What Teacher Educators Learned about Negotiating Power Relationships During Lesson Study Planning

Abstract

The purpose of this study was for eight university-based teacher educators to experience Lesson Study planning in order to gain a deeper understanding of the power relationships our teacher candidates experience in student teaching. Data included six video-recorded and transcribed planning sessions. Data analysis focused on the power relationships evident in the teacher educators' lesson planning process, including positions of power that were identified as sole leadership, challenged leadership, and shared leadership. Implications for incorporating lesson study with teacher candidates include increased sensitivity to power dynamics and leadership roles during planning.

Lesson study in Dutch initial teacher education explored: its potential and pitfalls

“…Scheduling arrangements and time facilitation are examples of structural conditions, whereas participants' commitment and school leader support can be seen as cultural conditions. In the context of ITE, a distinction can be made between LS for student-teachers (Bjuland and Mosvold, 2015;Leavy and Hourigan, 2016), LS for teacher educators (Lenski et al, 2018) or a combination of the above in which teacher educators, (teachers) and student-teachers participate in the LS team (Cajkler et al, 2013). Given this variety in terms of the various adaptations of LS in ITE, "there are significant organisational and logistical challenges and constraints to consider when incorporating lesson study in ITE" (Ni Shuilleabhain and Bjuland, 2019, p. 436).…”

Supporting teacher educators’ professional learning through lesson study

“…LS in the context of ITE has only recently been addressed (Cajkler and Wood 2020;Larssen et al 2018), mostly focusing on student-teachers' participation in LS (Cajkler and Wood 2020). Only limited attention is paid to teacher educators participating in LS (Demir, Sutton-Brown, and Czerniak 2012;Lenski et al 2018;.Given this background, this exploratory study aims to address the following research questions (1) To what extent do teacher educators consider LS a valuable approach to support their professional learning? (2) What conditions are important according to these teacher educators in order to apply LS in their ITE practices?…”

“…Lesson Study (LS), a rapidly growing teacher PD approach that originated in Japan, is believed to incorporate effective PD features (Desimone 2009;Dudley 2013;Lewis, Perry, and Murata 2006). However, despite growing evidence about teachers participating in LS (Huang and Shimizu 2016;Vermunt et al 2019;Xu and Pedder 2015), in the context of initial teacher education (ITE) hardly any research focuses on whether LS is a supportive approach for teacher educators (Demir, Sutton-Brown, and Czerniak 2012;Lenski et al 2018). In addition, it is also not clear which conditions should be taken into account when applying LS effectively in this specific context.…”