Jenny Vermunt Daly

Lecturer
MTchg BEd DipTchg (Otago)

Dunedin Campus
Phone 64 3 479 4252 (64 3 211 6807 - Southland)
Email jenny.vermunt@otago.ac.nz

Biography

Originally from Southland, I was educated in Invercargill and attended Otago University and Dunedin College of Education from 1978-1982, where I completed a degree majoring in English and Education studies. While having a family in the years that followed, I immersed myself in earlychildhood, primary and tertiary part-time teaching in various regions of New Zealand for 15 years, then took a full time position teaching secondary school English.

After teaching secondary Years 9-13 English from 2000-2010 and guiding school-wide literacy practices, mentoring beginning teachers and completing my Masters of Teaching by distance, I began teaching and mentoring secondary student teachers on both the Southland and Otago University College of Education Campuses in curriculum and professional studies. After 5 years in this role, I feel privileged to still be able to work and continually learn in the converging contexts of secondary schools, the university, and student teachers’ worlds. My aim is to foster emerging teachers’ professional identities so these are underpinned by a strong sense of commitment and resilience as they design and adapt English learning areas for the success of all children and young people in their classrooms. Presently, in 2015, I have a full time position teaching and mentoring in the UOCE Masters of Teaching and Learning Programme in English and Professional studies and am in the third year of the Doctor of Education degree (EdD).

Research Interests

I am in the final semester of my Doctor of Education degree. My thesis is called Becoming Aware: The role of student teachers’ personal and professional values. Student teachers’ personal and professional values have received passing attention in the educational literature, despite assertions that their values influence their pedagogical decisions and actions. My study explores the professional learning of a sample of secondary student teachers. It aims to understand the role played by their personal and professional values while they participate in a year-long initial teacher education programme.

Framed by social constructivist and interpretivist theory, my qualitative study uses semi-structured interviews and journal entries to capture the perspectives of five secondary student teachers about their learning-to-teach experiences. Constant comparative data analysis methods are used to reveal patterns of themes within and across the five case studies.

Findings from the research reveal that personal and professional values underpin the learning and teacher identity of student teachers in the sample. They are influenced by values and experiences in their families and communities, and their core values are behind their sense of purpose, awareness and resilience. Findings reveal how professional values and structures at play in school organisations conflict or align with their own personal and professional values and impact on their commitment to the profession. The research shows that student teachers vary in the opportunities they are afforded in university and school environments to participate in critical dialogue in communities of practice that fosters their self-awareness, acquisition of professional values and understanding of their contexts.

The study concludes by proposing a model of personal and professional learning that aims to develop student teachers’ critical reflection on the impact of their personal and professional values on their teacher identities and practices.

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Publications