Making connections to the ‘real’ world: further developing teacher vision in Initial Teacher Education

School :  Moray House School of Education and Sport

Team Members: Murray Craig, Nicola Carse, Paul McMillan, Mike Jess, Karen Munro, Mary Bovill,  Zoè Robertson

Abstract

Teacher vision is a fundamental component of professional practice and Initial Teacher Education (ITE) has been identified as a key site for its development. Starting the vision-making process at this early stage can provide a crucial lens to guide teacher action inside and outside the classroom, helping to navigate the range of factors that increasingly shape contemporary education. However, a major difficulty of working with student teachers is that their visions remain untested in practice, which can lead to a disconnection from the contextual realities of schools. Student visions that develop in isolation from an awareness of schools can quickly become demotivating upon entry into the teaching profession. Progress is being made in the Moray House School of Education and Sport to more closely connect student visions to the ‘real’ teaching world, but more radical steps are required. Therefore, working with current students and our alumni, this project proposes to produce a resource package to straddle the gap between students’ developing visions and their future work in schools. A resource of this nature will bring the ‘real’ teaching world into the heart of student learning and development of their visions, better preparing them for bringing their vision to life during school placements, in the early years after ITE, and beyond.