ERIC Number: EJ1030477
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1354-0602
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
"Conversations about Education": Professional Development through a Multi-Epistemic Lens
Roland, Karen; Colella, Julia; Igbokwe, Blessing
Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, v20 n4 p483-498 2014
This study involves the program evaluation of the "Conversations About Education" pilot, developed as a community collaboration to offer professional development involving participants from a Faculty of Education, local school partners, and community organizations offering programming to Newcomers to Canada. The program sought to provide a collective forum where educational issues could be examined and discussed through a multi-epistemic lens. During the program events, participants were encouraged to share their personal perspectives of the classroom experience, and together discuss the implications that lived/life experience has on confronting bias in teaching. The evaluation of the pilot program employed a qualitative approach involving two focus group sessions; each focus group session used semi-structured questions to explore participants' perceptions of their experiences. The outcomes of the pilot program evaluation were found to include processes that promoted community building, as well as the professional development of teaching professionals. This pilot program may provide an exemplar for teacher education programs to use to support similar initiatives to bring together educators in a community building activity to explore, share, and learn about the world and themselves, and in this process, support critical pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning to contest cultural hegemony in classrooms and schools.
Descriptors: Program Evaluation, School Community Programs, Pilot Projects, Foreign Countries, Focus Groups, Semi Structured Interviews, Teacher Education Programs, Communities of Practice, Critical Thinking, Case Studies, Social Networks, Cooperative Learning, Qualitative Research, Professional Development
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A