Examining quality in initial teacher education is considered a complex task. One dimension of this complexity is addressed by examining teacher educators as key stakeholders for ensuring quality in initial teacher education. Recently, there has been an increasing interest in the concepts of teacher educator identity, their professional development, and their roles and cultures, to name a few (e.g., Byman et al., 2021; Izadinia, 2014: Snoek et al., 2011; Tack et al., 2018). However, the influence of teacher educators in improving quality in initial teacher education seems to be still under-researched.

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of teacher educators in understanding and improving quality in initial teacher education. In our title, we paraphrase the iconic work of Becher and Trowler (2007) on “academic tribes and territories” to examine teacher educators positioning in different academic tribes and territories and how that reflects the process and outcome of improving quality in initial teacher education.

The study focuses on Kosovo, a small and “peripheral” European context. In light of improving quality in initial teacher education, Kosovo has embarked on ongoing structural reforms. However, Kosovo initial teacher education developed in 2002 and it is still at a relatively early stage in its development to provide quality teacher education. When seen in relation to comparable European universities, it is clear that it has much to strengthen teacher educators’ professionalism. Therefore, research is needed to understand the influence of teacher educators in improving quality in initial teacher education in Kosovo, which can be of interest also for contexts undergoing a similar transition.

The study addressed the following research questions:

1. How do teacher educators lead the understanding and improvement of quality in initial teacher education?
   1. How do teacher educators currently understand and/or conceptualise quality initial teacher education?
   2. How teacher educator “academic tribes and territories” have reflected on quality improvement in initial teacher education?
   3. In what ways do contextual dynamics influence the contribution of teacher educators towards a quality initial teacher education in Kosovo?

Theoretical Framework

Cameron and Freeman (1991) emphasise that higher education institutions, including teacher education institutions, are faced with various types of individual and group cultures that can interfere in the process of quality improvement. Reasons for the existence of different subcultures hinge on the individuals’ motivations for bonding and the strategic emphases that the culture type upholds (1991).

Becher and Trowler (2007) critically discuss such “subcultures” in higher education in terms of tribal territories and the cultures that academic staff endorse. “Academic tribe” refers to the “distinctive cultures within academic communities and “cultures” refers to values, beliefs, and attitudes that are embraced by a group in a given context (Becher & Trowler, 2007, p. 23). One of the factors that influence academic staff forming clusters depends on their academic disciplines and professional areas. The book is not directly concerned with teacher education but it offers a theoretical paradigm that can significantly contribute to theorising the field of teacher education within academia.

Other studies have discussed teacher education tribal territories in terms of the conflict between “pedagogy” and “subject discipline”, which can be considered “the jewel in the crown” of academic disputes (see: Hudson & Zgaga, 2017; Zgaga, 2011).

Haapakorpi (2011) has argued that subcultures guided by the discipline have shown higher levels of resistance and capacity to preserve their culture. Skelton (2012) has suggested that academic staff commitment to a disciplinary subculture grounded on teaching philosophy and educational values hinders the advancement of an inclusive culture of quality.

The study is situated within a qualitative research paradigm and involves an interpretive approach (Denzin & Lincoln, 2018). This is part of a larger study conducted over three phases of data collection starting in the period 2018/19. In this paper, we only report interviews conducted with management staff (n = 6, 15 interviews) and teacher educators (n = 15, 28 interviews) in initial teacher education institutions in Kosovo. Teacher educators were selected with a purposive sampling strategy commonly used in qualitative research (Creswell and Creswell, 2018). Maximum variation-convenience sampling was used as criteria to identify teacher educators from different programmes, gender, age ranges, different disciplines/education backgrounds, academic rank, and institutions, to cover the entire spectrum of perceptions. Management staff are also teacher educators, thus, included in the sample. Similarly, the management staff were selected with a purposive sampling strategy (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). Criterion sampling was used to identify management staff of different levels, including the positions of dean, vice-dean, and department heads. The first phase of interviews focused on a more general component concerning (I) participants’ understandings of quality in initial teacher education. It aimed at examining teacher educators and management staff general perceptions regarding their involvement, approaches and actions towards understanding the process of improving quality in initial teacher education. The second phase addressed (II) participant roles, cultures, identities and professional development in relation to improving quality in initial teacher education, by also allowing data from the first phase of interviews to inform the second phase. The third phase addressed (III) participant perceptions regarding contextual dynamics that influence quality improvement in initial teacher education. The focus of this phase was to better understand the context and meaning of findings emerging from the first and second phases to achieve a synthesis of data collected in a broader research context. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. As Nowell et al. (2017) recommend, research questions have been used to guide the thematic analysis. The thematic analysis followed Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six-phased method as a reflective process, including (1) familiarization with data, (2) generating initial codes, (3) searching for themes, (4) reviewing themes, (5) defining and naming themes, and (6) producing the report. MAXQDA qualitative software was used for organizing and analysing the text. The inductive coding approach identified several broad themes and sub-themes.

Teacher educator practice has shown to have a determining role in how quality in initial teacher education is understood and improved. Findings show that teacher educators leading quality improvement is characterised by many tensions and contradictions. Specifically, we found tensions and contradictions between (i) Pedagogy and Subject teacher educator disciplines, (ii) teacher educators’ classroom approaches, strategies and methodologies, (iii) teacher educators’ professional development prospects, and (iv) functional and other (extended) roles of teacher educators towards improving quality in initial teacher education. Findings confirm that such contradictions originate from three main aspects that enable teacher educators’ attachment to isolated academic tribes and territories and enforce how they have embedded themselves as professionals, including (i) teacher educators’ discipline/previous studies, (ii) teacher educators’ teaching and research experience, and (iii) organisational culture influence in teacher educator professional development. The discussion of findings attributes the professional embeddedness of teacher educators into isolated academic tribes and territories to some contextual dynamics following a missing organisational culture in initial teacher education institutions and teacher educator tacit knowledge that further influences quality in initial teacher education. Our findings recommend that improving quality in initial teacher education systematically requires institutions to recruit and support teacher educators to have a broad mandate, an expansive world-view, a collaborative and research-based approach, and the skills to enact a rich curriculum. The study concludes by endorsing a teacher educator-wide socialisation matrix as a way forward to challenging the restrictive teacher educator academic tribes and territories at European, national, institutional and individual levels. Therefore, teacher educator socialisation could contribute to extending organisational culture and stimulating the development of collective values and cultures for a teacher educator-oriented improvement of quality in initial teacher education.

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