Translating Overseas Student Teaching to First Year Teaching: An Exploration

Open Access
- Author:
- Ridgeman, Michael
- Graduate Program:
- Curriculum and Instruction
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- October 14, 2011
- Committee Members:
- Jamie Myers, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Jamie Myers, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Dr Scott Mc Donald, Committee Member
George Richard Vahoviak, Committee Member
James Hamilton Iii, Committee Member - Keywords:
- sustainability
worldview
Overseas student teaching
place
first year teachers - Abstract:
- ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the experiences of five first year teachers who completed their student teaching practicum in Trondheim, Norway. The research explores the ways in which overseas student teaching impacts the practices of first-year teachers in four specific domains: 1. Sustainability in the classroom 2. Worldview in the classroom 3. Place in the classroom 4. The effectiveness of an overseas student teaching experience Each of the five participants was interviewed a total of seven times over a period of four months. The interviews gathered information pertaining to the following research questions: 1. How does an overseas student teaching experience effect first year teachers’ conceptualization of place? 2. How does an overseas student teaching experience effect first-year teachers’ conceptualization of sustainability? 3. How does an overseas student teaching experience effect first-year teachers’ conceptualization of worldview? 4. How does this infiltrate their teaching practices? Although the participants all felt that the overseas experience increased their personal understanding of the three distinct topics, the ways in which their teaching practice was impacted differed from person to person. Two participants teaching in traditional public schools did not feel comfortable supplementing their largely prescribed curricula with material in these domains. One participant continued teaching overseas and found his students to be lacking the English fluency necessary to discuss these topics. As a substitute teacher, one participant took every opportunity to include these issues in the daily lesson plan. And the final participant taught in an outdoor science school that encouraged exploration of these topics. Future research opportunities are abundant. Continued dialogue with these five participants could potentially yield a longitudinal study exploring how practice changes over time. Furthermore, additional studies of first-year teachers who completed student teaching overseas would add to the understanding of how this experience impacts the practices of a beginning teacher.