Teacher educators’ research practices: an explorative study of teacher educators’ perceptions on research

Abstract

Research conducted by teacher educators is considered important for their professional development, their actual teaching practice and their body of knowledge. However, for many teacher educators in Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS) in the Netherlands, research is a new challenge. A survey was conducted among 508 such teacher educators exploring their perceptions towards research. They were questioned about the aims of research within a UAS, their perceived capabilities to conduct research and their need for support. Subsequently, 10 teacher educators were interviewed to elaborate on the findings and to gain further insight. Research is considered vital for their professional development, and their development is seen as an important means to improve the quality of the curriculum for teacher education. Teacher educators emphasise the need for communities of inquiry in which they can collaborate on research, improve their skills, develop a shared language and contribute to the body of knowledge in teacher education.

Professional development of teacher educators: what do they do? Findings from an explorative international study

“…However, fewer of the participants from the Netherlands were involved in research than participants from other countries. This might be due to the fact that they tend not to work at traditional universities but are employed at Universities of Applied Sciences, where research is a relatively new task (Willemse and Boei 2013).…”

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“…Practitioners often assert that much educational research has a minimal effect on their practice (see, e.g., Dick, 2004;Hord, 2004;Pajares, 1992;Willemse & Boei, 2013). Educational practitioners, in general, are suspicious by claiming that "research can be made to support anything" (Calhoun, Allen, Halliburton, & Jones, 1996, p. 54).…”

Developing “the Wings to Really Fly”: The Experiences of Four Postdoctoral Research Fellows within an Australian University Faculty of Education

“…Whilst the Ph.D. degree provides a valuable experience in conducting independent research, continuing with research after the doctorate is not easy [15], particularly for those in teaching intensive faculties. Teacher educators often come from teaching backgrounds and their recruitment has been based on their teaching qualifications rather than research achievements [16]. Although research has become an increasingly important part of the teacher educators' work in recent years, research and teaching seem often to belong to different worlds in the teacher education context [16,17], in which PDRFs need to negotiate their practice.…”

“…In some ways these negotiations demonstrated to our colleagues that we privileged research and modeled how space could be created for conducting research within the faculty. However, these were delicate negotiations within an education faculty with its strong tradition of teaching and where the institutionalized discourse had defined the discursive space and positioned academics mainly as teachers (see [16,34]). As Kerosuo [35] has noted elsewhere, our experiences of negotiating boundaries, shifting our professional identities, and articulating new practices was uncomfortable and "challenging" (page 183).…”

“…Thus, by having research as a major component of our workload we were to demonstrate the importance of research and publishing for the teacher education community (see [16]). …”