International Portal of Teacher Education
The online resource of academic content on teacher training and teacher education
Section archive - Teacher Educators
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225 items
1
This In Practice paper reports on an autoethnographic study based on the author’s 12-week teaching practicum experience in two secondary schools in an initial teacher education programme to professionally develop himself as a teacher educator.
As a novice teacher educator, the author took on the role as a student teacher in the practicum.
Through ongoing dialogues with different stakeholders in schools and the author’s own reflective self, the practicum experience provided an opportunity for the author to understand the tension between theory and practice, learn to give feedback as a teaching practicum supervisor and facilitate the development of schools.
This paper offers implications on the benefits of engaging in self-study such as autoethnography in the school context for novice teacher educators to understand the educational reality and professional lives of schoolteachers as well as professionally develop themselves in their teacher education career.
Published: 2020
Updated: Jan. 25, 2021
2
This qualitative multi-case study explores a group of university-based language teacher educators’ boundary crossing experiences in Hong Kong.
Informed by a conceptual framework on boundary crossing and drawing on data from in-depth interviews and field observations, the findings reveal the opportunities and challenges embedded in teacher educators’ boundary crossing between university and schools, between the teacher education and academic community, and between local and external contexts.
The study contributes new knowledge to our understanding of teacher educators’ boundary crossing through two different forms, i.e., horizontal and hierarchical, as they navigate sociocultural differences between various communities.
The paper concludes with practical implications on how to promote teacher educators’ continuing development in university settings.
Published: 2020
Updated: Oct. 23, 2020
3
This paper reports phenomenographic research focused on studying the conceptions of modeling held by teacher educators.
Data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted face-to-face with twenty-four teacher educators working in three Chilean primary school teacher education programs.
The analysis identified four categories of description, ranging from modeling as teaching pedagogical activities to modeling as developing teaching linked to the school classroom.
Besides, four dimensions of variation were found, providing a more accurate picture of this teaching practice.
The author recommends continuing the study on this topic for improving the teaching practices enacted by teacher educators.
Published: 2020
Updated: Oct. 20, 2020
4
This paper examines the practice of two novice teacher educators working as instructional coaches in a university-based teacher education program.
Previous research suggests that the knowledge and skills required to be an effective teacher are distinct from those required to be an effective teacher educator.
Yet novice teacher educators often receive minimal preparation.
This qualitative study identifies dilemmas that novice coaches encounter during observation debrief conversations in order to inform coach training.
The findings suggest that the process used by the researchers to surface dilemmas may also be a useful intervention in shaping the identity and practice of novice teacher educators.
Published: 2020
Updated: Sep. 29, 2020
5
Higher education, and in particular, initial teacher education, has been significantly transformed through the introduction of e-learning.
However, online teacher education presents particular challenges in the creative arts, which has traditionally developed student understanding through embodied and collaborative learning experiences.
In this qualitative study, in-depth interviews were conducted with eight online arts educators in teacher education programs to understand their perspectives and pedagogy in online arts coursework.
Using Engeström’s Activity Theory as an analytical lens, the findings highlight how these academics navigated challenges and opportunities to facilitate authentic, praxis-focused arts experiences to prepare pre-service teachers for the classroom.
Published: 2020
Updated: Sep. 24, 2020
6
This article offers a first look at teacher educators’ (N = 336) perceptions of their technology competencies based on the Teacher Educator Technology Competencies (TETCs; Foulger, Graziano, Schmidt-Crawford, & Slykhuis, 2017).
The participants generally rated their competence levels highly in relation to the TETCs.
Although many participants reported that the TETCs adequately reflected the competencies required of them, they suggested various additions and changes to the TETCs.
This mixed-method study advances understanding of teacher educators’ perceptions of the importance of various competences to their work and offers feedback from the field regarding which competencies might be missing from the TETCs.
Published: 2020
Updated: Sep. 23, 2020
7
Hybrid teacher educators are school- and university-based teacher educators who work across the boundaries of schools and universities to facilitate the professional learning of teachers in the third space of school-university partnerships.
This case study of ‘Sofia” examined how a reassigned classroom teacher was transformed from her four-year experience as a hybrid teacher educator in an exemplary professional development school (PDS).
The findings identified four transformations:
(1) deepening reflection,
(2) preserving relationships,
(3) prioritizing students, and
(4) distributing leadership.
This study has implications for clinically-based teacher education suggesting that hybrid teacher educator roles in PDSs have powerful transformative qualities and the potential for developing teacher leaders.
Published: 2020
Updated: Sep. 14, 2020
8
The purpose of the study was to investigate school-based teacher educators’ teaching and supervising goals and to identify how teachers in the role of supervisors perceived university expectations.
Thematic analysis indicated that teachers have difficulty establishing goals for themselves as teachers and supervisors.
Their teaching goals proceeded from curricula and focused on their pupils’ cognitive development, whilst their perceptions about supporting pupils’ social development were vague.
Teachers were unaware of what exactly universities expected of them as supervisors, and believed that providing teaching models for student teachers as a main supervisory goal.
It is necessary to offer options to encourage cooperation between teachers and universities and maintain supervisors’ professional development.
Published: 2019
Updated: Aug. 09, 2020
9
Professional development of teacher educators has not been researched very much in Finland, although interest in teacher educators has started to increase globally in recent decades.
This study investigates 15 Finnish teacher educators’ views on their professional development.
The results indicate that research plays a significant role in the Finnish teacher educators’ conceptions.
They considered research to be an integral part of their work, as it is part of their assigned tasks.
This differs from many countries, where researching and high-quality scientific contribution is not necessarily a big part of teacher educators’ work.
These teacher educators also viewed research as a means to develop professionally, both through producing and consuming research.
Formal professional development, such as professional development courses, did not play a significant role for these teacher educators, though studying either by reading research or participating in free-time education seemed to be more important.
The results also indicate that Finnish teacher educators are under pressure to produce high-quality research and to advance in their careers. This is due to business ideology in leadership, i.e. management by results in the Finnish university sector.
Published: 2020
Updated: Jul. 29, 2020
10
There is limited research investigating models of partnering between University and Schools in initial teacher education (ITE).
This project investigated, over a 10 year period, how student teachers in an English University on a one year course, draw on theoretical models, introduced in university sessions, when planning for a ‘creative week’ placement in schools.
Working within an interpretivist paradigm drawing on data from 52 student teachers, 10 teachers and 50 children this case study explored a model of teacher education provision.
Findings illuminated factors that inhibited student teachers from planning engaging lessons, which challenged their learners, including poor relationships between stakeholders, misunderstandings of the purpose of the placement and under developed knowledge and understandings of how to successfully draw on theoretical models to enhance learning, together with the challenges of limited time during a one year course.
Findings also uncovered the extent to which student teachers were ‘allowed’ by some teachers, but not by others, to take risks in their practice, and the impact this has on student teachers’ sense of autonomy and confidence.
Implications of the research demonstrate how findings can impact on ITE course design and partnering models between University and schools.
Published: 2020
Updated: Jul. 28, 2020