‘THE PROFESSION OF TEACHER EDUCATOR’ Anja Swennen VU University Amsterdam PLA, Reijkjavik June 2010 Improving the profession of teacher educators. What we need to know about teacher educators

This presentation 1.Introduction 2.Who are the teacher educators? 3.Identity of TE 4.Transition from teacher to teacher educator 5.Professional development of teacher educators 6.Recommendation

Why focus on teacher educators?  They are responsible for the education of (future) teachers and therefor for the education of all pupils and students  They are the “linchpins” of educational reform (Cochran-Smith, 2003)  If TE do not model good education, how can we expect teachers to engage in quality teaching Teacher Educators Matter Introduction

What is the problem? There is much attention for teachers: their pre-service and professional development but not for those who have to teach the teachers  Lack of attention for the quality of teacher educator in (inter)national policy  Lack of attention for the quality, induction and professional development of teacher educators in TEI  Teacher educators are not recognized as a specialized educational professional group with their own needs and wishes Introduction

TE are a heterogenous group  University based  College based Subject specialist in TEI / outside TEI Pedagogical subject specialist / subject didaktik’ Eductional/pedagogical specialist ‘Teacher’ Researcher Institute based School based PhD Master degree Bachelor degree Who are the TE?

Demands for teacher educators Plus Teaching experience (but not always) Supervising skills Teaching Internship Specialized training course (Portugal) Training course for trainers Who are the TE Degree PhD Master Bachelor The same as other teachers in higher education Subject and subject area Standards and registration Studying abroad

Names of Teacher Educators  University professor  HE professor/Lecturer lektor/docent  Assistent professor  Adjunkt  Teacher  Part time lecturers   Teacher educator (in documents)   Teacher trainer   Trainer   Mentor   Teacher School based TE  Supervisors  Tutors  Teacher educators (in documents) Who are the TE

The identity of TE An integration of:  Teacher in Higher Education  Researcher  Teacher in PE or SE  Second order teacher/practitioner  (Teacher in general) The identity of TE

of the work of TE’rs Characteristics of the work of TE’rs  age  Complexity  Research  Droste effect  Teaching about teaching Who are the TE?

Teacher in PE/SE  Experience as a teacher  Experience in/with profession of teachers  Legitemizing First orde context The identity of TE

Second order teacher (Murray & Male, 2005) Second order teachers teach about teaching First order teacher teach their subject to pupils and students The identity of TE

Second order teacher  Always aware of the second order context of TE and the first order context of teacher ( Not subject content, but what does a teahcers need to know about a subject in order to teach it well)  Pedagogy of teacher education (Loughran, 2007): implies how to teach in a first order context and how to teach in a second order context  Explicit modelling

Teacher+ further study TE Transition of teacher to TE PD Academic

The experience as teacher and the reflection on that experence is part of the identity of TE Leraar lerarenopleider Teacher in PE and SE PD

The transition from teacher to TE’r Intergration of the former identity teacher (in PE or SE) into the identity of TE = teacher in higher education, researcher and second order practitioner PD

Transition teacher to TE’er  Two to three years If not:  Less interest in pedagogy of teacher education  Less interest in research  More interest in school and pupils/studnets PD

TE’er as teacher in general Teachers and TE as one professional group  Rather subject specialist  Rather academicus  Rather teacher

PD of TE  Induction (second-phase induction, Morberg & Eisenschmidt, 2009; Van Velzen et al., 2010)  Activities to support and facilitate the transition from 1st to 2nd order teacher  PD courses : THE, research and pedagogy of teacher education Resources for TE (on line journals, books etc), money for PD, visiting conferences etc PD

Emerging body of knowledge about and from teacher educators TaTE, 2005 EJTE, 2008 PDiE, 2010 PD

Recommendation Professional development as  Identity as teacher in HE  Identity as researcher  Identity as second order context And realise this asks a lot of the specialists who educate the TE’rs 3 Recommendation