Teachers of Future Teachers and Their Conception of Teaching

Abstract

The text presents a partial output from a broader research Teachers of Teachers: Careers and Teaching Conceptions (part of the research project “Life Paths, Lifestyles and Quality of Life from the perspective of individual adaptation and relationship of actors and institutions”, solved at the Faculty of Arts in Prague). The research focuses on the personal views of academics from faculties preparing teachers for their careers and on the profession itself and its key themes or issues. It also monitors the tendencies that appear in these statements. The fundamental question of this probe is: What is the conception of teaching for teachers teaching teachers? The theoretical part brings an overview of already known opinions and findings from Czech and foreign research. The survey shows that empirical research relating to university teachers who teach student teachers and their readiness for the profession is modest in our country. The presented survey is based on interviews with ten academics (deliberate selection) of different status, title and length of practice. They all teach pedagogical, respectively, psychological disciplines. The interview was partially structured by questions in five areas of inquiry. The method of thematic analysis was used to process the results. Since the aim of the research is not to create a new theory, and because of its qualitative nature, both the individual views and some summaries of accordant views are used in the conclusions. The conclusion that our respondents sensitively perceive the problem of the relationship between theory and practice in teaching future teachers at a university and strive to solve it in different ways is significant. The opinions on the relationship between research and teaching at faculties preparing teachers are interesting as well.