teacher professional learning on the fly: using metaphor ...€¦ · from the specialist, by...

Teacher professional learning on the fly:

Using metaphor to understand teacher learning when teaching out-of-field

Linda HobbsDeakin [email protected]

Coral Campbell, Christopher SpeldewindeDeakin University

Frances Quinn, University of New England

mailto:[email protected]

From The Specialist, by Charles Sale (1929)

“YOU’VE heard a lot of pratin’ and prattlin’ about this bein’ the age of specialization. I'm a carpenter by trade. At one time I could of built a house, barn, church, or chicken coop. But I seen the need of a specialist in my line, so I studied her. I got her, she’s mine. Gentlemen, you are face to face with the champion privybuilder of Sangamon County.

…

As I look at the beautiful picture of my work, I’m proud. I heaves a sigh of satisfaction, my eyes fill up and I sezto myself: “Folks are right when they say that next to my eight holer that’s the finest piece of construction work I ever done. I know I done right in specializing…”

What does an out-of-field teacher need to do?

• Identify a set of generic knowledge and skills

• Adapt what they know and can do to this new subject area

• Then apprentice themselves to the new specialisation

Ideal world:• time to immerse themselves in the content • understand its histories and basic tenets • practice the disciplinary ways of knowing and doing • learn the teaching approaches and learning theories

that reflect reformist or at least contemporary ‘best practice’

• practice and reflect on theories and teaching approaches implemented

Over time: develop an appreciation for the subject and what it can do and be for their students.

Real world:They can face:• External challenges - unsympathetic timetabling,

cultures of support and leadership• Internal challenges - lack of resilience and adaptability

These can restrict, hinder or work against teacher learning

Teaching out-of-field: A unique experience

Wanty Widjaja_ICOMSET

Journey of learning to be an effective teacher is unique to the individual and school context

Teaching out-of-field adds particular demands on teachers.

Effects of these demands can either:

• Build professional practice and identity, diversify teacher expertise and commitments

• De-stabilise and lead to teacher attrition, ineffective teaching, costs to the sector

The problem with out of-field teaching• For learners:

– Reduced learning outcomes (OECD, 2011) (Attard 2013; Hill & Dalton 2013; Ingersoll, 1998; McConney & Price 2009; Thomson, et al. 2012)

• For teachers:– Lack of content knowledge, pedagogical content and horizon knowledge (Darling-Hammond, 2000; Education &

Training Committee, 2006; Ingersoll, 1998; Thomas, 2000, Ponte & Chapman, 2008, Vale etl al. 2010)

– Compromise ‘teaching competence’, and can disrupt a teacher’s identity, self-efficacy and well-being (Pillay, Goddard, & Wilss, 2005)

– Unsympathetic leadership leading to added strain on the teacher (Du Plessis, 2017; Steyn & du Plessis 2007))]

– Beliefs about teaching that promote student engagement, attitudes and achievement (Attarrd, 2013; Carmichael et al., 2017)

• For school leadership:– Additional strain on subject coordinators and school administrators due to the extra

support, mentoring and resources required (Taylor, 2000)

– Extent of teacher shortages is masked when underqualified teachers fill these positions(Ingersoll, 1998)

– Retention problems: worldwide (Handal et al., 2013; Hoyles, 2016)

• De-professionalization of teaching

Alternative ways of framing Out-of-field teaching


1. As a problem to be fixed• that is intolerable and damaging to the profession

2. A part of the professional lives of teachers as a strategy for:

• responding to teacher shortages (external),

• diversification of a teacher’s role (internal)

3. Potential for learning, transformation, agency, identity expansion:

• as long as the teacher operates within an adequate culture of support (emotional, pedagogical, social)

Our project

Teaching Across Subject Boundaries (TASB)

ARC Discovery Project 2015-2017…

Longitudinal in case study schools – 2 or 3 years

• Teachers - learning to teach a new subject

• Mentors/Critical friends - support

• School leaders - context

Change

Identity

Understanding

Practice

School practices

Change space: learning to teach a new subject

Our project

About the teacher

• Teacher

• Teacher/mentor

About their

practice

• Teachers video, watch, and reflect

About the

context

• Leadership

• Workshop

Interviews to capture

change

Methods


Two tools:

(1) Fortune lines – Teacher/mentor interview 2&3

(2) Metaphorical Object – Teacher interview 2

4 of 6 schools12 teachers but 1 teacher could not think of an object!

Metaphor


Power of the metaphor to communicate obtuse and abstract ideas, emotions, and facilitate reflection on:

• the journey of teaching and learning to teach

• identity development

• other factors that come to bear and are often challenged at this time –confidence, competence, enjoyment, passion.

Our prompting for a Metaphorical object


Could you identify an object that represents your feelings about learning to teach out-of-field?

Why did you choose that object?

Analysis


1. What did teachers fixate on in their object and its description?

2. What can we learn about the experience of learning to teach out-of-field (or teach new content)?

[How did they align with the fortune lines?]

-> Two metaphor categories: (1) Being a teacher (2) Teaching

Category 1: Being a teacher of new content/subject


Playdough 1 – “I have to be malleable and willing to change to help them”

Playdough 2 - “If I wasn’t forced to, I’d still be sitting there just as regular playdough”

Putty – “if you force it to do something it will, but it will also go back to what it was before”

BEING SHAPED – ones’ self and practice –external V internal agency


Tassie Devil and Little Miss Messy

“you’re feeling like you’ve just got control of it… it’s really busy and you’ve got all these things going in your head ”

“Little Miss Messy because it’s just a ball of uncontrollable shit”

Disruption, out of control


Cone

“when you’re at the top of your game, you’ve got more space. If you’re feeling unorganised you’re at the bottom of the cone and you’re feeling squashed and you’ve got no room… A bit more

knowledge, a bit more space ”


Pressure from lacking expertise (knowledge)


Deflated football

“you might have been the best teacher out there – useful and you’ve been kicked around the park … Suddenly you walk into a class and your ego takes a bit of a second place and things get pressured down … and then over time you start refilling yourself again with confidence ”


Not intended use, deflation of the ego and a need to re-inflate


Whisk

“starts gently but then it's like nice and fluffy by the end of it, and it's good by the end of the term ”

Soft to firm – tentative to confident/sure

Category 2: The practice of teaching new content


Hexagon

“instead of a circle that rolls easily, it still rolls but just not as quickly… I’ve got to think more about how to make it move as naturally as my English does”

Hard to get moving, not as quickly


Rollercoaster

“there’s always those up and down days… for that first time when you’re going, slowly climbing up the rollercoaster and you don’t know where the drops going to come. ”

Expecting and anticipating the challenges


Dimmer light

“It starts off and it’s a bit dark. You walk in and it’s like, where the hell is everything…it’s not clear…Over time it gets brighter and clearer, and you can see exactly what you should be aiming for, or more exactly…”

Anticipating the challenges


Reflection – what did the metaphors show?

What was particular to being out-of-field?:

• Agency – external shaping V shaping the self

• Pressure relating to developing knowledge

• Disruption due to newness, but then teachers navigating a way through the unknown, potential for learning, temporality of being out-of-field, not a single crossing of the boundary

• Learning curve steep at the beginning, needing to establish or re-establish quality teaching and a sense of self

What is the expected learning outcomes for the out-of-field teacher?:

• A teacher has shape (which is formed by others or self - knowledge), tidiness (not messy -control), confidence (not pressure and insecurity in expertise - knowledge), maximumusefulness (rather than unintended purpose - calling)

• Gaining teaching efficiency and effectiveness depicted as speed (not stunted - acting), firm and holding shape (not runniness - effective), clarity (rather than dimness or murkiness - knowing).

Conclusions

Difficult to talk about out-of-field teaching without the use of metaphor. Helped to understand:

• The complexity of the experience, and the variety of experiences: potential for

disruption v edification. Dynamic and temporal for many. Part of their professional development as they generate and sustain quality teaching.

• Effect of context: inform school leaders and policy makers of the challenges and support needs by problematising OOF as not necessarily a ‘problem’ per se, but as:

• A complex out-of-field phenomenon: potential for learning but it can be difficult – need for support.

• Teacher learning outcomes depend on: nature and extent of effects (perceived and/or actual); actions and acknowledgement by others; capacity, room and willingness to grow.

• Impetus for change: does not lay only with the teacher, but shifts to also include school leaders, policy makers, whole school culture and community.

teacher professional learning on the fly: using metaphor ...€¦ · from the specialist, by...

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