Capturing Teachers' Perspectives on Their Professional Learning: Exploring the Story Line Method

• In Event: Professional Lives and Career Challenges for Teachers and Teacher Educators: An International Perspective

Abstract

Teacher professional learning is an ongoing endeavour which spans the entire career of a teacher (Feiman-Nemser, 2001). Studies exploring teacher learning often require time-consuming longitudinal research designs. This study explores the use of the storyline method to capture teachers’ perceptions of their professional learning, retrospectively over their careers, as an alternative to a longitudinal research design.

Storylines ‘represents a teacher’s evaluation of a series of experiences or events’ (Beijaard, Van Driel, & Verloop, 1999, p. 48) in the form of line ‘graphs’ and are elaborated upon in interviews. Storylines have typically been used to capture general experiences over time (for example Nilsson & Van Driel, 2010) and not events influencing the teaching of a specific topic. In the present study the storyline method was modified to capture teachers’ perceived shifts in topic specific knowledge for teaching (TSKFT) (Author, 2017). Content knowledge and five components of topic specific pedagogical content knowledge (Mavhunga and Rollnick, 2013) comprise TSKFT. Storylines were used as a qualitative tool to support teachers in identifying and reflecting on the significant events in their professional lives and how they perceived these events to have influenced their knowledge for teaching a specific topic, namely chemical bonding.

The sample consisted of ten purposively chosen experienced South African chemistry teachers. The teachers formed part of a sample of 60 teachers taking part in a larger study measuring TSKFT. The ten teachers were chosen from the top performing teachers in the larger study and represented teachers from across the experience range (4 to 30 years).

Each teacher drew six storylines and participated in a semi-structured interview. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed without any a priori coding scheme to allow for the salient themes to emerge from the data. Individual interviews were analysed before a cross case analysis was done.

Storylines supported teachers in reflecting back in time and enabled them to identify specific events, and elaborate on their significance, long after the events had taken place. Teachers identified curriculum change, further studies in education, and teaching experience as having played a significant role in shifting their knowledge for teaching. The curriculum change events were grouped under three sub-themes, namely the introduction of a new curriculum, working with the curriculum documents to plan for instruction, and designing curriculum materials. Teachers viewed the furthering of their education as important, especially in the form of post-graduate studies in education and content training. All the teachers perceived teaching experience as having played a role. This included teaching the topic for the first time, teaching the topic multiple times, and teaching the topic at different grade levels.

Due to the retrospective design of this study, and since findings are at most teachers’ perceptions of their learning, this study provides a small window through which teacher professional learning can be investigated. However, the use of storylines in conjunction with a topic specific approach to teacher knowledge provides a promising methodology to focus teachers’ reflections and capture teacher professional learning retrospectively over time.

Author

• Rene Toerien, University of Cape Town