When preservice teachers’ prior beliefs contradict evidence from educational research

Abstract. In this commentary, I seek to join the ongoing conversation about evidence-informed educational practice that has been threaded through this special issue. I do so by drawing on related insights from the fields of teachers' beliefs and epistemic cognition and considering the roles of teacher education and educational research in improving (preservice) teachers' use of educational research. In particular, I focus on the merits of explicit research-based practice in teacher educators' teaching and ways that they can encourage preservice teachers' interactions with educational research in class, and methods of changing the beliefs that may underlie (preservice) teachers' engagement with educational research evidence, and finally, the need for clearly communicated research, including details of implementation.

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Preservice teachers' prior beliefs: Transforming obstacles into opportunities

Teaching and Teacher Education ◽

10.1016/s0742-051x(97)00035-8 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 175-191 ◽

Cited By ~ 105

Author(s):

Elana Joram ◽

Anthony J Gabriele

Keyword(s):

Preservice Teachers ◽

Prior Beliefs

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Finding Courage in the Unknown: Transformative Inquiry as Indigenist Inquiry

in education ◽

10.37119/ojs2015.v21i2.276 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 21 (2) ◽

pp. 65-88

Author(s):

Michele Tanaka

Keyword(s):

Teacher Education ◽

Preservice Teachers ◽

Social Justice ◽

Educational Research ◽

Holistic Health ◽

Ecological Sustainability ◽

Health And Wellness ◽

Ways Of Being ◽

Decolonizing Research

Educators often wonder how to respond purposefully to vexing issues such as ecological sustainability, social justice and holistic health and wellness. The search for useful ways of proceeding can be addressed through engagement in the process of transformative inquiry, a mode of inquiry for educators that resonates with indigenous views and ways of being. At its heart, the approach seeks to support preservice teachers in their personal journeys towards decolonizing and indigenizing. Ultimately, these efforts ripple out to affect their future students and the institutions in which they learn, teach and, hopefully, inquire. Weaving poetry written from my own experience on becoming indigenist, with the work of scholars such as Manulani Meyer, Lorna Williams, Marie Battise, Shawn Wilson, and Gregory Cajete, I highlight salient aspects of transformative inquiry that can be particularly useful in changing the trajectory of both education and educational research: welcoming spirit, deep and generous listening, connecting to place, and finding courage in the unknown.Keywords: Transformative inquiry; indigenizing education; decolonizing research; teacher education; educational research

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The Wilful Character of Indigenous Educational Research

The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education ◽

10.1017/jie.2017.9 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 47 (2) ◽

pp. 92-99

Author(s):

David Bright ◽

Elizabeth Mackinlay

Keyword(s):

Preservice Teachers ◽

Educational Research ◽

Recent Work ◽

Cultural Landscape ◽

Torres Strait Islander ◽

Negative Charge ◽

Mentoring Programs ◽

The World ◽

Torres Strait ◽

The Relationship

In her recent work, Sara Ahmed explores wilfulness as a negative charge made by some against others, thinking about the relationship between ill will and good will, the particular and the general, and the embeddedness of will in a political and cultural landscape. In Ahmed's reading, wilfulness is a characteristic often ascribed to those who do ‘not will the reproduction of the whole’ (2011, p. 246) — those who are deemed wayward, wandering, and/or deviant. Using Ahmed's discussions, in this paper, we report on the successes and failures of a research project exploring mentoring programs in enhancing the recruitment and retention of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander preservice teachers. We think about the tensions always present between two faces of such a project: the need to reproduce modes of compliance to the expectations of a Western academic institutional regime; and the wilful pursuit of the kinds of wayward resistance and critique that may be potentially undermining and self-sabotaging as well as wholly necessary as attempts at decoloniality. We report on both the successes of the program and the continuing failure to address issues of colonialism. In doing so, we position Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research as a performative doubleness which needs wilfulness in order to ‘stand up, to stand against the world’ (Ahmed, 2011, p. 250) of colonial reproduction in neo-liberal times.

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