Who are the new teacher educators in Norway, and what qualifications are emphasized for new teacher educators in Norway?

Author(s):

Ketil Langørgen(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 02 D, Partnerships, Qualifications and Inquiry in Teacher Education

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-02

15:15-16:45

Room:

B228 Sala de Aulas

Chair:

Graeme Hall

Contribution

The overall aim of this PhD. project is to focus on the induction period for new academic employees in Norwegian teacher education. Lately focus has been on the quality of Norwegian teacher training and much of this attention has been focused on improvement of student teachers’ learning conditions (White Paper 11. 2008-2009). Historically, teacher educator’s professional development has been given little attention in Norway, which is often reflected in low current research and publication on the subject, and neither does an international focus on teacher educator’s quality and professionalism have a long history (Hagen, 2000; Brooms & Dengerink, 2001). The study is therefore proposed aimed to identify who the new teacher educators are, what kind of follow-up and development newly appointed teacher educators experience, and the development opportunities that exist in relation to new academic employees in teacher education. The project builds on international research on the subject (Murray 2005; Ritter 2007; Loughran & Russell 2007) with respect to the Norwegian teacher education context.

Literature about the nature of teacher educators’ career trajectories and pathways is relatively rare within the field of teacher education research in general (Mayer, Mitchell, Santoro & White, 2011).

Kari Smith (2011) discusses in the Norwegian educational context the many roles teacher educators have to hold and presents what the local context, a university’s teacher education department, does to support new colleagues in developing individual roles and identities as teacher educators which enable them to fit into the local culture and requirements. Smith points out the impact of different backgrounds can have on the practice of the profession as teacher educator. Diane Mayer et al (2011) asks in their study, who are the new teacher educators in Australia and why do they work in teacher education? What career pathways have led them to teacher education, what are key aspects of their knowledge and practice as teacher educators and what are the critical issues faced by those working in teacher education?

This presentation set out to address similar questions about new teacher educators in a Norwegian context.

Who are the newly appointed teacher educators in Norway and what qualifications are emphasized by the appointment of new teacher educators in Norway?

Method

This presentation is a part of a cross-sectional study that examines different perspectives, both quantitative and qualitative, on becoming a teacher educator in Norway. For this part of the study there has been developed a semi-structured on-line questionnaire to retrieve depth data from new teacher educators who have been in the profession for up to 3 years. The sample includes both teacher educators in pedagogy and didactics at all teacher education institutions in Norway. Of the 400 recipients in the target group of the survey was answered by about 64% (n=256) of the participants. The quantitative data obtained from the survey has preliminary been statistically analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). For the qualitative material in the survey Grounded Theory and constant comparative analysis method is a natural approach to develop categories and concepts for further discussion on the subject (Creswell, 2013).

Expected Outcomes

The survey that forms the basis for this paper was completed in May 2013. In the analysis process of the quantitative data in the survey, aspects related to new teacher educators work experience, educational background, gender and age are key elements that will be emphasized. Norwegian teacher educators is a diverse group with very different experiences and expertise and it appears difficult to find the "ideal" teacher educator for teacher education institutions in Norway. International research literature often emphasizes experience from school as fundamentally important for new teacher educators. Furthermore, in the Norwegian teacher education context research experience are also often promoted as a key qualification for new teacher educators. In the data of the study, it appears that this is often a contradictory combination of backgrounds and that difficult to find new teacher educators with both teachers and research experience. A key issue that should be discussed is therefore how can we understand and facilitate induction for new teacher educators from a diverse background?

References

Bullough, R. V. (2005). Being and becoming a mentor: school-based teacher educators and teacher educator identity. Teaching and Teacher Education 21, 143–155 Creswell, J. W. (2013). Qualitative inquiry & research design: choosing among five approaches. Los Angeles: Sage. Koster, B.; Brekelmans, M.; Korthagen, F.; Wubbels, T. (2005) Quality Requirements for Teacher Educators. Teaching and Teacher Education: An International Journal of Research 157-176 Loughran, J., & Russell, T. (1997). Teaching about teaching. London: Falmer Press. Mayer, D., Mitchell, J., Santoro, N. & White, S. (2011). Teacher educators and ‘accidental’ careers in academe: an Australian perspective, Journal of Education for Teaching: International research and pedagogy, 37:3, 247-260 Murray F. B. (2001). The overreliance of accreditors on consensus standards, Journal of Teacher Education 52 (2001) (2), 211–222 Murray, J. & Male, T. (2005). Becoming a teacher educator: evidence from the field. Teaching and Teacher Education 2, 125–142 Murray, J. (2006). Constructions of caring professionalism: a case study of teacher educators. Gender and education Vol. 18, No. 4, 381-397 Ritter, Jason K. (2007) Forging a Pedagogy of Teacher Education: The challenges of moving from classroom teacher to teacher educator. Studying Teacher Education, 3: 1, 5-22 Smith, K. (2005).”Teacher Educators’ professional knowledge- How does it differ from teachers’ professional knowledge?” Teaching and Teacher Education, Vol. 21, 177-192 Smith, K. (2011). The multi-faceted teacher educator: a Norwegian perspective. Journal of Education for Teaching, 37:3. 337-349 Zeichner, K. (2005). Becoming a teacher educator: a personal perspective. Teaching and Teacher Education Vol. 21, Issue 2, 117-124

Author Information

Ketil Langørgen (presenting / submitting)

Bergen University College

Centre for Educational Research

Hauglandshella

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