Professional Development Through Teacher Research

This volume aims to understand how language teacher educators around the world continue developing professionally by examining their own teaching practices. It explores the professional gains teacher educators see in conducting research with their own students/future teachers and seeks to reduce the gap between educational research and practice.

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 text provides insights into teachers' continuing development and learning in contemporary western contexts. This volume is premised on the understanding that by learning more about the conditions under which teachers work and learn, it is possible to understand the learning opportunities teachers experience.

Little is known about how language teacher educators become, and also develop professionally as, teachers of teachers. One avenue for teacher education professional development is that of teacher research, whereby teacher educators can not only improve their practices in their immediate context but also help develop transformative pedagogies in wider contexts by sharing their research. This volume aims to understand how language teacher educators around the world continue developing professionally by examining their own teaching practices. It seeks to understand the professional gains teacher educators see in conducting research with their own students/future teachers; to promote knowledge democratisation by including teacher educators from under-represented contexts such as Latin America and Africa; to examine language teacher educators’ motivations to write for publication; and to reduce the gap between educational research and educational practice in BA and MA programmes in language teaching.

Written from various perspectives, this book describes ways of using action research to improve teaching and learning. It includes contributions about action research related to: political action; school inclusion; distance learning; feminism; and initial teacher training. The coherent theme of the book is the consistent appraisal of action research as a means of supporting the transformation of educational praxis through practical enquiry and reflexive practice.

This book focuses on the professional development of teacher educators, forming a definitive and expert resource for all those interested in this area of professional learning. It offers an in-depth overview of existing international research and professional development initiatives in the area of teacher educators' learning. The book highlights relevant research on the topic, identifies the lessons learnt from recent initiatives, and indicates ways forward for teacher educators' professional learning internationally. It provides a unique combination of six years of pan-European collaborative work, resulting in a book with clear relevance and appeal to both academics and practitioners internationally. The book conceptualizes teacher educators' professional development, in order to deepen understanding of how and why learning occurs and conducts empirical research into the professional development needs of teacher educators internationally using quantitative and qualitative methods in order to redress gaps in existing research. This book will be of great interest to academics, researchers and post-graduate students in the fields of teacher education and professional development and learning.

This book gathers a range of contributions from researchers and practitioners across borders with an emphasis on theoretical arguments and empirical data concerning teacher empowerment. It propels readers to explore powerful teaching practices that can further advance the profession as a continuing priority in the system when appropriately utilized. Further, it strives to capture teachers’ readiness to improve their professional skills and responsive practices as a form of accountability for their teaching and students’ learning, two aspects that are increasingly being judged by various stakeholders. The book argues that teachers’ autonomous participation and engagement in relevant decision-making activities and equitable access to continuing professional development opportunities are and should remain major priorities.

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.