Australian Journal of Teacher Education
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 of factors 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.
Recommended Citation
Dadvand, B. (2015). Teaching for Democracy: Towards an Ecological Understanding of Pre-Service Teachers’ Beliefs. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 40(2). https://doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2015v40n2.6