teaching practicum:
promoting reflection and constructing teacher identity". The project was
connected to the teacher education that is called PPU in Norway, and a
part-time model. The portfolio was meant to scaffold students' practicum
learning and reflection. During the first year, the students had six
pedagogical texts to write, starting with "My pedagogical creed". The
students meet in groups of 4-6 students which discuss the tasks. This
particular project looked at six of the students.
Tobiassen went
quickly through a lot of the theory on portfolio. Then to the findings: these
six students were positive with regards to the portifolio - they saw it as a
way of developing teacher identity - they valued the authenticity.
"Portfolios helped me to see where I wanted to go and how to get
there". The six students were happy with the structure as well. They saw
the portfolio as a tool for connecting what they read about being a teacher and
their own experience.
Finally, Jóhanna
Karlsdóttir's theme was "Storyline som metode i inklusiv læring og
undervisning i praktik hos lærerstuderende". (Even though the title is in
Swedish, most of the words are understandable for the English reader, I
guess...) The study is based on one course in teacher education in Iceland,
with 21 participants (in 6th semester) - the data are interviews, notebooks,
discussions etc. The course is focused on inclusive education, which is
apparently not taught systematically in teacher education in Iceland. She
presented an eclectic mix of theories as a foundation for her work, including
Gardner, Johnson & Johnson etc. She then described the storyline process
(in the classical way). Her project goes on for one more year, but she has
found some room for improvement, for instance in getting to know the method
better before using it themselves. But storyline apparently is useful for
inclusive education as it is building on pupils' resources.
I do think that I
see more of why I do not like such a "broad" conference as much as
more focused conferences. I think the variety of participants makes it almost
impossible for those giving talks to present their projects effectively - it is
impossible to know which theories and concepts and contexts are well-known to
the people present. Thus, most presentations either spend too much time on
stuff I already know well or jump too quickly over theories I do not know. This
is in marked contrast to for instance the HPM conferences I go to every four
years.
Jane Kenway, Monash
University, had a plenary on "The emotional life of markets in
education". She presented a project looking at elite schools around the
world (but not generalizing educational policy based on these schools like
yesterday's speaker). Elite schools may be fee-based or merit-based (and
grant-funded). She talked on concepts such as "emotional geography"
(how do feelings connect to places) and "economies of emotion" (the
emotions of buying a Nike shoe is not connected to the smell and sound of the
shoe factory). What emotions are evoked by certain schools to make parents send
their pupils there?
She mocked the way
elite schools market themselves with cliche slogans. (It does remind me of a
student saying that she was so amazed of how teachers in her school in Uganda
always reminded their pupils that they are the future of Uganda. Cliche, yes,
but still an important reminder for the children. Isn't there too little -
rather than too much - talk of the importance of schooling in western
societies?)
While the subject of
elite schools is a bit interesting, to me it feels like it is on the edge of
what I'm interested in. I'm far more interested in how similar mechanisms are
working (or not) when "ordinary" schools are concerned. How do competition
for pupils influence the internal life of "ordinary",
"non-elite" schools. Perhaps ideas for studying this can be found
based on the study of the elite schools? Other characteristica of elite schools
are certainly less interesting in that context, for instance how parents use
relocation services to set up meetings with potential schools - not a very
common practice among parents relocating within Oslo, for instance. The high
pressure for performance in elite schools - the fail anxiety - is also
something that is far less usual in "ordinary" schools, I would
think.
A somewhat relevant
feature of elite schools is the development of new "departments"
tasked with producing emotions, for instance marketing departments. This is
also the case for many Norwegian institutions, for instance my own, with its
"avdeling for samfunnskontakt" which is trying to give HiOA a good
image and avoid bad press. (While trying to remember that an important part of
being a good institution in higher education is to encourage discussions and
enjoy the benefits of free speech, even when uncomfortable.)
After lunch, I went
to the parallel session on Classroom Research. Ingvill Krogstad Svanes
presented "Teachers' instructional practices during students' individual
seatwork in primary school". Her research is on six teachers in 3rd grade
in Norwegian - one week each. She presented an analytical framework developed
through the project. The main codes were instructional support, organizational
support, emotional support, monitoring and "no direct interaction with
students". One main finding is that there is a huge variation between the
teachers in how they spend their time. Two of the six teachers give more
instructional support than anything else. Others spend most of their time on
organizational support. This seem connected to the clarity of the initial
instructions and the choice of activities (scissors and glue lead to more need
of practical help, for instance). Emotional support was almost not present, but
that may be because only what was spoken was coded. Further subdivisions in the
codes show that even within the categories there are important differences -
some teachers are mostly telling the pupils, while others are challenging them
more. (For the sake of openness: I am Svanes' boss as well.)
Next, Malin Norberg
talked about "How do children in primary school make use of illustrations
in mathematics textbooks?" She chose subtraction as an example (an
interesting choice, as it is fairly difficult to illustrate in a static
picture). 1742 illustrations from 21 textbooks were the data, in addition to
discussions with twelve students about five illustrations. She has looked at
two subtraction situations: decrease and compare. 86.5 % of illustrations were
illustrating decrease. Sometimes the students need the illustration to do the
subtractions, in other instances the illustrations are just illustrating a
process.
Students sometimes
read more into the illustrations than intended, and sometimes they are able to
solve the mathematical task with symbols but not with the illustrations. (Not
all illustrations are very good...) The teacher's role is important. In her PhD,
she will work on teachers' role and teacher's guides.
For the last
scheduled talk in this session I decided to just listen instead of writing
notes - sorry...
After a coffee
break, I went for the parallel session on Gender and Education again. The first
talk was supposed to be by Jenny Bengtsson and Eva Bolander: "What the
school can (not) do: Education markets and negotiation on sex, risk and
schooling". However, this talk was cancelled...
The second talk of
this session was Chie Nakazawa's "Adolescents' norms, attitudes and values
regarding sexual and reproductive behaviours from a gender perspective - a
comparison between Japan and Sweden." The talk is based on surveys of
university students, about 500 in Sweden and about 2500 in Japan. One
indication of the difference: about a quarter of Japanese women in the study
claim never to have been interested in sex, while only 3.6 per cent of Sweden
women claim the same. I am quite sure that this is a cultural and not a
biological difference...
Also, only 2.4 per
cent of Swedish men say they are homosexual or bisexual, compared to 10.4 per
cent of Swedish women. This question was not even asked in Japan. Moreover, it
is clear that Swedes find sex to be more enjoyable and less dirty and embarrassing
than Japanese, if the survey answers are to be believed. Also on gender roles,
the differences are significant.
Thirdly, there was
the talk "A hotbed of heterosexuality? On the reproduction of notions of
sexuality in language instruction" by Angelica Simonsson. Her talk is
based on her ongoing PhD project. Her research question is whether sexuality
and gender normativity is constructed in language education instruction in
secondary school. She is looking both at teaching materials and at how pupils
and teachers relate to these. It is based on two classes (grade 8) in two
different schools, and the teaching aids used. Subjects: Swedish and English.
Her findings are
that sexuality figure in teaching aids, and these are all hetero. This goes for
both non-fiction films, fictional films, short stories and textbooks. There was
a total lack of non-heterosexual relationships. (This is quite surprising, as
my research show quite a bit of homosexuality in Norwegian textbooks. Does this
mean that Norwegian textbooks are more inclusive, or would a study of Norwegian
classrooms show a similar pattern, i.e. that teachers choose the heterosexual
examples?) (in a comment at the end of the session, it was argued that even
when gay characters are portrayed in literature for youth, they are portrayed
in a very stereotypical way. I have not looked at that in my material.)
Finally, the fourth
talk of the day was Per Nordén's "First Generation Rainbow Children Speak
Their Minds - How queer kinship structures matters in education". With
"rainbow children", he refers to children with one or more LGBT parent.
The talk is based on interviews with 28 rainbow people from age 15-37. He gave
long quotes from different stages of history. It is fascinating to see how
different experiences are, and that these are intimately connected to changes
in law and society. Sadly, he did not have the time to come to the part of
their school experiences.
That's the end of
the second day of NERA. Time for the last preparations for Friday morning's
talk...
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