Teacher Educator Professional Identities –Complex Negotiations Within The Preservice And Inservice Sectors
Author(s):
Ronnie Davey (presenting / submitting) Jane Abbiss (presenting)
Conference:
ECER 2014
Network:
10. Teacher Education Research
Format:
Paper

Session Information

10 SES 07 B, Teacher Education: Identities, Practices, Professionalism

Paper Session

Time:
2014-09-03
17:15-18:45
Room:
B223 Sala de Aulas
Chair:
Chris Wilkins

Contribution

Internationally, teacher education has undergone dramatic change over recent decades in response to the global pressures of neoliberalism, national political and policy agendas for tertiary education and teacher education more specifically, and localised institutional re-structuring (Zuljan & Vogrinc, 2011). In Aotearoa New Zealand, as in European nations, the work of teacher educators has been re-framed in response to these forces for change. Within specific contexts, but in response to shared pressures, teacher educators have had their professional work brought into relief and their professional identities challenged (Davey, 2013). There is a growing body of work that positions teacher education as a specific social practice, discipline and profession (eg. Loughran, 2006), and that explores issues and aspects of teacher educator identity (including Bates, Swennan & Jones, 2011; Davey, 2013; Murray & Male, 2005). There is, though, a limited amount of research that distinguishes pre-service and in-service teacher education and focuses on the heterogeneous nature of teacher education. This paper seeks to illuminate issues relating to teacher educator identity negotiations that may be similar or different for different groups of teacher educators.

Theoretically, we take as starting points the notions of identity as socially constructed, subjective, plural, and subject to constant personal negotiations as people position and re-position themselves within social and institutional contexts (Hollway, 1984; Pinnegar & Murphy, 2011), and professional identity as the ‘valued professional self’  (Davey, 2013). Teacher educators’ identity negotiations are complex. They are tied up with individual teacher educators’ lived experiences and how they want to personally present themselves in the performance of their roles as teacher educators, the development of a collective identity as a professional community, and the positioning of teacher educators within institutional structures. We posit that pre-service and in-service teacher educators’ identity negotiations reflect a shared professional identity, while also reflecting different tensions in roles and positioning in relation to institutional structures and hierarchies. Through the review of a selection of research studies that explore teacher educators’ lived experience and professional identity negotiations, we examine the veracity of this claim. 

Method

This paper reviews four selected and different qualitative research studies from Aotearoa New Zealand that have, in different ways, explored teacher educators’ lived experience, practice and professional identity negotiations. The specific studies are: • A phenomenological study carried out over five years of the professional self-image and identities of nine pre-service teacher educators from six different teacher education institutions in Aotearoa New Zealand (Davey, 2013): • A Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) project that, through multiple case studies and a meta ethnography, explored teacher educators’ and teachers shifting epistemological understandings in the context of curriculum change (Abbiss & Quinlivan, 2012; Andreotti, Abbiss, & Quinlivan, 2012); • A longitudinal Ministry of Education funded project called INSTEP (Consolidation phase) which investigated the contribution made to their teacher education practices and self-understandings by the collaborative-collective process itself. (Davey, R., Ham, V., Gilmore, F., Haines, G., McGrath, A., Morrow, D., & Robinson, R. 2011); • A comparative study of two ‘pods’ of teacher educators engaged in year old mentored self-studies of their practice. One group worked in in-service and the other in pre-service teacher education (Davey & Ham, 2012). The review of studies is qualitative and exploratory. Adopting a model that theorises teacher educator professional identity in relation to the notions of ‘doing’, ‘knowing’ and ‘being’ and ‘belonging’ (Davey, 2013), the four research studies are examined in relation to pre-service and in-service teacher educators’ professional identity negotiations. Questions are asked about whether there is or is not a qualitative difference between pre-service and in-service teacher educators’ professional identities and the nature of any differences. This review of research focuses on and differentiates lived experiences and professional identities of those working in teacher education roles. In doing this, we recognise that the group that is ‘teacher educators’ is not homogeneous. As a small-scale, exploratory study, the aim is to pose questions and generate possibilities for further exploration and theorising.

Expected Outcomes

In exploring pre-service and in-service teacher educators’ identity negotiations, this paper contributes to theorising the professional identities of teacher educators. It builds on recent work European and other authors (including Bates, Swennan & Jones, 2011; Davey, 2013; Murray, 2014). In particular, by looking at the similarities and differences of the lived experiences and identity negotiations of pre-service and in-service teacher educators, and the contexts of their work within academic hierarchies and institutional structures, we problematise the roles, status and complexity of teacher educator identity negotiations across contexts. We expect to move towards tentative conclusions about what helps make identity negotiations positive for those engaged in the work of teacher education in pre-service and in-service contexts. In doing this, we consider the positive potential of collaborative professional learning that supports pre-service and in-service teacher educators to research together in relation to their practice. We advocate that such research communities and projects present fertile sites for further identity negotiation and professional development. The complexities and tensions of the changing socio-political contexts within which New Zealand teacher educators carry out their professional and academic roles will resonate with European teacher educators who work in similarly challenging environments.

References

Abbiss, J., & Quinlivan, K., (2012). Shifting conceptualisations of knowledge and learning in the integration of the New Zealand Curriculum in teacher education: A meta-ethnography. Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI). Retrieved from http://www.tlri.org.nz/sites/default/files/projects/9264%20Meta%20ethnography.pdf. Andreotti, V., Abbiss, J., & Quinlivan, K., (2012). Shifting conceptualizations of knowledge and learning in the integration of the New Zealand Curriculum in teacher education: Project summary. Teaching and Learning Research Initiative. Retrieved from http://www.tlri.org.nz/ tlri-research/research-completed/ post-school-sector/shifting-conceptualisation-knowledge-and. Bates, T., Swennan, A., & Jones, K. (Eds.) (2011). The professional Development of Teacher Educators. Abbingdon: Routledge. Davey, R. (2013). The professional identity of teacher educators: Career on the cusp. London: Routledge. Davey, R., & Ham, V., with Haines, G., McGrath, A., Morrow, D., Robinson, R. (2011). Privatization, illumination, and validation in identity making within a teacher educator research collective. Studying Teacher Education. Special Issue, 187-199. Davey, R. & Ham, V. (2012). The Professional Dispositions of Preservice and Inservice Teacher Educators: A Comparative Study. 4th Association for Teacher Educators in Europe (ATEE) Winter Conference, Coimbra, Portugal. Hollway, W. (1984). Gender difference and the production of subjectivity. In C. Urwin, C. Venn, & V. Walkerdine (Eds.) Changing the Subject: Psychology, Social Regulation and Subjectivity (pp 227-263). London: Methuen and Co. Loughran, J. J. (2006). Developing a pedagogy of teacher education: Understanding teaching and learning about teaching. London: Routledge. Murray, J. (2014). Teacher educators’ constructions of professionalism: a case study, Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 42:1, 7-21 Murray, J. (2012, April). Teacher Educators and their professional learning: Issues for teacher education in Europe and beyond. Keynote address, 4th Association for Teacher Educators in Europe (ATEE) Winter Conference, Coimbra, Portugal. Murray, J., & Male, T. (2005). Becoming a Teacher Educator: evidence from the field. Teaching and Teacher Education, 21(2), 125-142. Pinnegar, S., & Murphy, S. (2011). Teacher educator identity emerging through positioning self and others. Studying Teacher Education 7(2), 155-158. Zuljan, V. & Vogrinc, J. (Eds.) (2011). European Dimensions of Teacher Education - Similarities and Differences. Ljubljana: Faculty of Education; Kranj/The National School of Leadership and Education.

Author Information

Ronnie Davey (presenting / submitting)
University of Canterbury
School of Teacher Education
Christchurch
Jane Abbiss (presenting)
University of Canterbury
School of Teacher Education
Christchurch

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