Critical Reflection for Transformative Learning: Understanding e-Portfolios in Teacher Education

153 Pages·2020·3.705 MB·English

by  Katrina Liu

Katrina Liu
Critical Reflection
for Transformative
Learning
Understanding ePortfolios in Teacher
Education
Critical Reflection for Transformative Learning
Katrina Liu
Critical Reflection for
Transformative Learning
Understanding ePortfolios in Teacher
Education
Katrina Liu
Department of Teaching and Learning
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Las Vegas, NV, USA
ISBN 978-3-319-01954-3 ISBN 978-3-319-01955-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01955-0
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This book is dedicated to:
Ada Liu Miller
Kai Liu Miller
Foreword
One of the characteristics of teacher education around the world has been the con-
tinual emergence of slogans that gain popularity within the teacher education com-
munity and then receive funding from governments and philanthropists. These
slogans begin with specific meanings that are attached to them by their initial advo-
cates, and then over time, they begin to broaden and blur until the meaning becomes
unclear and almost everything comes reside under these umbrella terms. Partnerships,
teacher education for social justice, and evidence-based teacher education are a few
of these slogans.
Reflection has been one of the most popular slogans in teacher education inter-
nationally during the last fifty years. It has come to the point now, where it is almost
impossible to know what someone means by the term in a teacher education context
until it is examined more deeply. Often though, there is no “more deeply,” no clear
articulation of what exactly is meant by reflection. Reflection has been often used as
a label to give the illusion that a program is being innovative and that important
changes have been made when in fact they have not (Zeichner & Liston, 2014).
The terms reflective teaching and reflective teachers have been used in the teacher
education community in the USA since John Dewey (1933) introduced it in his clas-
sic book “How We Think.” Over the years , many teacher educators have claimed
that their programs have emphasized the preparation of teachers who are reflective
or critically reflective in ways that have suggested a more professional and agentive
view of teachers than the view of teachers as civil servants who passively carry out
the dictates of their administrators. However, much research has shown that the term
reflective teaching has been used in teacher education to describe both professional
and technical conceptions of teachers, and that when used by itself without suffi-
cient elaboration, the term reflective teaching does not provide any greater under-
standing of teachers’ motives and practices than the term teacher (e.g., Zeichner &
Liu, 2010).
This book focuses on critical reflection for transformative learning, and unlike
much of the literature which has promoted a vague and superficial conception of
reflection, it presents a very clear and specific framework for conceptualizing criti-
cal teacher reflection that pays attention to both the substance and quality of
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viii Foreword
teachers’ reflections. This book also provides unusual clarity and specificity about
the concept of transformative learning that is the goal of critical reflection in the
teacher education program examined in this book. The transformative learning that
is sought in the teacher education program studied is aimed at preparing teachers
who teach in culturally responsive ways. Importantly, Dr. Liu situates her analysis
of the struggles and successes of four prospective teachers in this program to become
reflective teachers within the multiple layers of context in which their teacher learn-
ing was embedded.
The learning of the four teacher education students studied in this book was
impacted by a variety of factors inside and outside the program. This book focuses
on the role of electronic portfolios (ePortfolios) that were required in the program
on their learning. Dr. Liu’s analysis of the learning of the four prospective teachers
captures both the successes and struggles of their learning and to what extent their
learning was translated into their teaching practices while they were in the program.
Her analysis also links their learning to the characteristics of the specific teacher
education program in which they were enrolled such as when she discusses the ten-
sions between assessment and teacher learning that were experienced by the pro-
spective teachers when preparing and presenting their ePortfolios to their teacher
educators.
Finally, after presenting and discussing both her conceptual framing of critical
reflection and transformative learning and presenting and contextualizing her study
of the four prospective teachers’ learning, Dr. Liu offers a vision for the future
where more teachers are prepared to teach in programs that focus on critical reflec-
tion for transformative learning. She summarizes the lessons that she learned from
the study that is presented in this book and offers advice to other teacher educators
about how they might adapt what was learned here to other program contexts. This
is a refreshingly hopeful book that does not gloss over the complexity of the task
and manages to provide hope and guidance for the future.
Seattle, WA Ken Zeichner
July 2020
References
Dewey, J. (1933). How we think. Chicago, IL: Regnery.
Zeichner, K. & Liston, D. (2014). Reflective teaching: An introduction. (2nd edition) New York:
Routledge.
Zeichner, K. & Liu, K. (2010). An analysis of reflection as a goal for teacher education. In N. Lyons
(Ed). Handbook of reflection and reflective inquiry. (pp. 67-84). New York: Springer.
Acknowledgments
As Henry Giroux urged us, teachers should portray themselves as transformative
intellectuals who combine scholarly reflection and practice to educate students to be
responsible citizens. Growing up in a small village in South Central China with my
parents working on rice paddies for a living, I didn’t know I would become a teacher
and I especially didn’t know I would one day become a teacher educator. This was
not a journey that I could have even imagined as that little girl who always wandered
around the little roads between the patches of green coming out of the small, kidney-
bean-s haped rice paddies on spring days were it not for so many people who encour-
aged and inspired me to become a transformative intellectual. I am especially
grateful for my middle school head teacher Guo Qinghe Laoshi who guided me to
take up of the charge to be his aide and my high school head teacher Li Wuoxiang
Laoshi who instilled in me the enthusiasm of teaching. More importantly, you both
provided me with tremendous inspiration, care, and trust that paved the path for me
to become a teacher.
My choice to become a teacher educator was accidental. As a former English
teacher, I only planned to pursue my doctorate in English as a Second Language or
Linguistics when I was in my master’s program at Beijing Normal University, but
Dr. Ken Zeichner made a lifelong impact on me. When he delivered a lecture at
Beijing Normal University, I happened to be in the lecture where I first heard about
teacher education and how teacher educators can have powerful impact on teachers
by preparing them to be reflective intellectuals rather than knowledge recipients.
After the lecture, Ken encouraged me to apply to the Curriculum and Instruction
doctoral program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where later I started my
path to be a teacher educator under Ken’s supervision, a path that I will never regret.
Part of the research in this book comes from the dissertation project I completed for
my doctoral study in that program. Throughout my study and the writing of this
book, I owed tremendous amount of thanks to so many people. First and foremost,
I am deeply indebted to my advisor and mentor, Professor Ken Zeichner. From the
initial stages of my research to completion of this book, Ken has continued to give
me scholarly advice, critique, and emotional support. Your broad knowledge in the
field of education, your deep understanding of the complexity of classrooms and
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x Acknowledgments
communities, your respect for teachers, and your endless enthusiasm and tireless
effort in advocating for the importance of public education as an endeavor for a
more just and equitable society motivated me to carry out this project and will con-
tinue to enlighten my future career.
I owed heartfelt thanks to the members of my dissertation committee who have
all assisted my work and have continued to support and inspire me: Professors
Gloria Ladson-Billings, Michael Thomas, Richard Halverson, and Maggie Hawkins.
I cannot thank more for all the professors in the School of Education who gave me
great amount of support, among them Professors Michael Apple, Bernadette
Baker,  Catherine Compton-Lilly, Carl Grant,  Diana  Hess, Nancy
Kendall, Tom Popkewitz, Gary Price, Paula Wolfe and the list can go on and on. I
would also like to thank Marilyn Fearn, Diane Falkner, and Joyce Zander in the
Office of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction for all the support they
provided.
I cannot begin to thank enough my four major participants, the university-based
teacher educators, and the cooperating teachers who participated in my research.
Though I will not name you explicitly because I have promised you anonymity, I
wish to thank you, Ella, Karla, Doug, and Judy, for sharing with me your ePortfolio
reflection and opening your classrooms to me, showing the trust to share your joys
and concerns throughout the course of this study. I would also like to thank my
teacher education students at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and the
University of Nevada, Las Vegas. I have gained much knowledge in supporting pro-
spective teachers’ critical reflection through working with you in methods courses
and classroom observations.
I must offer my warmest thanks to Arnetha Ball, for your tireless mentoring,
encouragement, care, and friendship. I greatly appreciate the joyful and educational
moments when we co-taught teacher education courses, co-presented our work at
conferences, and co-authored several research papers. You not only modeled for me
how to become a transformative and generative intellectual but also a human being
with a beautiful mind. My sincere appreciation also goes to Curt Bonk and Xun Ge
for your guidance and encouragement since I was a doctoral student.
I would be remiss not to shout out to my many colleagues and friends at the
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The
list is long and I would like to single out among them, Chia-Liang Dai, Robin Fox,
Howard Gordon, Iesha Jackson, Katy Hayning, Margarita Huerta, Edric Johnson,
Beth King, Emily Lin, Jane McCarthy, Sharolyn Pollard-Durodola, PG Schrader,
Jeff Shih, Annie Stinson, Xue Xing, John Zbikowski, and Shaoan Zhang. I am
appreciative of the leadership of my current College of Education Deans, Kim
Metcalf, Danica Hayes, and Gwen Marchand for your support. I also want to thank
Denise Davila, Sharon Tettegah, and Jian Wang for your endless encouragement
and intellectual inspiration.
My sincere appreciation is extended to Melissa James, Editor, at Springer, for
your enthusiastic support and patience throughout this project. Thank you,
Hemalatha Velarasu, Pearly Percy, and the entire production team at Springer, for
your fine guidance during the production process. The theoretical framework of
Acknowledgments xi
critical reflection for transformative learning guided my analysis in this book and
my own teaching practice as a teacher educator was published in the Journal of
Educational Review. I would like to extend my heartfelt appreciation to Dr. Gary
Thomas, then editor of the journal, for your constructive feedback and insightful
suggestions to strengthen this piece.
I am who I am today because of my first teacher—my late mother Lei Laying.
You instilled in me the courage and strengths to set up goals and pursue them with
zeal. I will never forget what you constantly told me: Go ahead and you can make
changes. You are a role model for my whole life: persevering, hardworking, and a
loving heart, qualities necessary to make transformation happen. I owe millions of
thanks to my father Liu Bingjun, my brother Liu Wei, and my sister-in-law Zhou
Shiwei for your unconditional love and support. My grateful thanks go to my family
in the United States: thank you very much, Louise O’Donnell, Richard U. Miller,
and Elizabeth Miller for your love, patience, and support. To my wonderful hus-
band, Richard Miller, thank you for your intellectual and emotional support over the
long process of making this book a reality. You acted as a listener, critical friend,
and editor for my work. This book is a special treat to celebrate our 7th wedding
anniversary. Last but not least, I would like to dedicate the book to our children, Ada
and Kai, who, as all other children in the world, deserve an equitable and just
education.