Hesitantly into the arena: An account of trainee teachers’ and sixth form students’ preliminary attempts to enter into dialogue through email.
Abstract
"Teacher training is increasingly accountable to central government. Trainees – the word itself is significant – are expected to demonstrate competence in a wide range of professional standards if they are to achieve qualified teacher status. Training partnership schools, understandably, impose their own conditions for entry into their ‘communities of practice’. In these circumstances, trainees – and their trainers – have increasingly fewer opportunities for risk taking or for exploring new configurations of the teacher pupil relationship. This paper describes an attempt to exploit the potential of email as a means of granting access to a ‘pedagogical arena’ in which trainees and students might attempt to negotiate their own ways of working together. It concludes by suggesting that both groups found this a challenging task and by noting that the trainers involved decided that, if the project were to run again, a certain amount of autonomy would need to be sacrificed to direction."
Reference
McGuinn, N., & Naylor, A. (2009). Hesitantly into the arena: An account of trainee teachers’ and sixth form students’ preliminary attempts to enter into dialogue through email. English In Education, 43(3), 211-225.
Journal
English in Education
Analysis
Is this article part of a larger project or series of studies?
yes
Does this study draw on a large, preexisting data set?
no
Research Approach
Geographic Setting
Institutional Context
Certification Level
Programatic Focus
Research Location Context
Preservice Participants
- Post Graduate Certification in Education (PGCE)
Preservice Sample Size
8
Duration of Data Collection
Data Sources
Data Analysis Tools
Researcher Positionality
- inside (staying their own students)
Research Questions
How can the potential of email be used as a means of granting access to a 'pedagogical arena' in which preservice teachers and their students negotiate their own ways of collaboration?
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? Combination