Professional Development and Practices of Teacher Educators

Abstract

Journal of Teacher Education's (JTE) Major Forum at the 2013 AACTE Annual Meeting (Knight, Edmondson, Hollins, Imig, & Gitomer, 2013) focused on the current and future preparation of educators. The topic attracted a large audience and the presenters generated a great deal of interest among attendees. However, from questions and comments, it was clear that while some in the audience considered teacher education a separate area of study, others considered the research on education as the appropriate knowledge base for the practices and preparation of educators. The participants noted that a similar assumption was made initially when considering the relationship between research on teaching and education. We subsequently learned that while research on teaching informs research on education, the latter needs a specialized knowledge base of its own. While we are making gains in building that specialized knowledge base for preparation and professional development, we have neglected the study of educators. The assumption that a good will become a good educator is prevalent in the field but has not been systematically examined. As a result of this discussion, we raised the following question: Does the preparation of educators warrant attention to the development of a pedagogy of teacher education separate from that of preparation? The mission of JTE is to build and refine the knowledge base on education to inform policy and practice. However, we have paid relatively little attention in the past to an important component of education--the quality of educators. We know little about the learning, practices, and preparation involved in teacher education. In addition to highlighting what we know (or do not know) about current practice and preparation of educators, the topic of the AACTE major forum highlighted the development of next generation educators. Standards-based curriculum and assessment (Common Core State Standards for English/Language Arts and Mathematics and the Next Generation Science Standards), and the accompanying accountability associated with their implementation (see JTE theme issue Volume 63:5), place considerable demands on acquisition of the kind of teaching skills that few teachers currently possess (Lampert et al., 2013). As a consequence, the current assessment and accountability challenges also place demands on preservice and inservice educators to enable teachers to effectively incorporate the standards into instruction (Moon, Passmore, Reiser, & Michaels, 2014). Defining the knowledge and skills that educators will need to prepare teachers for the challenges of standards-based instruction is a necessary first step. Determining how educators can acquire this expertise is a high-priority research task. As a result of the discussion focused on preparation of educators as distinct from teachers, we initiated a call for manuscripts focused on educator practices and professional development. Much has been said about the complexity of teaching and learning and the need for research that reflects that complexity. We assume that educator learning and educator preparation are similarly complex. However, we lack a well-developed knowledge base that would explicate this complexity. In our call for manuscripts and in our JTE Major Forum, we posed the following sets of questions that were designed to begin a more focused discussion of a pedagogy of educator education and stimulate research on the topic: * Who are educators and what are the current knowledge, skills, and dispositions that they possess? What practices characterize the work of educators? Are the practices similar for preservice and inservice education? * What forms of knowledge do educators use that differ from those used by teachers in general, and how do these forms of knowledge develop? …