Reconstructing The Work Of Teacher Educators

This book examines agentic approaches by which teacher educators navigate a highly regulated environment. It investigates how teacher educators are responding to such regulation by employing approaches such as exploratory and case study research designs. This book analyzes qualitative and quantitative data to understand the diverse, innovative and critical perspectives of teacher educators who are guided by state and federal level initiatives to enhance the quality Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programs. Prominent educational theoretical perspectives are also used in this book to inform data analysis and to illuminate the empirically based findings. This book showcases research-informed insights for the global education community from leading researchers from across a number of teacher education institutions, locally and otherwise. By adopting an ‘activist’ approach, this book positions teacher educators’ research and contribution to the field as agentive and pro-active.

This book examines agentic approaches by which teacher educators navigate a highly regulated environment. It investigates how teacher educators are responding to such regulation by employing approaches such as exploratory and case study research designs. This book analyzes qualitative and quantitative data to understand the diverse, innovative and critical perspectives of teacher educators who are guided by state and federal level initiatives to enhance the quality Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programs. Prominent educational theoretical perspectives are also used in this book to inform data analysis and to illuminate the empirically based findings. This book showcases research-informed insights for the global education community from leading researchers from across a number of teacher education institutions, locally and otherwise. By adopting an 'activist' approach, this book positions teacher educators' research and contribution to the field as agentive and pro-active.

Pressures for reform in teacher education have begun to take on the same sense of urgency as school reform. Those faculties of education who have been strong advocates for change in the schools now find themselves the subject of similar pressures from governmental policy makers. Attempts at change have taken place in many different countries and jurisdictions around the world.; This book details, through a series of international vignettes, how teachers are responding to the changing times and social contexts in which they do their work. The authors hold the view that changes are inevitable in teacher education but what is not clear is who will control the changes and whether the end result will actually improve the preparation of teachers. The theme of the book is that the reform of teacher education should be informed by intelligent debate and that any attempt to restructure teacher preparation should result from a careful reconceptualisation of it purposes and processes.

This book maps out a new paradigm of teacher education an, by implication, professional education generally. The book opens with two alternative theories of teacher education and training and explains the concepts and assumptions on which they rest including beliefs about the nature and role of education in society. It then proposes a 'natural science' paradigm and its implications for establishing a coherent view of teacher education. Subsequent chapters indicate the professional implications of such a model.

This book presents recent international research on how teacher educators, institutions and policy makers perceive, act on and experience the dual responsibility that teacher educators are required to develop. Teacher educators are both teachers and researchers, a hybrid position which might be challenging to fulfil. Teacher education has attracted much research over the years. It has also been subject to national and international debates about its goals and core features as well as issues of quality and effectiveness. More recently, attention has been given to the work, identity and professional development of teacher educators. The various chapters in the book address the topic of teacher educators as teachers and researchers in diverse countries and contexts, namely Australia, Belgium, England, Ireland, Israel, Portugal, Norway and the USA. Collectively, the authors examine the work of teacher educators considering their core mission, their professional development opportunities and the demands and needs of their working contexts. The chapters in this book were originally published in a special issue of the European Journal of Teacher Education.

One of the greatest resources a school has is its staff. How teachers themselves, and their work, are defined are therefore matters of utmost importance. Major trends of increased control and 'new mangerialism' are occurring in most OECD countries, radically altering both the content and form of teacher education. This book outlines recent changes in teacher education and professional development and, by drawing on recent research findings, explores the positive and negative impacts on the nature of teaching and the shape of the profession.

This collection offers a timely and wide-ranging contribution to the research-informed improvement of the work of teacher educators. Drawing on original research studies conducted across a range of European countries, Canada, and Israel, contributors offer insight into not only questions of curriculum and programme development, research, and professional development, but also their day-to-day experience as teacher educators, student teachers, and mentors in schools. Themes explored include teaching and working with students, teacher educators as researchers, the partnership work of teacher educators, the professional development needs of teacher educators, professional development approaches for improving teacher education, and teacher educator empowerment. Arising from the international community of the Association for Teacher Education in Europe (ATEE), and drawing together theory and practice, this book offers a unique survey of the contributions of teacher educators and charts a path for future directions of the field.

With its focus on the work and identity of teacher educators, this book addresses an essential but under-researched area in teacher education. It makes a major contribution to analysing the field and develops existing research on the working lives and identities of teacher educators. The book explores ideas about the future of teacher education and the implications for policy changes in education systems across the world. It brings together studies from across the globe on how teacher educators, within higher education institutions, function as both academics and professionals in different institutions and nations. It also considers professional learning for teacher educators as an occupational group and makes practical suggestions for change and improvement in this often neglected area of higher education. The book deliberately draws on research from a range of traditions, including life history, policy analysis, ethnography and self-study. The contributions come from major researchers in teacher education in Australia, Continental Europe, the USA and Canada, the UK and Asia. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Education for Teaching.