Building teacher and school capacity to teach to ambitious standards in high-poverty schools

University-School Scenarios and Voices from Classrooms. Rethinking Collaboration within the Framework of an Interuniversity Project

“…Some of these arise from the difficulties found with respect to the university students related to stereotypical attitudes or beliefs that we have detected among them or the lack of knowledge regarding the Primary school students who participated in the experience. We believe that these issues need to be addressed in university classrooms beforehand, through an analysis of the context to enable us to anticipate and critically analyse expectations of the characteristics of students, the socialising function of education, situations of exclusion and student failure (Alexander, Entwisle, & Kabbani, 2001;Drescher, 2017;Li, Kenzy, Underwood, & Severson, 2015;Stosich, 2016).…”

Qualification Journey in Teacher Training: Case in Northern Cyprus

“…Policies and educational leadership programs should be supported by foundations, including foundations on framework and philosophy of leadership development (Nicolaidou & Petridou, 2011). The professional development of teachers increases their capacity for enhancing instruction when there is a complete support system comprising support to profession-embedded and accountability-based instructional and collaborative practices, as well as comprising direct support to principals developing themselves professionally as part of a schoolwide strategy (Stosich, 2016).…”

Joint Inquiry

“…Scholars have applied a cognitive framework to understand how teachers engage in “learning,” “interpretation,” or “sensemaking” about policy (Coburn, 2005; Spillane et al, 2002). This line of research reveals that teachers’ understanding of and actions related to policy are influenced by their prior knowledge, beliefs about instruction and students’ abilities, social interactions, and connections with messages about policy (Coburn, 2004, 2005; Cohen & Ball, 1999; Spillane et al, 2006; Stosich, 2016; Weick, 1995). Standards and the curriculum, assessments, and professional development (PD) that are designed to align with these standards communicate information about what teaching to these standards would look like in practice.…”

“…Little (1990) argues that interactions among teachers exist along a continuum from complete independence to interdependence. Teachers’ practice becomes public and differences in beliefs and practices are more likely to surface when teachers work interdependently with colleagues, what Little describes as “joint work.” However, widespread norms of autonomy and privacy among teachers (Donaldson et al, 2008; Lortie, 1975; Stosich, 2016) make engaging in interdependent work challenging. Instead, teachers are likely to engage in “sharing” when they collaborate (Little, 1990), openly exchanging information and materials while maintaining individual autonomy over instructional decisions.…”