In Quebec, the only French-speaking province in Canada, more than a third of Quebec students are first or second generation immigrants (Ministère de l’Éducation du Québec, 2023) and the initial training of teachers regarding the consideration of ethnocultural diversity varies depending on the university they attend (Larochelle-Audet et al., 2013). The heterogeneity that now characterizes most classes requires future teachers to develop a more inclusive approach (Magnan et al., 2021). The training must also bring them closer to real practice, enabling them to develop a certain professional know-how (Schön, 1983; Giddens 1987) in a context of ethnocultural diversity. In a research project conducted with preservice teachers (Audet et al., 2022-2026), we tested an experiment using an intervention training system in the context of ethnocultural diversity, based on stories of practice from in-service teachers that feature a student from an immigrant background (Audet, 2022). Through pre- and post-training questionnaire and individual interviews, we documented the effect of the experiment on future teachers’ acquisition of the professional know-how related to considering ethnocultural diversity. Generally, the results indicate that the group analysis (Desgagné et al., 2012) of these stories of practice facilitated the evolution of future teachers’ representations of students from immigrant backgrounds and their families, their perceptions of their responsibility towards these students as well as their positions regarding the status and legitimacy of the students' languages and cultures of origin. The potential and limitations of such training experiment for an effective implementation of inclusive practices will then be discussed. Our presentation is part of sub-theme 5: Equity and inclusion in teacher education.

Aim

Within Curriculum for Excellence, Religious and Moral Education is just one of the eight areas implemented within Scottish primary schools (The Scottish Government, 2011). The current paper, related to an ongoing doctoral thesis, aimed to understand how moral education was implemented in a non-denominational primary school.

Methods

An interpretive paradigm was adopted to provide in-depth descriptions of how moral education was implemented through a single case study approach (Kumatongo and Muzata, 2021). The three research tools were semi-structured interviews, researcher observations of moral education lessons, and document analysis. Nine educators participated in these. Twelve lessons were observed across the primary school stages, and the School Improvement Plan was collected from the school. These were then inductively thematically analysed to identify emerging patterns (Braun and Clarke, 2021).

Findings

The findings suggest that moral education implementation in this primary school had a tokenistic approach to diversity. Interviewees expressed that religious festivals are used in their practice and that these are only taught at specific times of the year. Despite this, Education Scotland (2021) has stated that ‘one off lessons that explore diversity… can have unintended consequences of ‘othering’ those who are not from the ethnic group which is in the majority’ (p. 21). Within this primary school, this one-off approach was common, and educators were aware that this was having a negative impact on students in their school.

Conference Theme

The current research highlights the need for equitable teaching practices as a way to address the needs of students from different backgrounds. The recent Census has shown that society continues to diversify (Scotland’s Census, 2024) which ultimately impacts the students’ in our classrooms. Therefore, the practice within moral education must be reflected on as to whether or not current teaching approaches are inclusive of various religious and non-religious beliefs.

This study explored how bodily awareness and expressions operate to promote or hinder the development of equity in teaching, as exhibited by student-teachers from diverse socio-cultural/ethnic backgrounds during their practicum experiences in a teacher education college in Israel. Specifically, we focused on competencies such as establishing presence as teachers, creating inclusive and egalitarian classroom interactions, leading discussions, and clarifying pedagogical content.

The connection between movement expressions and competency development in learning to teach has mostly been studied in the context of physical education. Limited attention has been paid to how the socio-cultural features of the school context and student-teachers’ backgrounds might inform their use of particular body expressions as non-verbal tools to promote equity in the classroom. Connecting between conceptualizations of body-movement awareness, socio-cultural perspectives on learning-to-teach and teaching competencies, we extend the focus on student-teachers’ use of bodily expressions in learning to teach in diverse socio-cultural-ethic elementary school contexts.

16 student-teachers doing practice teaching in Arab and Jewish elementary schools in the North of Israel videotaped themselves during one lesson. Stimulated recall procedures with each student, focused on how they used bodily expressions in teaching. Analysis of the transcribed conversations combined emic and etic interpretative lenses.

Three recurrent themes were identified: "Encourage via movement" for a safe and inclusive classroom climate, "I teach with my hands" for organizing and clarifying content, "These movements are me" for strengthening teacher presence. We exemplify and discuss these themes as exhibited distinctively in diverse contexts of practice.

Raising student-teachers’ awareness of how their bodily expressions play out in their teaching in diverse contexts deserves further attention in teacher education research and practice. Our presentation considers this dimension, stressing the need to educate prospective teachers to become sensitive to how their bodily expressions might promote or hinder equity in the classroom.

Inclusive education has been a worldwide trend for decades but has remained contested in practice. There is an international consensus on the philosophy of inclusive education, which is based on removing learning barriers for all students, addressing their needs, and steering them to make choices and be active in their adulthood in the broader context of society. What has been challenged is the ambiguity of inclusive pedagogy and practical implementation of inclusion: How can education meet the needs of diverse learners? In this article, we investigate student teachers' views on the professional challenges of their future work from the perspective of inclusive education. Our research uses sensemaking theory, which describes how people create meaning and understanding from their experiences. In our research, we ask what kind of changes student teachers believe will happen in their work in the future with the increase in diversity and inclusion. We are also interested in how the student teachers tackle the practical issues that arise with diverse learners. The data (N=134) was collected from two student-teacher groups. The first data set was collected using the reminiscing the future method, in which the students evaluated the changes in the teacher's work and identified future challenges. In the second data collection, another student group constructed meanings through a sensemaking process to explain and understand the themes of the first data set. Our results help to understand student teachers' perceptions of diversity and their attitudes toward it. In addition, the results describe how student teachers evaluate the teacher's work as it changes with the increase in diversity.

Despite the emphasis on practice-based experiences in educator preparation programs (EPPs), the work of supervision continues to be valued less than traditional teaching and scholarship in higher education. Common practices across EPPs that perpetuate this marginalization include: assigning supervision to graduate students and contingent faculty; perceiving supervision as purely evaluative and administrative; and assigning large numbers of teacher candidates (TCs) to supervisors. These practices work to obscure the labor required to “support student learning with inclusive and equitable teaching practices” (ISATT, 2025 CfP).

This paper shares data from a larger collaborative self-study examining how experienced supervisors’ practices aligned with Cuenca’s (2010) framework of care, thoughtfulness, and tact. While analyzing our data, we encountered evidence of supervisors engaging in emotional labor. Generally, emotional labor is labor expended to alter the emotions of oneself or others (Hackman, 2023; Hochschild, 1979). Our data demonstrates that field supervisors engaged in emotional labor similar to other feminized professions. For example, Allison described being frustrated with TCs but performed patience and encouragement to foster their feelings of self-efficacy rather than defeat. Ralph refers to “harmonizing” and modulating his own emotions in anticipated response to TCs, knowingly altering how he provided feedback, in an effort to manage TCs’ emotions.

We position this paper within the subtheme of “reconciling tensions for a new social contract in education.” Reconciling tensions between supervision and the EPP must begin by recognizing its value and importance and acknowledging the invisible labor of the role. As supervisors expend time and energy attending to the emotional needs of multiple adults across contexts, they risk succumbing to compassion fatigue and burn out (Figley, 1995). Thus, we aim to showcase engaged field supervision, offering suggestions toward reconciliation that both recognize the labor of field supervisors while also addressing challenges of educator preparation.

In this study, Adam and Tracey engaged in collaborative self-study with the help of three critical friends, Kevin, Kasey, and Spencer, who each offered unique levels of critical friendship as co-collaborators. Adam and Tracey are both first generation college students with rural, working-class backgrounds who now find themselves as the associate department chair and department chair, respectively, of a teacher education program at a university in the southeastern United States. This study focused primarily on the question, "In what ways do class and social background impact leadership decisions?" Additionally, this study considered the question, "In what ways do class and social background appear as facilitators of and/or barriers to critical departmental decision making?" Data included notes from weekly conversations with each critical friend with varying foci. Kevin, the associate dean of the same department, offered analysis as a fellow departmental leader invested in departmental outcomes. Spencer, the office manager for the department, offered analysis and insight from the perspective of a department member directly impacted by leadership decisions. Kasey, a colleague and program leader from another department, as well as Adam's wife, offered analysis from the perspective of a different department as well as insight into Adam's longitudinal development as a leader and decision maker in higher education. Additional data included digital communications and reflections from monthly meetings of the entire group. Data analysis and collection are ongoing, rooted in methods common to constructivist grounded theory. Preliminary analyses consider the possibility of self-perceived class incongruence between working class upbringings and the cultures of the academy. These incongruences possibly act as sources of insecurity. However, as a facilitator, the working-class value of consistent work ethic potentially serves to promote perseverance through difficult tasks. Findings are relevant to teacher education leaders considering the role of class in diversification efforts.

Global citizenship education (GCE) has become a pivotal element of initial teacher education (ITE) in Ireland, urging educators to foster self-awareness and social responsibility among learners. This longitudinal study investigates the development, process, and scaffolding of an international Community of Practice (CoP) focused on enhancing teacher educators' (TEs) self-awareness for GCE. The research question driving this inquiry is: How do TEs experience professional learning aimed at fostering self-awareness in the context of critical GCE and social justice education? This question underscores the need for TEs to engage in reflective practices that illuminate their capacities and challenges in integrating critical GCE into their pedagogical repertoire.

The international CoP consisted of six participants: four teacher educators (from primary and post-primary education), one academic practice developer, and an external critical friend who works in psychotherapy. The CoP intention was to engage in collaborative self-study with individuals from different disciplines and professions who have a common interest in understanding the ‘self’ in ‘practice’ with regards to fostering self-awareness in teacher education. Data were collected through cyclical CoP meetings (n=15) and written reflections (n=35).

The findings highlight: (1) an in-depth understanding of the self-awareness development process among TEs as they engage with GCE principles, (2) the identification of effective pedagogical strategies that facilitate self-awareness and its integration into teaching practices, and (3) insights into the cyclical process of reflective practice. Taken together, the three outcomes listed here inform the development of a model of professional learning for cultivating self-awareness in the contexts of critical GCE and social justice education that can be replicated in other educational contexts. The self-study approach sheds light on the importance of providing a space for vulnerability. Drawing on this, we also address themes of safety, belonging, and imposter syndrome, which are vital considerations for TEs navigating the complexities of self-study.

Our study aims to elucidate a self-reflective structure for increasing student engagement and equitable classroom practices as well as assessing teacher and curricular effectiveness. Two researchers with classroom experience from pre-K through college graduates explore their journey of meaningful play and TASK parties in their classrooms. We use our parallel and intersecting experiences and ongoing conversations to make meaning of how productive and consequential TASK experiences can be for assessing effective teaching and learning. This work addresses a gap in play research as it specifically investigates a secondary (high school) context alongside a post-secondary teacher education context, using both the visual art and teacher education curriculum to engage and assess learners. Additionally, we layer our own intersecting experiences as participants in TASK to complicate and deepen our conversation toward curricular change.

Utilizing Herring’s TASK structure (Herring, (2011) as a framework for gathering data on teaching and learning and reflecting as critical friends (Schuck & Russell, 2005), we ruminate through and identify connections in praxis, reflection, assessment, and envisioning curricular structures at all levels to engage play, innovation, and equity at the center. Data sources include individual, collaborative, and student reflections, student feedback and evolving curriculum and teaching identities.

Findings follow trends in art education that highlight the need for more and deeper play experiences in the learning context, especially at the secondary and post-secondary levels. Student and researcher reflections indicate a continuing need for curricular openings where student voice and autonomy are possible, inviting more equity into all classroom spaces. Our layered and varied experiences allowed us to identify broader learner needs like community, authenticity, creativity, and agency. We also uncover various ways to approach assessment within and for play-based structures in the classroom that not only invited learner and teacher reflection, but reimagined assessment to value creative process over product.

The last decade has produced significant conceptual research related to the importance of humanizing pedagogy (HP) in the equitable and inclusive education of multilingual learners (MLLs; e.g., Flores & Rosa, 2015), but much of this conceptual work has yet to be translated to substantive pedagogical action (Authors, 2022a). The gap between these rich conceptual theories and ways of leveraging them in practice has meant that attention to equity and justice is not yet deeply woven into the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) expected of teachers of MLLs (Authors, 2024). Further, teacher educators are ill-equipped to develop the kinds of practices that comprise HP when preparing teachers of MLLs (Authors, 2024; Chang-Bacon, 2021; Faltis & Valdés, 2016). These challenges offer an informative case for all educators attempting to engage in more equitable education.

Both teachers and teacher educators need assistance with moving equity-oriented concepts to actionable practice. An important site for developing teachers’ humanizing PCK is the MLL methods course. A review of methods courses reveals that our approach to teaching MLL methods has remained relatively static for several decades (e.g., Kayi-Aydar, 2023), focusing on historical methods, skills in the four domains (listening, speaking, reading, writing), objectives and lesson plans, and assessment. While these remain important aspects of teachers’ PCK, teacher preparation for HP also requires deliberate focus on how to underpin these practices with principles that support equity, advocacy, and justice. Drawing from course documents, student interviews and assignments, and teacher educator debriefs, we use the constant comparative method (Corbin & Strauss, 2015) to ask: How have we have leveraged core practices for teaching MLLs (Authors, 2022b) to engage in humanizing praxis in our MLL methods courses? We offer examples from our classroom practice regarding how our curriculum and teaching have shifted, and suggest how this might inform teacher education.

This study aims to increase academic equity among the growing immigrant/refugee population in Norwegian schools. In 2022 the immigrant/refugee population in Norway rose to over 16% of the total population and Norwegian teachers now educate an increasing number of immigrant/refugee students. The Norwegian Education Act stipulates adapted language instruction for immigrant/refugee students, but the methods for providing adapted instruction are not clearly defined, and the majority of teachers are not prepared (Arnesen et al, 2023; Næss et al, 2023.). Despite efforts to increase academic achievement in immigrant/refugee students in Norway, these students continue to perform below their native language speaking peers in English, reading, and mathematics, and drop out of school at a higher rate (Norozi, 2023; Rambøll, 2016; Nordic Research Center 2021).

This study implemented and investigated a specific methodology derived from the United States, emphasizing comprehensible language-content instruction, and students’ native language and culture. Using self-study methodology (Samaras, 2011; Feldman, Paugh, & Mills, 2004), and Educational Research Design (McKenny & Reeves, 2019), researchers and practitioners conducted collaborative research to help practitioners improve their own effectiveness (McKenny & Reeves, 2018, pg. 17). Teachers used self-study methods to film themselves using the methods and journal about their experiences each day. Teachers and researchers then met bi-weekly in a critical teacher-researcher group to discuss and analyze adaptations teachers made to the strategies to fit the cultural context of Norway. Teachers and researchers collaboratively developed a revised version of the methodology, and field-tested this version using further self-study and Educational design research. Key findings include: unique culturally responsive adaptations that heavily emphasized collaborative community classrooms and equity while concurrently addressing the diverse needs of language learners. The outcome resulted in a Framework for equity education of immigrant/refugee teaching in Norway, thus directly addressing the conference theme of quality teaching to increase equity.

This self-study explores my experiences as a Professional Learning Community (PLC) facilitator in a large urban district, with a focus on how transformational leadership and the ethics of care contribute to promoting equity, quality teaching, and socially just classrooms. Guided by the Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices (S-STEP) methodology, this research examines the impact of my leadership practices on the creation of inclusive and supportive learning environments. Data were collected through reflective journaling, analysis of meeting transcripts, and feedback from PLC participants and district leadership over the 2023-2024 academic year. The analysis utilized a triple coding methodology, including an additional layer focused specifically on the ethics of care, which categorized instances of aesthetic care, authentic care, hard care, and uncaring behaviors.

The study's findings highlight several key successes, including the positive influence of transformational leadership and authentic care in fostering a collaborative and trusting PLC environment. These successes facilitated deeper discussions around equity and social justice, leading to more engaged and productive planning sessions. However, the study also identified significant challenges, such as time constraints, inconsistent support from higher-level leadership, and behavioral issues within schools, which hindered the full realization of equity and social justice goals.

The significance of this self-study lies in its demonstration of the critical role that reflective practices, supported by transformational leadership and a deep commitment to care, play in advancing equity in urban education. The findings suggest that while these elements are vital, they must be supported by sufficient time, resources, and consistent care frameworks across all levels of leadership to be truly effective. This study contributes valuable insights to the discourse on educational leadership, offering practical strategies for educators and leaders aiming to create inclusive, equitable, and socially just educational environments.

This self-study examined the reciprocal mentoring relationship of three professors with different areas of expertise through several novel course structures. The authors unintentionally began a small community of practice that has now spanned over fifteen years and developed into a reciprocal mentoring relationship. Seeking to provide students with unique opportunities to bridge the content between academic areas, the authors mentored each other through multiple course and pedagogical changes. Along the way, however, their co-mentoring relationship extended through professional tribulations and personal lives.

This work aimed to describe how we were changing as teacher educators while engaging in several collaborative projects focused on providing teacher education students unique opportunities. Reciprocal mentoring provided us with both support and challenge in ways that supported professional growth and changes reflected in our educational philosophies and practices (Costa & Kallick, 1993; Drehar, 2016; Mullen, 2000).

Based on the characteristics of self-study (LaBoskey, 2004), self-study was chosen to study the effects of engaging with critical friends on maintaining a growth mindset and the process of life-long learning. Documentation was coded and analyzed. Artifacts included emails, class artifacts, observation notes, syllabi, and teaching evaluations.

Findings support the belief that reciprocal mentoring is complex and non-linear. The benefits of engaging in reciprocal mentoring that evolves into professional and personal friendship can help one feel a sense of belonging even when in an unsupportive environment. The relationship showed varying degrees of both support and challenge in ways that positively affected teaching, research, and, professional growth.

This study gives clear recommendations for professors looking to develop co-mentoring relationships with peers focusing on the benefits and challenges of being in a reciprocal mentoring relationship.

One of the crucial aims of self-study is to create more democratic schools and universities, as well as society. Author-A is a social studies teacher educator in Japan. His mission is to foster preservice teachers' awareness toward social justice. He has been discussing his teaching practices with his critical friend, Author-B, for years. In this self-study, we discuss (1) the insights and learnings we gained from Author A’s self-studies (2) professional knowledge we gained as educators through self-studies.

The significance of self-study in equity and inclusion has also been discussed in Japan. For example, at the roundtable 2022, authors and other participants pointed out that self-study research could collaboratively reveal the contradiction between the weakness and the strength of individual professionals. It would also highlight social issues and injustices through the exploration of individual and practical issues.

Main data were Author-A's six published self-study papers and nine self-study presentations since 2018. Data also included reflective journals, text messages, meeting notes, various artifacts such as pictures and senryu poems. All online meetings between Author-A and B were recorded. We employed pictures and senryu as analytic tools to stimulate our collaborative dialogue from multiple perspectives.

Collaborative analysis through pictures and senryu created space to enhance our reflection. Our discussion over artifacts revealed a barrier deeply rooted in the Japanese social structure. In school's hidden curriculums, students are not taught about their rights, but how to survive competitive examinations. Such school education reproduces teachers who are indifferent to social injustice. Through his self-studies, we recognize it is crucially important that we should keep our beliefs in human rights and democracy in education. This research suggests that we should continue challenging such a hidden curriculum. The accumulation of reflective practices and collaborative dialogues leads to more democratic and inclusive school and higher education.

Research Aim: This study aims to explore the practical applications and pedagogies necessary for preparing pre-service teachers (PSTs) to become advocates for social justice, addressing the gap in research that primarily focuses on values and belief systems rather than actionable teaching practices.

Theoretical Framework: Grounded in Freire’s transformative praxis theory, this study is underpinned by the concept of fostering critical consciousness, essential for addressing and transgressing social injustices in education. The umbrella methodology of Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices (S-STEP) and Collaborative Autoethnography (CAE) is employed to reflect on and analyse our teaching practices.

Methods: Using CAE, we engaged in reflective practice by documenting and sharing personal and professional experiences related to social justice pedagogy. Reflections on practice were written, shared, and discussed in a series of CAE meetings. The data, supported by student-generated pedagogical reflections, were collaboratively analysed to identify key themes connected to transformative praxis.

Findings: The study reveals the significant role of CAE in professional learning, particularly in fostering critical reflexivity. Through collective analysis of pedagogical data and reflective practice, we identified areas of success and shortcomings in our efforts to teach social justice. This process strengthened our pedagogical approaches, especially in engaging students who may initially struggle to grasp the importance of teaching for social justice.

Relevance to the Conference Theme and Specific Strand: This research directly addresses the conference theme of social justice in education by providing a detailed examination of transformative pedagogies in teacher education. The findings contribute to the strand on equity and inclusion by offering insights into effective strategies for fostering critical consciousness among PSTs, thereby equipping them to contribute to a more socially just future.

Critical thinking offers opportunities to counter rising hate speech and xenophobic populism evident in societies across the world. If we are to harness the potentially transformative impact of critical thinking by embedding it in our education systems, we must begin with initial teacher education (ITE) and ensuring student teachers are critical thinkers themselves. This study focused on examining my practices as a teacher educator in supporting student teachers to develop their critical thinking skills within the context of learning about global social justice issues.

This self-study project took place across three academic years, focusing on a core module in which students engaged in global citizenship education. My inquiry into my own practices was undertaken alongside support and engagement from critical friends, my students, and colleagues. The data set included both written and recorded reflections; recordings of conversations with critical friends; emails and written reflections from critical friends; recordings and notes from focus group interviews with students; surveys; Most Significant Change Stories; exit slips from classes; photographs of in class work; post-it notes or worksheets from in class work; and assessments. The wide variety of data types helped to capture the complex and messy nature of classroom practice and provided multiple sources to aid in triangulation of findings.

Drawing on Freire’s (1974) Critical Consciousness, Boler’s (1999) Pedagogy of Discomfort, Andreotti and deSouza’s (2018) conceptual frameworks for ‘Through Other Eyes’ and Bourn’s (2015) Pedagogy of Development Education to support the interpretation and application of my research findings, I developed an adaptable, flexible conceptual framework for critical global learning. This framework forms the most substantial findings from the study and includes both a model for understanding critical thinking in the context of global citizenship education and a planning tool to support critical thinking development with my students.

Playful teaching and learning approaches in higher education are an emerging phenomenon in South Africa. Over the years, research studies have focused on playful teaching and learning approaches for children and teachers in early years and primary schools. However, an emerging trend of research indicates a growing interest in the integration of playful approaches in higher education. This research explored the use of playful pedagogy in a teacher education course, examining both its potential and complexities. Drawing on the becoming theory, which viewed teacher-educators and preservice teachers as constantly evolving through experience and reflection, I proposed playful pedagogy as a tool to enhance this process. I identified preparation, guidance, reflection, and emotional intelligence as crucial aspects for successful implementation of playful pedagogy. This includes clear demonstrations, brief and simple activities, and opportunities for reflection to maximize student success and mitigating discomfort with playful learning. When used thoughtfully, playful pedagogy can promote deeper learning, build rapport among students and teacher-educators, and create a more positive and collaborative learning experience. While playful approaches foster enjoyment and engagement, I also discovered that it can foster a more engaging and humanizing learning environment. Ultimately, I have learnt that, when playful pedagogy is used thoughtfully, it can promote deeper learning, build rapport among students and teachers-educators, and create a more positive and collaborative learning experience. As I continue to integrate playful pedagogy into my teaching practice, I am encouraged in knowing this phenomenon is embedded in humanistic values and allows for flourishing of teacher-educators and students alike.

Research aim:

Poetry has been featured at the Castle Conference since 1996. Current research shows that poetry is the most popular form of creative inquiry in self-study, and its popularity is expanding. This study asks, “How does poetic self-study at the Castle envision quality teaching for a more equitable world?”

Theoretical framework:

Poetry offers multidimensional ways to engage with educational experiences and phenomena. A poetic epistemology integrates emotion, senses, body, language, rhythm, imagery, imagination, and audience response.

Methods:

We identified all the Castle Conference papers with poems. We then selected those papers where original poetry was used to analyse, develop, portray, or create knowledge. These studies were tabulated for focus, purpose, context, and impact. Using a close reading interpretative method, we sought meanings, connotations, and linkages across the poetic self-studies. A pantoum was composed as a creative analytical tool to crystallise complex imagery and ideas. (Pantoums are poems with four-line stanzas and a repeated line pattern accentuating themes and heightening emotional and sensory impact.)

Findings:

The pantoum illuminated a vision of quality teaching in which imaginative ways of knowing enable us to see differently and to distil new knowledge in multiple ways, affecting hearts and minds. Fun and spontaneity add to the dynamic and engaging nature of the pedagogy. Along with fostering an environment of mutual care, trust, and respect, there is a dedication to tackling tensions and complexity. Quality teaching brings diverse perspectives together in creative interaction, fostering empathy and relationships across differences and provoking manifold possibilities for a more equitable world.

Relevance:

This study integrates the conference theme and S-STEP scholarship. By crystallising a poetic vision of quality teaching for a more just society, we can better imagine what this kind of pedagogy could look and feel like and how we can put it into practice.

“As a professor, he does not care about his students at all. . .. Never once did he reflect on his presentation and attitude toward the class.” This comment, from a student’s end of course evaluation, made me question whether I was still effective as a professor. I was covering the content competencies assigned to the course, but I was not modeling what being a reflective practitioner looked like. This comment became the critical incident (Hole and McEntree, 1999) that motivated me to rethink my practice as a teacher educator, confronting this issue in my practice (Ritter and Quinones, 2020).

“Ungrading,” is a competency-based approach to assessment associated with critical pedagogy in which students choose a “bundle” of assignments connected with a specific level of mastery and revise assignments until they reach a standard that they are willing to accept. I changed the structure of the course to include assignments that would engage the students with the course content at a mastery level. I wondered whether changing the assessment strategy would ultimately sculpt my presentation approach. I kept notes about what I was doing differently and how I felt about that throughout. I enlisted two critical friends to help me make sense of my observations about my teaching and student response to the course changes. They reviewed my course evaluations to triangulate my interpretations.

Course evaluations were mixed. Some students liked the changes to the course schema while others didn’t. The evidence suggests that changing my assessment strategy did sculpt my instructional style. As I strove to equip my students to engage with the content in ways that supported their successful completion of their chosen grade bundle, I began to move away from lecture and to embrace once again the characteristics of quality teaching.

In this paper we report on a collaborative self-study designed to capture the complex and multi-layered ways we have interacted with and influenced policy development to support building racial literacy in teacher education in Scotland. A self-study approach enabled us to examine our experiences and practices from inside a policy space where process, programmes and politics collide (McConnell, 2010; Lambert and O’Connor, 2018). Reflecting La Boskey’s (2004) features of self-study, the research for this paper was self-initiated, focused, interactive, and qualitative. The first four authors each came to the research with individual identities and experiences within the anti-racism policy space but to understand the space more deeply and analytically required interaction. Therefore, we came together, with a critical friend, to engage in a collaborative self-study. A qualitative approach was adopted writing a series of three vignettes and engaging in recorded conversations using the vignettes as stimulus:

1. Positioning ourselves within the policy space – who am I

2. Mapping the policy space

3. Sharing our experiences and practice from within the policy space

Findings illuminate an often unseen, but important part of the policy process: individual histories, aspirations, vulnerabilities and hopes of those playing active roles in the development and enactment of policy. This provides a counter-narrative to the more common rational explanations of policy processes: as Mueller (2020) argues, ‘a key characteristic of complex systems is that they cannot be closely controlled or predicted. Yet the traditional approach to public policy is fundamentally based on both control and prediction’ (p. 311). While McConnell (2010) advocates assessing the success of policy in three distinct realms – processes, programs and politics – the personal dimension in each is neglected. Thus, adopting a self-study approach can contribute to a more human-centred and nuanced understanding of the ways in which policy is taken up.

Research aim: ­ to provide an evidence-based explanation of how self-study practitioner-researchers can contribute to the development of education, research, pedagogical practices and policies with values of human flourishing, “to ensure that education truly transforms lives in the world” (Education 2030 Incheon Declaration).

Theoretical framework: integrates insights drawn from practitioners’ values-laden knowledge and theories, generated as they engage in professional practitioner, educational, self-study research, professional development, and theories and knowledge generated by psychologists, sociologists and philosophers (Whitehead and Huxtable, 2024).

Methods: include journaling, narrative, cycles of action-reflection, and living-posters to create and collect data. Innovative methods are used to analyse digital visual data to clarify and communicate embodied meanings of values of human flourishing, which serve as evaluative standards and explanatory principles in explanations for educational influences in learning.

Findings: These are focused on the evidence-based and values-laden explanations of teachers researching their practice to realise their responsibilities as professional practitioners and global citizens. These explanations illustrate the quality of the equitable, educational opportunities; experiences and relationships for all students, whatever their background and circumstance..

Relevance to theme and strands: the research contributes to the growth of educational knowledge and theory formation, and improving the quality of equitable, inclusive teaching practices at all levels of education.

References

UNESCO (2015) Education 2030: Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action Towards inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all. Retrieved from https://iite.unesco.org/publications/education-2030-incheon-declaration-framework-action-towards-inclusive-equitable-quality-education-lifelong-learning/

Whitehead, J. & Huxable, M. (2024) Living Educational Theory Research as an Epistemology for Practice. The Role of Values in Practitioners’ Professional Development. London: Routledge.

Becoming a teacher educator is complex and involves modifications to professional identity. Teacher educators‘ knowledge and identity are in constant progress and can be explored so they can become critical agents actively questioning and negotiating the relationships between theory and praxis and the fluctuating borders of professional roles.

In this self-study I examine my professional experience as a preschool teacher becoming a teacher educator. I draw on critical pedagogy to analyze personal narratives, shedding light on tensions in different professional roles. Data is drawn from a reflective journal, field notes from my teaching, teaching materials and notes from preparation and collaborative meetings. For my analysis, I draw on narrative inquiry to extract stories from my data, that exemplify critical incidents and turning points and on critical pedagogy to identify where power is located.

Analysis revealed incidents within the preschool that led to self-doubt. Transitioning from being a teacher in preschool, to becoming a teacher educator, I mistrusted my ability to fulfil that role. These tensions emerged in (1) professional values and identity shaped by my education and experience as a preschool teacher, and (2) feeling of belonging with a group of teacher educators. Paying attention to particulars in my journey contributes to understanding the importance that educators constantly attend to professional development and how they can enact their professionalism in quality of teaching.

This study contributes to knowledge about how self-study can be an effective approach to understand roles within education and how professional culture can either limit or support teachers´ agency. It also shows the significance of professional reflection when taking on a new role as a teacher educator, as well as the importance of understanding the knowledge and values present in different settings and how these can shape one's identity.

Student voice practices engage children in pedagogical processes that involve and empower them to be collaborators and decision makers regarding their own educational experience (Iannucci & Parker, 2022). It is evident that when students are given authentic opportunities for their voice to be heard, results are positive; students are more engaged in learning (Iannucci et al., 2023). A Student Voice-Professional Learning Community (SV-PLC) of primary physical education teacher educators (PPETEs) was established to support future teachers to learn about and enact student voice as a foundational teaching practice in teaching physical education.

This research aimed to investigate PPETEs’ experiences of enacting student voice pedagogies with pre-service teachers in Ireland. Collaborative self-study of teacher education practices provided the overall frame for this research (LaBoskey, 2004). Seven PPETEs applied student voice practices in primary teacher education programmes in Ireland, with the support of five critical friends during the 2024/2025 academic year. The research involved planning and teaching a module over one semester to support pre-service teachers’ learning about student voice and reflecting both individually and with our critical friends. The data for this self-study comprised of transcripts of eight online SV-PLC meetings and one reflective diary entry from each teacher educator.

Initial findings indicate that teacher educators faced complexities in navigating student voice practices, balancing their roles as models and facilitators of voice. Feedback from critical friends was crucial in helping them reflect on and refine their approaches, balancing explicit instruction with implicit modelling. Findings suggest that protected time is necessary to incrementally build pre-service teachers' capacity to enact their voice. Teacher educators aimed to create democratic learning environments, encouraging pre-service teachers to understand the impact of their decisions, and grow into thoughtful, empathetic individuals. We envisage that our findings will contribute to pedagogical strategies, supporting teacher educators to prioritise student voice.

In this paper, I consider the findings from a self study in which I considered how I, as a white female teacher educator, do and do not take up anti-oppressive pedagogies (Rodriguez and Swalwell, 2021) in the classroom. The theoretical framework, “rehumanizing praxis,” is informed by white supremacy logic (Enumah, 2021) to contextualise accountable inquiry with white teachers, including myself as a professor. It is within this understanding of white supremacy logic that “rehumanizing praxis,” referencing simultaneous inward and outward pedagogies, can be understood, making barriers and possibilities visible among the tensions.

This paper discusses a two-part research inquiry, with emphasis on phase two. In phase one, white in-service teachers participated in a project examining internal and external barriers, supports, and pedagogies related to their commitments to racial justice in their classrooms. While the field of education works to dismantle the persistent overrepresentation of white women in the field (Fenwick, 2021), teacher preparation programmes continue to require more robust support for diverse classrooms without perpetuating harmful pedagogies or reproducing injustice. From that study, many inward and outward pedagogies were identified across participants, seasoned teachers in school contexts ranging from early childhood through adolescence.

For phase two, I kept a teaching journal, recording observations and reflections of my opportunities to support racially just teacher education as informed by the findings in phase one. I noted barriers to my anti-oppressive education commitments at the university level. I cited personal and institutional supports as an experienced professor in a new, white-dominant college context. In addition, I described interactions and meetings through the lenses of my own inward and outward pedagogies. I will share findings from the self-study as I explored practices that supported and, at times, obscured my efforts.

Teacher educator knowledge is an emerging field of research. Berry (2007) conducted the first study which uncovered the typical tensions teacher educators had to resolve in their practice. More recently, Lay inquired into an online course (2021) where she revealed how seven themes of teacher educator knowledge informed decisions about planning, teaching and assessing. Through that project, we came to see assignments were repositories of teacher educators’ knowledge of teaching, teacher education, and their tacit knowledge. This understanding led us to wonder about what an assignment we co-constructed would reveal about our own knowledge of teaching and teacher education and what we might also uncover concerning our tacit teacher educator knowledge. We engage in self-study of practice. We began by identifying an assignment we designed and taught pre-service teachers as part of a course that taught them to teach multilingual students within their regular classrooms. We selected a curriculum development project based on the model developed by CREDE (Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence). For our analysis, we worked together identifying what the assignment revealed. We met three times. We kept careful notes for each session. At the end of each session, we identified what the assignment revealed about our teacher knowledge, our teacher educator knowledge and our tacit knowledge as a teacher educator. We integrated our assertions from the three sessions producing our findings. We found that our knowledge of teaching impacted our pacing, plans for group work, and reporting student work. Our teacher educator knowledge revealed our beliefs that the work needed to feel authentic, link together things learned in other classes, and demonstrate their knowledge of the underlying principles for instruction. Our tacit knowledge revealed our clear grounding of our pedagogy in sociocultural theory and commitment to equitable teaching.

This collaborative self-study was conducted by two faculty who teach research methodology to non-traditional students pursuing an educational doctorate (Ed.D.). Working together since 2022 in a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), many of our shared doctoral students work full-time jobs, have families, and often struggle with the demands of the doctoral program. The goal of this study was to inquire how we could leverage an already extant cohort model to improve student retention and outcomes of our students through improving small group work in our courses.

In the U.S., Ed.D. candidates are more likely to be older, employed full-time, female, and from minority backgrounds. Research indicates that factors such as lack of social support, faculty relationships, prior academic rigor, self-efficacy, and motivation contribute significantly to higher attrition rates among non-traditional doctoral students (Bain et al., 2011; Deshpande, 2017; Brill et al., 2014).

Beginning in 2022, we started meeting bi-weekly to reflect on our individual and collective teaching experiences (Hamilton & Pinnegar, 2016). We focused on revising the structure, pacing, and curriculum to strengthen small group pedagogy. Through joint journaling and synchronous discussions, we created interim texts (Clandinin & Connelly, 2010) that allowed us to identify resonances (Charmaz, 2010) grounded in our teaching experiences (Munby & Russell, 1994). Our analysis of course artifacts, student assessments, and previous self-study data suggested that students struggled with completing assignments and understanding methodological and programmatic goals.

To address these challenges, we improved the small group curriculum by embedding stronger reading and task support, establishing structured and accountable group meetings, incorporating classroom modeling, and ensuring transparency of goals and purposes. Preliminary findings indicate that students found the group work beneficial, particularly in helping them understand difficult concepts and apply their learning.

Expanded examples from teacher notes and student feedback will be included to further illustrate these findings.

This doctoral research aims to examine how I, as a primary teacher and teacher educator, respond to tensions produced by policy narratives of educational change, reflecting on how my practice is influenced by the system in which I work (GTCS, 2021). This research primarily builds upon Amanda Berry’s (2007: 132) reconceptualization of teacher education knowledge as tensions, specifically her assertion that tensions, “…serve as both a language for describing practice and as a frame for studying practice”. Data was gathered through analysis of six Scottish education policy documents using the framework, What’s the Problem Represented to Be? (WPR) (Bacchi, 2009). Reflecting the self-study methodology and to capture how changes made to practice are shaped by personal responses to policy, the policy analysis was supported with journaling (a policy response journal and a practice journal). Initial findings suggest that it is my response to uncertainty, and its simultaneous acceptance and denial in the Scottish policy landscape, that influences the practices I habitually adopt and find tension in enacting. This is because these practices, such as planning and modelling, provide a sense of control and stability, despite their incongruence with my personal beliefs and the beliefs put forth in policy that teachers should be adaptable, responsive, and creative to meet the needs of their students in present-day society. This research is relevant to the conference theme and sub theme of ‘characteristics of quality teaching’ as it highlights critical reflection as an integral part of teacher professionalism. This is particularly relevant to the need to support educators to cultivate and sustain a willingness to disrupt both external narratives of change, such as those found in policy, and internal narratives of change that inform the adoption of habituated practices.

This study explores a school-based participatory action research (PAR) project in Iceland aimed at fostering transformative change towards equity inclusion. The project was conducted in a collaborative partnership between the school community and university researchers, who assumed the role of facilitators. The research built on the active collaboration of children and adults, emphasising children´s active participation and involvement in the process. The external facilitators critically examined their role and influence as well as the relationships they formed with the school community through various activities with children, school personnel, and administrators during the project. The data for this study was drawn from the facilitators’ research journals and reflective dialogue between facilitators and participants.

Findings indicate that the external facilitators provided valuable impulses for internal development, helping to ignite and guide the school’s transformation processes. Simultaneously, facilitators gained deep insights into the school´s internal workings, enhancing their understanding of inclusion and democratic practices. The research revealed supportive factors for inclusion and equity embedded in the school’s culture, policies, and practices, such as a strong sense of community, supportive leadership, flexible practices, and inclusive policies, which were further strengthened as children and adults actively identified and enhanced them.

The study highlights the essential role of collaborative partnerships between external researchers and school communities in driving inclusive school development. By integrating external expertise with internal knowledge and experiences, the research demonstrates how such dynamic collaborations can effectively support schools in achieving their inclusion goals. This project underscores the importance of fostering equity and inclusion through collaborative, participatory, action-oriented research, emphasising the mutual benefits of partnerships for transformative educational change.

Research aim

This self-study focuses on teaching #MeToo in graduate courses on critical feminist pedagogies. I ask, what can we learn from teacher candidates as well as high school students what the role of #MeToo is in English teacher education?

I examine one masters student’s initial discomfort about addressing #MeToo in the secondary English classroom. Using portraiture (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Hoffman Davis, 1997), I trace this student’s initial reluctance to the moments where she challenged her own assumptions. I examine both my student’s writing as well as integrate my own self-reflexive account of #MeToo activism with high school students. This activism informs my current commitment to addressing sexual harassment in teacher education curricula, particularly for English and critical literacy teachers.

Theoretical framework and methods

Throughout this portrait, I use Ahmed’s concept of “complaint as feminist pedagogy” (2021). Ahmed argues that in making a complaint against sexual violence, students and faculty come up against institutional “walls” that silence and surveil. Even so, the complaint activism (Ahmed, 2021) that students and faculty engage in also have implications for curriculum and pedagogy.

I draw from Ahmed’s “complaint as feminist pedagogy” to analyze my student’s complaint that resisted and then embraced addressing sexual violence in schools. I also analyze my experiences as a teacher-activist who engaged in #MeToo activism with my former high school students.

Findings

By initially making a complaint about my feminist curriculum, one teacher candidate comes to realize that the real complaint must be made against schools and institutions that silence women and girls from speaking out about harassment, not about the curricula that are designed to provide spaces for feminist pedagogy and activism in schools.

Relevance to the conference theme and specific strand

Equity and inclusion; social justice; reconciling tensions in teacher education. S-STEP strand; equity and inclusion; subject specific (English) strands.

Prevailing notions of scholarship in the academy position the work of faculty within the three general categories of teaching, research, and service. In terms of promotion and tenure across the ranks of assistant to full professorship, a cohesive agenda that links faculty research and teaching is expected, particularly in teacher education where research and teaching are co-constitutive. However, service is often an additional requirement that carries little weight in faculty evaluations. What faculty members do for service is often marginalized within the traditional power structures of the institution and, thus, faculty receive few resources (e.g., funding, mentoring) that support development in service positions. This exclusion is particularly problematic for faculty engaged in service that centers their social identities.This self-study, conducted jointly with a critical friend, draws on social identity theory and Archeology of the Self to examine one faculty member’s experiences navigating the tensions between her social identities and expected academic identities in relation to service work.Findings unpack how the specific context of the academy shaped how the focal faculty member worked to reconcile tensions between social and academic identities and in relation to the degree to which those identities were visible and/or invisible in service work. As a faculty member who centered the social identities of students in teaching, this reconciliation led to a (re)imagining of instructional practices supporting preservice teachers’ thinking about the relationship between their identities and instructional decision-making. Understanding how social identities visible in faculty work beyond teaching and research shape faculty agendas can more fully acknowledge and value who faculty are in relation to their whole selves, thus contributing to the construction of a new social contract in education that (re)envisions how faculty identities shape teaching practices within academic institutions.

In this self-study, we employed a critical appreciative inquiry process in teacher education to examine the creation of a research-practice partnership (RPP) with the purpose of increasing mainstream classroom teachers’ sense of preparedness to support a growing number of multilingual learners and their families. We focused on constructive and deconstructive forms of inquiry to reflect on our learning as teacher educators at the boundaries of research and practice within an RPP that centered the strengths and assets of educators, students, and families from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds (Ridley-Duff & Duncan, 2015). RPPs have the potential to further university-school collaborations by creating hybrid spaces to support teacher development when incorporated in teacher education (Sato & Loewen, 2022). In this self-study, we explored how teacher educators negotiated tensions between their beliefs, values, pedagogical practices, and the demands on and of their school-based partners. By reflecting on our data through a critical appreciative lens (e.g., teacher educator reflections, ongoing dialogues with the school-based team, planning for and debriefing of teacher professional learning), we cultivated a deeper understanding of culturally and linguistically responsive practices as they apply to both teacher education and PK-12 instruction in the United States. Focusing on learning at the intersection of research and practice for teacher educators (Farrell et al., 2022), we demonstrate how RPPs can disrupt dominant narratives that a) often portray teachers as passive recipients of external expert knowledge and b) vilify the values and cultures of students and families from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds given the deficient-based perspectives they tend to promote. This study underscores the importance for teacher education institutions, as communities of practice, to acknowledge the critical acts and tensions that must be negotiated in order to truly center the collective experiences and varying expertise of its members when establishing research-practice partnerships.

To offer quality teaching, teachers need specialized knowledge about sensing the effectiveness of their teaching in specific contexts, as well as the ability to improve it independently. This implies that prospective teachers should learn to establish personal criteria for effective teaching in various settings—differing from class to class, and from student to student—while being motivated to engage in lifelong learning throughout their professional careers, beginning during their pre-service training.

This type of knowledge is not something that can be simply taught; rather, it is constructed by students through reflection on their studies and practicum at university, and integrating these learnings and experiences within themselves. Two major challenges arise in this process. The first is theoretical: it involves clarifying the nature of knowledge that can adapt appropriately to individual contexts. While this may resemble wisdom, existing research suggests that professional wisdom is not attainable by everyone. Therefore, a "middle-range" wisdom, which provides adaptable knowledge suited to specific contexts, should be explored. The second challenge is practical: it concerns understanding how prospective teachers develop such knowledge, and how teacher educators can facilitate this development.

To address these challenges, this study employs a self-study approach, in which the researcher supports a student teacher conducting action research on his own process of professional identity formation through his practicum as a mathematics teacher at junior high school. Although the researcher is his supervisor at the professional development school of Hiroshima University in Japan, she also acts as a critical friend in guiding his action research, while receiving advice from colleagues who serve as her critical friends in the field of mathematics. The research takes place from April 2024 to February 2026, corresponding with the student teacher’s action research, and intermediate findings will be presented at the conference in July 2025.