Developing a teaching-research nexus in teacher education: recounts of an educator’s self-study

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study shares perspectives on how a teaching-research nexus could be developed in teacher education practices. The focus is on one teacher-educator’s experience of learning to communicate the mutuality of teaching and research initiatives with a group of learner-teachers and colleagues during a college-based teacher education course in Eritrea. A self-study that includes interactions with critical friends, interviewing, and researcher diaries, facilitated in exploring the challenges and improvements in developing a teaching-research nexus while supporting the reflective collaborative practices of a group of learner-teachers. Using the analytic notion of turning points, we share findings on how the teacher-educator positions roles in the process of pedagogizing research, encountering uncertainties and finding practical resolutions while learning to support reflective practices, and a reframed notion of modelling. The study highlights a pedagogy of showing in contexts where teacher-educators are challenged to mediate between aspired and actual teaching practices.