Institute of Continuing Education

This paper is linked to a doctoral study focussing on the impact of international networking and knowledge exchange on the professional identity of teachers. The perspective is shaped by the author’s experience of teacher union activity and involvement in international networking related to work for the British Council and the International Teacher Leadership initiative as well as on a twenty year career as a teacher. This paper involves analysis of data drawn from interviews with three teachers from Britain who have been involved in working with fellow teachers from other nations largely teachers from the Balkans. It explores the extent to which these teachers share a common professional identity with teachers from other nations and also whether this therefore constitutes a professional community. The paper includes a consideration of the implications for international networks and international teacher exchange programmes. It is also envisaged that the paper will support a discussion about ways in which the cultivation of international links may contribute to the global 'Education for All' campaign.
 

This thesis is an exploration into the motives Middle Eastern teachers have for linking with British schools via the ‘Connecting Classrooms with the Middle East Programme’. The Connecting Classrooms Programme is run by the British Council. This thesis begins with a literature review placing the Connecting Classrooms Programme within the context of international comparative educational research. This literature review was then used to design a deductive framework for the research into this area.  The research consisted of a small-scale exploratory case study. The case study had three stages. The first stage was collecting field notes at the Connecting Classrooms Conference, which took place in Kuwait in April 2009. The second stage was five interviews. Four of these were with Bahraini teachers who coordinate this programme within their schools and one was with a member of the British Council Bahrain. The final stage was sending this thesis to the participants for comments. The boundaries of this case study were that all the interviewees came from just one country involved in this partnership (Bahrain) and all currently coordinate this programme in the schools they work in.  This is an exploratory case study into a previously unresearched area and as such I have not attempted to reach broadly applicable conclusions. However, I outline a framework of motives that may act as a starting point for further research into the Connecting Classrooms Programme and into international collaboration between teachers generally. In my conclusion I suggest areas for possible further research building from this initial study. This research was conducted as part of the Cambridge University, Schools University Partnership in Educational Research.

This paper involves an exploration into the experiences of students in post 16 education taking traditional academic subjects, in the UK, for whom studying in English means working in a foreign language and culture. The students who formed the sample were high achieving students aged sixteen and seventeen from China, Vietnam and Thailand who had come to study in the UK in order to proceed to a British University. In the first part of this paper I propose a conceptual framework suitable for this study. The second part of the paper consists of a summary of the findings from semi-structured interviews conducted with the eight participants. In this paper a variety of issues are explored related to the experience of living and studying in England. Although grounded in the specific context of students from three nations studying in the UK. This paper should inform our understanding of appropriate teaching strategies and pastoral and pedagogical approaches for students in a range of multi-linguistic settings.

This article was originally published in 'Chorus'. Chorus was ‘a peer-reviewed, open access, online journal based at Sana'a University in Yemen. It link[ed] doctoral researchers from Sana'a University with doctoral researchers from British Universities, it [was] supported by the British Council.’ (Chorus, 2010). Chorus is now defunct and this article can no longer be accessed from its original source. In this article I survey a wide range of published and unpublished research which involves comparing education in different nations. The article was intended to provoke discussion among early career researchers working across nations. To some extent it captures a moment in time. However, many of the issues are still relevant today in 2015.

This paper is a co-written paper by five MA students at the University of Northampton and James Underwood, Principal Lecturer at the University of Northampton and a PhD student at the University of Cambridge. We are all currently engaged in research that involves comparing aspects of education in the UK with another nation. The research that we are each personally undertaking addresses a range of topics. These all relate to an aspect of education leadership ranging from student leadership to school and university management. There is one common underlying research question which underpins all the studies which is: in what ways has comparison between nations been a valid approach to understanding education and leadership? This question is addressed successively via our individual stories in this paper.
This paper is linked to a paper presented in May 2015 at the University of Cambridge entitled: “Breaking boundaries as writers, researchers and me-searchers, the challenges and rewards of completing an MA as a community of practice.” In which we discussed in depth our experience as a research community. This paper has therefore also been informed by a distinct perspective on the nature of Masters’ level study.

This discussion paper was written for the participants at the University of Northampton, School of Education Partnership Conference 2015. It was written in order to facilitate discussion about the teaching of critical thinking skills. In this paper I first describe a small project involving four current teachers and one lecturer regarding the teaching of critical thinking skills in their specific context. The project involves looking at how this is done across a wide range of age groups and searching for teaching strategies and approaches that can inform teaching in other contexts. I first identify issues and challenges that this small group identified in terms of teaching critical thinking. I then describe and discuss a workshop for primary teachers where I presented two strategies commonly used in the secondary and sixth form classroom. I refer to their responses as to whether these strategies could also be relevant for the primary classroom. The two strategies referred to are the: origin, purpose, value, limitations approach to using historical sources and the zones of relevance (Counsell, 1998) approach to planning essay writing. Oh and if you search there is a picture of a rhinoceros in this paper too.

This paper is an exploration into the nature of the professional community that is formed when teachers from different nations work together. The research presented here consists of the findings from a small-scale exploratory case study that is the scoping study for a larger piece of research on this same theme.  This larger piece of research is my doctoral study that I am currently undertaking at Cambridge University. This paper specifically involves the presentation of data drawn from interviews with teachers from Bahrain who have been involved in working with teachers from Britain via programmes run by the British Council and others. In this paper I discuss how identity is constructed within a professional community that crosses national boundaries. I conclude by suggesting that teachers who are working with colleagues from other nations build their professional identity together in innovative and exploratory ways. I also suggest that they actively construct professional communities with these colleagues and that they find this rewarding and significant.

This paper responds to several of the identified themes of the ECER Conference 2015. These include ‘ways in which teachers learn and develop throughout their professional career’. In relation to this, this paper also addresses issues around the conference title 'education and transition'.

These are the powerpoint slides that go with the paper: Understanding Professional Community and Professional Identity Through The Experiences Of Bahraini Teachers Working With British Teachers In A Partnership Project. Presented at ECER 2015. Full paper is also here on this site.

The full abstract for the paper was as follows:

This paper is an exploration into the nature of the professional community that is formed when teachers from different nations work together. The research presented here consists of the findings from a small-scale exploratory case study that is the scoping study for a larger piece of research on this same theme.  This larger piece of research is my doctoral study that I am currently undertaking at Cambridge University. This paper specifically involves the presentation of data drawn from interviews with teachers from Bahrain who have been involved in working with teachers from Britain via programmes run by the British Council and others. In this paper I discuss how identity is constructed within a professional community that crosses national boundaries. I conclude by suggesting that teachers who are working with colleagues from other nations build their professional identity together in innovative and exploratory ways. I also suggest that they actively construct professional communities with these colleagues and that they find this rewarding and significant.

This paper responds to several of the identified themes of the ECER Conference 2015. These include ‘ways in which teachers learn and develop throughout their professional career’. In relation to this, this paper also addresses issues around the conference title 'education and transition'.

This paper is linked to a doctoral study focusing on the impact of international networking and knowledge exchange on the professional identity of teachers. It explores the experience of teachers from the Balkans working with colleagues in the UK. In this paper I first outline a conceptual framework which illuminates some of the challenges and rewards of constructing a professional identity within a professional community that crosses national boundaries. Previous studies have often portrayed professional relationships as being by definition unequal when involving nations in differing economic positions but these have not presented the entire picture. In fact the levels of self-efficacy and self-confidence amongst teachers engaged in such programmes from all nations can be very high. The paper explores the proposition that these teachers may not primarily be interested in transferring practice but may have a broader democratic agenda reflecting a self-perception as skilled professionals and societal leaders and also that they may have valid reasons for participation in terms of their own professional growth. The data for this paper was drawn from interviews with three education professionals from the Balkan nations (specifically from Macedonia) who have been involved in working on and developing teacher leadership programmes in their own settings in connection with larger international programmes. The discussion of data includes an exploration of a series of interrelated themes derived from the concept framework. These encompass a discussion of the extent to which these teachers share a common professional identity; whether this therefore constitutes a professional community and whether involvement in networking projects was significant in shaping their professional identity in other ways. Also discussed are issues and challenges related to the exchanging of knowledge between teachers working in different cultural contexts.

This short paper was written in order to introduce the main theme for discussion at the conference: Association of Global Teachers: international conference on supporting new teachers – Dedham, UK, 24 October 2015 This theme was ‘ways in which we can support newly qualified teachers (NQTs) so that they remain in the profession’. It is influenced and inspired by colleagues who I have worked with over a career in education which is now over twenty years long. It is influenced by teachers I worked with in schools. It is also and most significantly influenced by current colleagues at the University of Northampton, where we run a course for Newly Qualified Teachers, that is now a deeply embedded part of our practice in working with the teachers who work in schools in our local community. As these sentences above illustrate this is a paper shaped by the experiential knowledge and reflections on the working practice of colleagues as revealed through conversations we have had over the past two years. It is written in an informal and, at points, anecdotal tone with the aim of provoking discussion. However, it is not a paper about the mechanics of our NQT programme, but rather about the ideas, personal reflections and experiences that shaped its design. Three themes are presented for discussion as follows: the pressures of the workplace; seeing oneself as a teacher; and reflections on a recent past. In the conclusion I link these to another theme for discussion: degrees of freedom - degrees of support.

This short article (in Japanese and English) came from an interview that I gave for Japanese colleagues in 2006 at the British Council, London on the theme of the reasons why we still should teach history in the era of a globalised world and the internet. As 2006 predates twitter or facebook this was written at what can now be seen as an early stage in this process. However, the ideas contained in it I hope are still relevant for history teachers in 2016 and onwards, so I am placing it here to prompt further discussion among colleagues. The interview was in English, whilst the original published article that came from it (the first five pages here) was in Japanese for an audience of Japanese teachers. The English translation, written by my friend and colleague Rei Kanemura, page six onwards, captures all the main points of the original article but is not the same as the original, sentence by sentence. Instead it reflects the meaning and spirit of the original article. As can be quickly seen I was still teaching in secondary schools when this was written.

This is the secoind iteration of a paper first presented at ECER 2015. As it wends its way to where ever and in whatever form a final version of published or disseminated I would welcome any thoughts. I enjoy writing as a public process so please free to comment.

This paper is linked to a doctoral study focusing on the impact of international networking and knowledge exchange on the professional identity of teachers. It explores the experience of teachers from the Balkans working with colleagues in the UK. In this paper I first outline a conceptual framework which illuminates some of the challenges and rewards of constructing a professional identity within a professional community that crosses national boundaries. Previous studies have often portrayed professional relationships as being by definition unequal when involving nations in differing economic positions but these have not presented the entire picture. In fact the levels of self-efficacy and self-confidence amongst teachers engaged in such programmes from all nations can be very high. The paper explores the proposition that these teachers may not primarily be interested in transferring practice but may have a broader democratic agenda reflecting a self-perception as skilled professionals and societal leaders and also that they may have valid reasons for participation in terms of their own professional growth. The data for this paper was drawn from interviews with three education professionals from the Balkan nations (specifically from Macedonia) who have been involved in working on and developing teacher leadership programmes in their own settings in connection with larger international programmes. The discussion of data includes an exploration of a series of interrelated themes derived from the concept framework. These encompass a discussion of the extent to which these teachers share a common professional identity; whether this therefore constitutes a professional community and whether involvement in networking projects was significant in shaping their professional identity in other ways. Also discussed are issues and challenges related to the exchanging of knowledge between teachers working in different cultural contexts.