Session Information
10 SES 02 E, Teacher Educators for Just and Equitable Education: Learning from research across three continents
Symposium
Contribution
We report on a large-scale study, which focuses specifically on literacy teacher educators (LTEs), a particularly under-researched group (Wold et al. 2011). Our study involves 28 LTEs from U.S., Canada, UK, and Australia and examines their backgrounds, views, research activities, identity, and pedagogy. According to Cochran-Smith (2003), while teacher educators are key to reform there is limited understanding of how they are to accomplish their many tasks. What do teacher educators need to know? Author et al., (2015) have identified four spheres of knowledge for literacy teacher educators: research; pedagogy of higher education; literacy; current school and government initiatives. Identifying spheres of knowledge is helpful but the key question is how do LTEs acquire this vast knowledge? Their learning is often left to happenstance, their pedagogies and goals vary markedly, and they tend to teach what they know (Author et al., 2017, 2013). All 28 LTEs were interviewed three times. The first interview considered their background experiences; turning points in their career (personal and professional); and research activities. The second interview focused on their pedagogy (e.g., goals for their literacy course(s). The third focused on use of digital technology. Much of the methodology was qualitative (Merriam, 2009; Punch, 2014); a modified grounded theory approach was used, generating theory inductively from the data, using a set of techniques and procedures for collection and analysis (Punch, 2014). Key findings indicated that: 1. Overall the LTEs were committed to preparing student teachers for a more just and equitable society. To meet these goals they drew on their personal knowledge and (even childhood) experiences because they taught “who they are.” 2. Most LTEs addressed social justice issues but tended to focus on an aspect related to their earlier life experiences. Their passion for a particular issue led them often to organizing community-based experiences for their student teachers. Often this work was related to their own research. 3. None received support from their institution for their initiatives which tended to be “housed” in their given literacy course. Despite LTEs’ commitment to aspects of social justice, the impetus was their own life experiences. Consequently, they evidenced a mixed medley of topics and pedagogies. Each initiative was inherently valuable, but the absence of discussion among LTEs (and teacher educators) means many aspects of social justice are idiosyncratically and incompletely addressed. Is there a sphere of knowledge they need in order to teach for just and equitable education?
References
Author et al. (2017). Author et al. (2015). Author et al. (2013). Cochran-Smith, M. (2003). Learning and unlearning: the education of teacher educators. Teaching and Teacher Education, 19, 5-28. Merriam, S. (2009). Qualitative research: A Guide to design and implementation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Punch, K. (2014). Introduction to social research: Quantitative and qualitative approaches. London: Sage. Wold, L., Young, J., & Risko, V. (2011). Qualities of influential literacy teacher educators. Literacy Research and Instruction, 50(2), 156-17
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.