Teacher Education In Crisis? An International Attempt To Reframe Teacher Educators’ Professionalism And Pedagogy

Author(s):

Warren Kidd(presenting / submitting)Jean Murray(presenting)Mieke Lunenberg(presenting)Ruben Vanderlinde(presenting)Ainat Guberman(presenting)Kari Smith(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Round Table

Session Information

10 SES 10 D, Teacher Education In Crisis? An International Attempt To Reframe Teacher Educators’ Professionalism And Pedagogy

Round Table

Time:

2014-09-04

15:30-17:00

Room:

B228 Sala de Aulas

Chair:

Ronnie Davey

Contribution

This roundtable discussion brings together teacher educators from diverse European and international backgrounds: England, Belgium, Holland, Israel, New Zealand and Norway.

Within the backdrop of the European Commission's recent policy gaze on teacher education we stand at the juncture of paradigmatic and contradictory shifts in teacher education. While politicians and policy makers point to the significance of the academy in top performing PISA education systems, teacher education, in many countries, is increasingly moving into schools as are many of the professionals and para-professionals associated with this contested field. Conflicts between policy and practice arise as teacher educators are caught between the competing demands of job preparation, social reproduction, social engineering and social justice. By exploring broader and deeper understandings of what it means to be a teacher educator this international roundtable discussion seeks to explore the policy, practice and values that underpin this hybrid and ill-defined professional group (Murray 2012; Berry 2013). In so doing it seeks to reassert and reframe a pedagogy and knowledge base of teacher education in the light of shifting landscapes. To frame this discussion on the nature and role of a teacher education profession our round-table dialogue, with teacher educators from different European settings will, through systematic enquiry, draw upon four domains, namely identity, criticality, communication and boundary crossings.

Method

Following the 2013 European Commission’s publication ‘Supporting Teacher Educators for better learning outcomes’, this discussion will focus upon the ‘Professional Competence’ and ‘Professional Knowledge Base’ of teacher education and teacher educators. In line with this publication, the assertion is that “to strengthen the professional awareness and identity of teacher educators, it is necessary to identify and acknowledge the areas of competence (knowledge, skills and attitudes) that underpin teacher educators’ diverse, multifaceted roles.” (2013: 39). In doing so, this roundtable will offer new perspectives on the professional knowledge base of teacher educators and how this is compounded by different local and national contexts. Discussions and contributions in this session will, in light of recent European documentation, explore the ways in which at the heart of a teacher education professional practice and pedagogy lies a commitment to the lifelong learning of teacher educators, teachers, teachers in training and the learners of teachers. This commitment to the lifelong learning and learning interactions and dialogues of all groups involved is framed by the group as a question of developing skilful learners and professional learners in the following aspects of ‘learning how to practice’ - critical, contextual, adaptive, self-regulating, caring, and critical inquiry.

Expected Outcomes

Within an international context in which Teacher Education is often positioned as a policy ‘problem’ there is a need for a coherent set of strategies to develop the professional identities and knowledge bases of this heterogeneous occupational group. However, within the European context, there is also a need to embrace fluidity, flexibility and complexity when exploring teacher education systems in different national locations. At present there are few systemic routes for Teacher Educators’ ongoing learning and little research documentation of these routes (Berry 2013; Smith 2012). This roundtable contribution seeks to address this imbalance by re-positioning teacher education practices as supporting lifelong learners to learn how to practice and to practice how to learn. This re-positioning places the role of the teacher educator at the heart of professional practice of teachers, learning and education itself. In assessing the current challenges to teacher education across multiple contexts the round table will explore how this ‘boundary-crossing’ profession might re-establish its professional competence in the face of potentially shifting terrain. In so doing it will engage with debates and draw conclusions around the professional learning and development of teacher educators within a historic context in which fledgling teacher educators have, in the past, received little appropriate formal support or preparation in the work they do (Zeichner 2005).

References

Berry, M. 2013. Teacher Educators’ Professional Learning: “You’re more or less on your own”. Paper Presented at ISATT, Ghent, 2-7th July 2013). European Commission. 2013. Supporting Teacher Educators For Better Learning Outcomes. Brussels, October 2013. Murray, J. Czerniawski, G. & Barber, P. 2011. Faculty Identities, Academic Communities and Knowledge Terrains in Teacher Education. Journal of Education for Teaching, 37.3. pp.105 – 125. Murray, J. 2012. Towards the re-articulation of the work of teacher educators in Higher Education institutions in England European Journal of Teacher Education 31. 1. pp. 17–34 Smith, K. 2012. The multi-faceted teacher educator- a Norwegian perspective. Journal of Education for Teaching, 37 (3), 337-349. Zeichner, K., & Conklin, H. (2005). Teacher education programs. In M. Cochran‐ Smith & K. Zeichner (Eds.), AERA panel on research in teacher Education. Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.

Author Information

Warren Kidd (presenting / submitting)

University of East London

Cass School of Education and Communities

London

Jean Murray (presenting)

University of East London

The Cass School

London

Mieke Lunenberg (presenting)

VU University Amsterdam, Holland

Ruben Vanderlinde (presenting)

Ghent University, Belgium

Ainat Guberman (presenting)

The MOFET Institute

The Research Authority

Jerusalem

Kari Smith (presenting)

University of Bergen, Norway

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