Browsing by Author "Fitzgerald A"

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A Reading Group for Science Educators: an Approach for Developing Personal and Collective Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Science Education
(Springer Nature, 5/03/2022) Cooper R; Fitzgerald A; Carpendale J
Reading, at its core, is a basic yet critical way to undertake learning and growth. This paper shares a professional learning and development initiative for science educators, which was underpinned by the popularity and premise of the reading group. In moving from simply being a vehicle for targeted discussion, the reading group facilitators sought to support the participants in taking a deeper dive into their practice with the impact ultimately being changes to their personal pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for science. This small-scale qualitative study was informed by the voices of three science educators at different stages and career trajectories, who participated in interviews. The data revealed that their participation in the reading group informed the development of their personal and collective PCK by (a) creating conditions that encouraged meaningful links to be made between theory and practice, (b) encouraging the adoption of an inquiry stance as a means for engaging purposively with professional knowledge, and (c) initiating a transformation in their contemporary understandings of science and science education. By drawing on the participants’ narratives, this study brings to the fore both the simplicity and depth of complexity that can be achieved through a reading group focused on professional learning and development. The implications of this research are wide reaching as the reading group as a concept can be applied to a variety of contexts and shaped to reach a variety of educational needs.
Career transitions in teacher education: ‘Stories’ from three teacher educators
(Springer Nature for The Australian Association for Research in Education, Inc., 2024-09-21) Fitzgerald A; Cooper R; Carpendale J; Mansfield J
Career transitions are often studied from the perspective of changing from one career to the next. Missing from this definition, however, is that transitions can take place within a career. In the case of teacher education and academia, these transitions are often seen as well laid out with an accepted view of ‘success’ and those taking an alternate path being viewed as ‘less successful’. In this self-study, three teacher educators at different stages of their careers were guided by the question: What are the barriers and enablers faced by teacher educators in relation to career transitions? The objective of this paper was to reconsider the notion of career transitions and trajectory. Situated within a small-scale research paradigm underpinned by interpretivism, this self-study presents an analysis of the ‘stories’ of three teacher educators and their lived experiences of career transitions within the academy. A descriptive case study approach was used to guide data collection over four phases to generate data using a narrative inquiry approach using timelines, individual portraits, collective stories and additional insights from a critical friend. The notion of critical friend was employed in two ways: the participants acted as critical friends for each other, and the fourth author challenged thinking and offered new perspectives. This self-study offers insights about the characteristics which have enabled and challenged the three teacher educators and may resonate with others, contributing to our understanding of conditions which can be created to support the intra-academy career transitions and professional development of teacher educators.