Teaching for Democracy - Towards an Ecological Understanding of Pre-Service Teachers’ Beliefs

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Jasmine

The study examines beliefs about democratic education held by 12 Iranian pre-service teachers. Findings from focus group discussion and semi-structured interviews indicate a largely technicist and frequently apolitical view of teaching among participants. While these patterns can be related to influences within Iran’s education policy, the research emphasizes the need for an ecological understanding of teachers’ belief systems. This perspective highlights teachers’ agency within structural possibilities and constraints as a key factor shaping internalized beliefs.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages18

Reading Time45 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Teacher Beliefs and Democratic Values

Australian Journal of Teacher Education | Volume 40 | Issue 2 | Article 6 | | --- | --- | 2015 Teaching for Democracy: Towards an Ecological Understanding of Pre-Service Teachers’Beliefs Babak Dadvand Melbourne University, [babak.dadvand@gmail.com](babak.dadvand@gmail.com) Recommended Citation Dadvand, B. (2015). Teaching for Democracy: Towards an Ecological Understanding of Pre-Service Teachers’ Beliefs. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 40 (2). [http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2015v40n2.6](http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2015v40n2.6) This Journal Article is posted at Research Online. [http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol40/iss2/6](http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol40/iss2/6) Australian Journal of Teacher Education Teaching for Democracy: Towards an Ecological Understanding of Pre-Service Teachers’ Beliefs Babak Dadvand Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne Abstract: Due to the significance of beliefs in giving direction to the activities of educators, the present study examined the beliefs of 12 Iranian pre-service teachers about democratic education. Overall, the findings of focus group discussion and semi-structured interviews pointed to a technicist and often an apolitical view of teaching held by most of the participants. While these findings can be explained with reference to a constellation offactors in Iran’s education policy, this study concludes by pointing to the need for an ecological understanding of teachers’ belief systems. Such an approach identifies teachers’ agency embedded within a matrix of structural possibilities and constraints as an important contributor to their internalized beliefs. Introduction Questions about democracy have always been intertwined with questions about education (Biesta, 2007). According to Dewey (1916), schools are the microcosms of the desired society and as such reflect its democratic ideals. Schools, in fact, build upon the working of other socialization institutions to shape young peoples’ democratic dispositions (Beane & Apple, 2007; Buzzellia & Johnston, 2001; Goodlad, 1997) . Due to this close connection of schooling and democracy, the past two decades has seen a resurgence of interest in democratic education within different nation states. In young and emerging democracies, the focus of these debates has been on the contribution of schools to the development of a thriving democratic culture while in established democracies these debates have been mostly centered around the role of schools in the revitalization of civics and citizenship, often in response to growing concerns over declining levels of civic participation and wider concerns about social cohesion and social inclusion (Biesta & Lawy, 2006) . Among other factors, teachers can have considerable impact on the quality of democratic education in schools (Dworkin, Saha, & Hill, 2003; Englund, 2006; Thornberg & Elvstrand, 2012) . The role of teachers is particularly important in this regard since it is“teachers who represent and constitute the school organization and embody educational values, whose understanding of pupils determines so many possibilities for pupils to engage or disengage, and whose practice shapes the context for learning”(Howes, Davies, & Fox, 2009, p. 22) . Teachers, in fact, can make an important contribution to democratic education through the creation of a collaborative learning environment (Banks, 2004; Watkins, Carnell,& Lodge, 2007), adoption of a dialogic approach to pedagogy (Alexander, 2005; Carnell & Lodge, 2002), developing students' critical thinking abilities (Halstead & Pike, 2006; Kocoska, 2009), creating possibilities for deliberative communication (Camicia, 2009; Vol 40, 2, February 2015 77 Australian Journal of Teacher Education Geboers et al., 2013), and power sharing in classroom decision-making (Psunder, 2005; Thornberg, 2010) . Making teaching more democratic, however, is not an easy tas

FAQs

What issue does the study focus on?

The study focuses on how Iranian pre-service teachers conceptualize democratic education through their beliefs.

How were the pre-service teachers’ beliefs investigated?

Beliefs were examined using focus group discussion and semi-structured interviews.

What overall view of teaching did the findings suggest?

Most participants held a technicist and often apolitical view of teaching in relation to democratic education.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Jasmine