The Field of Educational Reform: Shifting Novice Teachers' Habitus

• In Event: The Politics and Policy of Achievement, Reform, and Choice

Abstract

Understanding reform implementation barriers is a significant issue for educational stakeholders striving to replace traditional, teacher-led instruction with student-centred pedagogies. Successful implementation centres on teachers' dispositions towards aligning their practice with reform curricula. This study explores the tensions associated with developing reform-based practices, highlighting systemic shortcomings that impede change. Drawing on critical ethnography and Bourdieu's concept of habitus, field and doxa, I explore the professional trajectory of five novice science teachers engaging with pedagogic work. Video-recorded professional development meetings and semi-structured interviews captured how teachers deconstructed and examined their practice, shifting their doxic beliefs and dispositions to curricula reform. This study offers researchers, educators, schools, and policymakers insights into how teachers engage and enact reform-based pedagogies.

Author

• Heather McPherson, McGill University
  Presenting Author