Creating Physics Teachers: The Figured World of Finnish Physics Teacher Education

In this session we present preliminary findings from an interview study with eleven educators from a Finnish physics teacher training programme. The educators represent the four environments where the education takes place: the Department of Physics, the Department of Mathematics and Science Education, the Department of General Pedagogy, and the Training School. The study is part of a larger Swedish Research Council project comparing the different disciplinary values that are communicated to future physics teachers across four countries (Sweden, England, Singapore and Finland) . Interviews were coded in TRANSANA software, and analysed using Gee’s (2014, p. 95) theory of figured worlds which he describes as “taken-for-granted” theories that are shaped and normed through social and cultural interactions. In our study we apply Gee’s concept to descriptions of a ‘good’ physics teacher. Preliminary analysis shows that the educators across the four training environments largely communicate the same figured world. Although working in different settings, the eleven educators appear to be working in concert, each contributing to a shared vision of what is needed to develop the professional physics teacher identities of their trainees. The figured world we identify characterizes a ‘good ‘physics teacher in terms of a range of competencies, such as: student centredness, inclusive teaching, knowledge of PCK, physics for society, assessment skills, relationships and leadership and teacher professionalism. Taken together, the four departments appear to cover all the desired competencies of a ‘good’ physics teacher and there is mutual trust across the four environments. The training school was seen as the place where all of the desired competencies are brought together, applied and evaluated. These findings are in stark contrast to findings for Sweden where four competing models of the goals of the educational programme were identified (Larsson, Airey, Danielsson & Lundqvist, 2018).