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Moral Authorship: publications
In the basic empirical study, we interviewed 19 novice teachers which resulted in nineteen narratives about the moral dimensions of novice teachers’ work.
The narratives led to several publications.
The first publications was published in:
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Gertsen, R. (2016). Shaping Phronesis. No Polish without Friction.
In Bakker, C., Montessori, M.N. (Eds.) (2016).
Complexity in Education. From Horror to Passion.
Part II, chapter 5, pages 97-119.
Rotterdam: Sense Publishers
ISBN 9463007644, 9789463007641
ABSTRACT
In Part II, Chapter 5, I describe my research on 'Understanding Moral Authorship of Novice Teachers in Primary Education'. I interviewed novice teachers from different schools, asking them about their profession's demands, complexities, and challenges. The research focuses on the activities that novice teachers undertake to develop a process of moral meaning-making. I understand the induction of novice teachers as a socialization process through which they develop practical knowledge or phronesis.
An explanation of five key concepts and subsequent assumptions forms the basis of my work. These key concepts incorporate the notion of amor complexitatis (Van Ewijk & Kunneman, 2013) as the necessary process for developing phronesis.
I warn against an attitude of merely relying on the well-known high grounds since this would entail an attitude of horror complexitatis (Van Ewijk & Kunneman, 2013) which implies the repression of complexity and, therefore, also the personal vulnerability of the professional.
In chapter 5, I consider teachers as craftsmen who learn through professional action and perform their profession with commitment, passion, judgement, and courage (Kegan, 1982).
Based on my research, I have further developed the concept of Moral Authorship, considering it to be a combination of six specific but related tasks: moral commitment, moral awareness, moral orientation, moral positioning, moral performance and moral evaluation. I illustrate this with a case study about two novice teachers who were friends but had to compete to obtain a position as a teacher in one particular grade. They faced the dilemma of prioritizing either their friendship or their ambition to get the job. The case-study is then analyzed through the lens of the theoretical framework presented in this chapter.
A second publication as a result of the basic empirical study, concerned the reflexive explications of the moral themes that came up in the interviews.
Discover Education, 2024, article number 121
DOI: 10.1007/s44217-024-00202-x
ABSTRACT
This article discusses the personal stories of Dutch novice teachers, explicating their internal moral dialogues about their daily work in primary schools. Aside from their didactical work, novices must address sociocultural frictions in school, which seems too little or not developed in teachers' initial education.
Using an interview protocol at the Dialogical Self Theory and ethics intersection, novice teachers are challenged to discuss moral involvement with their work.
The study reports findings regarding the moral themes that novices discussed when asked about coping with the destabilising aspects and how novice teachers express their reflexivity in narrating the disbalances generated by unexpected experiences during their induction.
Results show that novices can handle the contradictory fluctuations in the daily routines and problem-solving issues they were taught about in their initial education by alternating involvement and distanciation of practice. However, they show more discomfort about the interplexity of the cooperation with colleague professionals, forcing them to make tradeoffs between the different perspectives and possibilities that do not always fit their ideas of good work.
The conclusion is that a change in perspective on induction from trained problem-solving towards reflexive problem-finding makes novices embrace the uncertainty and move it from dread to the gift for professional development. Conclusive remarks show that teacher education should educate students more consciously about the different results of problem-solving versus problem-finding strategies. Novices should gain more critical thinking skills that facilitate their reflexive practice.
In a second study, the concept of moral authorship was elaborated. With the narratives of the first sub-study, it is clarified that the six distinct tasks of moral authorship are relevant for further study.
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The study has resulted in two publications.
The first publication of the second study was published in:
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Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 23, 570-582.
DOI: 10.1080/13540602.2016.1218842
ABSTRACT
This article focuses on moral authorship as an element of the professional development of novice teachers in the Netherlands.
Moral authorship refers to the ability of teachers to observe, identify, verbalize and reflect on the moral aspects of their work in a proactive and dialogical manner.
We elaborate on moral authorship by theoretically exploring six interdependent tasks of moral meaning-making: moral commitment, awareness, orientation and positioning, moral performance and evaluation.
Narratives of 19 novice teachers were analyzed to explore moral authorship in teachers’ talks.
The results show the opportunities for moral authorship to support, navigate, and reinforce the professional development of novice teachers.
This study suggests professional self-dialogues for enhancing the development of moral authorship.
In a second publication of the second study, the concept of moral Involvement was elaborated and clarified using the narratives of the first sub-study.
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Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 35, Issue 1, 218-234
DOI: 10.1080/10720537.2021.1923093
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ABSTRACT
The modes describe the mixed moral atmosphere as the congruities and incongruities between two perspectives, the “I” and the “Other” of the Dialogical Self.
Moral Involvement frames the reciprocity of influences of the workplace, the others and teachers’ inner argumentation to balance self-interest, mutual interest and personal attachment to principles.
Transcripts of interviews with novices in primary education were analyzed to categorize how novices reflect on their work and how they use different perspectives to explore their Moral Involvement.
The results show that novice teachers mainly discuss their achievements from the I-position and use the Other-positions when elaborating on collaborating, alignments or uncertainty about their work.
The conclusion is drawn that retrospection on moral issues during Teacher Education and workplace learning supports learning to deal with complex moral issues experienced in school practice.
In a third study, a questionnaire for self-assessment on moral authorship was developed and tested. Novice teachers and more experienced teachers were asked to fill in the questionnaire and discuss their Personal Moral Profile.
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In November 2017, the research results were reported at the AME-conference in St. Louis, USA.
In 2022 the preliminary validation of the questionnaire was published in:
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Learning Environments Research,
DOI: 10.1007/s10984-021-09400-y
ABSTRACT
When novice teachers start working in a school, it is vital that they are aware of the moral aspects of the work environment and can use their moral abilities to make their work not only successful but also good.
We developed the Moral Authorship Questionnaire for self-assessment to map these moral abilities.
Objective: This paper reports the initial test of the structural validity and reliability of the developed self-assessment questionnaire. Setting: Dutch student teachers, novice teachers and more-experienced teachers in primary and secondary education participated in this research.
Method: To test the psychometric qualities of the attitude scales, we used Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Pearson correlations.
Results: The initial test resulted in reliable and valid subscales of 69 Likert items in the renewed questionnaire. Next, the Pearson correlation between the subscales was calculated. Finally, the Pearson correlations between the domains were calculated to validate the construct of Moral Authorship.
Conclusion: The test results show that the six tasks of moral authorship can be measured using Likert items. The questionnaire can be used as a tool for self-assessment and reflection on one’s moral abilities in one’s professional learning environment. Further testing to adjust the questionnaire is needed to improve the personal moral authorship profile or the moral selfie.
A second publication of the third study, concerned the use of the Personal moral profile, generated by the questionnaire.
The publication reports on the conversations between teachers, based on their personal moral selfies.
The report was published in:
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Teacher Development accepted as it stands
ABSTRACT
Teachers should be aware of the moral aspects of their work. They should be able to use their moral abilities to make their work successful and good. These abilities are even more critical when you start your career in education. Teacher education should scaffold critical thinking about teachers’ beliefs and care for development and retention matching professional ethics. This article presents the visual tool we developed during our research about Moral Authorship. The tool can facilitate teachers’ reflectivity, reflexivity and retrospective discussions about their Moral Authorship. We consider Moral Authorship essential for Teacher development. We offer a brief overview of the concept of Moral Authorship and explore the six markers and the tenets of its representation. Subsequently, we use a qualitative-interpretative research method and describe a case study concerning a retrospective discussion of three teachers who discussed their personal ‘moral selfie’. Finally, we address how this tool can be a scaffold for practising moral authorship.