Exploring Headway Pedagogies in Initial Teacher Education Through Collaborative Action Research into Processes of Learning: Experiences from Eritrea

Authors

  • Khalid Mohammed Idris Asmara College of Education
  • Samson Eskender Ministry of Education
  • Amanuel Yosief Asmara College of Education
  • Berhane Demoz Ministry of Education
  • Kiflay Andemicael Ministry of Education

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7577/njcie.3746

Keywords:

pedagogy of teacher education; teacher educators; professional development; self-study; Eritrea

Abstract

Engaging prospective teachers in collaborative inquiry into their own processes of learning was the driving intention of the collaborative action research (CAR) course which was part of a teacher education program at a college of education in Eritrea in the academic year of 2018/2019. The course led by the first two authors was collaboratively designed and developed by the authors who were closely and regularly working as passionate learning community of educators who are committed to enact change in their own practices for the past seven years. Embracing the complexity of learning teacher educating we align with the notion of inquiry as a stance in learning to live up to the complexity. Accordingly, we engaged in an intentional collaborative self-study into our own practices of facilitating a course on inquiry. The aim of this paper is to articulate key experiences of committed collaborative learning in facilitating a course of inquiry. Employing a self-study methodology, we were engaged in individual and team reflections documented in our shared diary, regular meetings to discuss and develop the CAR process, and analyzing written feedbacks given by our student teachers (STs). In this article we attempt to explore headway pedagogies while we were collaboratively learning to facilitate and support a senior class of prospective teachers (n-27) carry out their CAR projects into their own processes of learning for four months. We argue that those experiences have critical implications in developing professional identity of prospective teachers, creatively overcome the theory-practice conundrum in teacher education by developing essential experiences that prospective teachers could creatively adapt in their school practices.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

References

Akyeampong, K., Lussier, K, Pryor, J., & Westbrook, J. (2013). Improving teaching and learning of basic maths and reading in Africa: Does teacher preparation count? International Journal of Educational Development, 33, 272-282. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2012.09.006

Balakrishnan, V., & Claiborne, L. (2017). Participatory action research in culturally complex socie-ties: opportunities and challenges. Educational Action Research, 25(2), 185-202. https://doi.org/10.1080/09650792.2016.1206480

Berry, A. (2007). Reconceptualizing Teacher Educator Knowledge as Tensions: Exploring the ten-sion between valuing and reconstructing experience. Studying Teacher Education, 3(2), 117-134. https://doi.org/10.1080/17425960701656510

Bodone, F., Guðjonsdottir, H., & Dalmau, M. (2004). Revisioning and recreating practice: collabora-tion in self-study. In J. J. Loughran, M. L. Hamilton, V. L. Laboskey & T. Russell (Eds.), In-ternational Handbook of Self-Study of teaching and teacher education practices (Pt. 1, pp. 743-784). Springer.

Brodie, K., & Borko, H. (Eds.) (2016). Professional learning communities in South African schools and teacher education programs. HSRC Press.

Brookfield, S. D. (2017). Becoming a critically reflective teacher (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.

Bullock, S. M., & Sator, A. (2018). Developing a Pedagogy of “Making” through Collaborative Self-Study. Studying Teacher Education, 14(1), 56-70. https://doi.org/10.1080/17425964.2017.1413342.

Cochran-Smith, M. (2003). Learning and unlearning: the education of teacher educators. Teaching and Teacher Education, 19, 5-28.

Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. (2004). Practitioner inquiry, knowledge, and university culture. In J. J. Loughran, M. L. Hamilton, V. L. Laboskey & T. Russell (Eds.), International Handbook of Self-Study of teaching and teacher education practices (Pt.1, pp. 601-649). Springer.

Cohen L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2018). Research Methods in Education (8th ed.). Routledge.

Cuenca, A. (2010). Self-Study Research: Surfacing the Art of Pedagogy in Teacher Education. Jour-nal of Inquiry and Action in Education, 3(2), 15-29.

Feldman, A., Paugh, P., & Mills, G. (2004). Self-Study through action research. In J. J. Loughran, M. L. Hamilton, V. L. Laboskey & T. Russell (Eds.), International Handbook of Self-Study of teaching and teacher education practices (Pt. 1, pp. 943-977). Springer.

Fletcher, T., Ní Chróinín, D., & O’Sillivan, M. (2016). A layered Approach to critical friendship as a means to support innovation in pre-service teacher education. Studying Teacher Education, 12(3), 302-319. https://doi.org/10.1080/17425964.2016.1228049

Goodwin, A. L., Smith, L., Souto-Manning, M., Cheruvu, R., Tan, M. Y., Reed, R., & Taveras, L. (2014). What Should Teacher Educators Know and Be Able to Do? Perspectives from Practic-ing Teacher Educators. Journal of Teacher Education, 65(4), 284– 302. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487114535266

Hamilton, M.L., Smith, L., & Worthington, K. (2008). Fitting the Methodology with the Research: An exploration of narrative, self-study and auto-ethnography. Studying Teacher Education, 4(1), 17-28. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487114535266

Hargreaves, A. & Fullan, M. (2012). Professional capital: transforming teaching in every school. Teachers College Press.

Idris, K. M., Asfaha, Y. M., & Ibrahim, M. (2017). Teachers ‘voices, challenging teaching contexts and implications for teacher education and development in Eritrea. Journal of Eritrean Stud-ies, III(1), 31-58.

Kahu, E. R. (2013). Framing student engagement in higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 38(5), 758-773. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2011.598505

Kemmis, S. (2006). Participatory action research and the public sphere. Educational Action Re-search, 14(4), 459-476. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09650790600975593

Kemmis, S., McTaggart, R., & Nixon, R. (2014). The Action Research Planner: Doing Critical Par-ticipatory Action research. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4560-67-2

Klein, J., & Fitzgerald, L. M. (2018). Self-Study, Action Research: Is that a boundary or border or what? In D. Garbett & A. Ovens (Eds.), Pushing boundaries and crossing borders: Self-study as a means for researching pedagogy (pp. 27-33). Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices (S-STEP).

Korthagen, F. A. (2017). Inconvenient truths about teacher learning: towards professional develop-ment 3.0. Teachers and Teaching, 23 (4), 387-405. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2016.1211523

Korthagen, F. A. (2016). Pedagogy of Teacher Education. In J. Loughran & M.L. Hamilton (Eds.), International Handbook of Teacher Education (vol. 1, pp. 311-346). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0366-0_8

LaBoskey, V. K. (2004). The methodology of self-study and its theoretical underpinnings. In J. J. Loughran, M. L. Hamilton, V. L. Laboskey, & T. Russell (Eds.), International Handbook of Self-Study of teaching and teacher education practices (Pt. 1, pp. 817-869). Springer.

Loughran, J. (2014). Professionally developing as a teacher educator. Journal of Teacher Educa-tion, 65(4), 271-283. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487114533386

Mena, J., & Russel, T. (2017). Collaboration, multiple methods, and trustworthiness: Issues arising from the 2014 international conference on self-study of teacher education practice. Studying Teacher Education, 13(1), 105-122. https://doi.org/10.1080/17425964.2017.1287694

Mtika, P., & Gates, P. (2010). Developing learner-centered education among secondary trainee teachers in Malawi: The dilemma of appropriation and application. International Journal of Educational Development, 30, 396-404. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2009.12.004

Pellerin, M., & Paukner, F. I. (2015). Becoming reflective and inquiring teachers: collaborative ac-tion research for in-service Chilean teachers. Revista Electrónica de Investigación Educa-tiva, 17(3), 13-27. https://redie.uabc.mx/vol17no3/contents-pellerin-paukner.html

Peercy M. M., & Troyan, F. J. (2017). Making transparent the challenges of developing a practice-based pedagogy of teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 61, 26-36. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2016.10.005

Ping, C., Schellings, G., & Beijaard, D. (2018). Teacher educators’ professional learning: A literature review. Teaching and teacher education, 75, 93-104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2018.06.003

Ritter, R., Ayieko, R. Vanorsdale, C., Quiñones, S., Chao, X., Meidl, C., Mahalingappa, L. Meyer, C., & Williams, J. (2019). Facilitating Pedagogies of Possibility in Teacher Education: Experi-ences of Faculty Members in a Self-Study Learning Group. Journal of Inquiry & Action in Education, 10(2), 134-157.

Sagor, R. (1992). How to conduct collaborative action research. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Schuck, S., & Russell, T. (2005). Self-Study, Critical Friendship, and the Complexities of Teacher education. Studying Teacher Education, 1(2), 107-121. https://doi.org/10.1080/17425960500288291

Scott, D., & Morrison, M. (2005). Key Ideas in Educational Research. Continuum International Pub-lishing Group.

Spencer, J. A., & Molina, S. C. (2018). Mentoring graduate students through the action research journey using guiding principles. Educational Action Research, 26(1), 144-165. https://doi.org/10.1080/09650792.2017.1284013

Vaughan, M., & Burnaford, G. (2016). Action research in graduate teacher education: a review of the literature 2000–2015. Educational Action Research, 24(2), 280-299. https://doi.org/10.1080/09650792.2015.1062408

Vavrus, F., Thomas, M., & Bartlett, L. (2011). Ensuring quality by attending to inquiry: Learner-centered pedagogy in sub-Saharan Africa. UNESCO CBA International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa.

Westbrook, J., Durrani N., Brown, R., Orr, D., Pryor, J., Boddy, J., & Salvi, F. (2013). Pedagogy, Curriculum, Teaching Practices and Teacher Education in Developing Countries. Final Re-port. Education Rigorous Literature Review. EPPI-Centre. ISBN: 978-1-907345-64-7

Wood, L. (2015). Reflecting on reflecting: fostering student capacity for critical reflection in an action research project. Educational Research for Social Change, 4(1), 79-93. ISSN: 2221-4070

Worku, M. Y. (2017). Improving primary school practice and school–college linkage in Ethiopia through collaborative action research, Educational Action Research, 25(5), 737-754. https://doi.org/10.1080/09650792.2016.1267656

Wrench, A., & Paige, K. (2019). Educating pre-service teachers: towards a critical inquiry work-force. Educational Action Research. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/09650792.2019.159387

Yan, C. (2017). ‘You never know what research is like unless you’ve done it!’ Action research to promote collaborative student-teacher research. Educational Action Research, 25(5), 704-719. https://doi.org/10.1080/09650792.2016.1245155

Downloads

Published

2020-12-29

How to Cite

Idris, K. M., Eskender, S., Yosief, A., Demoz, B., & Andemicael, K. (2020). Exploring Headway Pedagogies in Initial Teacher Education Through Collaborative Action Research into Processes of Learning: Experiences from Eritrea . Nordic Journal of Comparative and International Education (NJCIE), 4(3-4), 139–156. https://doi.org/10.7577/njcie.3746