‘Finding the image’: using photos to give voice to teacher educator professional learning

Abstract

Reflective competencies for teacher educators include the ability to reflect on, evaluate, develop alternatives, and change one's own teaching (Koster, Brekelmans, Korthagen, & Wubbels, 2005). Reflection is therefore an important competence in ensuring teacher educators are equipped to respond to the evolving needs, demands, and expectations of teaching and teaching about teaching (Koster et al., 2005;Loughran, 2014). Both policy makers (European Commission, Education and Training, 2013) and researchers (Loughran, 2014) recognise reflection as a key professional development activity for teacher educators to influence their practice (Darling-Hammond & McLaughlin, 2011;Korthagen & Lunenberg, 2004), and by extension teacher quality (Goodwin & Kosnick, 2013).Reflection is therefore a mechanism that can support teacher educators in developing their capacity to learn from experiences and to integrate this learning within their pedagogical practices. For example, Jara and Maggio (2016) demonstrate how, for them, becoming a teacher educator involved a process of framing and reframing knowledge triggered by experience and interactions. Physical education teacher education (PETE) scholars have also emphasised the role of reflection in their development as teacher educators (Fernandez-Balboa, 2009;Fletcher, 2016;Richards & Ressler, 2016). Fernandez-Balboa outlines how self-reflection helped him to 'un-blur' his memory. He proposes self-reflection can help physical education teacher educators to 'establish an incipient handle where to grab the essence of (our)self ' (p. 160). Both Fletcher (2016) and Richards and Ressler (2016) describe how reflection was central to helping them improve their practices as physical education teacher educators. Schön's (1983) writings related to 'reflection-on-action' and 'reflection-in-action' and ultimately 'reflection-on reflection-in-action' (Schön, 1995) provided the theoretical basis