Section archive - Teacher Educators

Given the intense politicisation of education, many teacher educators are caught in the cross-hairs of government’s reform agendas, university expectations and student teacher needs. This paper reports on a study of 28 literacy teacher educators in four countries (Canada, US, Australia and England). This paper reports on the broad question: How is politics affecting literacy teacher educators? Three specific aspects are considered: their pedagogies, identity and well-being. It describes how their pedagogy (goals and teaching strategies) has narrowed because of mandated curriculum and exit exams. It shows how their identity as academics is being complicated because they often do not have time for their research. And their well-being is compromised because of excessive external inspections and as their community in the university splinters.

Intentional integration of knowledge from both K-12 practice and teacher preparation theories supports emerging teacher educators’ hybrid identity development. In this collaborative self-study, three teacher educators reflected upon the negotiation of tensions that arose in their efforts to promote culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogy in K-12 and teacher education settings. Individual journals, recorded critical friend discussions, and teaching artifacts were used as data to support teacher educators’ critical reflections on their own practice and identity development. Data collection spanned teacher educators’ experiences teaching K-12 students in a summer writing camp, creating vignettes based on writing camp experiences, and implementing those vignettes in teacher education settings. Analysis surfaced tensions between teacher and teacher educator identities and between stated objectives and implicit assumptions focused on multicultural education reform. Implications of teacher educators’ sustained engagement in both K-12 and teacher preparation settings using the dual processes of reflection and action are discussed.

The functions of teacher leaders and teacher educators, what they do, are critical in teacher education. This article presents the seemingly unexamined concept that some teacher leaders’ practice includes a teacher educator dimension. Evidence that supports this claim is provided by exploring the interrelationship between teacher leader and teacher educator functions using a focused analysis of the literature and findings from qualitative research. This research investigated the impact of a professional development programme for primary science leaders. Data were collected from strategic-level informants, programme mentors and science leaders using interviews, questionnaires and a focus group. The findings are analysed to provide a critical overview of the participants’ views of the requirements for successful leadership and development of primary science and to illustrate how educator and leader functions are intertwined in science leaders’ activities. The article considers the implications of recognising the educator dimension of some teacher leaders’ practice and asserts that these implications extend beyond the primary science context of the research. Acknowledging the contribution made by ‘unrecognised’ teacher educators and enabling them to contribute to and gain from the professional knowledge of the teacher educator community has significant potential to enrich practice in teacher education internationally, nationally and locally.

This study describes higher education-based teacher educators’ professional trajectories, i.e. their professional activities and learning as developed throughout their career. Semi-structured interviews were held with 41 teacher educators from Ireland, Israel, Norway and the Netherlands. Findings show that teacher educators were recruited mainly from schools and universities. As novices, they received some, but no formal, support. Research and teaching are the main areas for on-the-job learning. Most teacher educators have positive attitudes towards research, are active researchers and contribute to teaching. However, they believe their respective institutes are not sufficiently appreciative of teaching, given that institutes do not prioritise practice-oriented research, nor align their policies with research findings. While socially coherent and idealistic attitudes are present among teacher educators, they are predominantly responsive to institutes’ perceived individualistic and pragmatic expectations. Such expectations include contribution to their institutes’ academic status through their academic publications.