Jason K. Ritter

Constructing new professional identities through self‐study: from teacher to teacher educator

In this paper, two beginning teacher educators discuss their experiences of professional learning and identity construction during the first years of their work as academics. The authors entered teacher education after working as classroom teachers but, as has been found by others in the literature, were provided with little formal preparation for this career transition. It appears from the literature, and from the authors’ experiences, that there is little research into the professional development processes and needs of teacher educators, and that there is an assumption that competent, experienced school teachers will automatically become proficient teacher educators. In this paper, using a self‐study methodology, the authors explore their experiences of constructing new professional identities as teacher educators. They use the analytical framework of ‘communities of practice’ as articulated by Lave and Wenger. The tensions and dilemmas inherent in being ‘expert’ teachers and ‘novice’ teacher educators are discussed, with particular focus on the complexity of developing professional connections with colleagues in the academic context, and on building new relationships with student‐teachers.

Exploring the Transition into Academia through Collaborative Self-Study.

An emerging body of self-study of teacher education practices research considers whether classroom teaching experience and doctoral study constitute sufficient preparation for engaging in the work of teacher education. As new academics who explored this issue as graduate students, we turned to one another in this collaborative self-study to examine our transition from doctoral students to assistant professors. Although we set out to explore our pedagogies for teacher education, we found our posted messages quickly became a way for us to query issues about how our identities were emerging as we enacted our new roles as academics. Data revealed three major turning points and indicated that a focus on pedagogy can be pushed aside by the pressures of initial socialization. We conclude that self-study methodology helped us to understand this tension and also provided support for professional development for new academics.

Understanding the Complexity of Becoming a Teacher Educator: Experience, belonging, and practice within a professional learning community

This article reports a literature review of self-studies by beginning teacher educators examining their experiences of the transition from classroom teaching to teacher educator. The authors conclude that becoming a teacher educator involves several complex and challenging tasks: examining beliefs and values grounded in personal biography, including those associated with being a former schoolteacher; navigating the complex social and institutional contexts in which they work; and developing a personal pedagogy of teacher education that enables construction of a new professional identity as a teacher educator. This research provides beginning teacher educators with a reference point for understanding their personal and professional transition to university-based teacher education. It also provides teacher education faculty and administrators with key information about how the transition from teacher to teacher educator can be supported and enhanced within professional learning communities.

Developing a Vision of Teacher Education: How my classroom teacher understandings evolved in the university environment

Drawing on my experiences as a former classroom teacher making the transition to teacher education, this study examines how my vision of teacher education developed over the course of my first three years as a graduate teaching assistant in a social studies education program in the United States. A qualitative self-study methodology was used to identify and describe sources of tension and growth that contributed to the evolution of my classroom teacher understandings as I forged a distinct vision for teacher education. My vision of teacher education was informed by completing graduate coursework, engaging in the work of teacher education, interacting and collaborating with peers, and studying my practice as it developed and unfolded. Throughout the article, I discuss the potential of self-study methodology to encourage new teacher educators to examine both the features and motivations behind their practice, as well as the effects of this examination on the development of a vision of teacher education.

Learning from Young Adolescents: The Use of Structured Teacher Education Coursework to Help Beginning Teachers Investigate Middle School Students' Intellectual Capabilities.

In this article, the authors discuss a case study in which beginning teachers interviewed young adolescents as part of structured teacher education coursework designed to challenge teachers’ low expectations for young adolescents. Based on pre- and postsurveys, pre— and post—focus group interviews, classroom field notes, and teachers’ written analysis papers, the authors’ data suggest that the coursework helped to shape changes in beginning teachers’ views of young adolescents’ analytical capabilities and social studies knowledge. However, these shifts in teachers’ thinking about young adolescents’ capabilities did not translate into shifts in the teachers’ ideas about middle school social studies instruction. The authors argue that carefully structured coursework like this interview project holds promise for helping beginning teachers develop new understandings about learners, but attention to students’ abilities must also be accompanied by attention to teachers’ purposes and pedagogical understandings.

Modeling Powerful Social Studies: Bridging Theory and Practice with Preservice Elementary Teachers.

This article reports on the practice of a teacher educator in an elementary social studies, teacher education course while he attempts to promote a view of powerful social studies teaching and learning through modeling powerful social studies lessons and publicly sharing his thinking about the lessons as they unfolded. Findings from this self-study of practice describe the challenges and highlight the potential of using modeling in teacher education as an intellectual and pedagogical method to facilitate preservice teachers’ learning about teaching social studies.

On the Affective Challenges of Developing a Pedagogy of Teacher Education.

This article reports on the affective challenges I experienced while attempting to develop a pedagogy of teacher education during my first three years in teacher preparation. Data were collected systematically over the course of the study in the form of written interpretive accounts of my experiences. Analysis of these accounts revealed how certain ongoing, and at times paradoxical, tensions influenced my thinking about my initial practices as a teacher educator. Even as I came to understand the content and pedagogy of my instruction in more sophisticated ways, I simultaneously exhibited fear of regression, displayed apathy or exhaustion, exhibited frustration and restlessness, and struggled to navigate interpersonal relationships with my students. The implications of these affective challenges for developing a pedagogy of teacher education are discussed and avenues for further research are considered.

Revealing Praxis: A Study of Professional Learning and Development as a Beginning Social Studies Teacher Educator

This self-study reports on the professional learning and development of a beginning social studies teacher educator via an examination of the evolving relationship between the authors beliefs and practices during his first three years preparing social studies teachers. Throughout this time data were systematically collected in the form of written interpretive accounts of his experiences. An analysis of these accounts reveals how the relationship between his beliefs and practices evolved as he moved from embracing certain default assumptions about education, to rethinking the content of social studies, to recognizing that both what and how he taught as a teacher educator held potential significance in the development of preservice teachers. The implications of these stages of understanding for social studies teacher education learning and development are discussed, and avenues for further research are considered.

The Influence of a Collaborative Doctoral Seminar on Emerging Teacher Educator-Researchers.

Over a 7-year period, graduate teaching assistants participated in a teacher education doctoral seminar designed to develop emergent scholarship and practice in teacher education. Six former students in the seminar, all now assistant professors, joined Dinkelman in an open-ended, far-ranging, month-long conversation captured in a threaded, online discussion forum. The study unfolded as a collaborative self-study that made use of this forum and subsequent analyses to address two central research questions: (1) What influence might our seminar have had on your development as an emerging scholar? and (2) What influence might our seminar have had on your development as a teacher educator? In this article, we reflect on how participation in the seminar shaped the emergence of new scholars and teacher educators, as doctoral students and also as new faculty members. Findings suggested the seminar facilitated emergent scholarship by helping participants map the terrain of teacher education research, prompting actual research, and blurring the knower and known in studying teacher education. The seminar also helped develop emergent teacher educators practice through helping participants learn a language for teacher education, develop a sense of program, value collaboration, and define purpose and care for the practice of teacher education. The concluding discussion emphasizes the need for additional inquiry into the ways early-career teacher educators develop commitments to teacher education research and practice.

Modeling Self-Study in Social Studies Teacher Education: Facilitating Learning About Teaching for Democratic Citizenship

The progressive educational philosophy of John Dewey (1916/2004, 1938/1997) focused on the importance of educating students for life in democratic society. Because Dewey theorized that education and society were interactive and interdependent, he stressed that schooling must be understood as “a process of living and not a preparation for future living” (Dewey, 1897/2006, p. 24). For this reason his philosophy has been embraced by scholars in the field of social studies education interested in advancing both the study and practice of democratic citizenship with students. Parker (2008), one such scholar, argued “that democratic citizens need both to know democratic things and to do democratic things,” and “that a proper democratic education proceeds in both directions in tandem” (p. 65). From this view, social studies educators must be concerned both with what students learn as well as how they learn or apply those understandings and skills in their roles as citizens in a pluralistic democratic society.