Influence of Teacher Educators on the Development of Prospective Teachers’ Personal Epistemology and Tolerance

Abstract

This article examines the influence of teacher educators (TEs) on the development of epistemology and tolerance among the prospective teachers (PTs) studying in a newly introduced 4-year Bachelor of Education (BEd) program offered in the Departments of Education of Universities (DoEUs) and Government Colleges of Education (GCEs) in Pakistan. The new BEd is part of United States Agency for International Development (USAID)–led teacher education reforms in Pakistan to curtail the teaching of extremist values that are implicated in breeding extremism. The stated policies and recommended practices of the program are based on the principles of constructivism, critical thinking, creativity, and effective communication, which are expected to shape the PTs’ ways to conceptualize knowledge and knowing, and ultimately their attitude to different social dimensions. Considering that the aforementioned reforms have not focused on the development of the TEs, it is worth examining how the traditionally trained TEs implement this new program, and to what extent they are shaping the epistemology and attitude of the PTs. Using a descriptive quantitative pre–post intervention design, this study collected data on the epistemic and tolerance development of PTs of a DoEU and a GCE. Data were also collected on TEs’ epistemology, tolerance, teacher–students interactions, and teaching strategies. The analysis highlights a significant relation of TEs’ epistemology and tolerance on their teaching strategies as well as on the development of the PTs’ epistemology and tolerance.