Der Beitrag bezieht sich auf ein studienbasiertes Projekt auf Initiative der Berufsgruppe „Erwachsenenbildung, Schulentwicklung und Beratung“ der Privaten Pädagogischen Hochschule Wien/Krems zur Erforschung der Rolle von Lehrerausbildern an der KPH Wien/Krems . Es basiert auf einer Online-Befragung für Lehrerausbilder der Weiterbildung. Die Frage war, wie sich Menschen, die als Trainer arbeiten, selbst wahrnehmen und ihre Rollen beschreiben. Die Projektziele lassen sich wie folgt definieren: (1) „Rollenverständnis“: Informationen über die Wahrnehmung der Rolle von Lehrerausbildern und deren Identifikation mit der Arbeit von Lehrerausbildern gewinnen, (2) „Zugang und Motivation“: Erkenntnisse zu unterschiedlichen Herangehensweisen an die Arbeit als Lehrerausbilder und zu möglichen Motiven und (3) „Bildungsauftrag“:

Aussagen im Nationalen Bildungsbericht 2018 in Österreich und der Kommentar zu TALIS 2018 legen nahe, den Bereich der Lehrerbildung genauer zu untersuchen (Müller et al. 2019). Sie betont die Weiterbildungsforschung und betont, dass sich die Weiterbildung auf das Zusammenspiel von Personal und Institution konzentrieren sollte, um Ergebnisse zu pushen. Die Erkenntnisse sollten für die weitere Planung und Weiterbildung genutzt werden, da die Fähigkeiten und Praktiken der Lehrerfortbildungsanbieter in Österreich noch unerforscht sind (Müller et al. 2019; Lipowsky & Rzejak 2015).

Competent teacher training for further education is required for successful professionalization processes, but it is still unclear who these persons are, and who should combine expertise in specialist science, subject didactics and process support (Timperley et al. 2007; MacPhail et al. 2019). Building on this, this paper focuses on the role of teacher trainers to gain an exploratory study of the characteristics of the role understanding. Based on the statements of the trainers, a better understanding of the area of further training, which so far has been little researched, compared to the first phase of teacher´s professional development training, should be developed in the sense of a reconstruction of the role perception.

The role of teachers working in teacher training for further education is not defined. Mostly they are referred to as "Teacher Educators" (European Commission 2013). In contrast to other countries (NL, GB), they do not constitute a recognized profession in German-speaking countries and do not have their own professional association. Yet, it is important to develop a professional identity in order to play and fulfill the role.

There is little scientific knowledge about the training of teacher trainers, and few know about this job and how to access it. Murray still speaks of a missing status of an established anchoring of the profession (Boyd, Harris & Murray 2011; Murray 2014). Most of these are teachers who have undergone training in further education, are also researchers from the university sector, or experts and persons with other professional qualifications and subject-specific practical experience (Schratz, 2015; Kraler 2015; Murray 2015; Zehetmeier 2017; Katschnig, Wanitschek 2021; Rabl et al. 2021). Given the potential influence that such training has on teachers and thus indirectly on students, it is extremely important that their work is of a high quality (see Snoek, Swennen & van der Klink 2011). The study presented below focuses on roles and the expectations of people working in training teachers of further education. The central research question is: “Wie beschreiben Personen, die in der Lehrerfortbildung tätig sind, ihre Arbeit? Wie wichtig ist diese Arbeit für ihr Berufsleben (Identität)? Wie sehen sie sich als Lehrerausbilder (Selbstbild)? ”

The method of quantitative data collection was chosen to record the experiences and opinions of the persons involved in training teachers in further education. The data was collected via an online questionnaire. This choice of method covered a larger number of study participants and was time and cost effective. Against the background of research ethics, which presuppose the anonymity of respondents, no personal proximity or spatial proximity was necessary, thus minimizing socially desirable responses. A specially developed questionnaire was created based on questionnaires and guideline interviews from studies published in the field of teacher training in further education. The online questionnaire was created by Unipark and consists of five sections: (1) introductory questions (extent of activity in teacher training in further education, target group, years of service in such training), (2) access to further teacher training (training, additional training, motivation), (3) content focus, (4) identification with the work as a teacher trainer in further education, and (5) educational mission in such teacher training (sustainability, expectations and competence requirements). The questionnaire contains a total of 30 closed or open questions. The questionnaire was submitted to a test group (teacher trainers, school developers, teachers, people who work in training and people who work in planning in-service training) for the pre-test in order to validate the items and make changes if necessary. Dispatch of the online questionnaire was between February 2020 and April 2020. The data was imputed into the SPSS statistics program without time-consuming input and then analyzed. Depending on the nature of the data, different inferential test procedures were used in addition to descriptive ones. A total of 381 trainers (out of 1466 trainers working at KPH Vienna/Krems in the last two years) took part in the survey (response rate: 25.98%). The number of people working in in-service training is not recorded throughout Austria, which is why no comparison can be made here. The gender ratio was fairly balanced with 202 (53%) women and 178 (46.7%) men, one person indicated a different gender (0.3%). The majority of the trainers come from pedagogical professions. On average, the respondents teach up to 5 semester hours per week (SWS), and half of the respondents have only been working in training for seven years.

The teacher trainers in further education have different academic degrees in different areas, different competencies, for example, teaching, research, school social work, or leadership, and work in a spectrum ranging from full employment to part-time teaching positions as teacher trainers. The level of education of the respondents was interesting (over 60% have a bachelor's degree or higher). Almost a quarter have a teaching degree, 30 per cent have some other education and over 45 per cent have a teaching degree and some other. Almost two-thirds of the teacher educators interviewed say that they have already taught or are currently teaching in a school. Therefore, as expected one cannot speak of a homogeneous professional group. The interviewees assign themselves to different roles, with motivators (77.2%), knowledge transfer (69.9%) and supporters being the most frequently mentioned (66.3%). The respondents make different demands on ideal teacher trainers (communicative and social competences, professional knowledge, willingness for further training), whereby the answers correspond to the demands of participants on trainers (Lipowsky & Rzejak, 2015). This study is generally intended to stimulate research in this field and to incorporate the knowledge gained in the selection and support of trainers. This will ensure that the meaning of this “hidden profession” (Murray 2015) can be recognized and accorded due importance. From an international perspective, teacher educators already have a much higher reputation elsewhere than in Austria, since research by and about these persons is more valued. Many of the respondents mentioned formal opportunities for meeting colleagues and talking to them about their work (see MacPhail et al. 2019). This would be a contribution towards professionalizing the role of teacher training in further education in German-speaking countries.

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