Becoming a university lecturer in teacher education: expert school teachers reconstructing their pedagogy and identity

Abstract

This article contributes to understanding of the professional learning of expert school teachers when they are appointed as university-based teacher educators. In this case study of a single department a qualitative analysis is used to interpret the transcripts of sixteen semi-structured interviews with lecturers in teacher education within four years of their appointment to higher education roles. They experience tensions within the educational partnership and professional field about the value of abstract knowledge compared to work-based practice and about what a lecturer in teacher education should be. The situated learning of the new lecturers within their particular departmental context encourages them to hold on to their existing identities as school teachers, rather than embrace new identities as academics.Key Words: Teacher educator; lecturer in teacher education; identity; pedagogy From school teacher to university lecturerThis paper reports on an investigation into the perspectives and workplace learning of newly appointed lecturers, in a single large UK teacher education department, who have moved from school based teacher roles and have less than five years experience working in higher education. The key question is 'how do new teacher education lecturers experience their transition from professional practice as school teachers to become lecturers in teacher education based in higher education?' Within this there is a sub-question of how these new lecturers build their professional identities. The purpose of the study is to help to shape the academic induction of new lecturers in teacher education because the development of these professional educators is critical for the effective contribution of higher education departments to the training of new school teachers.

Developing a culture of publication: a joint enterprise writing retreat

“…Indeed, environmental and cultural factors within a university, for example, time constraints and teaching excellence focussed curricula are often cited as barriers rather than facilitators to improving scholarly publication outputs (Clughen and Connell, 2011). The transition into an academic role has been identified as challenging even for experienced scholars, with individuals doubting their credibility and competence (Boyd and Harris, 2010). This experience has been echoed by writers who fear being exposed as 'frauds', with feelings of perfectionism and shame towards their writing (Grant and Knowles, 2000) many academics and research students experience writing-related struggles (Caffarella and Barnett, 2000;Cameron et al, 2009) with reported concerns of having their inadequacies exposed in their published writing.…”

The quality of teacher educators in the European policy debate: actions and measures to improve the professionalism of teacher educators

“…A second theme that has been addressed is that of the professional development of teacher educators. There is now a growing body of knowledge about the induction of teacher educators in Europe (Van Velzen et al 2010) and in specific countries such as England (Boyd and Harris 2010) and Israel (Shagrir 2010). There is also an emerging body of knowledge on ways to increase the quality of teacher educators that has a focus on the learning of experienced professionals, such as learning in a community.…”

The challenges for new academics in adopting student-centred approaches to teaching

“…Although a full discussion of this issue is beyond the scope of the current article it is worth noting parallels here with other recent work with individuals new to teaching in higher education (Boyd and Harris 2010).…”