“Who knew that teaching required so much time?”: Surfacing student voice through portraiture and poetry.

Earnshaw, Heather

Abstract

“Becoming” a teacher is a complex, multi-faceted process. Student teachers at the start of their 1-year post-graduate initial teacher education (ITE) qualification often hold idealistic and perhaps simplistic views of what being a teacher entails. Part of the work of the ITE year, then, is undertaking the journey to a more nuanced, informed, and far-reaching understanding that shapes both attitudes and practice in the classroom. Given shifts in health and wellbeing and recruitment/retention issues, there is increasingly a need for teacher educators to understand the nature of that lived journey. This study set out to investigate:
‘What kind of teacher do I want to be?
1.What is the student experience of their shifting conceptualisation of what it means to be a teacher in Scotland?
2.What can student voice tell us about the extent to which our programme adequately supports students to navigate their evolving understanding of ‘being’ a teacher.

Data collection is in the form of annotated self-portraits created at the start of the programme, and original poems created by the students at the end of the year. Why portraiture/poetry? This is a phenomenological approach, aiming to elicit genuine and insightful responses, making use of the inherent economy of language. Early thematic analysis suggested some amendments to our programme to address, for example, imposter syndrome, the ‘roller-coaster’ of emotions, ‘struggle’, and managing workload.

Citation

Earnshaw, H. (2024, November). “Who knew that teaching required so much time?”: Surfacing student voice through portraiture and poetry. Paper presented at Scottish Educational Research Association (SERA) Annual Conference, Dundee, UK

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: Scottish Educational Research Association (SERA) Annual Conference
• Start Date: Nov 27, 2024
• End Date: Nov 29, 2024
• Deposit Date: Jan 6, 2025
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed