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This poster provides insight into the design of a PhD project with its main objective to advance fundamental knowledge on teacher educators’ dealing with diversity. Our last study is given most attention: an intervention-based study, concerning a professional development initiative (PDI) to foster the dimensions of teacher educators’ dealing with diversity (n=15). The design principles of this PDI are grounded in the literature on effective PDI for educational settings, as well as in the literature on professional development of teacher educators. Since this study has yet to be conducted, input of other scholars on the PDI is very welcome.

Teacher educators are increasingly perceived as crucial players for maintaining the quality of the teacher workforce. As such, the literature on teacher educators’ professional development keeps steadily growing. One area of focus in this specific research field, like educational research in general, are current issues of diversity, inclusion, equity and social justice. Unfortunately, knowledge on the meaning of the contemporary challenge to deal with diversity for the practices of higher education-based teacher educators is scarce in the literature. Scholars however do suggest that, for higher education-based teacher educators in particular, this challenge of dealing with diversity is twofold. It is about (a) examining the learning environments they create themselves; and (b) preparing student teachers to do the same. Others note that specific teacher educator practices to deal with diversity have the potential to address both, since the way teacher educators teach inherently has a modelling and instructive value for student teachers. Furthermore, in a prior systematic literature review, we uncovered five general clusters of practices of teacher educators to deal with diversity These clusters were: (1) creating inclusive learning environments, (2) challenging student teachers’ frames of reference, (3) explicit modelling for diversity, (4) challenging one’s own frame of reference, and (5) raising societal diversity sensitivity. In this paper, we elaborate on these findings and attempt to address the gap in the literature. The aims are: (a) to validate the result of the literature review in the Flemish context of teacher education; and (b) to understand how Flemish teacher educators engage in practices to deal with diversity. Drawing upon the interpretative tradition, a qualitative research design was chosen. In particular, semi-structured interviews were conducted with Flemish teacher educators (n=14). A constant comparative analysis was used to find commonalities and differences in the data, taking into consideration three phases of coding (i.e., open, axial and selective). Quality assurance was provided by the constant reflection of the first author while collecting and coding the data, as well as by the clear documentation and subsequent discussions within the research team about the research process. Preliminary results suggest that all clusters of practices found in our prior systematic literature are present in the Flemish teacher education context. However, not all teacher educators engage in all these practices. The data indicates how institutional and personal factors can affect teacher educator practices to deal with diversity. For example, on the level of the institution, big class sizes and the lack of a common vision in the curriculum on diversity, were for some participants restricting factors to deal with diversity properly. Personal and professional beliefs regarding diversity, role perception of teacher educators, prior professional development and field experience are some factors that affected practices at a personal level. Additionally, the data revealed multiple tensions between teacher educators’ personal and institutional agendas when engaging in practices to deal with diversity (e.g. feeling pressured to work more inclusively, while professional beliefs only partly agree with the desirability of it). Such tensions resonate with other teacher educator research, highlighting the complexity of the profession and the need for appropriate professional development initiatives to foster awareness and provide coping strategies. In conclusion, this paper makes a theoretical contribution to the field of teacher educator research (a) by expanding prior descriptions of teacher educator practices to deal with diversity; (b) by presenting factors that influence the practices teacher educators engage in; and (c) by noting the tensions that arise. Future studies in other teacher education contexts are needed to further validate these theoretical assertions, giving teacher educators and policy makers possible guidance for professional development initiatives.

ispartof: Teacher educators and their Professional Development: Learning from the past, Looking to the future pages:15-27 ispartof: pages:15-27 status: published

As a growing number of educational institutions are offering online programs, teachers need to be competent in this new way of teaching. This is especially the case for synchronous online learning through videoconferencing technology, an emergent and so far understudied form of online education. Based on a systematic literature review of 30 studies, this study identifies 24 competence clusters, which can be grouped into 5 teacher roles associated with synchronous online teaching through videoconferencing: the instructional, managerial, technical, communicational, and social role. This framework can act as a starting point for future research on this understudied topic and can also provide directions to support teachers' professionalization and practice.

In this paper we analyze ICT integration in higher education institutions focusing on the leadership practices of ICT policies, a research field that has not received much attention in higher education studies. An empirical study was carried out using a distributed leadership approach to analyze such practice in higher education institutions in Colombia, a country where a national ICT policy has steered and promoted ICT policy plans. In particular, the inquiry attempted to understand how the leadership of ICT is distributed in different higher education environments. Through a multiple case study, that included semi-structured interviews with leaders and team members, focus groups with professors, document analysis and a survey applied to faculty members ICT leadership practices and their implications were investigated. The results indicate a set of struggles that leaders have to cope with when deploying an ICT policy plan, for instance, coping with a lack of institutional regulations, and fostering educational change despite reluctance. Indeed, ICT leadership is a challenging and underexplored practice in higher education. This paper is a systematic attempt to demonstrate this statement and its implications. These findings are of particular relevance for the work of policy makers, ICT coordinators and leaders in higher education around the world.

In research on teacher induction, scholars have pointed at the pivotal role of collegial support to overcome the challenges inherent to the first years of teaching. In this quantitative study, we extend current work by using a social network perspective to examine characteristics (i.e. network size, frequency and perceived usefulness) of professional, emotional, and social collegial support networks. Moreover, we explore the extent to which these characteristics explain key factors affecting teacher retention, namely job satisfaction, intrinsic motivation to teach, and self-efficacy. An online survey was completed by 292 beginning primary school teachers in Flanders (Belgium). Social network data showed that, on average, they receive professional, emotional and social support from six colleagues each week and found this mostly useful. Regression analyses demonstrated that network size and perceived usefulness of professional, emotional, and social collegial support networks were positively related to job satisfaction and intrinsic motivation to teach, thus confirming the importance of collegial support in teacher induction. Frequency of support was not significant. Finally, no substantial relationship was found between collegial support and teachers’ self-efficacy. Implications of these findings for practice and policy are discussed. ispartof: Teachers and Teaching vol:25 issue:2 pages:160-188 status: Published online

Although there is a growing body of literature about the integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) into K-12 schools and the ways how individually school principals can lead and support these initiatives, little is known about to what extent principals’ technology leadership (TL) practices are predictable by school’s organization culture and present ICT infrastructure. Hence, in this exploratory study, we set out to classify Turkish principals by their TL practices into discrete TL profiles, taking individual, cultural and infrastructural factors into consideration. The five standards of International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE-2009) were taken as the measures of TL practices. Some main components of the learning organization (LO) culture such as team learning, shared vision and systems thinking disciplines were regarded as the measures of school culture. Principal’s age and gender demographics, computer and internet usage frequency, school’s F@tih project status and teachers’ perception of LO culture were used as predictor variables. The current study surveyed 1105 teachers and 58 principals from 69 K-12 public schools located in Istanbul city. Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to assign principals to distinct TL profiles. Afterwards, logistic regression analysis was undertaken to determine significant predictors of the outcome TL profiles. The results revealed that Turkish principals assume two different profile of TL practices, leveled as high and low profiles. Almost 55% of the principals were delineated in the high-profile structure due to their strong interest to perform ISTE standards, whereas 45% of the principals were classified in the low-profile structure because of their relatively poor interest in the standards. The most striking result to emerge from this research is that Turkish principals are most likely to perform high-profile TL practices when having: a) run a F@tih project school; b) used internet technology more frequently, c) managed a school in which teachers perceive a higher level of team learning LO culture, changing odds ratios from 4 up to 26 times higher.

Globally, schools and teachers are facing a growing diversity in student populations, which is reflected in worldwide educational policies to implement more inclusive learning environments. According to the literature, (student) teachers need to be supported in their new role as facilitators of inclusion, as they play a major role in the success of these inclusive policies. As a consequence, an important step is to increase their ability to recognize and interpret effective teaching strategies in dealing with student diversity. This is conceptualized by Stürmer, Könings and Seidel (2013) as professional vision. Researchers have relied extensively on video as a means for studying professional vision. One way to study professional vision through video is the method of comparative judgement. However, the method of comparative judgement has not yet been applied to study (student) teachers’ professional vision through video. Therefore, the project “POTENTIAL– Power to teach All!” developed a video-based comparative judgement instrument to measure (student) teachers’ professional vision of inclusive classrooms. Two validation studies - an expert study and pilot study - took place to inquire the validity of the instrument. Results of both studies confirm the validity of the videography instrument to measure (student) teachers’ professional vision of inclusive classrooms in a standardized way. This instrument will be presented during the ICT demonstration.

Information and communication technology (ICT) use became of major importance for primary schools across theworld as ICT has the potential to foster teaching and learning processes. ICT use is therefore a central measurement concept (dependent variable) in many ICT integration studies. This data paper presents two datasets (2008 and 2011) that contain measurements on ICT use in primary schools on the one hand and contributing conditions on the other hand. In both datasets, ICT use refers to different types of use: basic ICT use, ICT as a learning tool and ICT as an information tool. The influencing conditions refer to variables situated on the individual teacher level (eg, ICT competences, ICT professional development, etc) and the school organization level (eg, ICT school vision, ICT leadership, etc) that support or hinder the use of ICT for teachingandlearning.

This paper discusses a year-long technology integration project, during which teachers and researchers joined forces to explore children’s collaborative activities through the use of touch-screens. In the research project, discussed in this paper, 16 touch-screens were integrated into teaching and learning activities in two separate classrooms; the learning and collaborative processes were captured by using video, collecting over 150 hours of footage. By using digital research technologies and a longitudinal design, the authors of the research project studied how teachers and children gradually integrated touch-screens into their teaching and learning. This paper examines the methodological usefulness of video-based multimodal analysis. Through reflection on the research project, we discuss how, by using video-based multimodal analysis, researchers and teachers can study children’s touch-screen supported collaboration and how researchers and teachers can learn together. This paper discusses a year-long technology integration project, during which teachers and researchers joined forces to explore children’s collaborative activities through the use of touch-screens. In the research project, discussed in this paper, 16 touch-screens were integrated into teaching and learning activities in two separate classrooms; the learning and collaborative processes were captured by using video, collecting over 150 hours of footage. By using digital research technologies and a longitudinal design, the authors of the research project studied how teachers and children gradually integrated touch-screens into their teaching and learning. This paper examines the methodological usefulness of video-based multimodal analysis. Through reflection on the research project, we discuss how, by using video-based multimodal analysis, researchers and teachers can study children’s touch-screen supported collaboration and how researchers and teachers can learn together.

Simultaneously with technology investments, a call for monitoring instruments arose to gain insight into the return on investment. In Flanders, a monitoring instrument, called MICTIVO, is used to obtain information about the status of ICT integration in Flemish education. During the first edition of MICTIVO (2007-2008), actors from early childhood education indicated that a lot of questions used in the monitor were not applicable to the early childhood education context. Therefore, a new scale was developed to measure ICT use in this educational context. Exploratory factor analysis was carried out in a previous study. Confirmatory factor analysis was used on partial data from the second edition of MICTIVO. Results indicate that two types of ICT use can be distinguished: 'ICT use supporting basic skills and attitudes' and 'ICT use supporting contents and individual learning needs'. The constructed scales are valid and reliable measurement scales with good goodness of fit estimates and good levels of internalconsistency. These two instruments are helpful in further research on ICT integration in early childhood education. Moreover, data confirms that the grade in which a teacher works is an important factor related to the amount of ICT use in early childhood education.

Zijn onze lerarenopleidingen in staat leraren af te leveren die ICT op een adequate manier kunnen inschakelen in hun onderwijspraktijk? Dat is de initiële vraag van het onderzoek dat in deze bijdrage wordt voorgesteld. Sinds 2007 dienen leraren immers vakoverschrijdende ICT-eindtermen na te streven (in het Vlaamse basisonderwijs en de eerste graad van het secundair onderwijs). Centrale gedachte bij het beleid van de overheid is ervoor te zorgen dat alle leerlingen voldoende ICT-competenties bezitten. Meer concreet stellen we ons de vraag in welke mate de condities aanwezig zijn in de Vlaamse geïntegreerde lerarenopleiding (GLO) om onze toekomstige leraren op deze taak voor te bereiden. Hiervoor maken we gebruik van het ‘Vier in Balans’ model (Stichting Kennisnet ICT op school, 2007) waarin de voornaamste condities voor ICT-integratie worden gegroepeerd: visie, kennis, attitude & vaardigheden, software/content en de infrastructuur. In deze studie bestuderen we in welke mate deze condities aanwezig zijn in de Vlaamse GLO. Op die manier trachten we, zoals de titel suggereert, na te gaan hoe ze zich tot elkaar verhouden: zijn de verschillende condities voldoende met elkaar in balans om ICTintegratie mogelijk te maken?