Identifying educational goals
How do teachers work on their pupils' development? Kevin Zweeris, PhD candidate at ICLON, designed tools to identify teachers' objectives.
What did you want to research?
'When I started my PhD, there were many discussions about the purpose of education. And about how the education system and measures for accountability focused on a narrow understanding of student development. In 2018, secondary schools were assigned the task to develop curricula that contributed to their students’ development in the broadest sense of that word. The aim of the project was to develop instruments that would help schools and teachers develop curricula.
I was interested in how teachers aim to contribute to their students’ development in their everyday teaching practices. I also wanted to get an overview of all the theoretical elaborations about purposes of education. In that way I could understand teachers’ teaching practices in relation to theory. I hoped to bring together theory and practice and develop instruments that may help teachers gain insight in the goals that were already underlying their everyday teaching practice. Moreover, I hoped to develop an instrument that might help them explore the many possibilities regarding their students’ development.'
What interested you most about your research?
'For my studies I got to speak to many teachers. I used the laddering method to create goal systems about teachers’ everyday teaching practices. While most teachers were a bit reluctant about answering the repetitive ‘why’ question, after some time they always enjoyed the conversations. At first it may be a bit awkward, because an answer might be so obvious. For example, why is it important to make contact with your students at the beginning of your lesson? But the further the interview progressed, the more teachers seemed to realize that they were expressing why they teach, which resulted in beautiful conversations about purposes of their education.
The project partly started because of discussions about narrow conceptions of student development. I believe my research has shown that teachers’ everyday teaching practices consist of a rich diversity of goals, much more than they are given credit for.'
What difficulties did you encounter?
'Perhaps the most difficult part was not the research itself, but external factors. I feel like the pandemic had a big influence on my research project. Initially the idea was to include the school context in my research. But when I was ready to recruit schools and teams of teachers for my final study, the schools were closed because of the lockdowns. Pursuing a PhD can be a very soloistic project, and that feeling was strengthened during the pandemic. I was very fortunate with my supervision team, who always acknowledged my struggles and knew how to lift my spirits and keep me motivated.
In relation to the content of my dissertation, I think the most difficult part was finding a way to create an overview of the many theoretical elaborations of purposes of education regarding student development. There are so many theories available that have many similarities but also differ from each other. Theories about concepts such as citizenship development, identity development, the goal domains qualification, socialisation and personal development/subjectification, and moral education. On top of that, each concept has its own considerations and foci. I felt lost in the theory many times and always wondered: If I’m having such difficulties navigating these theories while having so much time, how can we expect teachers, whose time is always scarce, to explore the possibilities of student development?'
What are the practical implications of your findings?
'I am also a teacher educator at ICLON, and I use the instruments that were developed for my studies with our students. I am always very excited to see the depth of the discussions of our students, who often just started out as a teacher. The goal systems help them explore the goals underlying their teaching. The framework of curriculum orientations and goal domains I developed, helps them explore alternative purposes of education. I would love to explore the use of the instruments, and their potential for developing curricula and teaching activities, with teams of teachers and school leaders in the future.
The fifth chapter of my dissertation was published in Pedagogische Studiën recently. I hope that the instruments that were developed will contribute to a richer understanding of purposes of education in relation to student development.'