Teresa Ball

Citation

Thesis Title
Desirable models of behaviour: Learning to teach as a rite of passage. A historical study of initial teacher education in New Zealand

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Ms Ball examined the historical construction of initial teacher education at the turn of the century in New Zealand. Her investigation found that, in order to transform colonial society into an enlightened rural democracy, the state needed to control education through transforming its teachers. It did this through requiring neophyte teachers to pass through a carefully orchestrated rite of passage within a highly controlled and regulated system of training colleges. Within this closed environment, specific rituals and specialist knowledge prescribed what teachers should know and do in order to become productive, docile and economically useful members of society. The study also emphasises that student teachers became subjects-in-their-own-making within this regime of order. A comparison is made with current initial teacher education and a challenge is presented to teachers and teacher educators to open up new political spaces and reassert the importance of professionalism in action.

Supervisors
Professor Roger Openshaw
Professor Howard Lee