How Do Pre-Service Teachers Understand and Experience Participation in Teacher Education?

Abstract

Teacher education (TED) alone cannot save democracy, but it can prepare teachers to teach their pupils about, for and through democracy. One of the crucial preconditions for teachers who work in a democratic society is the ability to foster pre-service teachers’ participation in their education. Research in this field is limited and our contribution is timely and significant in a Norwegian context. This study explores Norwegian second-year pre-service teachers’ understanding and experiences of democratic participation in the planning of seminar activities during one of the courses in their TED. Throughout the semester, the pre-service teachers evaluated seminar activities and suggested activities for the next seminars. At the end of the course, the pre-service teachers wrote reflection notes in which they expressed their understanding of participation in general and described their experiences participating in planning seminars. Thus, this study is based on the thematic analysis of 38 reflection notes. The results of this study demonstrate that students understand participation as an influence on seminar content and illustrate that their experiences of participation led to a feeling of being valued. Further, participation is possible only when teacher educators take the initiative and pre-service teachers themselves are willing to engage in decision making.