Making it Real: Promoting Novice Teachers’ Critical Perspectives on Educational Issues Through Structured Debates

Abstract

There is a sense of ambivalence with regard to the place of the knowledge of the foundations of education in the makeup of an effective teacher. The reason for the marginalization of the field comes from the debate on the scope of educational foundations is too abstract to provide guidance to the everyday concerns of practitioners. In this interpretive and self-exploratory study, the author triangulated (a) literature on the place of educational foundations of education in teacher education, (b) a description of a critical issues course that used structured debates to promote novice teachers' critical perspectives on educational issues, and (c) an interpretive analysis of 21 preservice teachers' reflections on implemented debates. The questions were: (a) What is the place of the study of the foundations of education in the preparation of teachers for the 21 st century, and (b) did the use of structured debates provoke novice teachers' critical perspectives on educational issues? The findings of the study showed that the use of structured debate elicited critical insight into the meaning and nature of educational issues from most of the participating novice teachers. The conclusion from the study supported the idea that the ability to exercise critical perspectives on educational policy and practice issues is a quintessential element that separates self-renewing and ever-maturing educators from teaching technicians.