The quality of teacher educators in the European policy debate: actions and measures to improve the professionalism of teacher educators

Marco Snoek,Anja Swennen,Marcel Van Der Klink

doi:10.1080/19415257.2011.616095

Abstract

This study examines how the contemporary European policy debate addresses the further development of the quality of teacher educators. A classification framework based on the literature on professionalism was used to compare European and Member State policy actions and measures on the quality of teacher educators through an analysis of seven European policy documents and a questionnaire completed by key policy-makers in 16 European countries. The findings show that European Union policy documents pay limited attention to the quality of teacher educators. However, the professionalism of teacher educators receives more policy attention at the level of individual Member States. Most of these policies are part of general policies for higher education teachers, while the initiative lies with governments and teacher education institutes. The role of the professionals themselves in developing policies to strengthen their professionalism seems very limited.

Highlights

It is generally accepted that teachers are the most important in-school factor influencing the quality of pupil learning (Barber and Mourshed 2007, Hattie 2009) and it seems appropriate to assume that teacher educators have an important influence on the quality of the learning of student-teachers
As we focus on the quality of teacher educators as a professional group we use the notion of professionalism
Expressed concerns Concerns regarding teacher educators’ professionalism are expressed quite frequently. Such concerns are clearly expressed in three documents (OECD 2005, ETUCE 2008, European Council 2009), and especially in the ETUCE policy paper, which states that European trade unions feel a strong need to improve the quality of teacher educators across Europe

Summary

Introduction

It is generally accepted that teachers are the most important in-school factor influencing the quality of pupil learning (Barber and Mourshed 2007, Hattie 2009) and it seems appropriate to assume that teacher educators have an important influence on the quality of the learning of student-teachers. The amount of research on teacher educators is limited, and even more so when it comes to policies relating to teacher education: the international literature has grown in the last five years [. Recent research on the professional development of teacher educators contributes to our understanding of various aspects of teacher education. With increasing demands on teacher educators to be more involved in research and publishing, the development of a research identity of teacher educators in particular has been studied (Murray 2010). There is an emerging body of knowledge on ways to increase the quality of teacher educators that has a focus on the learning of experienced professionals, such as learning in a community. A third group of studies are those that examine the development and use of standards and competences of teacher educators in various countries, such as the Netherlands (Koster and Dengerink 2001) and the United States (Klecka et al 2009)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion