Professional learning opportunities in Initial Teacher Education: Generating new ways of knowledge within and through practice

• In Event: Improving teacher education

Proposal

This paper considers global mobility opportunities within the Higher Educator sector. It explores this in the context of the regulatory accreditation requirements of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programs. Many universities explicitly promote global mobility opportunities within both formal programs and as part of extra-curricular activities. Such programs are intended to enhance students’ cultural awareness and intercultural engagement. Despite such visions in university policy statements, and research about the learning potential of such opportunities, ITE programs are a particular case in how such international experiences can be embedded within ITE programs given regulatory frameworks and accreditation requirements.
In Australia, this regulatory framework, determines that the majority of teaching placement days must be completed in Australian schools. This, however, does not preclude other practical or professional learning experiences being incorporated into ITE. While professional experience is often seen as synonymous with teaching practicums, there are also many other approaches that can offer professional experience and learning opportunities for pre-service teachers (PSTs). Furthermore, the Covid-19 pandemic normalised online engagement during the acute period of border closures, presenting further scope for providing practical professional experiences and for engaging internationally through digital tools. If we view professional experiences to include broader practical opportunities such as service learning, volunteering and/or international field experiences, these can provide the context for supporting growth in professional knowledge and skills. Consequently, online international engagement opportunities offer rich possibilities for professional learning experiences.
This study explores the opportunities for professional learning through an international online project, referred to as the International Literacy Project (ILP) focused around storytelling and story making using Zoom. As borders closed, online opportunities emerged. The ILP project connected PSTs, who volunteered to participate in the project, with primary students in classes in schools overseas through synchronous sessions. Each session was centred around literacy, with the outcome of producing ebooks of local relevance, in collaboration with the schools students in the overseas setting. PSTs had the opportunity to plan sessions, prepare materials co-facilitate sessions, debrief after each session and play a role in creating books.
Using vignettes this study explores the professional learning experiences of pre-service teachers involved in this online international project. Initially the project engaged with Grades 2-4 students in Maldivian island schools and later expanded to a range of other countries. These vignettes illustrate the impact of the project for each of these participants. The ILP helped the PSTs to become ‘classroom ready’. It provided a context for the PSTs to develop and expand their professional teaching skills, notably in a low stakes environment, where they could practice skills without being assessed. It enabled the practical application of coursework materials in the way sessions were planned and facilitated. Importantly it offered experience in working in diverse settings and strategies for engaging students where English is not their mother tongue. Finally, it provided a point of comparison to local teaching placement experiences in Australian schools facilitating opportunity to reflect on assumptions about what constitutes a good education; appreciation of the complexity of teaching, and how to work more effectively in culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) classrooms.
In conclusion, the option to engage online globally enabled opportunities for professional learning, that complemented and extended the formal teaching placement in local schools. It provided PSTs with experiences to build their practical teaching skills, better understand the needs of CALD students and consider new perspectives about teaching and education.

Author

• Rhonda Di Biase, Melbourne Graduate School of Education