Education Commons^™

“Push It Real Good!”: The Challenge Of Disrupting Dominant Discourses Regarding Race In Teacher Education, Kara Viesca, Cheryl Matias, Dorothy Garrison-Wade, Madhavi Tandon, Rene Galindo

Dorothy Garrison-Wade

Despite efforts to redesign an urban teacher education program for social justice and equity, faculty became aware of racialized issues teacher candidates of color faced in the program. Therefore, this study examined the perspectives of teacher candidates to learn about how race is impacting teaching and learning for pre-service teachers. Overall, we discovered the dominant narratives, often called majoritarian stories (Love, 2004), were extremely difficult to disrupt and essentially remained largely intact for teacher candidates in our program. In addition, we found that majoritarian stories helped to maintain a level of superficiality for teacher candidates regarding issues of race. For …

Should Educators Be ‘Wrapping School Playgrounds In Cotton Wool’ To Encourage Physical Activity? Exploring Primary And Secondary Students’ Voices From The School Playground, Brendon P. Hyndman, Amanda Telford

Dr Brendon P Hyndman

Physical activity in school playgrounds has changed considerably over recent decades to reflect a climate of ‘surplus safety’. A growing culture of surplus safety can be attributed to a desire of parents and teachers responsible for children to protect school students from danger. The aim of this research was to examine students’ perceptions of playground safety influences on physical activity during school breaks from the perspectives of the ‘users’ of school playgrounds. Data collection consisted of seven focus groups (4 primary school & 3 secondary school) conducted across four schools (2 primary & 2 secondary). During this study, the focus …

Should Educators Be ‘Wrapping School Playgrounds In Cotton Wool’ To Encourage Physical Activity? Exploring Primary And Secondary Students’ Voices From The School Playground, Brendon P. Hyndman, Amanda Telford

Dr Brendon P Hyndman

Physical activity in school playgrounds has changed considerably over recent decades to reflect a climate of ‘surplus safety’. A growing culture of surplus safety can be attributed to a desire of parents and teachers responsible for children to protect school students from danger. The aim of this research was to examine students’ perceptions of playground safety influences on physical activity during school breaks from the perspectives of the ‘users’ of school playgrounds. Data collection consisted of seven focus groups (4 primary school & 3 secondary school) conducted across four schools (2 primary & 2 secondary). During this study, the focus …

Technology Professional Development: Long-Term Effects On Teacher Self-Efficacy, George Watson

George R Watson

The West Virginia K-12 RuralNet Project was an NSF funded program to train inservice teachers on integrating the Internet into science and mathematics curriculum. The program involved training inservice teachers through an intensive summer workshop and supplemental online courses. This study examines the effects of the project on the long-term self-efficacy of inservice teachers and their use of the Internet in the classroom. The specific research questions addressed are: Do professional development programs affect the long-term self-efficacy of inservice teachers? Did the addition of online courses and follow-up to the program affect self-efficacy levels? Finally, do certain external factors, specifically …

Reflections On The Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group Report, Lawrence C. Ingvarson

Dr Lawrence Ingvarson (Consultant)