CTL 1037H

Teacher Development: Comparative and Cross Cultural Perspectives

2013,Mondays, 5:00-8:00; Room TBA
Instructor: Dr. Sarfaroz Niyozov

Welcome to Teacher Development: Comparative and Cross Cultural Perspectives. In this course we attempt to bring together two distinct fields or lines of inquiry: (i) teacher development and (ii) comparative and cross-cultural perspectives on education. In general terms, the course examines various perspectives on the professional lives of teachers within particular places (e.g., classroom, schools) and works upward to the broader contexts in which teachers work and live, as seen by these teachers and as analyzed through various scholarly frameworks.

The teacher development component looks at the conceptualizations of teaching, classroom life, forms of teacher education, conditions of teaching and learning, and teachers’ engagement with curriculum and their relations with other stakeholders: the state, the school administration, other teachers, parents, students and the community at large. The cross-cultural and comparative dimension of the course links approaches to broad social structures (social, political, economic) and cultures and moves downward to smaller groups and individuals: bridging the gap between the individual and structural levels of analysis is one of the most important and difficult challenges facing contemporary social science and educational studies.

The course is founded on a belief that bringing these two fields of inquiry together can provide us with a way to meet that challenge and provide much better understanding of teacher development in universal and contextual terms. While intended as an early step on that intellectual journey, the course also has a very practical purpose. This blending of individual and structural analysis in cross-cultural and comparative contexts can provide us, education researchers, policy makers, and practitioners with a richer, more complex and deeper understanding in order to make better and more informed decisions at various levels of educational provision and development, particularly learning, teaching, and teacher development in our own multi-cultural societies.

This general situation has some practical implications for how the conduct of the course.

A) Beyond the selected readings, there is no fixed course-specific literature from which we can draw. There are many items from several disparate fields, which are relevant to the course, but they do not yet together form a coherent body of literature;

B) There is no obvious pre-ordained discipline - or field-driven set of specific questions for us to address collectively. We will be moving into largely uncharted territory. This may prove to be somewhat unsettling and confusing, but it also gives us the freedom to define together questions we want to address for ourselves. A preliminary set of questions or issues, which may prove useful to us follows:

1. Differing understandings of concepts, processes, issues of and approaches to teaching, learning, and teacher development in various cultural and historical contexts. What do teachers and learners understand themselves to be doing in different cultures? What does teacher development entail conceptually and structurally? How do cultural factors affect teaching and learning? How do teachers develop? What issues and lessons can one glean from studying teacher development in various contexts, systems, and cultures? How do the understandings of teachers’ and various sub-groups of teachers resemble and differ from those of other individuals, groups and institutions?

2. What do we mean by culture and cross-cultural perspectives? What concepts, processes, challenges, and issues are involved in cross-cultural understanding of teaching and teacher development? How are they related as constructs to such forms of human differentiation as gender, social class, race, colour, ethnicity, language, tradition, religion, etc.?

3. What does it mean to do cross-cultural research and development projects on teaching and teacher development? What are the potential benefits and limitations of such a cross-cultural approach: how can outsider perspectives from another cultural context inform our understandings of our own context; to what degree can our outsider perspectives bring deeper understanding to other cultural contexts? Can outsiders critically analyze and pass value judgments on those of other backgrounds? How can these be done in a rigorous, critical yet constructive and sensitive manner, while avoiding sliding the extremes of romantic valorization or close-minded denigration of the other?

4. We will look at a number of aspects involved in teacher development in various contexts: e.g., (i) becoming a teacher, (ii) remaining in teaching, (iii) conditions of teaching and learning, (iv) opportunities and constraints at the school and community level, (v) differing educational system structures and their influence upon what teachers can and do accomplish, (vi) effects of general social, economic and educational policies on teaching and learning in different societies and (vii) how teachers and learners can influence such policies, etc. Some narrative and ethnographic accounts from different cultures as well as sociological and macroeconomic perspectives will be provided.

5. We will explore what we can learn about teaching and learning from different cultures, contexts and formal and

informal approaches and innovative models such as Escuela Nueva in Colombia, BRAC in Bangladesh, the

Community Schools in Egypt, the Aga Khan Foundation projects and their offspring in other nations. How can all

these help us to become better educators?

A significant portion of our time during the first few course sessions will be devoted to working together to develop a more refined set of understandings, conceptualizations and general questions which will serve us all as a roadmap for the rest of the course. These frameworks, concepts and approaches should be applied to subsequent readings, discussions, presentations and assignments related to the particular regions we are dealing with. Even though they are not always overtly present in particular readings, we should apply them in a critical fashion, not only examining what is present, but what is absent in accounts of schooling , teachers and teaching development, and why that might be so, with the aim ultimately of increasing depth and richness of understanding. For some of us, the aim is to expand our insights into teaching and teacher development in Canada; for others to apply insights from North America and other regions to a richer appreciation of a particular region of interest, while working towards a broader notion of education, teaching and learning in an increasingly complex, diverse and interrelated world.

Course Readings

Given the above, the course reading list is never finalized. The major foundational texts comprise of (i)

participants’ cross cultural and teaching/teacher education experiences; (ii) the course readings: the bulk of the readings are available electronically by following the links on the syllabus as posted on Blackboard and C2C; a few readings are available only in hard copy and will have to be purchased as a course package from Print City Copy Center at the 180 Bloor Street West (416 920 3040; )

The readings comprise an attempt to introduce various perspectives on teacher development representing

industrialized and developing countries. We will have to interpret the readings, and address the questions on

which we decide to focus. I expect the students throughout the course to collaborate in further diversifying and

refining this reading resource. Students can do that in many ways (e.g., posting a reading on the course’s online

conference), providing a reading to the class directly, suggesting a reference. The resources could be of various

types (Audio, video). The major criteria for such contribution is that the reading should provoke thinking,

challenge values and assumptions and provide a sort of cultural shock to the students in the class and expand

their cultural and intellectual imagination.

The readings for session 2 provide a brief introduction to a number of general approaches to and frameworks

for teaching and teacher development developed in the west; Week 3’s reading, to general issues around

notions of culture and cross-cultural perspectives and their links to teaching and teacher development. Week

4’s readings are devoted to understanding teaching and teacher development in the international context, with

particular focus on the frameworks, issues, and challenges in the developing countries. The updated readings

from week 5 onwards address issues of teaching, learning, teacher development, culture and research in selected yet diverse international settings. These will hopefully allow us to (a) more clearly see some of our own implicit assumptions about teaching and learning, (b) help us to develop knowledge, skills attitudes regarding teaching and teacher development, (c) develop our skills and understanding of the basic concepts and issues involved in cross-cultural understanding and research.

In addition to the readings assigned for each week, supplemental readings are included, and a list of journals from which the readings have been drawn. Students are encouraged to make the best use of the required and recommended readings, peruse the supplemental bibliography, and search volumes of the major journals in comparative education and related fields listed below for their assignments and final papers

●Anthropology and Education Quarterly
●Canadian and International Education / ●International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education
●Chinese Education and Society / ●International Review of Education
●Comparative Education / ●Journal of African Studies
●Comparative Education Review / ●Journal of Educational Policy
●Compare / ●Journal of Moral Education
●Cultural Dynamics / ●Muslim Education Quarterly
●Cultural Studies: Theorizing Politics, Politicizing Theory / ●Oxford Review of Education
●Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education / ●Prospects (UNESCO)
●European Journal of Education / ●Social Research. An international quarterly
●Education and Society / ●Race, Ethnicity, and Education
●Harvard Educational Review / ●Russian Education and Society
●Intercultural Education / ●Studies in International Education
●International Journal of Educational Development
●Journal of Jewish Education / ●Third World Quarterly
●International Journal of Intercultural Communications / ●Teaching & Teacher Education: A Journal of International Education and Research
●International Journal of Educational Research / ●World Development

Pedagogy and Mode of Instruction

Building on course participants’ motivation, interest and/or experience in cross-cultural learning, teaching, research, and international work, the course will follow a dialogical approach in order to constructively engage the participants’ values, practices, assumptions, and beliefs from their life and work experiences. Based on the primacy of dialogue, each topic/session is expected to ensure that the participants’ personal knowledge, the readings, and the instructors’ knowledge are brought into synthesized and integrated learning outcomes. Instructional variety (seminars, pair/group discussions, lectures, guest speakers, Video-recordings) and intellectual challenge are the key elements in the course’s pedagogy. Most (but not all) of the course readings are accompanied with guiding questions that could be provided before, during, or after the discussions. Reflection, cooperative learning, an inclusive classroom ethos, critical thinking, social skills development, a culture of encouragement, and reciprocal sharing and learning are a must for each session. Each session will feature a general reading that all are expected to read and several additional required readings. Each student will be responsible for one to two of these additional readings, and along with others who have been assigned or selected the same reading(s) should be prepared to identify, critically discuss and evaluate key points raised in the reading, in light of your own experience and understandings and guiding theoretical and analytical frameworks, and be prepared as well to give a concise, critical oral summary to classmates who have done the same with a different reading.

Expectations and Evaluation

Grades will be based on the work produced collectively and individually within the course. A grade of A+ is appropriate for work that is publishable as is or with minor revisions. An A+ grade indicates work that makes a significant contribution to the literature on a topic. A grade of A is earned by work that makes coherent and original analyses of issues and/or syntheses of research and theory on particular topics. A grade of A- is given for work that is competent and accurately reports the research and theory in a particular area but which is not characterized by original insights. Written work is expected to conform to the standards of the American Psychological Association. Please refer to the APA Style Manual (6th Ed.). For examples of APA papers, formatting, citations, reference lists etc., is a good resource.

1.Prepared, Active Participation (10%)

The above approach requires students to attend classes having read, compared, reflected on and responded to the literature assigned to you by the instructor each week. Students are expected to participate actively in classroom discussions and on the Blackboard discussion board by offering ideas, participating in group presentations, asking questions, constructively challenging themselves, their classmates, and the instructor, and by suggesting resources and creative ideas about the course content and pedagogy, and responding critically and constructively to the posts of others. Attendance, participation and preparedness are key to our knowledge development, as well as to the course’s success, and are the main criteria for this component of evaluation. If you cannot attend a session, please inform the instructor (and group members). This component of your grade is based on a combination of in-class and blackboard participation.

2. Comparative Summary (25%)

This is an individual assignment, due by the 7th session, October 28, 2013. There will be an opportunity for students to discuss and gain feedback from the instructors on their Comparative Summaries on October 7th. The summary should be no longer than four pages (1000 words). It should provide a comparative critical analysis of two readings (chapters, articles) from readings on the syllabus. Half or the first page of the summary should be devoted to the method, i.e., how the comparative analysis was done (i.e., criteria, methods/concepts, matrixes used for the comparison). The heart of the paper should contain a critical application of this method/framework to the two papers/pieces not with the purpose of taking a side (which is also an option), but of developing a third position that is based on (i) synthesizing the two papers/pieces and (ii) connecting that with your personal experience. The last half page should highlight implications of the comparative analysis for the development of your comparative/cross-cultural education, research, and development perspective. The summary will have to be posted on Blackboard discussion board. Other students are invited to constructively respond to these summaries.

3. Team/ group presentations (20%).

Students (in groups depending upon the enrolment in the class) will develop a 15 minute narrative presentation with reference to one of the class sessions (depending on the students’ enrollment, but usually after session 4 (i.e., September 30, 2013), which will explore in greater depth than the required readings one of the major questions or issues we will have identified in sessions 1 to 4, and lead an approximately 15 minute class discussion related to their presentation. The groups should be no smaller than 3/4 and no larger than 5 participants. Group presentations should supplement the required readings, drawing on recommended readings, other readings in the bibliography, and identify other relevant resources. The key criterion of a successful presentation is the presenters’ ability and skill to provoke the class into a debate and controversy, rather than lecture at their participants.

4. Major course paper (45%: 10% proposal; 35% paper)

Paper (35%)

The paper should directly relate to one of the major themes or issues related to the course curriculum. These may include themes related to an aspect of teacher development or comparative and cross-cultural perspectives and illustrate the link between these themes and your personal/professional experience. Or it may focus on the relationship between teachers’ personal narratives and structural situations in which they live and work in one particular nation/culture, or compare some aspect(s) of learning, teaching, teacher development or related research across two or more nations/cultures. Expected maximum length is 20 pages (double spaced). Final paper is due on or before December 9, 2013.

Proposal (10%)

A paper proposal, including a full statement of the problem or theme that is the focus of your paper, how you expect to address it, and a full list (i.e., 10-15 items) of key bibliographic sources, is due on Session 9 (Nov. 11, 2013). Informal oral group presentation and discussion of your possible proposal will take place in class Sessions 7 and 8. It is expected that constructive, critical feedback on scope, focus, theoretical, conceptual or analytical frameworks, and resources will be provided by classmates. The expectation is that the paper will go beyond a competent review of existing knowledge, and bring original approach, analysis, syntheses, or insights to the question or problem selected. One purpose of the oral discussion, then, is for classmates to stimulate (and critique) each other in carrying out this task. It is expected that the submitted proposal will be informed by and strengthened by this process of collegial critique.

The proposal will be returned with instructor’s comments and suggestions on Session 10.

As the final paper in lieu of a final examination, it must be submitted before or on the date specified. Please submit with a stamped, addressed envelope for return. Papers must not be submitted electronically. Marks will be deducted in the event of a late assignment- one point per each day after the deadline unless the submission extension is justified.

NOTE: In the University of Toronto Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters, it is an offence for a student To represent as one’s own any idea or expression of an idea or work of another in academic examination or term test or an other form of academic work. Whether quoting original work or adapting it, always cite the source, For reference, see the handouts How Not to Plagiarize and Standard Documentation Format at

and .

OVERVIEW BY WEEK

1. September 9 - INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE

2. September 16 - RECONCEPTUALIZING TEACHER DEVELOPMENT: FRAMEWORKS,