Teacher education matters: Finnish teacher educators’ concerns, beliefs, and values

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe professional development of teacher educators is gaining increasing interest globally. However, not so many studies have been carried out in the Finnish context, which is somewhat surprising considering that the Finnish education system and teacher education has gained so much interest worldwide. This study investigates Finnish teacher educators’ concerns, beliefs and values. The results show that teacher educators experienced a variety of concerns in their work, in the beginning mainly dealing with the position and being a novice, and later they became more concerned with heavy workloads and practical teaching-related matters. The teacher educators studied considered the students’ education to be the most important aspect of their work. The research-based nature of teacher education was also felt to be very important, along with its community aspects, and their own specialization. In general, Finnish teacher educators considered their work to be important.