Reports Part of series: Professional learning for teacher educators: BERA Small Grants Fund research reports
Supported by the BERA Small Grants Fund 2024/25, this international study explored how teacher educators understand and enable dis/agreement in educational settings.
This collaborative research partnership involved teacher educators in four distinctive geographical locations – each with a different national/local history, context of colonising/colonised and dominating/dominated political relations.
The project used surveys, workshops, and philosophical enquiry to explore perspectives and practices around dis/agreement, with the aim of understanding the current climate for dis/agreement in teacher education and the extent to which teacher educators felt prepared to engage with it constructively.
The key questions asked were:
The researchers found that:
Read the full report below.
This project explored teacher educators’ perspectives on valuing dis/agreement in education, and their preparedness to enable dis/agreement. The forward slash in dis/agreement has been used throughout, informed by physicist Karen Barad’s adoption of slashes between words to bring binary oppositions into question – see Juelskjaer & Schwennesen (2012). Research team members are based at the universities of Cape Town, South Africa; the Azores, Portugal; Strathclyde, Scotland; and Plymouth, England.
The methodology was informed by the theory and practice of communities of philosophical enquiry. Methods included a literature review, an online questionnaire and face-to-face workshops in each setting. An online workshop brought participants together from all four settings for shared reflection.
Thematic analysis was structured through the research questions on:
a) associations with dis/agreement;
b) perspectives on its place in teacher education;
c) experiences of dis/agreement; and d) approaches to its enablement.
Participants generally welcomed opportunities to explore dis/agreement, some for the first time. There were differences in interpretations of dis/agreement within and across the settings. Many expressed concerns about whether current conditions are favourable for the expression of dis/agreement in education, given the emphasis on standardisation and assessment, student teachers’ reluctance or nervousness about open dis/agreement and a seemingly chronic shortage of time. Teacher educators expressed commitment to a wide variety of theoretically informed approaches to enabling dis/agreement.
Findings indicate that the adoption of dis/agreement requires significant time and attention to building conducive relationships and creating discomfort-friendly conditions in classrooms, so that contestation can be deliberately enabled, with care for the affective dimensions of dialogue. Having undertaken this project, we dare to propose that this topic is worthy of further exploration in other sectors of education, and more widely in higher education.
Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) in Education Studies at University of Plymouth
Joanna Haynes is associate professor at Plymouth University Institute of Education, England. Her research interests are in community and democratic education, philosophy of childhood and intra-generational learning, areas in which she has...
Professor of Philosophy at University of the Azores
Magda Costa Carvalho is a professor of philosophy at the University of the Azores, Portugal, a research member of NICA: Interdisciplinary Center for Childhood and Adolescence, University of the Azores, and an integrated member of the research...
Professor at University of Strathclyde
Prof. Claire Cassidy is a professor in the School of Education at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. Her research interests coalesce around the themes of: practical Philosophy with Children and young people (PwC); children’s human rights,...
Early Childhood Education Lecturer at University of Cape Town
Rose-Anne Reynolds has a PhD in education from the University of Cape Town (UCT) and is an Early Childhood Education lecturer in the School of Education at UCT. Rose-Anne’s PhD thesis is entitled, A posthuman reconfiguring of philosophy with...
University of Plymouth
Kathrin Paal’s research focuses on participatory and inclusive approaches in education and health. Her work investigates how marginalised groups, especially young children and people with SEND, can be positioned as co-researchers, ensuring that...