Conference Agenda

For some years now, the discourse on professionalization theory has been revitalized by explanations and reflections on the teacher habitus (Helsper 2018, 2019). In his concept Helsper has mapped the importance of school biography and family milieu for the later genesis of the teacher habitus. Following this theory, school experiences form a first “silhouette of a teacher habitus” (Helsper 2018, 125) or "raw forms and images of the teacher" (Kramer and Pallesen, 2019, p.81), including orientations towards school, teachers and learning that are mostly implicit and not reflected.
Thinking this theoretical idea further, as we do in our project „Mentor teachers as teacher trainers – identifying the requirements for a dual Professional task“, we postulate the connection between one's own teacher training experience and the development of a teacher trainer habitus. In doing so, we are following a research desideratum, because so far there are only a few reconstructive studies that empirically examine the mentor teachers‘ implicit orientations and understanding of training (Leineweber 2022, Zorn, 2020, Kosinar & Laros, 2019, Fraefel, Bernhardsson-Laros & Bäuerlein, 2018). Their results illustrate the differences in training between the mentor teachers which range from demonstration to enabling experience, from close support to co-constructive cooperation.
In our project we try to find out more about the biographical backgrounds that lead to these different ideas and implicit orientations. Our own preliminary interview studies with 12 mentor teachers in primary schools confirm a connection between their own experiences with mentor teachers during their training, whose approach is set as a positive and negative counter-horizon (e.g. forms of giving feedback, helping in difficult situations, preparing lessons etc.). These experiences served as a blueprint for their own training activities (Laros et al., i.p.). Considering that mentor teachers during internships are of great importance for the teacher students, and that their orientations influence future teachers immensely (Oelkers, 2009) it is all the more important to set an eye on these relations.
In our current project, the sample of the experienced mentor teachers is part of a larger sample in a project consisting of two sub-studies. As a second research interest we try to find out to what extent the orientations of experienced mentor teachers were connected to their teacher habitus. We examine experienced mentor teachers (N = 12) through interviews and different training situations (1. lesson debriefing, 2. lesson planning, 3. feedback and assessment) that were audiographed.
In our presentation, we will first introduce the theoretical concept of the teacher habitus by using a model (Kosinar, 2023) to better describe the connections of the different habitus figures (Helsper 2018) and processes. Two contrastive cases will be introduced to show how the connections to one's own teacher training experience become empirically verifiable and visible. With the results, we strive for concrete insights into the influence of training experiences and put them in relation to the concepts of the university. As mentioned, the orientations of the mentor teachers are very different, but also very stable, as Leineweber (2022) found in a longitudinal study. This is followed by questions about the quality of training and opportunities to reflect on one's own action-guiding orientations and norms.

The aim of this study is to get a deeper understanding of how Norwegian school-based mentors experience collaboration in field practice. Teacher education takes place at two learning arenas: campus and practice schools (Dahl et al., 2016). A close collaboration between these arenas is crucial for pre-service teachers´ professional development (Lillejord & Børte, 2014; Munthe et al., 2020; Zeichner, 2010). “Third space” is used when the activity with the involved parts is described (Zeichner, 2010). A successful third space involves actors with different competencies that are willing to merge their cultures (Zeichner, 2010). Despite good intentions, both national and international studies shows that pre-service teachers struggle to find coherence between the arenas (Canrinus et al., 2017; Smith, 2016; Ulvik et al., 2021).

Also, in Norway the weak coherence has been offered attention, and several changes have been done to improve Norwegian teacher education (Klemp & Nilssen, 2017). One example is when the Norwegian government in 2010 decided that school-based mentors should have at least 15 European Credit Transfer Credits [ETC] in mentoring to be qualified as teacher educators in schools (Ministry of Education and Research, 2016). Another example is that the school-based mentor, campus-based mentor, and principals together are responsible for assessing the pre-service teachers (Ministry of Education and Research, 2010). In addition, national guidelines for partnerships for stable and mutually developing collaborations between school and university are developed (Ministry of Education and Research, 2017).

Guided by the research question How does school-based mentors experience collaboration in field practice? this case study is a contribution to get insight of the situation of school-based mentors at two study programs at one university in Norway. A mixed method approach gave insight in how the participants experienced the collaboration in field practice. The factor analysis revealed four factors of importance: general attitudes towards the schoolyear, being part of a field-based practice school, the assessment, and the collaboration with the university. These factors give directions for the discussion, where the qualitative results contribute with in-depth information of what the school-based mentors think will help reducing the gap. First: the school-based mentors were experienced, both as teachers and school-based mentors. Most of them worked at schools with two or more school-based mentors. They were overall satisfied with their own effort, and they highly valued their own mentoring competence. Nevertheless, less than half of them had the required ECTs in mentoring. Second: The results revealed a broad variation on how the school-based mentors experienced collaboration about field practice at their schools. While some described tight collaboration with their colleagues preparing for field practice, others longed for school-leaders that could prioritize being leader of a practice school.

Third: Even if they were standing alone with the assessment, they did not critically evaluate the situation. The participants found this part of the job easy. Fourth: the collaboration with the university. This category consists of two parts: collaboration with administrative tasks and the campus-based mentor. Even if a major part of the participants were satisfied with the information they received, the results were clear that there is no collaboration between campus and the school-based mentors. Campus controls which and when information is delivered, and the school-based mentors become passive recipients. In addition, the school-based mentors also put attention on technological programs that are used in field practice, highlighting the importance of programs that should be easily accessible. The results showed a variation of how the school-based mentors collaborated with campus-based mentors. If the collaboration with campus-based mentor should work out, this person must be interested in field practice and have a relationship with the pre-service teachers.

In the context of the Swiss single-phase pre-service teacher training, student teachers transition into working as fully qualified primary and secondary classroom teachers after three and five years of studies respectively. Internships in schools form the central basis of their practical experience for their future teaching and are accompanied by mentor teachers, who play a crucial role in students’ professional development. On the other hand, mentor teachers must navigate their various professional roles and balance their obligations to their schools and the teacher education institutions, which is a complex situation.

For quite some time now, The Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK) has been calling for a paradigm shift that leaves the concept of “master and apprentice” behind and focuses on a co-constructive and scientific-based approach to the collaboration between mentor-teacher and intern (Leder, 2011). Depending on the canton and university, new mentor teachers complete specific qualification programs, which prepare them for their new professional role and strive to initiate this paradigm shift. Nevertheless, empirical studies (Fraefel, Bernhardsson-Laros, Bäuerlein, 2017, Leineweber, 2022) show that most participants tend to reproduce traditional practices of mentor teaching. This may be related to the fact that their implicit orientiations are deeply anchored in individual biographical experiences and thus not easily malleable.

This is where our SNF-funded research project “Mentor teachers as teacher trainers” (PraLeB) comes into play as a longitudinal study aimed to reconstruct such implicit orientations. New mentor teachers (N=20) from two Swiss universities are followed over a period of several years from the beginning of the qualification program during several phases of accompanying internships. xxx

In our contribution we will look at (future) mentor teachers at different points in time as they take on a second professional role as teacher trainers – in addition to their first professional role as classroom teachers. Using contrastive case studies, we will first shed light on mentor teachers’ retrospective biographical experiences during their own pre-service training as students: What do they refer to as central for their own professional development? What role models in terms of mentor teachers guide their thinking? We will give an insight into their preconceptions and anticipated role of themselves as mentor teachers before they start working with interns for the first time. What is their understanding of professional development? What do they expect from students and what benefits do they expect for themselves? We will then reconstruct their first experiences as new mentor teachers. What do they see as crucial in their first experiences with students? In what ways were their expectations challenged?

In our discussion we will outline connections that can be drawn between their own biographical experiences with mentor teachers and their newly experienced professional role. We will reconstruct in what ways their existing frames of thinking were confirmed as well as challenged during their first experiences working with students.

In this project we intend to promote the creation and development of one Transformative Learning Community (TLC), in a school cluster where it still do not exist. Thus, our research problem is: how does the development of one TLC, around the issue of diversity, promote an inclusive school?

To study this problem, we focused on three main goals: (1) analyze the development process of inclusive education through the present policy framework; (2) identify the perspectives and practices of teachers and students; (3) understand the influence of a TLC, focused on issues of inclusion and diversity, in teachers’ professional development.

Diversity in schools takes many different forms: learning styles, readiness for learning, interests, linguistic and sociocultural resources (Kaldi et al., 2018; Pinho et al., 2011; Szelei et al., 2019) and diverse values/expectations towards school and education (Booth & Ainscow, 2002). Inclusion requires building collaborative communities that welcome diversity and promote the success of all students, requiring a deep restructuring of schools’ cultures, policies and practices (Booth & Ainscow, 2002; Ainscow & Messiou, 2018; Florian, 1998).

The involvement of students in these collaborative processes will make schools more aware of what is going on within their borders, identifying barriers to students’ participation and learning (Ainscow, 2020; Caetano et al., 2020), improving school environment and students’ engagement with the school (Keisu & Ahlström, 2020). Besides this, OECD results (Ainley & Carstens, 2018) indicate that most teachers who participate in formal professional development initiatives, addressing issues related to these, reported improvements in self-efficacy regarding teaching in diverse environments. Therefore, it is essential to create continuing development opportunities for professionals to discuss and reflect on their practices towards diversity, and to develop specific knowledge and skills for facing the challenges associated with inclusion and diversity (Szelei et al., 2019). This is a central issue in the development of inclusive schools (Ainscow, 2020).

According to Mezirow’s transformative learning theory, “the process involves transforming frames of reference through critical reflection of assumptions, validating contested beliefs through discourse, taking action on one’s reflective insight, and critically assessing it” (Mezirow, 1997, p. 11). It involves sharing dialogue and experiences in collaborative processes, crossing the boundary of experiential and theoretical knowledge, making invisible learning visible and building the unknown through co-authorship and networking (Wenger et al., 2014).

Systemic school based intervention have been gaining strength (Admiraal et al., 2019), particularly, the development of learning communities in the school, involving not only teachers, but also students and other members of the educational community (Pinho et al., 2011). Transformative Learning Communities (TLC) appear here as a proposal to create collaborative contexts, supported by a socio-reconstructionist and emancipatory philosophy, that can respond to needs felt by schools, giving rise to transformative learning empowering all community participants. Indeed, TLC can promote shared research and critical reflection within the community, facilitating change in conceptualizations and practices (Wenger et al., 2014), the creation of relationships and the transformation of school culture towards greater equity, with significant gains in behaviour and student learning. To this end, it is essential to create participation structures, which include the organization of meeting spaces and times, the development of productive interdisciplinary teams and of effective collaborative processes (Admiraal et al., 2019).

There is growing recognition in the Netherlands of the need for a more equitable and inclusive educational system (Hosseini et al., 2021). In spite of these developments, however, equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) are not addressed directly in the legal qualification criteria for secondary school teaching (Rijksoverheid, 2005), and often have no formal position in teacher education curricula. Also missing in this context, is a shared language among educators regarding the goals of and approaches to inclusion (Hosseini et al., 2021). In international contexts such as the USA, the more critical, political and activistic concept of social justice-oriented teacher education (Cochran-Smith, 2004; Gorski & Dalton, 2020) has developed following decades of awareness-raising and research (Leeman & Reid, 2006). In the Netherlands, this movement is still unknown to many educators, and may be considered “radical” (Hosseini, et al. 2021: 18).

Research has shown that having teachers with whom they can identify contributes to learners’ chances of school success (Figlio, 2017) and that a diverse teacher population can enhance the learning of all students (Wells et al., 2016). Teaching staff in schools in the Netherlands – as in many countries – do not reflect the diversity of the communities they serve (Grootscholte & Jettinghoff, 2010). Thus, the teaching profession does not have enough opportunity to benefit from a broad range of experiences and backgrounds among teaching staff (Bijlsma & Keyser, 2021), which can serve to perpetuate systems of inequity and social injustice. As emphasized in Banks’ (2004) model of multicultural education, inclusive and equitable education takes place within a diverse and inclusive environment that has empowering and equitable social structures. Among factors identified as contributing to the lack of diversity among teachers in the Netherlands are low recruitment rates and high levels of attrition among culturally diverse teachers and student teachers (Grootscholte & Jettinghoff, 2010). In order to promote inclusive teaching and provide diverse teachers with access to the profession, therefore, it is necessary for ITE to be inclusive itself. This is in line with the ‘teach as you preach’ principle within many teacher education programmes, and also with conceptualisations of social justice-oriented teacher education that emphasise multilayered goals affecting student teachers’ practice as well as the environment in which they learn (Cochran-Smith, 2004).

Research has shown that EDI in teacher education is best addressed as an integral aspect of teaching and learning to teach, rather than in electives or standalone courses (Civitillo et al., 2018). Thus, not only a handful of specialists, but the whole team of teacher educators should ideally be involved. Teacher education for inclusion is likely to be heavily influenced by teacher educators’ beliefs, and the goals they ascribe it (Hosseini et al., 2021). The question is therefore, in a setting where widespread attention for EDI is a relatively recent development, what are the starting points of teacher educators and their students with regard to inclusive education? And how can we build upon their beliefs and experiences in order to design and implement an inclusive teacher education curriculum?

The study presented in this ignite talk is situated in the context of a university-based initial teacher education (ITE) master degree programme in the Netherlands. Carried out during a process of curriculum revision, the study aimed to explore the beliefs and experiences of students and teacher educators regarding EDI and its role in (teacher) education. Through examining the ‘starting point’, the aim was to inform and inspire the further development of the programme in ways that involve meaningful change while maintaining space for colleagues’ beliefs and perceptions of their role.

Demands for initial teacher education (ITE) to address learner diversity and inequitable opportunities for pupils is a global concern (Grudnoff et al, 2017; Herzog-Punzenberger et al, 2022). However, Rowan et al (2020)’s systematic review of international research on teacher education and equity concludes that most research focuses on student teachers; more insight into the views of teacher educators and their critical epistemic reflexivity is needed. This paper aims to address this by asking: What are the views and practices of teacher educators regarding diversity and equity in ITE, and what contextual factors influence these?

The study presents the results of a case study in an ITE institute in a large urban area in England. The data from policy documents and 11 interviews with primary phase teacher educators and programme management were analysed employing content analysis.

A tripartite distinction (Rowan et al. 2020) of ‘knowledge claims’ was used to analyse views of teacher educators: 1) teaching about diversity (teaching about migration and equity), 2) teaching to diversity (catering to the needs of diverse learners) and 3) teaching for diversity (ITE as a place for achieving social justice). All interviews showed evidence of teaching for diversity. There was often explicit reference to advancing diversity through ITE in combination with justice and fairness, addressing unconscious bias and countering the damaging effects of stereotypes. Some interviewees had explicit critical agendas, with ITE being ‘a site for change’ and the need for more advocacy for ‘minority students’. ‘We-ness’ was strongly present, focusing on the need for collective articulation of values and practices, questioning with 'risky talk' (Eraut, 2000) what needs to be talked about, with students and within the teacher educator community. Teaching to diversity views mainly focused on the importance of getting to know the pupils, their attitudes, behaviour, interests and home situation. Inclusive pedagogy and the importance of realizing that pupils are not at an equal starting point was emphasized. Teaching about diversity was less evident, and mostly referred to the importance of student teachers having awareness of diversity and equity issues.

Recent sources (Grudnoff et al, 2017; Cochran-Smith, et al 2016; Brown-Jeffy & Cooper, 2011) have described possible equity practices, from which we distilled six relevant categories: funds of knowledge; high expectations; adaptive teaching; relationships; inquiry as stance; addressing inequity. All practices surfaced in our data, indicating variety in the ways in which teacher educators address equity. Notably, most respondents indicated a hesitation in implementing practices. Talking about equity and diversity was often considered difficult; respondents noted tthe need for a framework to support focused dialogue. Most respondents also suggested that teacher education can do more to help student teachers to resist deficit concepts of learners in order to develop inclusive pedagogies.

Finally, the hindering effect of national regulations was evident in the data. Most respondents referred to insufficient time due to the constraints of mandatory programme content. Some stated the difficulties of paying attention to diversity and equity, when this is not a government priority. Moreover, the considerable influence of partnership arrangements was noted. School cultures, values and ethos are important influences on being able to achieve programme aims. Conversely, the university Equity Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) policy and leadership and the role of the programme director were considered to be stimulating factors.

The results with regard to views, practices and contextual factors suggest the challenges of arriving at a shared, deep understanding and practice - that praxis is complex in this area, is embedded in teacher educators’ values and autobiographical dimensions and multiple contextual factors. Collective responsibility to bring about change requires critical dialogue among teacher educators.

This study investigates how teacher educators conceptualize/operationalize teacher-educating for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in university-based teacher preparation programs in different geographical and institutional contexts. It speaks to the value—and challenge—of diversity in educational research (ECER 2023) to understand teacher educators’ professional knowledge for teacher preparation in/for an evolving world.

While DEI is not a new concept, it is visible in contemporary education goals. A scan of websites of European universities reveals commitment to DEI. For example, “Inclusivity as a core value” (University of Helsinki https://www.helsinki.fi/en/about-us/university-helsinki); “diversity is celebrated and everyone is treated fairly regardless of gender, age, race, disability, ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, civil status, family status, or membership of the travelling community” (University College Dublin https://www.ucd.ie/equality/about); “nurturing an inclusive culture…strength lies in diversity” (Maastrich University https://www.maastrichuniverisyt.nl/about-um/diversity-inclusivity).

These commitments undoubtedly guide teacher preparation in these and other higher education institutions across Europe, especially since the European Commission has “established ‘inclusive education, equality, equity, non-discrimination and the promotion of civic competences’ as priority areas for European cooperation in the field of education and training” (https://education.ec.europa.eu/, para.4). This commitment is also reflected in U.S. institutions where preparing teachers for equitable education is an “animating force” (Cochran-Smith & Fries, 2005, p.45). Yet, such commitments are fast becoming imperative given significant global-level events (Author, 2021). Chief among them is unprecedented global migration resulting from war, adverse climate events, and persecution. 2021 saw 89.3 million people forcibly displaced; that number burgeoned to 101+ million in 2022 stemming from the Russian-Ukrainian war. Alarmingly, children account for 41% of migrants (UNHCR, 2022). This massive movement of young people has dramatically increased the presence of culturally and linguistically distinct newcomers in classrooms across Europe (Bryant et al., 2022) and the U.S. (UNHCR, 2022), urgently requiring teachers to become more responsive to changing social conditions and diverse student populations (Author, 2021; European Commission, 2017). Global social movements (#BlackLivesMatter, #MeToo, the Schools Strike movement…) amidst growing intolerance, political malfeasance, white supremacy, and nationalism, ignited demands for justice, sharpening the need for social justice-oriented teachers/teaching. Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated endemic educational inequities, disproportionately affecting children of color (Bryant et al., 2022). International attention to preparing teachers to serve the educational needs of all children has never been more urgent, even as teachers continue to express a lack of preparedness to do this critical work (European Commission, 2017; OECD, 2018; 2019).

This reveals a gap between teacher educators’ DEI commitments and the capabilities of the teachers they prepare. Research on teacher educators internationally has shown that “rhetoric surrounding this issue is much more robust than actual practice” (Author, 2019, p.64), and “there are multiple discourses that educators draw upon” (Hytten & Bettez, 2011, p.8). Thus, despite embrace of the concept, a common understanding of what DEI means remains unclear. Our study examines these multiple discourses surrounding DEI teacher preparation and seeks to gain insight into teacher educators’ enactments—barriers, practices and affordances—by learning from teacher educators across different contexts. We report on a pre-pilot study in preparation for a large-scale study of international teacher educators. We drew upon North’s Social Justice Education Spheres—Redistribution/Recognition; Macro/Micro Levels of Power; Knowledge/Action (2008), to theoretically ground our thinking and inform our research questions:

1. Numerous terms are used in thinking about teacher preparation for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion/DEI: social justice, equity, multiculturalism, anti-racist, decolonizing, emancipatory, etc. Which term(s) do teacher educators choose/use? Why?

2. In varied institutional/geographical contexts, how is DEI teacher preparation operationalized? What supports/structures are(not) in place to forward articulated goals?

3. What are some key practices teacher educators have implemented in DEI work with teacher candidates?

In the context of globalization, the intercultural competence (ICC) has become an indispensable ability to be a global citizen and member of the international community. ICC attracts increasing attention in a wide range of countries and by multi-country organisations; e.g., the European Commission, the US Administration and others (ACE, 2016; Association of International Educators, 2007; Department for Education and Skills, 2004; Meer & Modood, 2012). In higher education, ICC is an avenue to cultivate undergraduates’ intercultural competence to be prepared for the future and global workforce (Griffith, Wolffeld, Armon, Rios & Liu, 2016). For this reason, higher education institutions recruit international students and teachers through internationalization at home, and mobility programs such as Erasmus Programme and European Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students, or the US Fullbright Program to encourage international students and researchers. This allows stakeholders to give opportunities for intercultural communication, understanding, and cooperation. This is in particular through the provision of Immersive Learning opportunities (Beelen & Jones, 2015; Brewer, 2004; Chen & Su, 2021; Mestenhauser, 2003).

ICC implies that its development is fostered in an international environment, through interaction and cooperation with people from different cultures and countries. This is exemplified in ongoing OECD actions (2016, 2018) that assess intercultural competence mastery and development; see the PISA 2018 global competence evaluation for 15-year-old teenagers. This also implies that intercultural education has to start at an early education stage.

The above - in the context of the present study - challenges the competences of preservice primary and secondary teachers (PsTs). Next to their ICC mastery, we should consider competences to develop professional competences for developing their students’ ICC. This plays a role in dealing with students from different cultural backgrounds but also in the development of the ICC of students. These teacher competences question for instance strategies to be adopted to pursue ICC competences. Current practices mainly build on oversea exchange, oversea immersion learning practices. Also evaluation approaches have to be rethought.

An additional question is related to the methodologies to map PsTs’ mastery of ICC. The nature of the ICC competence calls for an investment in qualitative data collection approaches, such as (written) reflections, focus group discussion, open-ended structured questions, semi-structured interviews, critical thinking activities, and field notes are applied to learn the transformation of preservice teachers’ ICC. In the literature, we mainly find quantitative or mixed data collection approaches; see e.g., the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) and the MyCAP (My Cultural Awareness Profile) questions in Su, Valcke and Chou’s (unpublished) research. However, these instruments are not geared to map PsTs’ ICC mastery.

The above brings us to the guiding research questions for the present research:

1. Which ICC of preservice teachers are being validated by the teacher education community?
2. What are relevant performance indicators that can be linked to the dimensions of preservice teachers' intercultural competence?

The research builds on the results of a systematic literature review to start tackling these research questions.

Decolonising the curriculum is a complex, although not elusive phenomenon in initial teacher education (ITE). It is, however, to be actively and persistently pursued to enable anti-racist pedagogies and agendas to become embedded within student teachers’ schema. Calls across higher education for humanising and epistemically liberating pedagogies (Carmichael-Murphy & Gabi, 2021) challenge ITE educators to reconceptualise the ontological and epistemic foundations of their praxis. However, prevailing policies of standardisation and increasingly centralised curriculum demands and requirements in ITE, often sever links between culture and education for racially-minoritised student teachers who navigate complex and conflicting terrains to become teachers (Warner, 2022). Slow and limited progress in addressing hidden oppressions in the bureaucratic structures and curricular content has been identified as leading to racial harrassment, stereotyping and alienation of Black and Asian student teachers (Warner, 2022). This has raised accusations of a lack of commitment for decolonial and anti-racist practices that allow structural racism and narrowed policies to thrive (Bhopal & Pitkin, 2020). Indeed Domínguez (2019:47) argues that 'teacher education remains a deeply colonial endeavour’ and believes we are poised at a static zero point where the training of teachers requires specific and uncompromising intervention to avoid the damaging reification of colonial practices.

According to Curriculum Guidelines of 12-Year Basic Education, multicultural perspectives shall be embedded in Taiwan’s education, ranging from curriculum development, textbook selection, curriculum design, to the development of teacher profession. In this sense, teachers are supposed to improve their multicultural literacy in terms of teacher profession. Since the complexities of discursive formulation in Taiwan made the discourses and texts of multicultural education, both in policy and academia, appear inconsistent, discrepant, and vague. How do Taiwanese teachers understand multiculturalism? What is the implication of multicultural education as perceived by them?

Teachers play a crucial role in multicultural education. The Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) performed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) assesses the learning environment and teacher performance in schools. Teaching in multicultural settings, as an aspect of assessment in the TALIS, emphasizes that increased international migration and the integration of the global economy and labour market catalysed the facilitation of globalized and multicultural societies. Such a phenomenon and its associated challenges called people’s attention to the formulation of countermeasures (in academia and policy making) to respond to an increasingly multicultural learning environment. A Teachers’ Guide to TALIS 2018 (Volume I) published by the OECD summarizes teachers’ preparation for multicultural education in one sentence—“Teachers need to be prepared to handle diversity in all of its forms in their classes.”

In the TALIS, teaching in multicultural settings is covered by three items, namely inclusion in formal education, the need for professional development, and a sense of preparedness. Inclusion in formal education refers to the percentage of lower secondary teachers who have participated in formal education or training with respect to multicultural or multilingual education. Taiwan ranked 14th out of 49 countries with a percentage of 43.3%. The need for professional development is determined by the percentage of lower secondary teachers with a need for professional development for teaching in a multicultural or multilingual setting; Taiwan ranked the 18th lowest out of 49 countries with a percentage of 12.4%. A sense of preparedness is defined by the percentage of lower secondary teachers who feel fully prepared to teach in a multicultural or multilingual setting. For the item of sense of preparedness, United Arab Emirates scored the highest (79.9%), whereas France scored the lowest (8.2%); Taiwan ranked 16th out of 49 countries with a percentage of 36.9%. A remarkable phenomenon was observed when comparing the statistical data for the three items of Taiwan: even though Taiwanese teachers exhibited unsatisfying performance in inclusion in formal education (43.3%) and sense of preparedness (36.9%), they lacked the need for professional development (12.4%).

In consideration of the aforementioned results, I was concerned that most teachers are confident with their understanding of multiculturalism and therefore do not feel the need for further learning on the topic. Teachers’ understanding of multiculturalism in their educational locale affects their implementation of multicultural education as well as correlates with the thorough practice of educational reform. Accordingly, the following research questions were proposed: (1) how do Taiwanese teachers understand multiculturalism? (2) what is the implication of multicultural education as perceived by them?

Education for sustainable development has been implemented more strongly in the Norwegian teaching curriculum the recent years (Ministry of Education and Research, 2017). When implementing sustainability, teachers are in a key position (Munkebye & Gericke, 2022), and teacher education is crucial (Arneback & Blåsjö (2017). Sustainability issues are often complex and can be seen from various perspectives. Socio scientific issues (SSI) involve the deliberate use of scientific topics that require students to engage in dialogue, discussion, and debate. They are usually controversial in nature but have the added element of requiring the evaluation of ethical concerns in the process of arriving at decisions regarding possible resolution of those issues (Zeidler, 2003). Interdisciplinary teaching in teacher training provides many opportunities to engage future teachers in teaching related to societal challenges and sustainability issues.

Effective elementary generalist teachers who teach multiple subjects are required to be competent at motivating students to learn, sustaining students’ engagement, planning, and implementing lessons with clear objectives, presenting content through multiple methods, and helping students make meaningful connections within and across subject areas. Shulman (1986) characterized teachers’ knowledge by formulating the importance of pedagogical knowledge (PK), content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) respectively. By extending Shulman’s (1987) model of PCK, An (2017) introduced an additional component of teachers’ PCK across different disciplines—the interdisciplinary pedagogical content knowledge (IPCK). IPCK includes four additional categories of pedagogical capacity: (a) representing and demonstrating concepts based on themes from other subjects, (b) addressing content from multiple subjects simultaneously, (c) highlighting connections among different disciplines, and (d) assessing students’ learning of content from multiple subjects (An, 2017). Previous research has indicated that the development of teachers’ IPCK requires specific training experiences focused on interdisciplinary pedagogy. Teachers’ development of PCK for interdisciplinary education involves seeking, building, and evaluating pedagogical strategies that link disciplines in an adaptable manner (Park & Oliver, 2008). For instance, teaching about sustainability issues requires the capacity of linking knowledge relevant for these issues from different disciplines. In addition, all teachers are responsible of promoting student skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, reflection, and argumentation (Sinnes, 2015). However, there has been little cooperation across subjects in teacher education, and there is a need for restructuring and change of work habits in how teaching is carried out (Biseth et al., 2022).

This proposal is part of a larger research project engaging with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and OECD’s call for 21st Century Skills. The goal of the research in this project is to develop, strengthen and systematize interdisciplinary teaching and learning activities in teacher education in the interdisciplinary themes including the theme sustainability. In this paper, I will investigate how teacher students implement and reflect on interdisciplinar teaching about sustainability issues in one teacher education programme in Norway. Sustainability and interdisciplinary is implemented in two courses (Science, 4^th Semester and Pedagogy, 8^th semester). In both these courses students plan an interdisciplinary teaching program with focus on sustainability, this being the main assignment. This paper will examine what sustainability perspectives and interdisciplinar teaching methods students emphasise in these assignments, and how they reflect about these perspectives. I aim to address the following research questions:

• What interdisciplinary pedagogical content knowledge (IPCK) in sustainability do students emphasise in their interdisciplinar teaching program assignment and to what extent do student perspectives develop from the first assignment to the second?
• How do students reflect about interdisciplinar sustainability content and interdisciplinar teaching methods?

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and their sustainability awareness. STEM education has a vital role in nations’ economic growth, technological innovation, and sustainable development (Nguyen et al., 2020). Basically, STEM education aims to develop students’ 21st-century skills such as problem-solving, creative thinking, collaboration, and teamwork while students deal with real-life problems in an integrated context (Furner & Kumar, 2007). However, in spite of the benefits of STEM education, there are many challenges regarding teachers’ implementation of STEM (Shernoff et al., 2017). Findings of several research studies indicate that the implementation of STEM is related to teachers’ attitudes toward STEM education (e.g., Thibaut et al., 2018). As a result, researchers need to explore teachers’ attitudes toward STEM to increase students’ achievement and interest in STEM fields (Al Salami et al., 2017).

STEM attitude can be defined as “an individual’s thinking, feelings, and behaviors towards STEM” (Sırakaya et al., 2020, p.563). STEM attitudes of teachers may be affected by their professional experience, background characteristics, gender, and subject matter as well as school-related variables (Al Salami et al., 2017; Thibaut et al., 2018). In addition to these, according to Burgess and Buck (2020), the conceptions of STEM and sustainability of pre-service teachers participating in sustainability-related issues-focused STEM teaching are positively interrelated. Sustainable development is described as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED, 1987) and has economic, environmental, and social aspects which should be considered in a holistic manner (Harris, 2000). Economic sustainability addresses the reduction of poverty, corporation of responsibility (UNESCO, 2006), and improvement of the living standards of individuals and society (Atmaca et al., 2018). Environmental sustainability aims to protect natural resources, reduce environmental pollution, and use renewable energy sources (Atmaca et al., 2019). Social sustainability comprises employment, human rights, gender equity, peace, and human security (UNESCO, 2006). According to Bybee (2010) STEM could be used to address issues such as “personal health, energy efficiency, environmental quality, resource use, and national security” (p.996), which can be considered as related to sustainability. In this context, sustainable development and its goals can be associated with STEM education (Kates, 2011). In the current study, therefore, we investigated the relationship between pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward STEM education and their sustainability awareness. The following research question guided the study: “To what extent does pre-service teachers' sustainable development awareness predict their attitudes toward STEM education?”

In the last decade, there have been growing efforts to define and to explore the moral work of teaching (Campbell 2008b; Sanger and Osguthorpe 2005) and the knowledge, skills and dispositions (Campbell 2008a; Shapira‐Lishchinsky 2009) that prospective teachers need to have, experience, and learn during their teacher education. It is agreed that new teachers should be prepared to teach morality and to function morally (Campbell 2003, 2008a; Fenstermacher, Osguthorpe, and Sanger 2009; Klaassen, Osguthorpe, and Sanger 2016; Sockett and LePage 2002).
Obviously, teaching moral values in schools requires well-prepared teachers committed to what Sanger and Osguthorpe (2005) describe as the 'moral work of teaching': the enhancing of teachers’ knowledge and skills 'so that they can recognize, interpret, analyse, evaluate, plan, and enact the moral work they engage in everyday in a way that is not only effective and responsible, but meaningful and fulfilling' (Sanger and Osguthorpe 2011, 573). Sanger and Osguthorpe argue that understanding the moral work of teaching entails exploring the teachers' contingent, moral, psychological, and educational assumptions.
However, the research on teacher education programs reveals that they 'come up short' with regard to preparing teachers to be agents of character/moral education in their schools (Buzaglo 2010; Campbell 2008a; Cummings, Harlow, and Maddux 2007; Goodlad 1990; Latzko 2012; Orchard 2021; Pantić 2008; Revell and Arthur 2007; Sanger 2008, 2012; Schwartz 2008; Sockett and LePage 2002). Willemse, Lunenberg, and Korthagen (2008, 446) found, for instance, that 'preparing student teachers for moral education apparently depends more on the efforts of individual teacher educators than it does on any collectively designed curriculum and that the process appears to be largely implicit and unplanned'
Accordingly, the current study addresses the following research questions:
1. How do Arab teacher educators understand and interpret the preparation of moral teachers in their college?
2. What are the moral values that teacher educators want prospective teachers to learn and be able to teach (and why), given the social and political realities of Arab schooling in Israel?

The results of this inquiry shed light on the teacher educator's psychological, moral, educational, and contingent beliefs that inform their work and their understanding of the moral work of teaching. Also, it clarifies the role of minority teacher educators in preparing teachers to transmit moral values in an uncertain and conflicted context.

Children in situations of stress, neglect and risk are part of the diverse population that preschool teachers meet during their internship year, first year as preschool teachers. Intern teachers experience many challenges in their first year. They are required to act independently and master a wide range of skills from the beginning of the year such as relations with parents and staff members as well as coping with behavior problems ( Bracha & Bocos 2015)Teachers report a lack of professional and helpful tools in coping with their students’ stressful events. (Wajid, Garner & Owen)

The term stress refers to an array of psychological responses to pressure and distress resulting from a physical or psychological event. Stressful situations occur when the perceived stress exceed the coping resources. Stressful life events in children life may vary from mild stressors as a birth of a sibling to major stressors as abuse (Onchwari, 2010). Continuous stress inhibits the emotional and cognitive development of children. Leading to adverse psychological and behavioral outcomes (McEwan 2017; Sapolsky 2015). Such situations can be traced, for example, to the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Extended periods of lockdown led to an increase in complaints about sexual offenses and domestic violence. (Conrad - Hiebner & Byram 2020;Arazi and Sabag, 2022)

Children who experience abuse are at a higher risk of dropping out and developmental difficulties. Due to the severity of these challenging consequences, an educator’s ability to support children in stressful events is of utmost importance. (Walsh & Farrell 2008), Teachers were found as a main source of support in coping with life under stress, (Werner, 2003). Cicchettti and Valentino (Cicchettti & Valentino 2006) present a theoretical model based on Bronfenbrenner's ecological model. (Bronfenbrener & Morris 1998) the model deals with the balance between intensifying risk factors such as duration of risk , and moderating factors like supportive and sensitive relationships with educators acting as compensatory attachment figures.

However, although there is increasing recognition of the importance of integrating social-emotional content in teachers’ training, many teachers lack training in these skills (Waajid, Garner, & Owen, 2013).

Work overload, coupled with emotional stress, may lead to a situation called "compassion fatigue”. The fear of dealing with a child’s report of abuse, leads teachers to treat abuse and stress as topics that should be dealt by certified professionals, such as counselors and psychologists (Lev-Wiesel and Izkovich 2019).

There is a limited body of knowledge in this area. Furthermore, most of the existing knowledge regards school teachers ( Lev-Wiesel and Izkovich 2019,) and only a fraction deals with the training of preschool teachers (Onchwari, 2010).

This study examines the attitudes of preschool teachers in their first year of employment (internship) in regards to their competence to deal with stressful situations among preschoolers. Situations caused by domestic issues, from within the educational system or social and collective stress factors, such as national security or a pandemic. The effectiveness of their training during their three years program and their attitudes towards their role in dealing with stressful situations in relation to other professionals such as psychologists and educational counselors.

Research questions

• What are the emotional attitudes of preschool teachers in their internship year regarding their competence to deal with children experiencing stressful situations?
• Do preschool teachers in their internship year perceive dealing with stressful situations among children as part of their job?
• How do preschool teachers evaluate the training that they have received to deal with stressful situations among children?
• How did covid 19- effected their coping with stressful situations

The scholarly literature and research on emotions in teaching has shown that teaching is inherently an emotional practice (Labaree, 2000; Zaretsky & Katz, 2018) and that school life is very complex, mainly because emotions are an integral part of the learning process). Likewise, emotions are related to a variety of important outcomes such as student achievement, teacher moral, school effectiveness, and so forth (Jiang, Vauras, Volet & Wang, 2016; Kelchtermans, 2011). As a result, the interest in researching emotions in teaching has increased over the past decade (Oplatka, 2018). However, research on emotion management in teaching has not received much attention in research literature and become a kind of a "missing link". Even when the issue of emotion management is studied, it has usually been explored mainly in western societies while our knowledge about this topic in traditional, collective societies is extremely limited. After all, societies differ from each other in the way in which their cultural and social structures affect emotion expression in the public sphere (English & Oliver, 2013).

To the best of our knowledge, this study focuses for the first time, on the issue of emotion management among female teachers from the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish society. This society is characterized by cultural closure and unique norms that differ largely from Western cultures and influence the way emotion is managed by individuals living and working in this society.

Communities characterized by strong religious observance and social closeness encourage their members to suppress their emotions publically in order to maintain social cohesion and avoid self-indiscipline (Saroglou, 2013; Vishkin, Ben-Num, Schwarts, Solar & Tamir, 2019). Similarly, emotions seem to contrast collectivistic values dominating the Ultra-Orthodox society and, therefore, the individual is expected to suppress his or her emotions in any interaction with other individuals out of the families. Self-restrained is highly valued in this society (Vaserman, 2015).

Likewise, in the Ultra-Orthodox community everything that is unrelated to Torah Study and devotion to the God (like emotions) is considered socially negative. Thus, emotions such as pride, anger, aggression, and greed are forbidden and one should refrain from feeling or expressing them. In other words, one should suppress a display of emotions that are inconsistent with good virtue.

The purpose of this study was, though, to identify forms of emotion regulation among Ultra-Orthodox female teachers during their work in schools serving the Ultra-Orthodox communities. It also traced the cultural, social and organizational factors affecting these forms of regulation.

The increase in life expectancy, the very strong technological development in the last three decades, and the structural and subjective changes underlying the transformations of modern societies have increased the distance between generations and qualitatively reconfigured it. A reality with a great impact on the forms of communication and cultural reproduction and production. This situation is felt in different contexts of life, education, and professional work. In all cases, it is the conditions of socialization and its main actors that are strongly questioned, appealing to creative intentionality in promoting intergenerational dialogue.

According to Barros and Monteiro (2019) intergenerational dialogue favours the construction of bonds, breaks down barriers of social and cultural stereotypes and prejudices. Therefore, it is necessary to recognize age and cultural differences using them as an educational tool for the construction of intergenerational relationships. Intergenerational relationships are understood as links established between people or groups of people with different ages and in different development cycles, enabling the exchange of experiences and contributing to the production of knowledge in a given community (Ferreira, Massi, Correio & Mendes, 2015). Interaction between generations improves the transmission of cultural values and promotes a sense of worth for people of all ages: young people who learn from older people tend to develop more positive and realistic attitudes about the older generation; the latter group, in turn, feels valued and able to continue contributing to the community in which they live (Massi, Lourenço, Lima, Xavier, 2012).

As do so, intergenerational relationships enable the establishment of an exchange of information between subjects and starting with these exchanges, each develops and reworks their experiences. This will allow people of different ages to learn and teach each other, according to their own views of the different generations. From the perspective of Newman and Halton (2008), this intergenerational learning may be defined as a social vehicle that “purposeful and ongoing exchange of resources and learning between older and younger generations” (p. 32), regarded as a platform that brings positive impact to the learning environment (Netshandama, Nevhudoli, 2021). Intergenerational learning is therefore a generational phenomenon in the workplace that is of particular interest to human resource development; it concerns individuals’ joint construction of knowledge through an exchange of information with one or more individuals from different generations (Ropes, 2013).

For these reasons, projects related to intergenerational dialogues have seen their importance grow. A study conducted by Pstross et al. (2017), for example, attests to the positive impact of intergenerational programmes in higher education settings. They found that through these programmes, students acquired an understanding of ageing and of services provided to older adults and learned to interact better with them. Also, Santoro, Pietsch and Borg (2012) investigated what pre-service teachers learned from a former generation of teachers about the context and nature of teaching and teacher education during the 1950s and 1960, founding that pre-service teachers drew inspiration from the older teachers’ emotional connection to the profession, and their own passion for teaching developed or intensified as they came to understand teaching as a rewarding lifelong career.

Building on this framework this pilot study was focused in creating intergenerational learning spaces based on a collaboration between university students and relevant people from an older generation. This enabled the dialogue between generations and the acquisition of knowledge about historical facts - and the way they were experienced by society from 1950' - 1970', values and lifestyles from these years based on the narrated experiences of older generations.

In this paper we discuss our attempts to establish and organise an international teacher education research collective (ITERC). We outline the early steps we have taken and propose some resources in this paper to think through the work that we might do in the future as the collective expands and understands its purposes (which given the emergent character of the collective are still in the process unfolding) in more detail. We will speculate here on what it might mean to think ‘internationally’ about teacher education and then consider whether and how a collective has formed in relation to this work. We draw on the well-known proposals of Marcus (1995) on multi-sited ethnography that seeks to trouble the assumptions that are made in positivist versions of comparative research- “… in multi-sited ethnography, comparison emerges from putting questions to an emergent object of study whose contours, sites, and relationships are not known beforehand, but are themselves a contribution of making an account that has different, complexly connected real-world sites of investigation. The object of study is ultimately mobile and multiply situated, so any ethnography of such an object will have a comparative dimension that is integral to it, in the form of juxtapositions of phenomena that conventionally have appeared to be (or conceptually have been kept) "worlds apart."” (Marcus, 1995, p. 102). What we are attempting, perhaps, with ITERC is to begin projects that have an emergent character and do not take for granted the accepted categories of existence that teacher education relies on in each of our sites. Even though we have only been ITERC for approximately 12 months what appears to be emerging is a degree of similarity across our sites. We seem to be witnessing the power and success of the Global Education Reform Movement (Sahlberg, 2014), though how this set of ideas work out in practice seems to differ in different governance settings. It will be important to document the contours of convergence and divergence (Stengers, 2005) of the practices in teacher education in discrete spatio-temporal, though conceptually connected sites- this will we think reveal how powerful concepts travel and are taken up, disputed, inflected, and so on.

We add to this work with anthropologist Tim Ingold’s (2016) ideas that assist with spatio-temporal-epistemological-political problems, namely: 1. alongly knowledge building and 2. epistemological wayfaring. Ingold (2016) allows us to consider a processual approach to knowledge making that can bring in questions about ethics and politics and this links well with Stengers (2005) invocation to ‘slow down’ a rush to judgement about those entities we seek to understand and perhaps problematise. Both Ingold and Stengers invite us to connect knowledge making with ‘worlding’ and the associated ethical and political dimensions that this moves forces into the picture. How the ethics and politics of teacher education are in relation to what are named as knowledge making practices will be of ongoing interests. It is important to note that we already have three sub-groups that have emerged in ITERC with interests in 1. ethics and politics, 2. knowledge, 3. professionalism. We discuss the ways that these have emerged and what this might mean for the future of the group in the paper.

The recent development of new teacher-researchers training in various contexts of higher education is named "university pedagogy”. Like the case for other fields, its scope has progressively widened (...) especially at the conceptual level, (...) if, in the early days, the focus was on pedagogical activities within universities (teaching activities and, later, learning activities), it soon became apparent that these could hardly be studied in isolation" (De Ketele, 2010). This training borrows methodologies already developed in teacher training, such as analysis of practices, pedagogical advice, companionship, etc. This development shows the progressive importance given by the institution to the pedagogical aspects of the teacher-researcher's job. Nevertheless, in these different approaches, there is a little place for didactic approaches, unlike in the training of secondary school teachers. The underlying assumption seems to be a better mastery of knowledge, linked to the research career of teacher-researchers, "A century ago, the defining characteristic of pedagogical achievement was content knowledge" (Schulman, 2007). However, this postulate not really verified, especially the extent of the knowledge to be taught, which is sometimes far removed from the research objects of teacher-researchers. Thus, their practical epistemology can be questioned in the context of the development of this 'university pedagogy'.

A training experiment conducted in agricultural higher education based on a collective didactic analysis of teaching practices (Gardiès, 2019) led us to implement a didactic approach that guided the participants towards a reflection on their teaching practices in relation to the knowledge taught and the study practices of their students. Indeed, "transpositive phenomena are the result of teacher and student co-activity in relation to knowledge issues, unfolding against the background of implicit contractual phenomena that partly determine the evolution of the system" (Amade-Escot, 2014). However, this approach requires epistemological vigilance on the part of trainers who are not specialists in this knowledge, which guides the choice of descriptors used in these analyses. Consequently, several research questions are being examined. What forms the didactic analyses of practices take? How is knowledge taken into account in this ternary approach (teacher/knowledge/students)? What theoretical descriptors are mobilised in the didactic analyses of practices? How do teacher-researchers appropriate the didactic approach to analyse their practices?

This communication examin the didactic approach in university pedagogy training by a didactic and collective analysis of practices. In other words, by putting the question of knowledge at the heart of this pedagogical training, it allows us to question the practical epistemology of teacher-researchers in higher agricultural education. From a theoretical point of view, we rely on the notion of practical epistemology (Brousseau, 1986, Amade-Escot, 2014), on didactic transposition (Chevallard, 1991) and on the descriptors of the theorization of joint action in didactics (Amade-Escot & Venturini, 2009, Sensevy & mercier, 2007). For the methodological approach we analyse the traces of activities produced by the teacher-researchers during a training module. These traces concern the results of the collective didactic analysis of practices and their remobilisation in a professional writing. Their analyses allow us to discuss the development of their practical epistemology.

This paper discusses an on-going study that investigates how it is possible to make sense of the evolution of goals that takes place in action research projects for improving educational practice. As a research methodology to improve real life practice, action research is destined to deal with the complexity of practice situations and numerous factors that emerge in the research process (Herr & Anderson, 2005; McNiff & Whitehead, 2009; Sager, 2005). This often demands action researchers to go beyond their initial assumptions on the practice improvement. There, action researchers are challenged to not only examine how to achieve initially stipulated goals, but also explore what goals they should actually pursue as they see new factors and dynamics affecting their practice improvement process in recursive cycles of actions and reflections. As they go through the research process, action researchers tend to shift and evolve their goals as they develop new scopes and understanding of the targeted practice and what they really need to pursue in the research process. This is considered to create rich opportunities for action researchers to grow and develop in the research process. The question is how we should make sense of this process.

In traditional positivist research, shifting goals in the middle of the research process is typically considered to be a weakness or flaw of the research. There, the goals of the researchers are fixed before the research process, and once the research process starts, researchers are not supposed to change or deviate from the set-goals. However, when it comes to action research, its research process goes through recursive cycles and phases that are expected to evolve as the research process proceeds. Even though the goal may be fixed within a phase, as the research process moves to the next phase, it is often the case that a new goal evolves out of one phase to another based on a new understanding and awareness developed in the prior phase of research.

What is unique about action research as a research methodology is that it takes place in an open system. Its research activities are embedded in a real-life practice that is open to a variety of human, social and institutional factors and dynamics. This requires action researchers to modify their assumptions on the targeted practice. In this sense, attempting educational improvement through action research could be quite a journey for action researchers. It urges them to develop a new understanding of the targeted practice as they go through the research process. According to Noffke (1997), action research is characterized by the personal, professional and political dimensions that dynamically interact with each other. This means that action researchers are destined to deal with numerous moving parts and targets in its research process.

The key question is how to make sense of this process—the ways goals are set and shifted in practice improvement efforts in action research. How do action researchers actually set and shift goals in the research process from one phase to another? Investigating this issue can help us better understand the complex dynamics and process of practice improvement and professional development that take place in action research.

The investigation reported in this paper continues and deepens a study initiated several years ago (Lameul, 2008, 2016; Eneau, Lameul, & Bertrand, 2014) aimed at understanding the construction of a subject in his or her personal as well as professional posture - the two being intimately related. To date, our research has defined the notion of posture as "the physical or symbolic manifestation of a mental state, shaped by our beliefs and oriented by our intentions, which exerts a guiding and dynamic influence on our actions, giving them meaning and justification" (Lameul, 2006). This can be studied from the following structuring dimensions: biographical, psycho-sociological, sensitive socio-cognitive, pragmatic, and ethico-cultural. Within the framework of a phenomenological approach, posture is situated at the heart of the professional development process at the interface of two axes: one that goes from the subject to the social and another in which the personal and professional dimensions of the process meet. This is what leads us today to question the work and training environment of beginning teacher-researchers. We will take an eco-anthropological approach and focus on the conditions that are more or less favorable to their development.

Our paper will report on a study conducted with 15 teachers at the beginning of their careers who were involved in training within the framework of the project Développement d'un Enseignement Supérieur Innovant à Rennes (DESIR), in response to the call for projects Développement d'Universités Numériques Expérimentales (Development of Experimental Digital Universities) and financed by the French National Research Agency. The training of these new lecturers, known as "Training for the first position", combines pedagogical, political and scientific aspects in its structure in three elements :

1. A compulsory training module of 32 hours in accordance with the national training framework (decree of February 8, 2018) aimed at deepening the pedagogical skills (general or specific to the disciplinary field) necessary for the exercise of the profession of teacher-researcher.
2. A time of discovery of the different activities and services of the university: meetings and dialogues with the vice-presidents of the university concerned (18h).
3. The design and implementation of an innovative teaching project, situated in the professional environment to which the student belongs (teaching team, disciplinary department) and accompanied by the educational engineers and researchers of the DESIR Living Lab.

Within the framework of this DESIR project, an empirical survey has been set up for the last three years at the end of the training course which accompanies the new teacher-researchers when they take up their duties. Its objective is twofold: to understand the informal learning that takes place when a new teacher takes up his or her post, accompanied by pedagogical training; to identify the dimensions that come into play in order to build and/or consolidate a professional posture. The aim is to continue exploring the process of constructing a posture by trying to understand, close to the teacher-researchers in training, what in their environment would "make an ecological niche" (Guérin, Simonian and Thiévenaz, 2023, forthcoming). In the course of our interviews with 15 teachers, we will therefore pay attention to everything that can have an amplifying or conversely annihilating effect on certain dimensions of posture considered to be a key element of professional development.

The initial years of teaching are a critical period in teachers’ careers characterized by stress and high rates of attrition (Borman & Dowling, 2008). The provision of adequate support to teachers during their early career is important for the development of their professional competence in a complex school environment and, subsequently, for their plans to remain in the profession (Schuck et al., 2018). This is a particularly important aspect of teacher policy in light of the widespread concern about teacher shortages in many European countries, where a number of qualified teachers plan to leave the profession within the first five years of teaching (EEPN, 2019). The research on individual and contextual determinants of teacher well-being and future career plans is therefore of growing importance for European teacher policy.

Recent studies underline the important role of personality (Kim, Jörg, & Klassen, 2019) in a number of relevant teacher outcomes. However, there is a lack of research exploring the contribution of personality dimensions to various aspects of early-career teachers’ well-being and teaching performance.

Meta-analytic findings demonstrated significant relations between five personality dimensions and evaluated teaching performance (Klassen & Tze, 2014). Specifically, teachers’ extraversion, conscientiousness and openness show moderately positive relations to teacher effectiveness as reflected in students’ evaluations of teaching. Accumulated evidence suggests that all five personality dimensions have important implications for various aspects of teaching quality, particularly interpersonal relations and support provided to students, and for aspects of teachers’ occupational well-being, such as enthusiasm and burnout. Existing findings indicate that personality dimensions are related to teacher self-efficacy (Djigić, Stojiljković, & Dosković, 2014) and to teacher outcomes such as teaching effectiveness and burnout. Meta-analytic data also indicate that teacher burnout seems to be most strongly associated with neuroticism (Kim, Jörg, & Klassen, 2019; Roloff, Kirstges, Grund & Klusmann, 2022). Also, a summary of research findings indicates that self-efficacy is related to teacher well-being (Bardach, Klassen & Perry, 2021).

However, evidence on the role of teacher personality in teaching and teacher well-being is still scarce and calls for research from various educational contexts. In recent years, Croatian educational system has been increasingly witnessing the problem of attracting and retaining qualified teachers in schools. Croatian teachers report a disproportionately lower self-efficacy regarding their ability to promote the value of learning among their students (OECD, 2014). They perceive their profession as demanding and important, and express high job satisfaction but predominantly feel that teaching is not valued in society. They also report a number of difficulties that burden the teaching profession, generated by inadequate educational policy (Burić, Slišković & Macuka, 2018). Our study aims to fill in the gap in the existing research, expanding studies on the role of personality and self-efficacy in burnout of early-career teachers to improve the understanding of the mechanisms that would efficiently support the retention and well-being of teachers in Croatian schools. Our focus on teachers at the beginning of their careers is of particular importance as they are at risk for burnout and, consequently, leaving the profession.

The aim of this research is to explore the nature of the contributions of early-career teachers’ personality and self-efficacy to the prediction of teacher burnout.

The impact of COVID-19 has temporarily reshaped the delivery of lessons and possibly influenced the necessity for a teacher to equip technological knowledge. This emphasised the importance for teachers to possess not only content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge, but also technological knowledge in a post-COVID era. Adding to existing literature that investigates Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK) of pre-service teachers, the study aims to explore the process of pre-service teachers learning technological pedagogical content knowledge. Additionally, based in a 5-year Bachelor of Education programme (Chinese major), it intends to investigate the impact of Community of Practice (CoP) between senior years and lower years for TPACK.

Tondeur, Scherrer, Siddq, and Baran (2017) suggest teachers work with peers when they learn technology, and resonates Cohen (2003) that application of technology does not have a human component may result in students feeling isolated. Thus, our study aims to create a community with a collaborative environment (i.e. Community of Practice) where students can learn and share ideas virtually.

TPACK is defined as the knowledge of facilitating students’ learning of a specific subject content through using pedagogies and technologies (Koehler & MIshra 2009). It is one of the widely used frameworks that captures how teachers can effectively integrate technology into teaching. Having expanded from Shulman’s (1986) notion of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK), TPACK is proposed to demonstrate how teachers understand the connections among technology, pedagogy, and content when designing and implementing digital instructions (Mishra & Koehler 2009).This framework acknowledges the importance of technological knowledge and describes teachers conducting classroom practices in an intricate and dynamic educational environment in this digital era.

Additionally, TPACK in language education is being paid attention to in these few years, where researchers like Tseng et al. 2020 reviewed TPACK specifically for language teaching and acknowledged its scarcity in the research field. Yatun et al. (2021) examines teachers’ TPACK in a blended-learning course adopting a qualitative descriptive research design. Results showed that TPACK helped teachers conduct effective teaching with technology during the blended learning activities. Most studies focused on in-service teachers, this study intends to fill the research gap in TPACK of pre-service teachers and provide insights for teacher education programmes.

Moorhouse & Harfitt (2019) explored the professional learning of pre-service teachers teaching abroad with collaborations with in-service teachers at the host school. It was found that both groups of teachers were benefited through pedagogical exchange of ideas. Instead of in-service teachers, this study created a mentoring programme which offered an opportunity for the Year 5 pre-service teachers to transfer their identity as novice teachers to be a mentor of Year 3 pre-service teachers. They are qualified to be the mentors and are considered as ‘veterans’ in their university course community as they have completed the teaching practicum and acquired technological knowledge to complement with teaching during the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020. For Year 4 pre-service teachers who have just finished their field experiences in 2021, they shared similar learning experiences and are positioned as supervisors to monitor the whole mentoring process in this project. A Community of Practice (CoP) of TPACK is created for the Year 3 to Year 5 students in the programme.

The research questions of the study are as follows:

1) How are the pre-service teachers at different levels benefited from the Community of Practice (CoP)?

2) What is the impact of a Community of Practice (CoP) in learning TPACK for teaching applications?

Reflection is crucial to professional development. Although stimulating reflection is considered a key concept in most educational programs, including PETE, research have repeatedly shown how students reflections rarely move beyond what is considered lower levels of reflections (Standal et al., 2014). In other words, when students reflect, they mainly reflect on the technical aspects of their teaching such as how different strategies or methods used in a lesson led to different outcomes. While it is important to acknowledge the need for these reflections for future teachers to learn as they accumulate experiences, there is also a need for PETE students to reflect on a deeper level. Deeper reflections, for example referred to as political-ethical reflections (Van Manen, 1977), second order reflections (Wackerhausen, 2008) or sensitizing reflections (McCollum, 2002) in the literature, emphasize more of the social, moral, ethical, or political aspects of teaching.

Deeper or core reflection is also a key concept to deal with the perceived gap between theory and practice in teacher education (Korthagen, 2010). A possible solution to this problem is using personal teaching experiences as starting point for reflection. The idea is to promote a bottom‐up process starting from experiences and thorough reflection leading to fruitful knowledge about teaching (ibid.).

Core reflection is an approach developed by Fred Korthagen (Korthagen, 2004; Korthagen et al., 2013; Korthagen, 2017; Browning & Korthagen, 2021). Korthagen and colleagues extensive research point out the importance personality development can have on teachers’ professional development. The core reflection approach is inspired by positive psychology and aims at overcoming inner obstacles and learning to use one’s inner potential (core qualities) more actively. As a result, Korthagen`s research supports that core reflection helps student teachers finding their personal and authentic way of teaching (Browning & Korthagen, 2021).

In our approach, we explore how PETE students experience core reflection. We are interested to find out how core reflection can promote PETE students’ professional development.

The purpose of our paper is to present the results of our teaching approach in the context of PETE aiming at improving student teachers’ professional development by including core reflection in teaching practice. The research question for the paper is consequently:

How do PETE students experience core reflection, and what impact does core reflection have on their professional development?

School practicum is an essential component of teacher training and is important for developing preservice teacher’s professional teacher identity (Alves et al., 2019; Fuentes-Abeledo et al., 2020; Standal & Moen, 2017). Internationally school practicum has been a subject for research in a number of countries over several decades. Overall, research has documented that practicum is not beneficial in and of itself – the pedagogical value of school practicum is not only depended on the content, structure and how it is carried out in relation to the overall program, but also depending on how the preservice teachers have been prepared for learning (Fuentes-Abeledo et al., 2020). Furthermore, research has documented that they experience a ‘gap’ between the University-based portion of their teacher education and school practicum (e.g., Ottesen, 2007), and that preservice teachers often have unrealistic expectations about school practicum (Alves et al., 2019). While González-Calvo et al. (2020) highlights that preservice teachers are in a vulnerable position given that they are uncertain of their professional subjectivities and future careers.

In Norway there is little research on the school practicum part of physical education teacher education (PETE). However, Moen and Standal (2014); and Standal and Moen (2017) draw their attention to preservice teachers practicum in PETE in Norway. Their focus has been on the preservice teachers learning in and through practicum, and similar to previous studies, they highlight that the preservice teachers’ experiences that the PETE educators occupied a relatively distant role during their school practicum (Moen & Standal, 2014; Mordal-Moen & Green, 2012; Standal & Moen, 2017).

The importance of professional identity for teachers has been widely acknowledged, and Alves et al. (2019) highlight that challenging emotions during school practicum have a deep impact on the preservice teachers construction of a professional teacher identity. Developing a professional PE teacher identity is complex, consisting of what others think or say, as well as how we see ourselves and our capacity to reflect upon our experiences (Luguettia & Oliver, 2018). Oliver and Oesterreich (2013) highlights the importance of providing preservice teachers space to debrief. Debriefing involves the preservice teachers reflect and discuss their lived experiences with teaching with respect to the curriculum and pedagogy. Furthermore, it involves reflection upon what facilitates/hinders their interests, motivation and learning during school practicum. This is in line with student-centered approaches to teaching in PE and PETE, which is our main focus throughout this project.

In this project we have followed the preservice teachers closely during their three-week school practicum. This has not only given us valuable knowledge about how they perceive this mandatory part of their education, but also facilitated a deeper understanding of how we – as PETE educators, facilitates for the preservice teacher’s motivation, learning and interest as they enter school practicum. Drawing on the preservice teachers experiences from school practicum; the purpose of this study has been to examine how they use school practicum as an opportunity to develop their professional teacher identity. Our goal has been to prompt further debate and discussion about how the PETE program support the preservice teachers experiences of school practicum and by drawing on Oliver and Oesterreich (2013) how a student-centered approach in PETE can contribute to developing the preservice teachers professional identity.

One of the Horizon 2023 objectives, established by the European Union, aims at promoting inclusive skills, cultural awareness, and creativity. In this context, teacher educators are to adopt pedagogical models that pursue the development of these skills to promote students’ development and ability to coexist in the 21st century. In addition to this, there has been an increase in the demand of carrying out content subjects through and additional language during the last decades. This is due to the fact that language is a fundamental tool for future teachers to face the social challenges and changes of the current society (Duff, 2019). Consequently, approaches such as Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) are being increasingly applied to foster foreign language learning and practice. This pedagogical model, which has been traditionally built upon the 4c’s framework (content, culture, cognition and communication) (Coyle et al., 2010), emerges as an opportunity to move pedagogic thinking forward (Coyle, 2018).

However, language is not the only aspect to bear in mind to promote pre-service teachers development. For example, pedagogical models such as cooperative learning are said come with the promotion of fundamental skills related to cooperation, among which we may find positive interdependence, individual responsibility, face to face interaction, social skills or group processing (Johnson & Johnson, 1999). In this pedagogical model, students play different roles, acquiring diverse responsibilities (Roger & Johnson, 2009), and their contributions are fundamental to success. Moreover, authors such as Casey and Goodyear (2015) assert that cooperative approaches are essential to promote intellectual development and social relationships.

Against this background, previous literature has started to propose the hybridization of different pedagogical models to make the most of both of them. In fact, when CLIL and cooperative learning are applied together, there is an improvement on social skills and personal efficacy (Valverde-Esteve et al., 2022). Nevertheless, literature on this topic is still scarce, and there is a need to keep on delving into the implications of combining these two approaches.

When pre-service teachers are expected to use a language they do not master and cooperate with other peers, that is to say, when their lessons are carried out through cooperative learning and CLIL; they may be prompted to use their creative skills to success. As we have mentioned before, creativity is one of those skills to be fostered according to Horizon 2023. Creativity may be triggered when one is to face some type of constraint (Torrents et al., 2021) such as a task, individual limitations or the environment (Newell, 1986), which is the case of the students who are performing a task in a foreign language and under personal constraint. In this context, pre-service teachers are to generate diverse responses, which are degrees of freedom (Torrents et al., 2021).

A relevant concept to better understand how the different degrees of freedom may occur is that of the ecological approach (Keay et al., 2019). In the context of a lesson held in a teacher education course, the pre-service teachers’ cultural background, the level of English displayed, or the social relationships will act as entangled constraints. Bearing these ideas in mind, the pedagogical approach use is one of those factors they may have an impact on pre-service teachers experiences and learning, even more if this approach entails relevant constraints such as language use and peer cooperation in a hybridized CLIL-Cooperative Learning course.

This communication aims at examining the experiences and knowledge acquired by the pre-service teachers attending to the Didactics of Physical Education course, which was carried out by hybridizing CLIL and Cooperative Learning.

Currently education providers are facing unprecedented staffing shortage where schools are struggling to employ qualified teachers to teach across early childhood, primary and secondary school sectors. A teacher shortage is being felt worldwide because of increasing population, declining initial teacher education (ITE) enrolments, an ageing teacher workforce, the competitive global teaching market, and the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic (Australian Government Department of Education, 2022).

This shortage has reached crisis point for Regional, Rural and Remote (RRR) schools. In one jurisdiction in Australia 83.7% of teaching vacancies (https://smartjobs.qld.gov.au) are in locations outside of the capital city. It is well known that teaching in a RRR context can be fraught with complications and challenges unique to the RRR context, for example isolation, access to goods and services and professional development. For some time, RRR schools across all Australian states and territories have struggled to attract and retain qualified teachers (Hudson & Hudson, 2019; Kline & Walker-Gibbs, 2015). The staffing crisis in schools that is exacerbated in our RRR communities is an area of need that should be addressed by ethical and inclusive ITE providers working in partnership with RRR schools to ensure qualified teachers are employed in schools, with particular attention to those schools and communities in RRR locations.

One of the initiatives adopted across Australia to address the teacher employment problem is providing teacher registration prior to preservice teachers (PSTs) graduating from their ITE program. These positions are often filled by PSTs who undertake a teaching position while studying. While some schools address the teacher shortage in this way, this has implications for the quality of education being provided. Ensuring not only an adequate supply of teachers, but skilled teachers is essential to continue improving teaching and learning outcomes.

Anecdotally, PSTs have varying experiences whilst on an early teaching contract. Some preservice teachers have their school timetable reduced to allow additional time to complete their university coursework. Other PSTs have reported that they cannot be released for online classes. It can be assumed that this is due to the dire teacher shortage and these PSTs are needed to cover classes. Other PSTs have experienced mental health issues as the pressures of studying and teaching before being fully qualified became too much. This resulted in them withdrawing from either or both their studies and the early teaching contract.

Australia has engaged in a National School Reform to promote equity and excellence with the aim for all young Australians to become “successful learners, confident and creative individuals and active and informed citizens” (Australian Government Department of Education, 2018, p. 3). Australia’s stability and economic prosperity is reliant on quality education of young Australians who will become Australia’s future. It is acknowledged that teachers have the greatest impact on improving student learning (Australian Government Department of Education, 2022). Ensuring not only an adequate supply of teachers, but skilled teachers is essential to continue improving teaching and learning outcomes.

With an absence of research, it is unclear how well-prepared PSTs are to begin their teaching career prior to graduation, or what supports there are to ensure quality education is maintained for school students, and that PSTs are nurtured and inducted into the profession. This is this study’s aims.

The research questions are:

What are the experiences of preservice teachers undertaking an early teaching contract?

What enablers and constraints have preservice teachers on an early teaching contract experienced in relation to practice architectures surrounding the early teaching contract?

What opportunities can be explored or currently exist that might enhance work/study practices for the diverse needs of preservice teachers on an early teaching contract?

Addressing the gap between theory and practice has been the foundation of many research projects regarding teacher education over the years (e.g. Korthagen, 2007; McGarr, O’Grady & Guilfoyle, 2017), and subsumed under the concept of work-integrated learning (WIL) is an international repositioning focusing on an integration between theory and practice and thereby bridging the gap (e.g. McRae & Johnston, 2016; Zegwaard et al., 2019). During later decades, student teachers are spending more time on practice within Teacher Education (TE) in general and an increased numbers of TE programmes are promoting WIL (Reid, 2011). In this ‘practice turn’ of higher education (Raelin, 2007), the value of experience as a basis for knowledge, increasing work-readiness for the students, has been elevated (McManus & Rook, 2021). This recognition of workplace experiences has drawn attention to the relation between off-campus and on-campus learning and how these can be integrated, Caspersen & Smeby, 2021). Basically, students have difficulties in transforming subject-academic knowledge into subject-didactic knowledge (Nilsson, 2008). Thus an ongoing discussion in higher education concerns how students can be assisted in constructing successful transitions between university and work. This discussion has its foundation in the awareness of differences between the two contexts, especially in view of the gap between university studies and work requirements (Biemans et al., 2004; Finch et al., 2007).

In previous studies, it is indicated from two players within teacher education - students and mentors - that a reorganization of teacher education entails implications for student teachers´ opportunities for learning (Jederud, 2021; Jederud, 2022; Jederud, Rytzler & Lindqvist, 2022). Thus, it was of interest to target this study towards another manifestation of the ‘practice turn’, a WIL-teacher programme, and shed light on how a third player within teacher education - teacher educators - perceive students´ opportunities for learning when they move between the two contexts of work and university. Student teachers within this specific WIL-teacher programme are employed and work three days a week and conduct campus studies two days a week.

Inspired by Akkerman and Bakker (2011), I make use of the theoretical perspective of boundary crossing and the four identified learning potentials identification, coordination, reflection and transformation to conceptualize what WIL students´ boundary crossing entails regarding their learning at university. A boundary crossing perspective opens up for a precise understanding of what new contextual relationships are required, as it is targeted at evaluating opportunities for learning where it is essential that different institutions cooperate (Akkerman & Bruining, 2016). This is especially essential within professional education where apprenticeships are acknowledged as valued paths for inaugurating successful transitions between university and workplaces. This as it is perceived that it is the differences between the two educational contexts that is seen as a source for development (Tuomi-Gröhn & Engeström, 2003). Therefore, instead of dismissing boundaries between contexts, they can be made use of in exercises to assist students to contextualise their knowledge in relation to the requirements of collaborative work (Andersson, 2016). Wenger (1998) makes use of the concept of ‘broker’ when describing how individuals (brokers) are capable of making new correlations between communities of practices to enable coordination. From this point of view, brokers hold an important position, as they can bring together contemporary elements from one community of practice to another. Students are in a distinctive position to undertake the role of broker, taking along new tools and understandings from their work experiences into their universities and from their universities into their workplaces. However, students face challenges here: boundaries are significant in working and learning processes (Engeström, Engeström, & Kärkkäinen, 1995), and students may have to deal with contradictory perspectives (Christiansen & Rump, 2008).

Within the last two years, a shortage of teachers has become increasingly apparent in European countries (Rudnika, 2022; Scheidig & Holmeier, 2021) and beyond (U.S. Department of Education, 2023). Various measures have been proposed as solutions to this problem, including making all teachers full-time, encouraging career changers, or even employing students before the end of their studies (see, for example, the recent statement of The Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany, 2023). In case of Austria, schools increasingly count on undergraduate students who are willing to enter the professional life as fully responsible teachers before completing their bachelor's degree. Being thrown into practice without sufficient education and preparation, this way of dealing with teacher shortage raises concerns about teaching quality, the novice’s professional development and retention, the students' wellbeing, and not least the reputation of the teaching profession.

This empirical research paper examines the experience of students who enter the teaching profession in secondary schools in the Austrian region of Salzburg-Upper Austria before completing their bachelor's degree. Of particular interest were the framework conditions and relevant support options that the early entrants to the profession found and how they found their way in their new everyday working life.

In Austria, the regular teacher education curriculum comprises a state-supported induction phase in which the recently graduated novices work in schools with a limited teaching load and are provided with a mentor, who supports them in practice. Students who start working as teachers before completing their bachelor’s degree do not have the opportunity to participate in the state-supported induction program. This means that they have to find their way into the profession entirely on their own and without any structurally planned professional support, which exposes them to the risks of overload, failure, and early drop out from their jobs (Ingersoll & Smith, 2004). In addition, they lack the practice of instructed and accompanied reflection with professional mentors, in which they develop their scientific-reflective habitus in terms of Helsper’s concept of double professionalisation (Helsper 2001). Professional support during the pivotal phase of induction helps the novices to go beyond mere copying and learning from others by finding their voice and way of being a teacher and, in so doing, contribute to the advancement and further development of the profession (see e.g. DeBolt, 1992; Dammerer, 2019; Keller-Schneider, 2020).

From this perspective, structure-related problems at their career entry seemed predictable for the undergraduate students and ultimately led to the research interest of the study: the experience of career entry between (lack of) support and experience of stress. In addition, we intend to compare our results with the experience of those students who did not decide to start teaching at an early stage, but rather follow the regular curriculum with the induction phase. Their experience has been investigated by a nationwide, large-scale study in 2021 (Prenzel et al., 2021; Huber et al., 2022). The purpose of our qualitative-empirical study is to find factors for the experience of early career entry for undergraduates which can be used for a large-scale survey at a later point of time.

When teachers teach classes for which they are not licensed, they are teaching out of field (TOOF) (du Plessis, 2015; Ingersoll, 1998; 2019). Out of field teaching is not a characteristic of the teacher but a description of the misalignment of a teacher’s qualifications and the subject they teach. Thus, it should be noted that out-of-field teaching is not due to a lack of basic education (ie bachelor’s degree) or training on the part of teachers but instead represents a mismatch between teachers’ fields of training and their teaching assignments.

When students take classes from teachers TOOF, they show less academic growth and are less successful (Clotfelter, Ladd & Vigdor, 2010; Lankford, Loeb, & Wyckoff, 2002). The likelihood of being taught by a teacher teaching out of field is higher for students of color and Emergent Bilinguals as well as students in urban and rural schools (Beswick, Fraser, & Crowley, 2016; Nixon et al, 2017). In the USA, TOOF has been a concern for decades, but rates have increased dramatically since the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) became law in 2015 (Author, 2020). While one goal of ESSA was to provide schools with greater local control by providing more flexibility on teacher qualifications, the result has been more teachers teaching outside of their areas of expertise. TOOF matters because when students take classes from teachers who are not licensed and trained to teach that subject matter, there is a growing body of evidence that students are less successful and show less academic growth (Author, 2022; Chaney, 1995; Goldhaber & Brewer, 2000; Ingersoll, 1998).

This phenomena of teaching out of field is not new and impacts a wide range of students and subjects. In a report from 1998, Ingersoll (1998) found that one-fifth of all students in English, grades 7-12 were taught by a teacher who did not have at least a minor in English or English related field and one-quarter of all students had teachers out of field in Mathematics. In addition, while many think Math and Science are the fields primarily impacted by teachers who teach out of field, more English classes in Texas are taught by teachers TOOF than other subjects (Author, 2020), indicating the issue is more widespread than sometimes recognized.

Most prior studies of the impact of TOOF on student academic growth have been limited because they used either national assessment data that are not linked directly to the curriculum teachers were teaching, or state assessment data with small samples. Author (2022) overcame this limitation by using statewide Math assessment data that were linked directly to the curricula that teachers were required to teach. They found significantly lower academic growth in all Math grades/subjects examined for students taught out-of-field compared to students taught by teachers who were fully-trained and licensed to teach Math. This study builds on this prior work in Math by analyzing English Language Arts assessment data and teaching out of field to determine the effect on student learning. We asked the research question, do students who are taught in Grade 9 English I in field versus out of field experience similar levels of growth accounting for differences among students, teachers and schools?

The chronicle experience of stress in an educational setting has concerning aftermaths such as teachers’ attrition and burnout, and up to half of the teachers abandon their job in the first five years of their professional life or during their career before retirement. Irrespective of the sources, teachers’ occupational stress resulting in several reverberations such as language teacher attrition can have traumatic impacts such as a shortage of teachers in any educational system. Therefore, recognizing those factors and strategies employed by EFL teachers to sustain effectively while maintaining instructional equilibrium is of great help to lead more productive teaching and healthy life. Language Teacher Immunity defined as a protection mechanism developed by language teachers over their career is among those factors assisting teachers to deal with daily hassles typical of the language teaching environment and thrive despite adverse conditions of a classroom setting. In line with such a stance, and to fill the literature gap, the present study aimed at discovering EFL teachers’ level of occupational stress and their immunity type, either productive or maladaptive. Additionally, an attempt was made to examine whether there are any relationships between teachers’ stress levels and the type of immunity they developed over their careers. Applying a quantitative approach and convenience sampling, the data were collected from in-service English language teachers (N=204) working in both private and public language schools in West/East Azerbaijan, Iran. The data were collected through two validated and localized questionnaires to be administered electronically. The initial analysis revealed that more than forty per cent of teachers find their profession stressful in one way or another, while men were more stressed than women. There is a positive correlation between the level of occupational stress and developing maladaptive teacher immunity. While experience correlates positively with both stress level and the development of positive immunity, other biographical differences showed no significant effects. Implications have been made to language teachers, curriculum designers, educational policymakers as well as institutions which can be of help to improve the EFL teachers' general well-being and teaching environment.

Interdisciplinarity is generally explained as connections across established disciplines and pointed out as central to developing 21st century competencies (Drake & Reid, 2018, Drake & Reid, 2020). Interdisciplinary teaching is put on the agenda in Norwegian curricula for grades 1-13 (Ministry of Education and Research, 2017). The curriculum specifies three interdisciplinary topics to focus on: 1) Public Health and Life Skills, 2) Democracy and Citizenship, and 3) Sustainable Development. Since these topics will be taught interdisciplinary in schools, interdisciplinarity must also be reflected in teacher training programs. Arneback & Blåsjö (2017) show how the organization of teacher education is influenced by school content, both in terms of didactics and the arrangement of disciplines. In teacher education, the division into disciplines stands strong. There has been little cooperation across subjects, and there is a need for restructuring and change of work habits both in how education is administered and how teaching is carried out (Biseth et al., 2022). How can we meet such changes in teacher education? We asked 13 teacher educators for their opinion on factors that promote and inhibit interdisciplinary teaching and learning in teacher education.

We did two focus group interviews at three different Universities, with 2-3 teacher educators in each group. In total, we have gathered data from 13 teacher educators with a variety of educational backgrounds and teaching experiences. We did a thematic analysis of the interviews and analyzed teacher trainers’ beliefs, based on their personal experiences, of what factors inhibit and promote interdisciplinary teaching in teacher education. In order to achieve interdisciplinarity in teacher education programs, the interviewees pointed towards a need for change in managment, leadership, methods used, and attitudes. This is in line with recommendations made Santaolalla et al. (2020) who among others suggest that teacher educators need shared spaces available so that they easier can cooperate on how to promote interdisciplinary education, and new study plans with new learning styles to achieve 21st century skills.