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Case studies Sub-theme A : Teacher Competences for Diverse Democratic Societies Sub-theme B : Professional development and social recognition Sub-theme C : Partnerships and networking in Education *** Sub-theme A : Teacher Competences for Diverse Democratic Societies Illustrative case from Belgium (Flemish Community): “Personalised education” Geert Speltincx, Karel de Grote University College – Plantijn University College Who? - Karel de Grote University College - Department of teacher education, What? - Personalised education is a vision of education translated into different supporting initiatives to promote minority groups’ entry into higher education teaching, successful completion of their degree and incorporation into their profession. Why? - To respond to the diversity of the new intake student population
How? - Design for all: every action undertaken must work to the advantage of every student. Both ‘strong’ students and those students who need more guidance and support must benefit from the same structural framework.
Working towards self-regulation, widening course choices and strengthening the link with the profession, in order to challenge and motivate students, and prepare them for working life. Personalised education and ‘teacher competences for diverse democratic societies’ This case study focuses on the development of personalised learning in the department of teacher education. First, this case study reflects on how we have developed different ways to deal with the diverse character of our student population. Second, the proper implementation and the transparency of the concepts for the students can be seen as an experiential way of learning about personalised education. Responsive to the changing nature of society
Research and developmental work to enhance the understanding of the nature of diversity and its educational impact
Provide student teachers with appropriate experiences and opportunities for reflection
Structural causes of inequalities and exclusion
More support for Teacher Education Institutions
Sub-theme B : Professional development and social recognition Illustrative case from Hungary: “Teacher recognition and professional development in Hungary as seen by teachers and teacher educators” Ildikó Lázár, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary Following the relevant points raised in the description and directives presented in the publication Education in Hungary – Past, Present and Future – An Overview,1 this presentation will address issues of the financial background, access, efficiency, quality and equity as well as teacher education and professional development as seen by teachers and teacher educators in Hungary. Financial background, access, efficiency and quality Schools are being renovated and they have gradually become better equipped with computers and interactive whiteboards in many areas in the last two decades. However, the majority of the teachers in these schools still do not know how to benefit from these technological developments and very often they misuse them in their teaching or do not use them at all. Teachers’ salaries are very low, and pay rises have been rare and insignificant. The work load of a secondary school teacher is at least 22 lessons per week in addition to a lot of administrative work and after-school activities. Teachers often give private lessons or take on other, better paid half-time jobs on top of their very full working days. Many of them are exhausted and suffer from career-burnout.2 And many leave the profession. The acquisition of lifelong learning key competencies is often misunderstood and/or regarded as a new nuisance that teachers have to deal with. Knowledge of the subject matter is what teachers used to be trained to transmit and this is what the majority still regard as their main responsibility. The development of appropriate pedagogical tools and methodologies, coupled with the necessary and efficient training, retraining and on-the-job training of teachers takes a long time and it requires a lot of energy from teachers who are overworked and underpaid. Quality is a key issue but education can only be labelled “quality education” if the players evaluate it as such. At the moment, teachers are rarely asked to evaluate their schools, their working conditions and their professional development opportunities. Furthermore, students are practically never asked to evaluate their schools and their teachers. Cases of violence are reported but verbal abuse, discrimination and negligent teaching usually go unnoticed. According to the OECD survey “There needs to be a stronger emphasis on teacher evaluation for improvement purposes which, while designed mainly to enhance classroom practice, would provide opportunities for teachers’ work to be recognised and celebrated and help both teachers and schools to identify professional development priorities. It can also provide a basis for rewarding teachers for exemplary performance.”3 Unfortunately, teachers in Hungary rarely feel rewarded. Equity As for inclusive classrooms and quality education for all, approximately one third of all Hungarian Roma schoolchildren attend completely segregated schools or classes and only a quarter of all Hungarian primary schools follow the integration program to the full. Many teachers are against integration, claiming that it makes the successful teaching of “regular” students impossible. As a result, schools often segregate Roma children (using a variety of pretexts, since segregation on the basis of ethnic origin is against the law). Teachers of classes where most children come from highly disadvantaged families usually cannot manage and often end up blaming the Roma students and their families, trying to find scapegoats for their own failure in the classroom, and thus reinforcing negative stereotypes.4 Another common argument against integration is that teaching disadvantaged students requires special training that few teachers receive, so, these people claim, we cannot expect teachers to achieve good results with highly disadvantaged Roma children. A sad example of teachers’ attitudes to the issue comes from one of these in-service teacher training programmes, where one third of the participating teachers believed both at the start and at the end of the training course that “the failure of Roma children at school is genetically coded.”5 This probably also reflects Hungarian society’s attitude to the Hungarian Roma population. Many teachers are openly racist, and many others have very negative preconceptions about minorities, especially the Roma, even if they are not as vocal as the former group. Teacher education and professional development Teacher education programmes are actively preparing materials, methods and training programmes to prepare pre- and in-service teachers to become involved and active in education for sustainable democratic societies but they also suffer from under-financing and lack of resources. Nevertheless, most universities have been offering courses and materials for multicultural education, teaching disadvantaged students, learner-centred pedagogy, tolerance training, intercultural communication, drama pedagogy, project work, collaborative learning and many related areas both in pre-service and in-service programs for many years.
Finally, there are many new competence-based teaching and training materials as well as many funded professional development opportunities in Hungary and abroad, which in theory are easily available for teachers. However, there are a few problems with the current on-the-job training system. On the one hand, the compulsory 120 credit points that teachers have to collect every seven years can be earned during 3 or 4 separate short training courses. These short training courses might be about completely different topics and may be as short as 2 or 3 days each. Regardless of the main themes of these workshops, four times 3 days every seven years are not very likely to change teachers’ attitudes and practices. Furthermore, professional development opportunities are not well coordinated and advertised and not all schools are eligible for support to send their teachers on some of these courses. Finally, our exhausted and underpaid teachers who wish to or have to attend professional development events very often have to go on unpaid leave or find someone to substitute for them while they attend a workshop. On top of this, they usually have to pay 20% of the costs of their training. We may be striving for a better and more rational use of physical and human resources, improving at all levels the efficiency of education and training systems, promoting the extensive use of ICT equipment, the development of curricula and pedagogical tools enabling their efficient and effective use, and we may be striving for the retraining of teaching staff in many areas to promote key competences, to combat school failure and early school leaving and to provide inclusive education for all… but we are not quite there yet. In order to play their part fully in promoting education for sustainable democratic societies, teachers need a better economic status and social recognition as well as working conditions that allow access to more frequent or long-term, better organized and more easily available professional development opportunities. Sub-theme C : Partnerships and networking in Education Illustrative case from Sweden: “Universities Regional Engagement in Regional Settings in Sweden and the Case of the National Centre of Lifelong Learning (Encell), Jönköping University” Ann-Kristin Boström, Mohamed Chaib, Helene Ahl, Christina Chaib, Ingela Bergmo Prvulovic´, Rune Petterson The Swedish government has placed emphasis on lifelong learning since the end of the 1960s. In 1968 professor Torsten Husén published his article “Lifelong Learning in the Educative Society” where he discussed formal education in relation to vocational education and foresaw that the future would require a longer period of formal education and education during different phases in life. More recent policy documents in Sweden regarding lifelong learning, where partnerships are an important factor, have largely appeared in the period since 1991 after Sweden became a highly decentralized country. The Local Government Act (1991) gave municipalities and county councils the option to implement their own organisational structures. There has also been an explicit desire from the Government to see higher education institutions take on an active role in regional development and it has further been proposed to develop the strategies of higher education institutions in connection with regional growth programmes. In practice this has enabled different ways of collaboration between universities in Sweden and the surrounding region where they are situated. An example of this is The National Centre for Lifelong Learning, Encell, situated in Jönköping University. Encell works in close collaboration with several other actors, nationally and internationally, in order to create research platforms and environments through partnerships and networks. Encell is an active partner in cooperation between regional bodies, trade and industry, educational actors, institutions etc.
Encell can be positioned in the model (see Fig. 2) made by Cropley (see Fig.1) as the Centre covers the zone of influences amenable to institutionalisation to a great extent. Based on your experience, which forms of partnerships and democratic governance do you recommend for implementing citizenship education, intercultural dialogue and management of diversity? How can you recognize, endorse and stimulate partnerships at various policy levels? In Sweden the policy has been focused towards lifelong learning for a long time. When individuals are working and living influenced by the policy of lifelong learning, the individual might change his/her values to be more focused towards lifelong learning. Lifelong learning is influencing policy at different levels as well. Due to this, the dividing line (barrier between zones) in the model could be moving to the left which supports the possibilities for implementing citizenship education, intercultural dialogue and management of diversity. What kind of support might the Council of Europe offer in this area and how could the Council be put in a position to provide this support? The Council of Europe can support and give opportunities for representatives from the different member states to meet and discuss their work. There is also a possibility to participate in working groups on different themes such as implementing citizenship education, intercultural dialogue and management of diversity. Meeting colleagues from other cultures, with other backgrounds, lays a foundation for deeper understanding and fruitful co-operation at various policy levels. How could the educational staff be trained in order to take part in partnerships and support the democratic governance of educational institutions? This process could be supported by reading and studying documents prepared by the Council of Europe and other literature and could take place in study circles for teachers, managers etc. in an educational institution in order to prepare for and welcome changes and discussions. By participating in the Pestalozzi programmes, the educators could meet and work together with colleagues in other member states in order to share information, skills and knowledge. |
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