Masterliness in the Teaching Profession

Linda La Velle, Linda la Velle

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781317603030
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This collection presents an international perspective on issues of training and accreditation at the Master's level of course provision in the initial and continuing professional development of teachers, coining the phrase 'masterliness in education'. It provides a comparative background to inform the debate about the level at which teachers' knowledge bases make them most effective in terms of both pedagogic expertise and pupils' outcomes. The book examines and illustrates the relationship between master's level education and professionalism through the lenses of reflective evaluation, narrative inquiry and critique. Discussion of issues of professionalism and acculturation of teachers exemplifies the tension that arises in modern educational systems across the world between teacher accountability and teacher autonomy and argues that masterliness in education can only be acquired through the professional freedom afforded by teacher autonomy within empowering frameworks of professional development. Several chapters deliberate the relationship between the roles of schools and higher education institutions in both initial and continuing teacher education at master's level, providing argument and evidence to show that this partnership is crucial to the effectiveness of the professional development that supports improved outcomes for learners.

This book demonstrates that masterliness in education, an aspiration of initial and continuing teacher education internationally, is a state of advanced professional critical thinking linked to action and informed by research and evidence. Through the exercise of this criticality teacher empowerment, expertise and autonomy increase as masterliness develops. There is considerable convergence in the provision of these elements of Masters' level courses internationally, and this enables the debate to highlight good practice and to exemplify those essential characteristics of masterliness in teaching that lead to the continued improvement of learning in the world's schools.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Journal of Education for Teaching.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• 1. Introduction: Masterliness in the teaching profession: global issues and local developments
• 2. The place of community in professional development: a study of newly qualified teachers and newly appointed heads of department engaged in the Masters in Teaching and Learning
• 3. Education of Finnish student teachers for purposeful teaching
• 4. Teacher development through the Masters in Teaching and Learning: a lost opportunity
• 5. Reclaiming the ground of master’s education for teachers: lessons to be learned from a case study of the East Midlands Masters in Teaching and Learning
• 6. Alternatives to a master’s degree as the new gold standard in teaching: a narrative inquiry of global citizenship teacher education in Japan and Canada
• 7. Catching the sparks: an evaluation of the early development of a novel master’s degree in teaching and learning
• 8. Masterly preparation: embedding clinical practice in a graduate pre-service teacher education programme
• 9. Coaching of staff in schools: what can we learn from the new role of the Masters in Teaching and Learning in-school coach for schools and the higher education tutors working alongside them?
• 10. Criticality and the practice-based MA: an argument drawn from teaching on the Masters in Teaching and Learning (MTL)
• Index