Ideas from Postmodernism/Poststructuralism, Sociology of Education and Critical Pedagogy for Teacher Educators in Rural Universities

Abstract

Students in teacher education classes come from different cultures, have differing learning styles, differing levels of emotional and social maturity and differing levels of academic readiness. In such a context, teacher educators cannot assume similarities in the student population. They have to adopt differentiated instruction. This task becomes complicated if they are to use new knowledge and pedagogies coming from relatively new disciplines/fields of study. A particular issue facing teacher educators in rural universities in pre-service programs with mixed ability students is 'what' to teach and 'how' to teach 'difficult or different knowledge and pedagogies.' The chapter addresses this issue by looking at ideas from several fields. How to use creative and critical approaches and become transformative teachers is also discussed and new pedagogical techniques that can be used by teacher educators/teachers are also explored. The chapter emphasizes differentiated instruction with a critical awareness of the students' social context. It questions certain assumptions about 'rurality' and argues that the diversity existing among students from rural/regional areas need to be taken into consideration in teaching. The ideas presented are useful for intending teachers whose voices have been muted by the hierarchical system of knowledge.