Professional Learning Journeys 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 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.

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.

For decades teacher education researchers, organizations, and policy makers have called for improving teacher education by creating clinically based preparation programs (e.g. CAEP, 2013; Goodlad, 1990; Holmes, 1986, 1995; National Association for Professional Development Schools, 2008; National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Educators, 2001, 2010; Zeichner, 1990). According to the NCATE Blue Ribbon Report (2010), this approach requires extensive opportunities for prospective teachers to connect and apply what they learn from school and university based teacher educators. Similar to preparing medical professionals, clinical practice in teacher education requires the complex and time intensive work of supporting teacher candidate ability to link theory, research, and practice as well as on-going inquiry into best pedagogical practices. Therefore, clinically intensive programs expect prospective teachers to blend practitioner and academic knowledge throughout their programs as "they learn by doing" (NCATE, 2010, p.ii). However, most of the literature to date on clinical practice has been conceptual and often relies on describing program design. The purpose of this book is move past description to study and understand what teacher education programs are learning from research about innovative clinical models of teacher education. Each book chapter highlights research about how programs are studying a variety of outcomes of clinical practice. After an introductory chapter that helps to define and situate clinical practice in teacher education, the book is organized into four sections: (1) Outcomes of New Roles, (2) Outcomes of New Practices, (3) Outcomes of New Coursework/Fieldwork Configurations, and (4) Outcomes of New Program Configurations. The book wraps up with a discussion that looks across the chapters to find common themes, share implications for teacher educators, and set the course for future research.

Professional learning and development for all teacher educators through stories of practice and carefully structured coaching questions. This book provides all teacher educators, wherever they are based, with key opportunities for professional learning and development, especially in relation to the new initial teacher education (ITE) core content framework and the new early career framework. A range of detailed narratives about practice have been written by teacher educators, for teacher educators, and are carefully curated by the author to draw out key learning points, including a range of coaching questions. Of interest for individuals and groups of teacher educators, and especially those working in partnerships, the book also contains research- and practice-informed guidance that can be used in professional development sessions.

Teachers Who Teach Teachers is a major contribution to an emerging literature in which teacher educators are beginning to explore the new challenges facing those who care about the quality of teaching in schools and in teacher education programmes. In this volume the contributors consider the personal development of both new and experienced teacher educators, illustrating just how strongly teacher educators are influenced by their visions and by the challenge to prove themselves in the university setting. They look at ways in which teacher educators have acted to promote their own professional development and study their own practices, including writing as a tool for reflection. Finally the contributors take a broader look at the professional development of teacher educators and the challenge to all teacher educators to consider the tension between rigour and relevance.

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.