Student teachers’ positionalities as knowers in school subject departments

Abstract

Student teachers in England, mainly on one-year courses, spend the majority of their time in schools. Secondary schools are primarily organised around subject departments, and these subgroups within schools have been shown to be significant for student outcomes and teachers' experiences. However, research on school subject departments themselves is relatively limited, and developing better understandings of school subject departments is important for Initial Teacher Education and educational research more broadly. This paper draws on an ethnographic study of three secondary school geography departments to analyse student teachers' positionalities as knowers within departments. Opportunities for professional discussions within departments are limited, and are often dominated by immediate practical concerns. A social realist concept of knower-knowledge structures is used to explore the kinds of knowers accepted as legitimate in these departments. A dichotomous view of teachers as knowers was found, being positioned as knowing or notknowing particular areas of subject knowledge. This binary view is argued to be related to the language of the Teachers' Standards in England. Suggestions are made for improving student teachers' positions as knowers within departments by planning opportunities to contribute their expertise, and for developing more expansive discourses around subject knowledge to enable all to maximise opportunities to learn from the rich mines of expertise held across ITE partnerships.

Student teachers’ beliefs about diversity: analysing the impact of a ‘diversity week’ during Initial Teacher Education

“…The self-reports of understanding and confidence are limited, in particular by the student teachers' position as trainees on a programme in which they will be judged against the teachers' standards: the desire to perform and be seen to perform as 'good trainees' may be strong (Puttick, 2018). The data we report are, therefore, a partial account from this specific perspective.…”

Constructing ‘good teaching’ through written lesson observation feedback

“…It is also interesting that none of the 'least helpful' comments contest the mentors' feedback in any way. While this may be unsurprising given the beginning teachers' position (Puttick, 2018), it is interesting in light of findings about low levels of observer reliability and contradictions between observers' judgements (Hudson, 2016;Strong, Gargani, & Hacifazliog, 2011). Moving beyond craft and technician conceptions of teaching, the epistemological certainty of observations might be softened and brought into dialogue with other sources of evidence in order to create space for the kinds of reasoned deliberation (including disagreement) characteristic of teaching as a professional endeavour.…”

Could Legitimation Code Theory offer practical insight for teaching disciplinary knowledge? A case study in geography

“…This has sought to address the knowledge paradox in education, what Maton termed ‘knowledge blindness’. It is an issue that has also been taken up within the geography education community (Beneker & Vaart, 2020; Catling & Martin, 2011; Cuthbert & Standish, 2021; Firth, 2007, 2011a, 2011b, 2013, 2015a, 2015b, 2018; Huckle, 2017; Lambert, 2014, 2018, 2019; Maude, 2016, 2020, forthcoming; Morgan, 2014, 2017, 2019; Morgan & Lambert, 2017; Puttick, 2013, 2015, 2018; Roberts, 2014; Slater et al, 2016; Vernon, 2016, 2019; Whalley, 2020).…”

“… 2 2 Some helpful examples in fields readers may be closer to: within Music see: Martin (2016), Carroll (2019a, 2019b); within English: Christie (2016); within Biology: Kelly‐Laubscher and Luckett (2016); within Maths: Thornton (2008); with regard to curriculum design see: Hugo (2014), Clarence (2016b), Luckett (2016), Shay and Steyn (2016), Maton and Chen (2019); with regard to academic writing see: Ingold and O’Sullivan (2017), Kirk (2017); and regarding teaching and teacher education, see Hugo (2015), Szenes et al (2015), and Puttick (2018). …”

“…Some helpful examples in fields readers may be closer to: within Music see:Martin (2016),Carroll (2019aCarroll ( , 2019b; within English:Christie (2016); within Biology: Kelly-Laubscher andLuckett (2016); within Maths:Thornton (2008); with regard to curriculum design see:Hugo (2014),Clarence (2016b),Luckett (2016),Shay and Steyn (2016),Maton and Chen (2019); with regard to academic writing see:Ingold and O'Sullivan (2017),Kirk (2017); and regarding teaching and teacher education, seeHugo (2015),Szenes et al (2015), andPuttick (2018).3 This term 'negotiation' came from helpful conversations with Liz John Beck (2016-2017).4 '[…]' indicates extraneous dialogue left out; 'S' indicates the student(s) couldn't be identified from the recording;'underlined' indicates emphasis was given. 5 Additionally, sometimes my pace was too fast and that contributed to some students' anxiety about the newer ideas.…”