The issue of being`practical' presents a continuous challenge, because student teachers' meanings for that word tend to be in sharp contrast to meanings that allow inquiry and are connected to personal and cultural histories. Instructor and student perspectives elucidate the struggle to ®nd a compromise within this tension in the form of a particular narrative exercise assigned in a foundations course of a teachertraining programme. Investment of identity and performative language were required in order to construct collaboratively a narrative repertoire of techniques and strategies that was practical in a non-technical sense. Student teacher: Tell me how to teach! Instructor (thinking): [Student teachers]¯ock to those persons who give them clear-cut and de®nite instructions as to just how to teach this and that (Dewey 1974: 321). Student teacher: I need to be taught how to survive in the classroom. Instructor (thinking): Immediate skill may be got at the cost of power to go on growing (Dewey 1974: 320). Student teacher: I want to develop a repertoire of techniques and strategies.Instructor (thinking): Such persons seem to know how to teach, but they are not students of teaching . . . the root of the matter is not in them (Dewey 1974: 321).As a teacher educator (CC) and former student teacher (MS) in the foundations section of a 1-year teacher-education programme, we live these dichotomies and con¯icting aims almost daily. The issue highlighted in the imaginary dialogue prompted us to re¯ect on a particular exercise CC used in her course. Drawing on both student and instructor perspectives, we began our re¯ection 3 years after the exercise was ®rst introduced. CC acts as ®rst-person narrator through most of this paper, and is later joined by MS's voice.The issue of being practical, in the sense in which I interpret my students' meaning of the word`practical', presents a continuous challenge, because their meaning tends to be in sharp contrast to the meaning of the j. curriculum studies, 2002, vol. 34, no. 4 , 427±449Carola Conle is an associate professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the
This paper adopts the view that bilingualism is a result of numerous societal forces. In this paper, the data collected from five Japanese immigrant families residing in Toronto, Canada are dynamically represented within the framework of Engeström’s (1999) Activity Model. Results identify family bonding as the most significant reason for L1 maintenance. Other important social factors include the information disseminated by professionals in the field, stories shared among immigrant families, the availability of school programmes, access to technology and resources, availability of caregivers who speak the target language, teachers well-versed in language learning mechanisms, frequent visits to the country of origin, multicultural surroundings, and the clear division of labour between school and home. However, the paper calls for a more co-operative education system that bridges the schism between homes and schools. A new model is proposed which is thought to be conducive to bilingualism.
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate a four-year mentorship program for Japanese graduate students at a private university in Tokyo, Japan. The following research questions were investigated: First, does mentorship provide effective and adequate preparation needed for graduate students to perform competitively (e.g. attending conferences, publishing in journals, etc.) in academic forums? Second, what kinds of benefits are gained by the mentees? Third, what factors are conducive to the benefits accrued by the mentees? Fourth, what are the obstacles to providing an effective mentorship program? Design/methodology/approach – Adopting narrative approach as its research method, this study collected and analyzed reflective essays from 13 Japanese students in a TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) program. Findings – Particular types of mentoring which encouraged active participation in scholarly activities through appropriately scaffolded inductions into academia led to increased mentee confidence in terms of making the transition from student to scholar. Research limitations/implications – The students should not remain assistants on the periphery of academia, but rather play active roles to extend their knowledge and expertise to something that they can attain only with appropriate scaffolding (Vygotsky, 1981). In order to promote such mentorship, it is emphasized that institutional support is indispensable, and that the significance of solid mentorship programs should be re-acknowledged and discussed on an official level. Originality/value – The study of mentoring within a Japanese context, in particular from the perspectives of sociocultural theory (Vygotsky, 1981) and Bandura's (1994, 1995) self-efficacy theory, is an under-researched area.
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