Beyond the Project: Sustaining Pre-service Teacher Education Teacher Reform in a Post-Soviet Latvia
Suzanne McAllister, Colin Webster & Amy Moyer
Department of Comparative and International Education & Educational Leadership
Abstract
In 1997, post-Soviet Latvia education reform focused primarily on in-service teacher education. A project instituted through Columbia University's Teachers College and funded by Soros Foundation was one of the first efforts to create professional development for pre-service teachers through the training of teacher educators from different higher education institutions throughout Latvia. The two-year project, Developing Skills for Experiential and Cooperative Learning (SECL) in Latvian Teacher Education, focused on how teachers could collaborate effectively to improve educational outcomes for students. At the end of the two-year project, the group of teacher educators continued their work with collaboration in education by establishing a professional association, the Latvian Association for Cooperation in Education (LACE). The association has continued their work on collaboration in education for the past ten years.
This research examines this first initiative to reform pre-service education in Latvia. The study examines the role played by both the personal characteristics of the participants and the project experiences, activities and processes that contributed to the association's longevity and its sustainability.
Data collected through documentary analysis, the Ten-Item Personality Inventory, open-ended surveys and interviews were used to better understand the dynamic of project sustainability. The Ten-Item Personality inventory contributed to our understanding the role that personality may play in project sustainability. As well, the data suggested that the themes surrounding group development, trust, patterns of distributive leadership, collegiality and congeniality and networking all were important aspects of the programs experiences, activities and processes.
Bio:
Suzanne McAllister received her Master's Degree in Globalization and Educational Change from Lehigh University in December 2009. She currently works for Teach First Deutschland, a non-profit organization committed to ensuring that each student in Germany's public schools has access to excellent educational opportunities. In addition, she is completing research for the Reading, Writing and Critical Thinking Program at the Open Society Institute. Suzanne currently lives and works in Munich, Germany.
Amy L. Moyer is a second-year EdD student in the College of Education's International Leadership program working under Dr. Jill Sperandio. Her research interests include educational equity within the international context and programs that target politically disenfranchised populations. After completing her degree, she plans to work with an international non-profit in education programming and curriculum design with underserved populations.
Colin Webster is a first year doctoral student in the international cohort of the College of Education's Educational Leadership program working with Dr. Iveta Silova from the Comparative and International Education program and Dr. George White from Educational Leadership. His research interests include international schools, global citizenship, third culture kids and intercultural relations. He will continue his career in international schools in the fall as an administrator at the ICARDA International School in Aleppo, Syria.
