Keyword: teacher education

ABSTRACT: Within the framework of studies on teacher professionalization, this study aims to analyze and compare the degree of professional dedication among non-university teachers in two autonomous communities of Spain: Galicia and the Basque Country. Data were collected through a questionnaire—previously validated by external experts—comprising 18 items grouped into four domains (1–5 school-teacher domain, 6–10 technical-political domain, 11–14 teacher training domain, and 15–18 scientific-academic domain). A total of 1,318 nonuniversity teachers responded to the survey (742 from Galicia and 576 from the Basque Country). Inferential analyses were conducted using the nonparametric Mann–Whitney U test for independent samples, and various Chi-Square Automatic Interaction Detector (CHAID) classification trees were generated to identify patterns in teachers’ work dedication. The results reveal highly similar work dedication patterns in both regions, with only minor differences observed in the scientific-academic domain. Overall, the findings suggest a fragmented structure of the educational field with a hierarchical distribution of tasks, although a widespread, emerging involvement of teachers in nontraditional activities—beyond the school and classroom settings—is also evident. Among other conclusions, the study emphasizes the benefits of teachers expanding their roles outside of school.

ABSTRACT: ver the past decade, the growth in generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is reshaping and changing how we interact, learn, and work and is likely to bring ongoing change in the future. However, current educational understandings, frameworks, and models concerning digital technologies and digital literacies are remaining relatively static and hierarchical and do not adequately accommodate GenAI’s unique learning capabilities, creative potential, and agency. In this conceptual article, we use critical dialogic inquiry and employ ecological thinking using the notion of symbiosis and posthuman perspectives to explore and speculate about the nature of GenAI and its potential impact on educators and learners. We offer a new way of conceptualizing human relationships with GenAI, which we call “symbi(AI)tic understandings.” Symbi(AI)tic understandings acknowledge the evolving and contextual relationships between partners: from balanced mutualism to one-sided commensalism to potentially harmful parasitism. Thus, we position human–GenAI relationships as part of change futures in which there are complex associations between technology and human endeavor. These understandings aim to foster more nuanced ways of being with and thinking about technology: ways which are vital for educators and learners as they transition into an era of education with AI.

ABSTRACT: When teachers are confident in their ability to teach mathematics and science, it can inspire students to have confidence in their own abilities. Students are more likely to engage with and enjoy these subjects when they see their teacher’s interest and belief in the material. This study aimed at exploring teachers’ confidence of teaching mathematics and science as result of continuous professional development by the African Institute for Mathematical Science (AIMS Rwanda) through its Teacher Training Program (AIMS-TTP). It employed an ex post facto research design targeting 351 secondary school teachers. The findings revealed a positive and significant relationship (p < 0.05) between AIMS-TTP interventions and teachers’ confidence to teach mathematics and science. Besides, linear regression model indicated that the dependent variable Teachers’ Confidence to teach mathematics and science was regressed on predicting variables of improved capacity to plan, adapting teaching to the level of learners, Information Communication Technology (ICT) integrated in teaching and learning; learning from peers; addressing cross-cutting issues; effective implementation of the competence-based curriculum; and the application of bloom’s taxonomy. The independent variables significantly predict teachers’ confidence of teaching mathematics and science, F (7, 326) = 183.843, p < 0.001, which indicates that the factors under study have a significant impact on teachers’ confidence of teaching mathematics and science. Moreover, the findings (Adjusted R2 = 0.822, F (8, 342) = 197.055, p = 0.000 p < 0.05) indicated that 82.2% of the variance in improved teachers’ attitude in teaching mathematics and science evidences a significant influence on the total variance. Our research suggests that policymakers should consider developing and endorsing training on innovative teaching and learning methods to boost teachers’ confidence and attitude when it comes to instructing mathematics and science at basic levels. Trainings should also be extended to Technical Secondary School STEM teachers.

ABSTRACT: This paper advocates the relevance of ethnography as a methodology for researching preservice teacher education. The research underpinning this paper demonstrates the importance and relevance of the ethnographic imagination for examining the formation and development of preservice teacher identity, offering a means of capturing the lived experience of learning to teach from the perspective of those entering the profession. The experience of learning to teach on three graduate-level teacher education pathways in the South of England is explored using ethnographic methods. The yearlong immersion in three different research sites and subsequent thematic analysis of the generated data gives insight into the formation of the teacher identity, foregrounding the importance of place in the experiential journey of the preservice teacher. The comprehensive data generated from this study give unique insight into how ethnographic practices can reveal the developmental process of teacher identity and have relevance for teacher educators and researchers internationally.