Becoming a Teacher Educator: Voices of Beginning Teacher Educators

2009 ◽  
pp. 91-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anja Swennen ◽  
Leah Shagrir ◽  
Maxine Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Beginning Teacher

Mindfulness for teachers: notes toward a discursive cartography

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-108
Author(s):  
Remy Low
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Entry Point ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Educational Researcher ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Discursive Formation ◽  
Heuristic Device

Purpose For the interested teacher, teacher educator and educational researcher seeking an entry point into how mindfulness relates to teachers’ work, the burgeoning and divergent appeals for the relevance of mindfulness to teachers can be bewildering. The purpose of this paper is to offer teachers, teacher educators and educational researchers a conceptual framework for understanding the different orientations and sources of mindfulness as it has been recommended to teachers. Design/methodology/approach Using Foucault’s (1972) concept of “discursive formations” as a heuristic device, this paper argues that mindfulness as pitched to teachers can be helpfully understood as arising from three distinct orientations. Findings Statements about mindfulness and its relevance to teachers emerge from three distinct discursive formations – traditional, psychological and engaged – that each constitute the “problem” faced by teachers respectively as suffering, stress or alienation. Specific conceptions of mindfulness are then advanced as a solution to these problems by certain authoritative subjects and institutions in ways that are taken as legitimate within each discursive formation. Originality/value Apart from offering a historical and discursive mapping of the different discursive formations from which mindfulness is pitched to teachers, this paper also highlights how each of these orientations impies a normative view of what a teacher should be. Suggestions for further historical research are also offered along the lines of genealogy, epistemology and ontology.

Equity and justice for all

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerie Kinloch ◽  
Kerry Dixon
Keyword(s):  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Critical Whiteness Studies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Urban Teacher

Purpose This paper aims to examine the cultivation of anti-racist practices with pre- and in-service teachers in post-secondary contexts, and the tensions of engaging in this work for equity and justice in urban teacher education. Design/methodology/approach The paper relies on critical race theory (CRT) and critical whiteness studies (CWS), as well as auto-ethnographic and storytelling methods to examine how black in-service teachers working with a black teacher educator and white pre-service teachers working with a white teacher educator enacted strategies for cultivating anti-racist practices. Findings Findings indicate that for black and white educators alike, developing critical consciousness and anti-racist pedagogical practices requires naming racism as the central construct of oppression. Moreover, teachers and teacher educators demonstrated the importance of explicitly naming racism and centralizing (rather than de-centralizing) the political project of anti-racism within the current socio-political climate. Research limitations/implications In addition to racism, educators’ racialized identities must be centralized to support individual anti-racist pedagogical practices. Storying racism provides a context for this individualized work and provides a framework for disrupting master narratives embedded in educational institutions. Originality/value Much has been written about the importance of teachers connecting to students’ out-of-school lives to increase academic achievement and advance educational justice. Strategies for forging those connections include using assets-based practices and linking school curricula to students’ community and cultural identities. While these connections are important, this paper focuses on teachers’ explicit anti-racist practices in urban education.

scholarly journals Towards an Understanding of the Work of Teacher Education Professoriate in India

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-114
Author(s):  
Rajashree Srinivasan
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Education ◽  
Education System ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
School Education ◽  
Work Identity ◽  
Education In India ◽  
New Vision

Reforming the teacher education system has been a key government policy towards improving school education in India. While recent curriculum and governance reforms articulate a new vision of teacher education that underscores a symbiotic relationship between teacher education and school education, it fails to engage enough with the most important participant of the teacher education system—the teacher educator. Changes to curriculum and governance process in the absence of a pro-active engagement of teacher educators with the reforms can do little to influence the teacher education processes and outcomes. The work of pre-service teacher educators is complex because their responsibilities relate to both school and higher education. The distinctiveness of their work, identity and professional development has always been marginalized in educational discourse. This article analyses select educational documents to examine the construction of work and identity of higher education-based teacher educators. It proposes the development of a professional framework of practice through a collective process, which would help understand the work of teacher educators and offer various possibilities for their professional development.

scholarly journals Critical Self-Reflection as Disruption: A Black Feminist Self-Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-38
Author(s):  
Benikia Kressler
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Junior Faculty ◽  
Junior Faculty Member ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
White Middle Class ◽  
Self Study ◽  
Educators Of Color

As the PK-12 student population grows more diverse, the teaching population steadfastly continues to be white middle-class women (NCES, 2016). Critical teacher educators understand the importance of preparing pre-service teachers to become culturally responsive and sustaining (CR/S) practitioners by engaging in culturally relevant education (CRE). Critical teacher educators, particularly those of color from historically marginalized groups, can be important advocates in the struggle to strengthen the teaching candidate pool of CR/S practitioners. Building a cadre of teachers, who are poised to decolonize minds and spaces, sustains the work of many teacher educators of color. However, the acts of teaching and learning in most institutions of education are inundated with oppressive norms such as white privilege, xenophobia and anti-blackness. It is this reality in which I, a Black female junior teacher educator, attempt to disrupt normative teaching practices within a special education course. This self-study examined insight derived from a focus group as well as from my self-reflections conducted over the course of two semesters (Spring 2018 to Fall 2018). Using a qualitative methodological approach, the findings indicated tensions between my vulnerable position of being a junior faculty member and my desire to dismantle normative deficit practices through critical self-reflection.    

scholarly journals Practice-Focused Research in Initial Teacher Education

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Abbiss ◽  
Eline Vanassche
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Teacher Education ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Initial Teacher Education ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
Theoretical Contribution

A review of the field of practice-focused research in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) reveals four broad genres of qualitative research: case studies of teacher education programs and developments; research into student teacher experience and learning; inquiry into teacher educators’ own learning, identity, and beliefs; and conceptual or theory-building research. This is an eclectic field that is defined by variation in methodologies rather than by a few clearly identifiable research approaches. What practice-focused research in ITE has in common, though, is a desire on the behalf of teacher educator researchers to understand the complexity of teacher education and contribute to shifts in practice, for the benefit of student teachers and, ultimately, for learners in schools and early childhood education. In this endeavor, teacher educator researchers are presented with a challenge to achieve a balance between goals of local relevance and making a theoretical contribution to the broader field. This is a persistent tension. Notwithstanding the capacity for practice-focused research to achieve a stronger balance and greater relevance beyond the local, key contributions of practice-focused research in ITE include: highlighting the importance of context, questioning what might be understood by “improvement” in teacher education and schooling, and pushing back against research power structures that undervalue practice-focused research. Drawing on a painting metaphor, each genre represents a collection of sketches of practice-focused research in ITE that together provide the viewer with an overview of the field. However, these genres are not mutually exclusive categories as any particular research study (or sketch) might be placed within one or more groupings; for example, inquiry into teacher educators’ own learning often also includes attention to student teachers’ experiences and case studies of teacher education initiatives inevitably draw on theory to frame the research and make sense of findings. Also, overviewing the field and identifying relevant research is not as simple as it might first appear, given challenges in identifying research undertaken by teacher educators, differences in the positioning of teacher educators within different educational systems, and privileging of American (US) views of teacher education in published research, which was counteracted in a small way in this review by explicitly including voices located outside this dominant setting. Examples of different types of qualitative research projects illustrate issues in teacher education that matter to teacher educator researchers globally and locally and how they have sought to use a variety of methodologies to understand them. The examples also show how teacher educators themselves define what is important in teacher education research, often through small-scale studies of context-specific teacher education problems and practices, and how there is value in “smaller story” research that supports understanding of both universals and particularities along with the grand narratives of teacher education.

Cultivating Teachers of General Music Methods: The Graduate Years

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christa R. Kuebel ◽  
Lisa Huisman Koops ◽  
Vanessa L. Bond
Keyword(s):  
Identity Development ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Mentoring Relationships ◽  
General Music ◽  
Conference Calls ◽  
Music Methods ◽  
Or Team ◽  
The Impact

The purpose of this autonarrative inquiry was to explore the professional identity development and mentoring relationships of three general music teacher educators during their time at one university. We present our stories of development and re-visioning as general music methods educators through our roles as educator, learner, and co-learner while having taught or team-taught general music methods at Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, Ohio) over the past 10 years. Data included individual journals and transcripts of monthly Google text chats and conference calls. We analyzed the data through the commonplaces of temporality, sociality, and place, and engaged in re-storying. Investigating the process of becoming a general music methods instructor provided important insights concerning the impact of time, people, and places on the transition from music teacher to music teacher educator.

scholarly journals Challenges and possibilities in educating EFL reading teachers

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
Juliet Hilary Munden
Keyword(s):  
Student Teachers ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Reading Strategies ◽  
English Language ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Reading Teachers ◽  
Learning Sequence ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Core Practices

AbstractExperiencing literature is part of the English as a foreign language (EFL) subject in Norway. It is both challenging and possible to educate competent reading teachers who can foster this experience. The present article is a thematic exploration of some of these challenges and possibilities. The challenges are discussed under four headings: the profession of the teacher educator; the complaint that student teachers do not read enough; the role of national tests in forming how reading in English is taught in school; and the challenge of making sense of the concept of reading strategies. The second part of the article considers possibilities. These are grounded in the principle that teacher educators should not primarily lecture. Instead, they should alternate systematically between enactment and metacognition. The article describes scenarios in which students try out a sequence of pre-, during- and post-reading activities related to the short story “The Demon Lover” by Elizabeth Bowen. After engaging with each activity, the students take part in a reflection led by the teacher educator on their experience as readers, the learning potential of the activity, and questions related to its adaptation and organisation in a diverse school classroom. This operationalisation of a pedagogy of enactment (Grossman et al., 2009) allows student teachers to gain experience of and reflect on core practices. In the present case, the core practice is the planning and teaching of coherent and motivating learning sequences that promote increased reading motivation and proficiency in the English language classroom.Keywords: teacher education, subject English, reading strategies, learning sequence, metacognitionUtfordringer og muligheter i utdanningen av leselærere i engelskfagetSammendragLitteraturopplevelser hører til i engelskfaget i norsk skole. Det er både ut-fordrende og mulig å utdanne kompetente leselærere som kan fremme slike opplevelser. Denne artikkelen er en tematisk utforskning av noen av disse utfordringene og mulighetene. Utfordringene diskuteres under fire overskrifter: lærerutdanneren som profesjonsutøver; misnøyen med at studenter ikke leser nok; betydningen av nasjonale prøver for hvordan lesing i engelsk er undervist i skolen; og utfordringen med å forstå lesestrategier som konsept. Den andre delen av artikkelen tar for seg mulighetene som ligger i prinsippet om at lærer-utdannere ikke primært skal forelese. Isteden bør de veksle systematisk mellom utøvelse og metakognisjon. Artikkelen beskriver en sekvens hvor studenter prøver ut før-, under- og etter-lesningsaktiviteter tilknyttet Elizabeth Bowens novelle “The Demon Lover”. Etter å ha engasjert seg i hver aktivitet, deltar studentene i en refleksjon ledet av lærerutdanneren, hvor de drøfter sine opplevelser som lesere, aktivitetens læringspotensial, og spørsmål om tilpasning og organisering av aktiviteten i et mangfoldig klasserom. Denne operasjonaliseringen av en enactment-pedagogikk (Grossman et al., 2009) gir lærerstudenter anledning til å skaffe seg erfaring med og reflektere over kjerne-praksiser. I dette tilfellet er kjernepraksisen det å planlegge koherente og moti-verende læringssekvenser som fører til økt lesemotivasjon og kompetanse i det engelske klasserommet.Nøkkelord: lærerutdanning, engelskfaget, lesestrategier, læringsøkt, metakogni¬sjon

Exploring Freirean Culture Circles and Boalian Theatre as Pedagogies for Preparing Asset-Oriented Teacher Educators

2019 ◽  
Vol 121 (6) ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
Jamy Stillman ◽  
John Luciano Beltramo
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Role Play ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Contingent Work ◽  
Conditions For Learning ◽  
Critical Pedagogies ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Educator Development ◽  
Audio Video

Background/Context Teacher educator development remains an undertaking that is both understudied and underavailable as an explicit professional path, despite scholarship suggesting that teacher education's transformative potential hinges on teacher educators’ pedagogical work. Purpose, Practice, & Participants This article reports on a qualitative study that explored the development of teacher educators who expressed deep commitments to educational equity for minoritized youth. Fifteen current and prospective teacher educators participated over three years in situated adaptations of two critical pedagogical approaches: Freirean culture circles, where participants engaged in critical dialogue around conflicts encountered in their teacher education work that involved issues of inequity, particularly deficit-based ideas of P–12 students and their families, and Boalian theatre (or teatro), interactive role-play where participants dramatically re-enacted these conflicts and imagined potential responses to them. This study examines the ways in which these critical pedagogical spaces facilitated participants’ development as asset-oriented teacher educators. Research Design & Data Collection This research represents an ethnographic self-study, as the authors engaged in culture circles and teatro as participant-researchers. To study these spaces of critical teacher educator development, the authors collected ethnographic data, which included semistructured interviews with each participant, field notes, and audio/ video recordings of dialogue and role-play, as well as participant written reflections. Findings/Results Through their engagement in culture circles and teatro, participants came to recognize some of the micro-pedagogies of asset-oriented teacher education, grappled with the relational dimensions of teacher learning, became familiar with possible tools of asset-oriented teacher education, and interrogated the social, political, and historical dimensions of the work. In doing so, they understood each area as linked both to specific settings and individuals and as connected to more common dilemmas that may play out across teacher education contexts. Conclusions/Recommendations While cautioning against widespread, mechanistic implementation, the authors recognize culture circles and teatro as offering special promise for the development of asset-oriented teacher educators. In particular, findings suggest that these critical pedagogies support the conditions for learning—particularly spaces that center participants’ identities and experiential conflicts—that can cultivate complex understandings about, and tools for engaging, the contingent work of asset-oriented teacher education. Such spaces seem particularly well equipped to cultivate critical understandings deemed essential for transforming the field of teacher education.

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