The professional path to become a teacher educator: the experience of Chilean teacher educators

Abstract

The professional career paths and processes of development on becoming a teacher have been studied extensively. Nonetheless, the professional development on becoming a teacher educator has been barely researched. This article reports on a study focused on the professional career path of teacher educators from a situated perspective. The research used in this study employed a mixed-method approach and combined quantitative and qualitative techniques for the purpose of sampling teacher educators from four pre-service Chilean teacher education programs. Data were collected by means of questionnaires and in-depth interviews. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive analyses and the dialogic discourse analysis method. Results revealed that most teacher educators are characterized as being part of a heterogeneous group, with significant classroom experience shared in common. Furthermore, the findings showed that there was a tendency within this group to focus more on their role as teachers rather than researchers. Additionally, studies also revealed that on the whole this group received little support in their early years as teacher educators. The conclusions drawn gave rise to several suggestions, all of which should be taken into consideration when preparing the next generation of teacher educators.