Teacher educators: their identities, sub‐identities and implications for professional development

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

“…Our respondents' answers revealed an increased emphasis on the teacher educator as a member of the academic community, and therefore on the research qualities and academic level of teacher educators. The tendency to emphasise this research identity of teacher educators is reflected in the literature on teacher educators (Murray 2010, Swennen et al 2010. However, this tendency entails the risk that other qualities of teacher educators will fade into the background and become neglected.…”

Landmarks in the professional and academic development of mid-career teacher educators

“…The research has demonstrated gradual and complex transitions among mid-career teacher educators as teachers of teachers, teachers in higher education and researchers, or a mix of these identities, as in Swennen et al (2010), These multiple identities and the links between them are depicted in Figure 3. As well as those making links between these multiple identities, we also found some teacher educators who were moving from one identity to another and leaving the previous ones behind, i.e.…”

“…Likewise Zeichner (2005), in describing his own journey from teacher to teacher educator in the USA, stresses that, 'If teacher education is to be taken more seriously in colleges and universities, then the preparation of new teacher educators needs to be taken more seriously as well' (p. 123). Swennen et al (2010) identify four main roles or sub-identities which teacher educators adopt at different times and in different combinations: schoolteacher, teacher of teachers, teacher in higher education and researcher. They argue that, in many cases, teacher educators have to transform themselves in order to take on certain identities, especially the researcher role, and stress the importance of studying these changes in teacher educators' professional and academic identities.…”

Role Perception among Faculty Members at Teacher Education Colleges

“…In colleges -by contrast-the majority of teacher educators to date do not meet these requirements, and research is often low on their list of professional priorities (Berry, 2007). There has recently been a shift in this tendency, and teacher educators affiliated with colleges have become more involved in research in their fields, with the aim of improving their work performance, usually by conducting action-and self-study research projects (Murray, 2010;Swennen, Jones, & Volman, 2010;Wilson, 2006). The need for research activity is explained by alluding to the fact that an integral part of teacher educators' work is to create new knowledge about teaching (Lunenberg & Hamilton, 2008).…”