Search

The study presented in this chapter is about the development of the professional identity of Dutch primary teacher educators from different generations. The focus is on how teacher educators develop individually during their professional career and how this individual development relates to changes in their profession. Data were collected and analysed using a biographical research methodology. Analysis of the results shows how participants constructed their identity as teacher educators influenced by their personal history in relation to the (historical) context of teacher education.

The timeframe for publishing this book is an interesting one internationally. As increasingly sophisticated and economically competitive ‘knowledge societies’ evolve around the world, national and international demands on education multiply, demanding the production of high-quality educational ‘outcomes’ from schooling and higher education. Intensifying globalisation and international competitiveness has had profound consequences for national and transnational government policies for education. Certainly, in schools, results from PISA and other international attainment indicators have often driven high senses of government anxieties about educational – and hence economic – competitiveness and sometimes result in attempts to reform schooling, change teaching methods and/or introduce austere testing regimes. As part of the agenda for reforming schools, many governments across the world now see teacher education as a policy lever for improving teaching and school performance at national levels and for reforming teacher professionalism.

The effects of the many recent policy changes on teacher education have been considerable, as the various chapters of this book and many other analyses of the field indicate (see, e.g. Furlong, Cochran-Smith and Brennan 2011; Darling-Hammond and Lieberman 2012; Kosnik, Beck and Goodwin 2016). These effects have been compounded because such policies often involve ‘reform’ efforts centred around instrumental and managerialist practices (Trippestad, Swennen and Werler 2017). This means that, as Davey (2013: 1) identifies , these ‘reforms’ have

This unique book is an important source of information for all of those who educate future teachers and those who participate in teacher education as students, researchers, educators and policymakers. The volume also contributes to the international development of higher quality and research-led teacher education provision by providing clear evidence of policy impact. It draws on original research studies, conducted across eight countries in North America, Europe and Australia to analyse the impact of teacher education policy initiatives on ‘insiders’ in the fields, including education students, teacher educators and mentors in schools. In achieving this, the various chapters in the book analyse the commonalities and differentiations in the many policy reforms in teacher education currently being implemented by national governments. The book reveals some of the hidden consequences of these recent ‘reform’ efforts. It is also of use for leaders and policy makers in teacher education, providing them with insider perspectives from both theory and practice and making it possible for them to develop research-informed decisions that take into account the voices of insiders. Few texts have considered international policy trends alongside the impact they have had on significant stakeholder groups ‘inside’ teacher education. In redressing this omission, the book contributes to a better understanding of and improved practice of work in teacher education, both pre- and in-service.

Within the context of the European Commission’s recent policy gaze on teacher education (European Commission, Improving teacher quality: The EU agenda – lifelong learning: policies and programme. Brussels, April 2010, EAC.B.2. D (2010) PSH, 2010; European Commission, Supporting teacher educators for better learning outcomes. European Commission, Brussels, 2013; European Commission, Strengthening teaching in Europe: new evidence from teachers compiled by Eurydice and CRELL, June 2015. Available from: http://ec.europa.eu/education/library/policy/teaching-profession-practices_en.pdf, 2015), this chapter contributes to an improved understanding of the hybrid, poly-contextualised identities of school-based teacher educators. At a time of systemic change in the education systems of many countries, teachers in schools are increasingly being asked to be responsible for the education and training of future teachers. Within the English backdrop of a rapidly changing landscape for teacher education, we present initial findings from a small-scale study exploring, through interview data, how the knowledge bases and identities of two groups of insiders, university and school-based teacher educators, were perceived by those hybrid teacher educators (Zeichner 2010) working in schools. Our findings reveal differences in school-based teacher educators’ views on their work and the work of university-based teacher educators, school-based teacher educators’ views on the role educational research has in the work they do and the ways in which different professional pathways (e.g. occupational/university; primary/secondary) influence views on what it means to be a teacher educator.

Globally, there is a political and social consensus that teacher education is a key priority for the twenty-first century. However, studies have so far paid little attention to a crucial issue, namely, leadership in teacher education. This chapter contributes to discussion on transforming teacher education practices by focusing on leadership practices in a particular Finnish teacher education department. Adopting a subject-centred sociocultural approach, we elaborate the main challenges, insights, and lessons learned, as perceived by the four leaders of the department, in efforts to move towards more innovative and collaborative practices. We argue that teacher education leaders currently require competencies to support professional agency and to lead the identity work of their staff. In addition, leaders need the resources to build collective leadership practices while renegotiating their own professional identities. Overall, we highlight the importance of what we term collective agency-promoting leadership in developing teacher education practices. peerReviewed