Becoming a Teacher Educator: Journey of a Primary School Teacher

Purpose: After graduating from the faculties of education in Turkey, some of the teachers start working gravitate towards graduate education. Within or at the end of the process, these teachers start working as teacher educators at universities by finding positions or at least try to accomplish that. We do not have considerable knowledge of what these individuals experience in the process of transition from being a teacher to being a teacher educator. In this study, an attempt was made to examine the experiences of a primary school teacher who began doing graduate education while he was teaching at a public school and subsequently became a teacher educator at a university. With these experiences, we aimed to understand the dynamics of similar individuals in Turkey Research Methods: This study was designed as - narrative research. Data were obtained through semi-structured interviews with a research assistant who had transitioned from being a primary teacher to being a teacher educator and continued his doctoral studies. In the analysis of interview data, narrative analysis was used. Findings: The findings showed that it can be argued that the perception of teaching in society, the cultures of national schools, economic and socio-cultural factors are effective in teacher's transition to university. Public schools, with their existing cultures and regulations, are unable to respond to the graduate education demands of teachers who work within the schools. This situation causes teachers who receive graduate education to move away from national public schools. Implications for research and practice: Move away from national public schools can be prevented by removing obstacles of the teachers' graduate education. In the process of educating teacher educators, the quality of teacher education can be increased by attaching importance to field experience.