Professional Insights
Asynchronous Session
Adult Learners on the Frontline: Developing an Educational Partnership with the Department of Corrections View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Cara Robinson
This paper examines the Professional Management Academy (PMA) - an innovative partnership between Tennessee State University and the Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC). PMA offers TDOC employees (e.g. correctional officers, office managers, prison employees) with the opportunity to earn a certificate in Management and Leadership by taking six core courses in Urban Studies. This program integrates basic management and leadership skills and strategies with a foundation in public policy, urban history, social justice, and community engagement. This is important as employees working with some our most vulnerable citizens - persons who are incarcerated - are receiving academic training in the practical and policy implications of our correctional policy as part of larger societal and urban development. Started in 2016, over 100 TDOC employees have completed the PMA program and 15 have gone on to complete their Bachelor in Arts in Urban Studies degree (with more in the graduation pipeline).
The Nature of University Tutors’ and Mentor Teachers’ Feedback to South African Preservice Teachers during Teaching Practice View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Moeniera Moosa
In South Africa, the completion of a mandatory work integrated learning (WIL) experience in a school context is a crucial requirement for prospective teachers. However, the feedback provided during this period is often considered a mere university obligation, which can lack in developmental opportunities for students’ practical teaching skills. Feedback that connects new insights from principles and concepts of teaching with the lesson contexts develops preservice teachers’ practice because it provides a theoretical lens on their practice. This research delves into the feedback offered to preservice teachers by university tutors and mentor teachers during their WIL experiences. The central inquiry guiding this study is: How does the feedback provided by university tutors and mentor teachers during WIL contribute to the development of preservice teachers' practice? This paper is theoretically grounded in Shulman’s (1987) model of pedagogical reasoning and action to understand the feedback process. Utilising qualitative document analysis, this study examines a comprehensive dataset comprising written feedback from both university tutors and mentor teachers, spanning a four-year period and involving 64 preservice teachers. The feedback was categorised by of an emergent thematic analysis. These findings underscore the importance of feedback that is developmental in nature will better prepare preservice teachers for future practice. This study contributes to the ongoing discourse on teacher education and offers insights into the role of feedback in enhancing the quality of teacher preparation within the South African context.
Enhancing Teacher Training in Rural Ghana Using the Internet Backpack View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jane Appiah-Okyere, Lee Mc Knight, Ephrem Kwaku Kwaa Aidoo, Erika Mamley Osae, Danielle Smith
The location of schools influences the degree to which teachers make use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) resources in their classrooms for teaching and learning practices. Rural and underserved community schools, especially in developing nations, struggle with the lack of Internet connectivity and ICT availability and usage. In these communities, the lack of digital skills among teachers can further increase educational inequities. This research evaluates the effectiveness of the Internet Backpack, a tool which provides Internet access, which was deployed during a teacher professional development workshop in a rural community in Ghana. Using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods approach, the study provides insights into how rural teachers leverage Internet usage for teaching and learning. The participants were teachers from public and private schools, ranging from kindergarten to junior high school. The findings underscore the positive influence of Internet usage in enhancing the digital capabilities of rural teachers, which is crucial for bridging digital divides and improving educational outcomes in these communities. The study offers valuable insights for policymakers and practitioners seeking strategies to empower rural and underserved teachers through digital capacity building, contributing to ongoing discourses on digital empowerment in education, particularly in rural and underserved communities in developing countries.
Professional Conversation: An Informal Mentoring Tool for In-service Teachers View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Charity Okeke
Mentoring through professional conversation is a common practice among teachers in the education system globally. It corresponds to zone proximal development by Vygotsky. This qualitative study adopted an ethnomethodological research design to establish how teachers benefit from informal professional conversation. Six teachers from one Eastern Cape primary school in South Africa participated in the study through the purposive sampling method. The conversations took place in the participants' school staff room for 30 minutes per day for the whole week. The researcher video-recorded the conversations with the full permission of the participants. The video recordings were reviewed many times before verbatim transcription. Selected episodes were further transcribed following Jefferson’s notations for this paper. Clayman and Gill's conversation analysis levels were used to analyse the episodes further to establish how informal mentoring originates from workplace professional conversation. Findings show that teachers mentor colleagues informally through sharing past experiences and testing knowledge on emerging issues. Additional findings indicate that mentoring occurred informally through requesting advice and assessing feedback. Based on the above, the study concludes that mentoring is unknowingly offered informally through professional conversation in the workplace. The study also recommends and encourages teachers and other professionals to engage in professional conversations on work-related issues to support and build each other.
