Faculty of Education - Theses

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Start date: 2010 × End date: 2013 × Type: Masters Research thesis × Author: CALLINGHAM, MARGARET ×

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    A learning community in teacher education: from behaviour management to cultural work
    CALLINGHAM, MARGARET ( 2012)
    This study explores understandings of pre-service teachers who participated in an informal learning community. The learning community formed the basis of this case study. As the professional practice component of their teacher education program progressed, the learning community became an intervention in the development of the participants’ professional understandings about what it means to be a teacher who is also a cultural worker (Freire, 1998). Although the capacity to cater to the needs of diverse learners is promoted in the Australian education system, monocultural, exclusionary teaching practices persist (Churchill & Keddie, 2011). The current study highlights the essential role of democratic learning communities in teacher education to provide sustained, collaborative opportunities for pre-service teachers to construct understandings of how to foster productive and inclusive classroom cultures that meet the needs of Australia’s increasingly diverse and global student populations. Data in this qualitative case study were thematically analysed. Analysis revealed the importance of re-examining the cultural work of teachers through a cosmopolitan lens and for the integration of learning communities linked to professional practice as essential, non-assessable components in teacher education. The contribution of this study is that despite moves by teacher education programs to respond to the needs of contemporary classrooms, diversity remains poorly understood and enacted.