Section archive - Teacher Educators

This is a self-study of the author's professional and cultural biography and identity.She uses this inquiry to demonstrate how biography and identity influences the lived experience of teaching and the researcher’s stance. She also examines areas where preservice urban teacher education programs must improve. Her personal recommendations describe experiences that would have better prepared her for urban teaching. Suggestions include expanding coursework in the historical, political, and sociocultural influences on urban education and in designing culturally responsive curricula.

Common sense suggests that good teachers matter and some teachers have more impact on student achievement than others. According to the legislative initiatives, teacher preparation institutions, particularly university based programs, are seen as part of the problem, and key players in shaping and funding initiatives in teacher education are often outside of universities. The authors contend that the solution to the enhancement of teacher quality lies in our ability to address the overlapping systems problem. Teacher educators must understand the framing of research underpinning the teacher quality movement and how it pertains to local contexts, and be able to respond by examining our pedagogy and programs from a systemic perspective

The article describes a research study for developing induction support for pre-service teacher educators in England. The findings indicate that most induction provision occurs within teacher education departments, often at the micro levels of the teaching team.

The article refers to professional standards for teacher educators for teacher that have develop be the Netherlands and the United States. These standards are used to identify the professional expertise of teacher educators, to analyse their professional development needs, and to provide assessment mechanisms for accreditation. This article outlines the Dutch and American initiative' and draws on three models for developing a similar framework with teacher educators in England.