Exploring Professional Development Opportunities For Teacher Educators

Focusing on the partnerships and collaborations between teacher educators and students with regards to faculty members’ professional development, contributors from around the world provide insight into professional development opportunities in the context of teaching and collaborating with students. Contributions from these distinguished scholars come from a broad range of countries and cultures to ensure that the presented studies reveal rich information about diverse systems of teacher education. The studies presented in the book demonstrate how these faculty student partnerships can significantly assist faculty members to develop professionally and produce benefits and impacts on their professional identity. Providing ideas and tools aimed at teacher educators around the world, this book explores partnerships and cooperation as a tool to lead to development and ultimately promotion. This book is a must-read for all researchers, teacher educators and lecturers looking to expand their knowledge of partnerships with students in higher education.

This book presents a duoethnographic exploration and narrative account of what it means to be a teacher educator today. Adopting a narrative approach, the book presents different personal, political and institutional perspectives to interrogate common challenges facing teacher education and teacher educators today. In addition, the book compares and contrasts the teacher education landscapes in Australia and the UK and addresses a broad range of topics, including the autobiographical nature of teacher educators’ work, the value of learning from experience, the importance of collegiality and collaboration in learning to become a teacher educator, and the intersection of the personal, professional and political in the development of teacher educator pedagogies and research agendas. Each chapter combines personal narratives and research-based perspectives on the key dimensions of teacher educators’ work that can be found in the literature, including self-study research. Readers will gain a better understanding of the processes, influences and relationships that make being a teacher educator both a challenging and rewarding career. Accordingly, the book offers a valuable asset for university leaders, experienced and beginning teacher educators, and researchers interested in the professional learning and development of teacher educators.

It is clear that teacher educators have ongoing professional learning and development needs. Chief among these are continuing to learn about content developments and pedagogical practices useful for teaching a range of PK-12 students in varying contexts; developing reflective competencies and sets of practices useful for teaching teacher candidates about teaching; effectively balancing teaching commitments with institutional expectations for scholarship and service; and forging useful understandings of identity across the spectrum of teacher educator responsibility and development over time, including taking on managerial or administrative roles. Working in institutions largely devoid of formal support mechanisms, teacher educators are often left on their own to meet these needs and subsequently must create or seek out opportunities for their ongoing growth. This volume explores in greater depth how exactly teacher educators engage in professional learning and development across their career trajectories. University-based teacher educator learning occurs in a range of settings and across the career span. Contributors to this volume describe university-based teacher educator learning spaces focused on their ongoing professional learning. Such spaces include teacher educator communities of practice, critical friendships, self-study learning groups, faculty learning groups, co-mentoring, and institutionally sponsored professional learning spaces.

Through a narrative inquiry approach, this book examines the personal professional journeys of teacher educators who have undertaken self studies, and/or researched the professional development of teacher educators. The theme of the book is how change, through professional transitions and transformations and notably, through self study research, has shaped the professional identities and practices of these teacher educators. Each chapter is an exploration of how the author/s ‘became’ teacher educators in relation to personal and/or professional transitions, such as transitioning from teacher to teacher educator; moving between different institutional and geographic contexts; or from changes in philosophical, policy and/or pedagogical understandings over time. Each narrative draws on the author’s self study experience, and develops their knowledge further by presenting the wisdom they have gained over their career as teacher educators. The book concludes with a discussion of the connections between the diverse experiences of the authors, and what can be learned from their accumulated wisdom about what is means to become a teacher educator in a dynamic and ever-changing educational landscape.

This book makes a significant contribution to a hitherto much neglected area. The book brings together a wide range of papers on a scale rarely seen with a geographic spread that enhances our understanding of the complex journey undertaken by those who aspire to become teachers of teachers. The authors, from more than ten countries, use a variety of approaches including narrative/life history, self-study and empirical research to demonstrate the complexity of the transformative search by individuals to establish their professional identity as teacher educators. The book offers fundamental and thoughtful critiques of current policy, practice and examples of established structures specifically supporting the professional development of teacher educators that may well have a wider applicability. Many of the authors are active and leading persons in the international fields of teacher education and of professional development. The book considers: novice teacher educators, issues of transition; identity development including research identity; the facilitation and mentoring of teacher educators; self-study research including collaborative writing, use of stories; professional development within the context of curriculum and structural reform. Becoming a teacher is recognised as a transformative search by individuals for their teaching identities. Becoming a teacher educator often involves a more complex and longer journey but, according to the many travel stories told here, one that can be a deeply satisfying experience. This book was published as a special issue of Professional Development in Education.

"A tool box overflowing with ideas that will help every staff developer craft a school culture hospitable to adult and student learning." —Roland S. Barth, Author, Lessons Learned "The book speaks to many audiences, including instructional coaches, PLC leaders, action researchers and group leaders, and university professors working with action researchers and PLCs." —Gail Ritchie, Coleader, Teacher Researcher Network Fairfax County Public Schools, VA "A terrific resource for connecting teacher networks and action research to create powerful professional development opportunities. This book is a joy to read." —Ellen Meyers, Senior Vice President Teachers Network Powerful tools for facilitating teachers′ professional development and optimizing school improvement efforts! Professional learning communities (PLCs) and action research are popular and proven frameworks for professional development. While both can greatly improve teaching and learning, few resources have combined the two practices into one coherent approach. The Reflective Educator′s Guide to Professional Development provides educators with strategies, activities, and tools to develop inquiry-oriented PLCs. Nationally known school reform experts Nancy Fichtman Dana and Diane Yendol-Hoppey cover the ten essential elements of a healthy PLC, provide case studies of actual inquiry-based PLCs, and present lessons learned to help good coaches become great coaches. With this step-by-step guide, readers will be able to: Organize, assess, and maintain high-functioning, inquiry-oriented PLCs Facilitate the development of study questions Establish the trust and collective commitment necessary for successful action research Enable PLC members to develop, analyze, and share research results Lead successful renewal and reform efforts By combining two powerful training practices, coaches, workshop leaders, and staff developers can ensure continuous, robust school-based professional development.

This publication is the first report from the OECD’s Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS). It provides quantitative, policy-relevant information on the teaching and learning environment in schools in 23 countries.

Teacher Educators’ Professional Learning in Communities explores teacher educators' professional development in the communal model of learning. Learning in groups has proved to be a major avenue for supporting such development and change among teachers and other professions, but one which has received sparse attention with regards to teacher educators’ development. This book aims to examine such communities in order to identify factors that promote or hinder professional learning for teacher educators. Blending research on communal learning with seven years of practical experience in these contexts, the authors present their analysis of the communal professional development process and provide a conceptual basis for understanding this type of professional learning for teacher educators. The book addresses organizational aspects of teacher educators’ learning in communities, such as creating a safe environment, group reflection, feedback and discussion about student learning. Personal professional learning aspects are also explored, including the reduction of personal isolation, the process of transition towards change, and withdrawal from the goals of the community. Finally, influences and implications for professional learning among teacher educators are discussed. Teacher educators stand at the crux of the entire educational enterprise, because of their responsibility in training the next generation of teachers. As such, their professional development is increasingly important in promoting and advancing educational practice. Integrating current literature with pictures of practice about the use of the communal model in professional development in educational settings, it will be of key interest to researchers and postgraduate students in several fields: professional development, teacher educators, and communities of learners. Practitioners who are involved with the professional development of teacher educators will also find this book extremely useful.