Teacher education and school-based distance learning : individual and systemic development in schools and a teacher education programme

The thesis is about teacher education in a distance programme and student teachers who live in rural Iceland and work in schools. A coastal region in rural Iceland that has long suffered from a shortage of qualified teachers was selected as the site for studying schools and schoolbased student teachers. The distance programme for compulsory school teachers in the Iceland University of Education was chosen as the teacher education programme. The aim of the research is to reveal the possibilities for learning and development for student teachers in relation to their schools and to the programme. I explore how student teachers develop their practice as individuals in their workplace and how they learn to participate as students in the programme. Possibilities for system development inherent in the interaction of the schools and the teacher education programme are also explored. Cultural-historical activity theory is used as the theoretical framework in this study. Boundary crossing between activity systems is explored in order to find out whether school-based student teachers in the distance programme find support for from schools learning and from the programme for teaching. Activity theory in general and expansive learning theory in particular provide a comprehensive framework for generating and interpreting data, an alternative understanding of what generalization means and how the results obtained from using this framework can be used with practitioners in workplaces. Contradiction analysis, a method developed within the framework of the expansive learning theory, has been used to analyse the development of individuals in the context of the schools and of the distance programme. The research questions focus on individual and system level development. The research is done to reveal the zone of proximal development for individual student teachers in the context of the schools, for student teachers in relation to the distance programme, and for the schools and the programme as institutions and for their inter-organisational relationship. An ethnographic approach was used for accessing and generating data. Three student teachers in three schools were chosen as specific cases for further study and six or seven interviews with them during the time of fieldwork make up much of the data. I also monitored three online courses in the distance programme and attended several face-to-face on-campus sessions for observation. Each of the three main participants took part in one of the courses I studied and were interviewed to gain their perspective on the courses. The analysis reveals how developmental possibilities of individuals and groups were intertwined with developments of the systems in which they participate. The possibilities for development of the student teachers i.e. their zone of proximal development, are dependent on system development in the schools and in the programme. Participation in the teacher education programme could be both inspiring and supportive for the work of the students as teachers. The way in which the student teachers could use the programme as support for their work as teachers depended however on the conditions in the schools where they were employed. My results indicate that to support the learning trajectories of student teachers better in their home schools there is in general a need for developmental work in the schools in which they are situated. In the community of the distance learners the affordances of social mediation were imperative. In learning to participate in the programme it was of crucial importance to learn to ask for help, receive help and learn to be helpful to others. The lack of a system level response to distance student teachers in general and to school-based student teachers in particular, as a changed object in teacher education, caused disruptions and tensions, disturbing student teachers‟ learning and hindering programme development. When using the methodology of expansive learning research findings are expected to be useful in providing concepts and hypotheses that may be used in development work. This includes the development of practice in schools among school leaders, teachers, student teachers and pupils; in the university programme among programme leaders, university lecturers and students and in school-university collaboration between institutions. The findings suggest that the formation of visionary models for directing school development is important. For student teachers who are learning to be teachers in schools it is important to have a future vision of pupils‟ lives as a motive when recognising the role of teachers and schools in educating children. Development of such a future vision emerges from the experience of being a teacher, paying attention to pupils and striving to respond to their different needs. As for developing practice in university-based teacher education the key issue is to experience the need to be responsive to the needs of others and receive help from others in the community of the programme. Teaching methods based on collaboration support this kind of sensitivity. Expanding the focus on individual responsibility so that it embraces collective responsibility is important and the findings call attention to system level responsibility of the schools and the university as institutions. An alternative form for teacher education, where learning occurs simultaneously in schools and in university, opens up an opportunity for exploring a shared object that is of value for developing school-university partnership. The results reveal how teacher education incorporates both academic and practical learning in which both the university and the schools have a role to play. As a result the university should recognize the importance of schools with regard to student teachers learning to be teachers. In the same way the schools should appreciate the value for school development of including the education of teachers in their activities. A hypothesis to be worked with in inter-organisational developmental work is that in order to develop the practice of compulsory schools and the practice of the university providing teacher education, as interacting activity systems, individual and collective responsibility of students and lecturers and system level responsibility of the university and the schools as institutions is needed. The value of this research is twofold. On the one hand the findings may be used immediately in the development of the alternative model in school-university partnership. On the other hand the methodology can be adopted for use in other developmental work where collaboration on a shared object between workplaces and universities is essential. I would like to dedicate my thesis to the memory of my beloved sister, Margrét Vallý Jóhannsdóttir, who died in her prime in 2006. She devoted her professional life to preschools and to the care of young children.