Context and Power:The Subject Conceptions and Practice of Pre-service Geography Teachers in Singapore

Tricia Seow GTE Conference 2008

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Subject Conceptions Research

• Implications for teacher practice

• Importance for teacher education

BUT

• Influences on formation of subject conceptions varied and complex

• Practice may not always match conceptions

The Significance of Context

• Context affects pre-service teachers’ practice• Context goes beyond the classroom

Includes• National education structures and policies• Geography’s social and developmental context• School, departmental contexts

Context and Power

• Context is embedded in power relationships which frame the parameters within which we perceive the world and constrain our actions within it

• Foucault’s “Discourse”

Context and Power

• Pre-service teachers are enmeshed within the power structures of context(s)

Effect on subject conceptions?

Effect on practice?

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Contexts: An Analysis

Pre-ServiceTeacher

School Geography ContextCurriculum offered; Type of teaching exposed to

Academic Geography ContextCurriculum offered;Modules taken; Type of teaching exposed to

Personal ContextPersonal background;Interests; Travel…

Subject conceptions

Classroom Practice

National Education ContextNational education policies;Pay and promotion structures;Competitiveness and stratification of schools

School ContextSchool culture and mission;Relationships: staff, students, parents, community

Subject ContextSubject curriculum; Assessment formats;Dominant paradigms in subject

During school placement

Prior to teacher education course

The Singapore Context

• Highly centralised and uniform• Prescribed national Geog syllabus: topics, skills

and values, teaching strategies and resources, assessment format, objectives, weightages, time frame

• One university, one teacher education college, one employer

=>implications for the subject conceptions of Singapore pre-service Geography teachers

=> implications for their practice

The Singapore Context

• Stratified• Streaming and differentiation at every level from

primary school through to university• More innovation in curriculum and teaching

context for elite students

=>implications for the subject conceptions of Singapore pre-service Geography teachers

=> implications for their practice

The Singapore Context

• Competitive• Annual rankings and intense rivalry• Teachers’ ranking and bonuses• ‘Drilling’ to perform well in exams

=>implications for the subject conceptions of Singapore pre-service Geography teachers

=> implications for their practice

Embodied Agents

Teachers have bodies!… so what?

The body matters!

Embodied Teachers Trained in the philosophical context of western metaphysical

dualism, many of us have accepted the notion that there is a split between the body and the mind. Believing this, individuals enter the classroom to teach as though only the mind is present, and not the body (bell hooks, 1994:17).

• Teachers’ bodies affect the way in which they perceive, are perceived and relate to the world.

=> What is the effect of pre-service teachers’ embodiment, and societal regulation of their bodies, on their conceptions of Geography, and on their practice?

Contexts and Embodiment

EMBODIEDPre-Service

Teacher

School Geography ContextCurriculum offered; Type of teaching exposed to

Academic Geography ContextCurriculum offered; Modules taken; Type of teaching exposed to

Personal ContextPersonal background;Interests; TravelEmbodied characteristics

Subject conceptions

Classroom Practice

National Education ContextNational education policies;Pay and promotion structures;Competitiveness and stratification of schools

School ContextSchool culture and mission;Relationships: staff, students, Parents, community

Subject ContextSubject curriculum; Assessment formats;Dominant paradigms in subject

During school placement

Prior to teacher educationcourse

Embodied ContextRegulation of own body, bodily actions

Hmmm…

• What is the role of the teachers’ body in the teaching and learning of Geography?

• Is there a stronger link between Geography and the body, than other subjects?