Kicking and screaming: Six teacher educators confront their inherent beliefs about online teacher education
Location
Digital Teacher Education (Session 5 Breakouts)
Proposal Track
Research Project
Session Format
Presentation
Abstract
Over the last decade, colleges of education have faced increasing pressure to transition face-to-face teacher certification programs to an online platform. This pressure is prompted by student demands for greater flexibility and market forces that threaten the viability of traditional residential teacher education programs; rather than, the pedagogical or philosophical vision of teacher educators. Existing research suggests that ‘deep-seeded beliefs’ about the inadequacy of learning to teach in an online context hold sway with many teacher educators (Anderson, et al., 2011;Kehrwald & McCallum, 2015; Kraglund-Gauthier, et al., 2010). Faculty often struggle to communicate and implement their face-to-face ‘teaching style’ and specific instructional strategies when teaching online (Kraglund-Gauthier, et al., 2010). At the same time, the vitality and authenticity of the relationships teacher educators build with their students is shaken when the informal feedback students communicate in a face-to-face setting is no longer available (Anderson, et al., 2011).
This qualitative cross-case, discourse analysis (Gee, 2005; Roulston, 2010) explores how six teacher educators experience the transition to online instruction, specifically the ways in which shifting to online instruction can disrupt teacher educators’ professional identity and how they respond to this disruption.
Words Cited
Anderson, D., Imdicke, S. & Standerford, N. S. (2011). Feedback please: Studying self in the online classroom. International Journal of Instruction, 4(1), 3-15. ● www.e-iji.net
Gee, J. (2005). Introduction to discourse analysis: Theory and method (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Kehrwald, B.A. & McCallum, F. (2015). Degrees of change: Understanding academics experiences with a shift to flexible technology- enhanced learning in initial teacher education. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 40(7), 43-56. http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2015v40n7.4
Kraglund-Gauthier, W. L., Chareka, O., Murray Orr, A., & Foran, A. (2010). Teacher education in online classrooms: An inquiry into instructors’ lived experiences. The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 1(2), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.5206/cjsotl-rcacea.2010.2.4
Roulston, K. (2010). Considering quality in qualitative interviewing. Qualitative Research, 10(2), 199-228. http://qrj.sagepub.com.
Keywords
Teacher education; online instruction; identity
Professional Bio
Michelle Reidel is a Professor of Social Studies Education in the College of Education at Georgia Southern University. Her research interests include social studies teacher education and the role of emotion in teaching and learning. Taylor Norman is an Assistant Professor of ELA Teacher Education in the College of Education at Georgia Southern University. Her research interests include teacher identity and narrative inquiry.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Reidel, Michelle and Norman, Taylor, "Kicking and screaming: Six teacher educators confront their inherent beliefs about online teacher education" (2020). Georgia Educational Research Association Conference. 72.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gera/2020/2020/72
Kicking and screaming: Six teacher educators confront their inherent beliefs about online teacher education
Digital Teacher Education (Session 5 Breakouts)
Over the last decade, colleges of education have faced increasing pressure to transition face-to-face teacher certification programs to an online platform. This pressure is prompted by student demands for greater flexibility and market forces that threaten the viability of traditional residential teacher education programs; rather than, the pedagogical or philosophical vision of teacher educators. Existing research suggests that ‘deep-seeded beliefs’ about the inadequacy of learning to teach in an online context hold sway with many teacher educators (Anderson, et al., 2011;Kehrwald & McCallum, 2015; Kraglund-Gauthier, et al., 2010). Faculty often struggle to communicate and implement their face-to-face ‘teaching style’ and specific instructional strategies when teaching online (Kraglund-Gauthier, et al., 2010). At the same time, the vitality and authenticity of the relationships teacher educators build with their students is shaken when the informal feedback students communicate in a face-to-face setting is no longer available (Anderson, et al., 2011).
This qualitative cross-case, discourse analysis (Gee, 2005; Roulston, 2010) explores how six teacher educators experience the transition to online instruction, specifically the ways in which shifting to online instruction can disrupt teacher educators’ professional identity and how they respond to this disruption.
Words Cited
Anderson, D., Imdicke, S. & Standerford, N. S. (2011). Feedback please: Studying self in the online classroom. International Journal of Instruction, 4(1), 3-15. ● www.e-iji.net
Gee, J. (2005). Introduction to discourse analysis: Theory and method (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Kehrwald, B.A. & McCallum, F. (2015). Degrees of change: Understanding academics experiences with a shift to flexible technology- enhanced learning in initial teacher education. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 40(7), 43-56. http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2015v40n7.4
Kraglund-Gauthier, W. L., Chareka, O., Murray Orr, A., & Foran, A. (2010). Teacher education in online classrooms: An inquiry into instructors’ lived experiences. The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 1(2), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.5206/cjsotl-rcacea.2010.2.4
Roulston, K. (2010). Considering quality in qualitative interviewing. Qualitative Research, 10(2), 199-228. http://qrj.sagepub.com.
