Introduction

The preceding chapters have analysed the value of photography itself and what it contributes as a system of representation in teaching. To finalise the first section of this teacher training essay we need to identify the role photography has played in the practicum of the two undergraduate degrees in teaching; specifically, in their formative dimension. This topic is related to Chap. 7, where we analyse the role of photography in photo-elicitation as a means of improving the mutual training of tutors and practicum students.

This topic is important, given the requirement that every educational system must adapt to the challenges of modern society by preparing individuals to live in the age of information and uncertainty. Teaching strategies need to evolve to adapt to these changes. Teacher must be skilled in terms of content, group work, communication, preparing projects with colleagues and students, analysing data to compare their results with those of other studies, and in terms of emotional intelligence, to train reflective, critical and responsible students who can cope with real life problems. This requires a different type of education professional, one with a critical approach who is capable of rethinking both the contents and the methodology used to transmit them.

All this highlights the importance of the early training of tomorrow’s teachers. At this point, we need to mention the importance of shared inquiry that enables pre-service teachers to be reflective and to bring a spirit of enquiry to any real problems observed in the school that their theoretical training has not prepared them for. Practicum students work under the supervision of the classroom teacher, who is also engaged in his or her in-service education through a process of analysis and systematic reflection on their own practice, rethinking, if necessary, the actions taken to solve any problems that emerge, and remaining in contact with other teachers with whom they can interact, pool experiences, and compare research results in order to improve their teaching practice.

According to Martínez Martín (2016, p. 11) “Proposals to improve initial teacher training in our country - in which part of the university and faculty teaching staff are involved - cannot be understood or developed independently of a joint proposal to improve teacher training: Initial training and in-service education are part of an ongoing process - that of the teacher's professional development”.

In other words, in the practicum classroom it is possible to combine both types of training, and these will be consolidated when the problems that arise transition from a phase of doubt and hesitation to a constructive, creative phase of constant rethinking of what is rational, of what their methodology is becoming, in order to arrive at a solution (Dewey, 1909). In this regard, a real formative process can only take place when spaces are created in the classrooms for inquiry and questioning about what is being done, where the teacher will take on the role of tutor for practicum students, protagonists in this process, to encourage them to argue, listen, disagree and express themselves freely (González, 2000). This is because, according to Rogers (1995), education must be student-centred and transversal, in accordance with their cognitive, cultural, affective, spiritual and existential life.

In their classroom, most future teachers will act in the same way they saw their teacher act during their practicum, and it is essential for them to have acquired the ability to make decisions based on observation and debate. It is not about training teachers to take certain knowledge to the classroom or to use certain tools, in other words, teaching them only how to teach the contents of the different curricular subjects. Rather, it is about training inquisitive teachers, capable of self-criticism and of always seeking solutions to the problems they encounter, even if this means breaking away from their habitual or planned course of action. We need to create a system of relationships in the classroom in which knowledge is shared between teacher and students (Coll & Solé, 2001) in the student–teacher-curriculum triangle (Astolfi, 1997).

With this in mind, we will end this introduction by describing the framework of analysis used in the following sections, in which we present the formative dimension of practicum training in general and that of the practicum included in undergraduate degrees in Pre-School Education and Primary Education taught at the UCM in particular. The practicum is a subject that places pre-service teachers in direct contact with schools, with classroom tutors engaged in in-service education, and with university tutors. This setting is conducive to research using the camera and, more specifically, the images it provides. It is also a chance for reflecting on the actions of the agents involved, so that practicum students can acquire the skills they need to understand and resolve emerging problems in their classroom or their school. Therefore, we must first of all describe the role of photography in the formative dimension of the practicum, that is, the extent to which it is used, and above all, the levels of the formative framework in which the use of the essence of photography is limited or facilitated as a system of representation and communication, as described in the preceding chapters.

The Practicum: Formative Dimension

If the practicum is a fundamental factor in teacher training, formation is an essential part of this work experience. Formation refers to the educational dimension that addresses three important issues. The first is the need to activate the student’s higher mental processes, such as observation, analysis, reflection, reasoning, deliberation and criticism. The second is to promote the development of emotions (joy, sadness, etc.), sensations and feelings (love, hate, etc.). Finally, the third is to introduce students to the values accepted by the educational community, such as respect, solidarity, honesty, freedom and participation; and to virtues, such as the possibility of being excited by the colour of the sunlight at a particular time of day, or by the murmur of the waves as one looks out to sea, or by the smell of perfume when walking through a park, or by the misery, sadness or melancholy a certain person sitting on a pavement might feel. In this regard, formation refers to situations aimed at setting in motion thoughts about taking a stand when faced by ethical dilemmas, or by events that challenge ideas and values, that question beliefs and feelings. It also refers to the analysis of procedures used to reach agreements and solutions (Sánchez Cánovas, 2013).

In this way, formation emphasises the purposes of education that are related to the affective, social and ethical world of humans. Including formation in the Practicum gives content to Peters’s (1979, p. 311) interpretation of teaching as an intentional activity that reports an achievement or learning about something to someone who is learning “for example, a belief, an attitude, a skill”. The basis of this formative content of the Practicum can also be found in the educational aims that justify the organic laws of the last decades. For example, the three fundamental principles enshrined in the Organic Law on Education (LOE) 2/2006 of May 3, and that appear in its preamble, are:

  • The first is the requirement to provide quality education … To ensure that all citizens achieve the maximum possible development of all their individual and social, intellectual, cultural and emotional capabilities … At the same time, they must be guaranteed effective equality of opportunities.

  • The second principle is the need for all components of the educational community to work together to achieve this ambitious goal … But the responsibility for the educational success of all students not only falls on the individual students, but also on their families, teachers, schools …

  • The third principle that inspires this Law is a firm commitment to the educational objectives established by the European Union for the coming years … Promoting lifelong learning implies, above all, providing young people with a complete education, … that allows them to develop the values that sustain the practice of democratic citizenship, community living, and social cohesion.

We can see that the first of the three includes the intellectual and affective components of practicum training described in previous paragraphs. The last two principles include the values students must be taught that are included in the educational stages described in this Organic Law, such as participation, democratic citizenship, etc. In this regard, the European Council has also underlined on several occasions the key role of formation in the future growth and long-term technological progress of the European Union. According to the Commission of the European Communities (2007), this can only be achieved by fully developing the innovation potential of European citizens, together with a respect for diversity and the promotion of intercultural dialogue in schools.

So, what formative training do teachers need to enable them to create situations in classrooms and educational centres in which students can learn these mental processes, emotions and values? Stenhouse (1984), among other authors, suggested that to achieve this, teachers should be artists and planners and should research the lessons they teach; seen from another perspective, teachers can only teach the foregoing skills when they themselves have learnt how to form their students, This is because formative practices, as described by Macintyre (2001), need and, therefore, seek experiential learning, something that is acquired by humans when they experience situations where the objects to be learned are present. Thus, emotions and attitudes, or values such as justice, solidarity, freedom, respect, participation, etc., are learned when participating in and experiencing the situations of love or sadness, honesty, collaboration and respect required by the three principles underlying the LOE. Therefore, for teachers to be able to help students to learn freedom, solidarity, democracy, etc., and to establish channels for family involvement, they must know how to organize teaching situations where freedom, solidarity, and collaboration are present, practiced and, therefore, experienced.

Photography in the Formative Dimension of the Practicum

To understand the importance of photography in the practicum, in the foregoing paragraphs we showed the formative essence of the practicum. This is configured or materialized in classroom practice by teaching situations where, among other things, observation and analysis of reality are part of this essence. This is because they are mental processes that feed other mental activities, such as reflection, deliberation, etc., since cannot inquire or deliberate in a vacuum—only on previously perceived information. Accordingly, practicum formative situations must primarily include those that promote observation and analysis; for example, asking the pre-service teachers what elements, situations, places in the school and classroom, etc., they find most interesting, and then asking them to explain why. These are exercises that help students notice places they do not usually see when they give in to the inertia of their routine, habits and customs, and that are not always relevant in the space–time contexts where they are applied.

Nevertheless, in order to give these observations and analyses of the reality of the school formative significance, practicum students must be given references of the content to be perceived and studied. For example, one of those proposed in the teaching innovation projects developed by the co-authors of this chapter are: “In your school, discover events, actions or relationships that, from your point of view, help the students build a better world, based, among other things, on the values of equity, respect, solidarity, participation and development cooperation”.

This is where the camera enters the scene, because in the hands of a human being it takes on the function of a social and cultural microscope. Basically, in addition to controlling other elements such as the diaphragm, the shutter, the type of lens and the zoom, the viewfinder allows the practicum student and their tutor, if applicable, to select a particular space in the entire educational universe and, consequently, capture what happens there at a given moment, leaving out any other experiences or events taking place in that school. The viewfinder, therefore, helps to perceive, to look selectively and, once the content of the shot has been chosen, to analyse it.

The function of the image does not end with mere observation and analysis, because the outcome of the photographic study is a valid nutrient for the assessment of its content. The stillness provided by this iconic information medium helps pre-service teachers participate in and experience the foregoing situations of perception, analysis and evaluation of the educational reality of their school. This is because, among other arguments, in order to analyse or study and evaluate the situation photographed, its component elements must be compared and contrasted, and to do this, the contents thus confronted must be temporary.

The above arguments, partly the result of reports of our experience in the development of the educational innovation projects PIE2016-23 and PIE2017-41 in the Complutense University (Bautista, 2016, 2017a), are echoed by Dubois’s (1994) perspective of photography as a way of thinking that introduces users to a new relationship with signs, with space, with reality, with the subject, and with being and doing. Images provide essential information on the interpretive referents of the meanings or sense given to the reality represented by the participants—pre-service teachers. Photographs, therefore, are part of the content of their own reflection on school life, they are taken with the aim of stimulating interpretations, feelings and responses (Hurworth, 2003). In other words, they allow them to acquire another perspective that goes beyond what they thought was happening or what was meant. After that series of interpretations about a specific situation, they will come to a provisional conclusion about its essence.

If photography facilitates observation, analysis, reflection and deliberation on the elements of reality, and reconceptualizes meanings and thought and action processes, then it is valid tool for the formative dimension of the practicum. That is to say, it is a tool that can help practicum students activate their higher mental processes, to experience emotions and affects, and, finally, to introduce them to the values accepted by the community where their practicum school is located.

Case Study: Photography in the Practicum of Teaching Degrees Taught at the Universidad Complutense De Madrid

Continuing with the subject of this chapter, we will now analyse a specific example of the teaching practicum offered in the Complutense University of Madrid. As mentioned above, each practicum is a space for pre-service teachers to relate the theoretical framework of teaching, learning or human development with life in classrooms and schools (Bautista, 2009). However, as discussed in the preceding section, for these areas to enrich each other, the pre-service teacher must have access to moments of observation and personal inquiry, along with others of deliberation, questioning and exchange of points of view between tutors and practicum students.

At the same time, albeit it in another technical and social field, the advances made in technology in recent decades has made the camera available to everyone. In fact, photographic images are increasingly present in everyday life, and as a result they are used more and more in educational contexts as a teaching and learning tool (Barr, 2013). If we combine this with the arguments presented in the previous section, we can see that photography is a creative tool that encourages communication and reflection, and as such is suitable for use in the teaching practicum. Accordingly, photography can gradually be incorporated into practicum situations in order to promote observation, reflection and debate on a certain content or cognitive or emotional event in the practicum that is significant for the students.

One way of approaching an analysis of the role of photography in the teaching practicum is to describe the competencies teachers have to acquire and the activities included. The Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 identifies eight key competences for lifelong learning that are common to all undergraduate courses. In this document, key competences are those that all educators need for their personal fulfilment, active citizenship, social cohesion and employability in a knowledge society Specifically: (1) Communication in the mother tongue. (2) Communication in foreign languages. (3) Mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology. (4) Digital competence. (5) Learning to learn. (6) Social and civic competences. (7) Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship. (8) Cultural awareness and expression.

The Complutense University has adapted this competence framework to the theoretical and practical know-how that will allow pre-school and primary teachers to master the situations they will encounter in their future professional life. This has been summarised in five competences: professional, pedagogical, subject, intercultural and linguistic. In terms of methodology, the University has designed a procedure that helps practicum students acquire each of these five competences and, at the same time, requires them to use the formative processes described in the preceding section, namely: observation, implementation (consisting of analysis and deliberation) and evaluation.

Specifically, the following recommendations are made to pre-school and primary education undergraduates doing their practicum training.

On Professional Competence

Observation: In this competence, practicum students are asked to analyse the classroom relationships established by the teacher for the purpose of promoting comprehensive personal development. As mentioned above, classroom communication is essential to achieve this goal. In this regard, we must bear in mind that photography communicates through visual symbols without requiring a written or spoken language. Photography is a moment in time of an event. The stillness of the photograph allows analyses and deliberations to emerge that culminate in knowledge. Therefore, it is important to promote the use of photography as a means of communication that can elicit narratives, provoke brainstorming, express emotions, feelings, concerns, know-how, and to improve digital competence and create spaces for interaction between schools and families.

Implementation or implementation of what is observed: During their practicum, undergraduate teachers are asked to contribute to creating a coexistence based on equal rights and the practice of social justice, tolerance, the exercise of freedom, peace, and respect for nature. All these values are abstractions that have no material manifestation; however, they need to be represented in some way in order to give fluidity to the corresponding analysis, debate and working plan. One of the easiest ways of achieving this is by using visual devices, or rhetorical figures, such as visual antithesis or metonymy.

Evaluation: Practicum students are asked to share with the practicum site tutor their own reflections on the development of the teacher's professional competence. Chapter 6 describes, among other things, photography-based procedures that facilitate the representation of beliefs and theories that motivate teaching practices, as well as the visual materialization of the contradictions between different theories, or the inconsistencies regarding the aims of a teacher and their teaching practices.

On Pedagogical Competence

Observation: To perceive this competence, the student is asked to reflect on how school tutors plan their classes and provide teaching instructions to enable their students to learn. They are also asked to analyse in detail of how they manage the class and the strategies that best promote coexistence, and to observe the available resources, including ICTs, that facilitate the teaching–learning process. Photography, unlike other media such as video, focuses the observation of details of classroom practice through the camera's viewfinder. After identifying some such details that the practicum student believes to be important, they are immortalized by releasing the shutter, and the resulting image can then be quietly analysed.

Implementation: In order to inform the tutor of what they have seen, or of the effect their teaching has on their students’ learning, on the value of the relationships that must be established between them as part of the planned teaching situation, the practicum student must to show the tutor indicators of the degree of interest and participation that he or she has aroused in their students. Both the organization of spaces and materials and the significances and emotions assigned to teaching situations can be represented, and therefore, communicated to the tutor through photographs.

Evaluation: It is precisely these photographs that will help the practicum student to compare the principles of his or her pedagogical approach with that of the practicum site tutor.

On Subject Competence

Observation: In order to follow the guidelines they are given for observing the tutor’s skill in designing and developing lessons, practicum students must be fully acquainted with the subjects taught. In turn, they are told that the subsequent evaluation of the way they implement tasks using materials and other methodological strategies will be based on the information resulting from these observations.

Because of the wide range of subjects taught, it is impossible to give a detailed analysis of the use of photography in each; however, practicum students are encouraged to review relevant studies. For example, Bazalgette (1991) makes analyses the use of the camera in the teaching of Natural Sciences, History, Geography, Language, etc.

On Intercultural Competence

Observation: In the Complutense University’s 2018–2019 Practicum Guide for undergraduate teachers, the students are asked to identify the different cultures represented in their school and in their classroom, and to analyse how the school caters for this diversity on an educational level. They are also asked to compare these observations with their university training, and to later discuss with the practicum site tutor how such ethnic diversity can be used to enrich intercultural education situations.

Implementation: A photograph is the materialization of a human being’s perspective of an aspect of life. Each perspective of life is the result of interpreting life within the particular cultural framework built by each human during their lifetime. Thus, photography is a good representation system for training practicum teachers to work in multicultural environments, because it facilitates the observation and communication of different, sometimes contrasting, points of view on education. In this regard, it can change preconceived ideas of “others” and create a climate of respect and understanding between cultures. The speed at which photography has advanced as a result of digital technology is improving intercultural communication and relations and, consequently, mutual understanding.

Evaluation: In this section, students are asked to perform a self-evaluation and an evaluation of the entire process with the classroom tutor. Photographic language can rapidly communicate profoundly different world views. A group of photographs taken by these diverse students can be combined to create a mosaic of contrasting points of view on which to organize and develop the analysis and evaluation of what has been experienced in relation to their previous theoretical and experiential references. In practicum sites with a high ratio of immigrants, asking primary school students to bring photographs of their family and their culture (Bautista, 2017b) promotes the intercultural understanding necessary for coexistence. These photographic situations will help practicum students to consider and examine the relationship between the activity carried out in the classroom and their university training.

On Linguistic Competence

Observation: Practicum students are asked to recognise their own needs and establish priorities regarding the use of language in teaching communication. They are also asked to choose resources that will improve their own communication skills. As mentioned in the general introduction, photography is a useful communication-stimulating tool that future teachers can use to elicit three types of information. For example, the denotative level of the image is an excellent reference point for eliciting the description of physical contexts, while the connotative and affective (punctum) levels allow them to communicate through rhetorical figures—internal elements that, though invisible, can elicit affects, beliefs or values.

Implementation: Practicum students are urged to take advantage of conversations among their practicum site colleagues to improve their knowledge of professional language. Likewise, they are required to use the appropriate linguistic register for each context. It is in this requirement that photography plays the role of an auxiliary representation system, and future teachers will need to learn the language of photography and add it to their communication skills.

Evaluation: For the purposes of evaluation, students are asked to work with the practicum site tutor to assess the extent to which their own progress with language facilitates their relationship with the class, and their mastery of the language specific to each subject. They must base their assessment on information recorded, among other things, in photographs taken of teaching situations arising in the classroom. In this regard, photography helps more than video to determine the progress made, because it can be assessed by comparing two moments or positions. This comparison is best achieved using two photographs that can be studied in detail. Video, however, shows continuous movement, and therefore two particular moments cannot be compared unless the image is paused, played, and then paused again, etc.

Our analysis and discussion of the Complutense University of Madrid’s basic practicum guidelines shows the possibility of introducing a new element, namely, the use of cameras in the work of undergraduate teachers. Authors such as Pérez-Campanero and Sánchez (1996) describe the practicum as a paradigm that determines how school life is viewed. The proposed change will only occur when participants see and experience school life in another way, namely, in the case study analysed, through the lens of a camera and through the images that immortalize the activities that take place.

This change, we believe, can turn the practicum into more than just another subject in the curriculum, and the practicum student as more than just a hindrance. Instead, the practicum should be considered an opportunity for the school and the classroom tutor to be, together with the camera, a living and dynamic element of the entire process that will culminate in the student becoming not only a teacher, but an artist.