Conference Agenda

Montessori pedagogy is said to be the largest and most widely spread non-traditional, alternative form of education. Some estimations show that there are at least 15,763 schools of this type located in 154 countries all around the world (Debs et al., 2022). Since 1909, when the first Montessori teacher training course took place (Cossentino, 2009), this community has been cultivating a unique form of “adult preparation” that is often referred to as transformation including inner spirituality as well intellectual, practical and physical dispositions (Jendza, 2023). At the same time, the empirical research reports oriented at displaying this approach to teacher education are sparse (Gerker, 2023; Macià-Gual & Domingo-Peñafiel, 2021). Thus, the main objective of this qualitative and ethnographic scholarship was to investigate the process of Montessori teacher training programme focusing on the experience of the aforementioned transformation in an international and multicultural group. In other words, the preliminary research question was formulated as follows: How do Montessori teacher trainees experience and thematise their adult preparation programme? In order to carry out this study, the author followed the strategy of participatory ethnography and took part in an international course affiliated to Association Montessori Internationale (AMI), lasting nine months, carried out between 2020 - 2022 and spread over three-summer period. The collected and later analysed research material allowed for the construction of a few main interpretive threads linking theories such as: (1) Thing-centred Pedagogy (Vlieghe & Zamojski, 2019), (2) the concept of school as free time (Masschelein & Simons, 2013), (3) the idea of teacher education as a space of working with difference (Szkudlarek, 2005), and (4) the analyses of study practices derived from the works of Tyson Lewis (Lewis, 2013).

Increasing teacher shortage has become a cause of a severe concern in most EU and OECD countries. In the last three decades, most countries have faced declining amounts of applicants to teacher education programs, a significant number of graduates are leaving the teaching career within the first five working years after graduation, and the ageing of population and high attrition rates are expected to create a further imbalance in the future where fewer new teachers are entering the field compared to the number of experienced teachers exiting. Hence, it has become a pressing issue in education policymaking and politics worldwide to find strategies for both student recruitment and teacher retention. (European Commission, 2023; OECD, 2023; UNESCO, 2023).
Addressing the teacher shortage is a multifaceted challenge, with various, interconnected factors influencing both the problem and its potential solutions. Previous research has for instance pointed out that in a booming economy, the availability of more attractive and financially lucrative careers increases the possibility of resignation of teachers and reduces the interest to teacher education (Sinclair et el., 2006), and the recruitment of students into the teaching profession is hampered by prevalent ideas, associating it for instance with low status and inadequate compensation (Richardson and Watt, 2005). In its recent report, UNESCO (2023) listed elements like motivation, recruitment, retention, training, working conditions, and social status as critical aspects that warrant attention.
This study focuses especially on the motivation and commitment to early childhood education teacher profession of students prior and during their studies and after graduation when entering the working life. Earlier research has indicated a dual relationship: firstly, the correlation between motivation and study engagement and secondly, the link between motivation, study engagement, and a sustained commitment to the teaching profession both immediately after graduation and over the long term (Rots and Aelterman, 2009; Struyven et al., 2013). The commitment seems particularly pronounced when students` motivation stems from internal and altruistic motives, such as a desire to make a positive contribution to society or contribute to children´s learning and development (Struyven et al., 2013; Watt and Richardson, 2007). The connection between motivation, and study and career engagement, is further strengthened by positive experiences during teacher education(Bruinsma and Jansen, 2010).
Previous studies have predominantly focused on primary and subject teacher education, but the field of early childhood education has been overseen. In addition, prior research has predominantly relied on quantitative data, frequently utilizing single-point survey questionnaires. What remains unclear in such studies is how the motivation of students evolves during their studies in teacher education and consequently, as they enter the field as recently graduated teachers. Furthermore, single-point studies seldom pay attention to previous life experiences behind students´ motivation for choosing teaching as career. For a richer picture on motivation driving teacher students in their studies and into career commitment in teacher profession, Struyven et al. (2013) have proposed the utilisation of longitudinal research designs that follow the motivation and commitment of students throughout their studies and after graduation.

This paper draws on longitudinal interview data of four early childhood education students in the context of Finland. It particularly focuses on previous life experiences behind the choice to teach and examines the development of students´ motivation during their studies in the three-year early childhood education teacher program. This paper is a sub-study of the research project Commitment to early childhood education teacher studies and profession (SIMO) and presents the first preliminary results of the longitudinal qualitative data of the project.

The arts occupy a special place in human culture: they are an alternative way of understanding and interpreting the world to scientific inquiry. This is what Aristotle's notion of catharsis refers to, which in its original sense means "initiation into the highest laws of reality". Although art is often contrasted in the European tradition with science, the difference lies in the way of understanding: in contrast to the analytical, analytical understanding that is common and accepted in the sciences, in the arts we are dealing with a kind of holistic, deep understanding, a kind of insight. Nowadays, more and more educational researchers stress the importance of art education, but there are still many questions and doubts about the subject. Although there have been several studies on the equalizing and disadvantage compensating effects of arts education (Sz.Fodor, Kerekes, 2020; L. Ritók, 2010), often it is precisely those social groups who need it most that do not have access to the right quality and quantity of education (Katz-Buonincontro, 2018; Váradi, 2020). The cultural and economic capital of families is a major determinant of whether or not children participate in some kind of artistic activities outside school (Kis, Bartalis, Boros, 2020), i.e. whether they acquire cultural capital (e.g. through the arts) that, according to Bourdieu's (1998) theory, can be transformed into economic capital in adulthood. Most experts agree, however, that the role of the teacher is crucial in the experience and study of art. So, in teacher training, particular attention should be paid to training teachers who will in the future provide opportunities for children to encounter the arts.

The more positive a teacher's experience in arts, the more effective and successful he or she feels in different artistic fields, the more likely he or she is to use the arts in his or her everyday pedagogical practice (Orek, 2004; Garvis, Pendergast, 2011; Pinczésné-Palásthy et al,). On the other hand, teacher education (especially preschool and primary school teacher education) is characterised by a high proportion of students with low socio-economic status, who have had limited exposure to the arts as part of high culture during their family socialisation and school years (Bocsi, 2017). Nevertheless, there is hope that a well-constructed arts education programme in initial teacher education which provides authentic activities and many practical experiences can reframe students' perceived competences, self-eficacy and prior emotional experiences (Gatt and Karppinen, 2014).

In our research we investigated preschool and primary school teacher training participants' attitudes towards arts, perceived competences and self-efficacy in arts. We wanted to know how students perceived their own content knowledge and competencies in six different art areas (music, dance, drama, literature, crafts and visual arts, and media), how difficult they perceived the tasks to be, how important they considered proficiency in these different art areas as future teachers, and how this influenced their pedagogical views on teaching arts.