Despite ‘teacher educators [being ] crucial players for maintaining – and improving – the high quality of the teaching workforce’ (European Commission, 2013, p. 4), the experiences of those working in teacher education are often silenced and marginalised by dominant narratives of reform, policy and accountability. The field of teacher education has become highly politicised and subject to continual intense scrutiny (Mayer & Mills, 2021). In England, for instance, recent reforms have resulted in the country having the most controlled system of teacher education in the world (Ellis, 2023). Frequently, the ‘troubling’ perspectives about teacher education come from those outside the field who speak about and for teacher educators, triggering simplistic and uninformed views about the nature of teacher educators’ work (Brennan & Zipin, 2016).

Against this backdrop, we initiated a research project entitled, Seeing inside the field of teacher education (Selkrig et al., 2022). Our main research question was: How do those who work in the field of teacher education articulate and represent the nature of their work? More than 125 participants from Australia and internationally who had worked in the field of teacher education within the past 10 years responded. By inviting participants to share visual and written responses, we adopted a fusion of arts-based and data science methods approach (Leavy, 2015) as we sought to recognise participants’ agency to give insight into their emotional, lived experiences. In this blog post we include photos and text (separately and in combination in the form of snapshots we have created) provided by the participants.

We asked participants via a series of surveys to respond to four stem sentences related to the troublesome, delightful, ambiguous and hopeful dimensions of working in teacher education by providing an associated image such as a photograph of a drawing, painting or sculpture, or an image they had sourced from the web. From these responses, we created four posters of participants’ images and text.

‘Teacher educators were keen to ensure that the future would be more inclusive, equitable and supportive in the way diversity is embraced, and recognised they had the ability to work with the next generation of teachers, passing on the baton for change.’

In the first survey we collected participants’ demographic information. Teacher educators across the career stages revealed they were hopeful that the future would see meaningful change – both in initial teacher education (ITE) and in education systems more broadly. They were keen to ensure that the future would be more inclusive, equitable and supportive in the way diversity is embraced, and recognised they had the ability to work with the next generation of teachers, passing on the baton for change. The passion, motivation and good intentions that pre-service and early career teachers brought to teaching also surfaced, highlighting the impact these educators are likely to make to learners and to the profession because of their inclusive practices and their preparedness to speak up.

Our participants were impressed by the dispositions of others they work with – their passion, dedication, generosity and adaptability. Some of the experienced teacher educators acknowledged an optimism that came from contributing to a robust research base that informs practice, including a heightened awareness of the important qualities that are needed in teacher education. In the words of Clare, an experienced teacher educator, ‘the research base becomes more impressive and more authoritative’.

While there is a view of there being a crisis in ITE, and the profession continues to undergo constant churn and scrutiny by those often outside the field, our project highlights that hope remains as a key disposition. The uncertainties can be tempered or moderated by those inside teacher education as they embrace opportunities, seek collaboration and work collegially.

There is a sense of cohesion across the profession that appears to be underpinned by tenacity, goodwill and generosity as ways in which teacher educators relate with each other. As Melissah, an early career initial teacher educator, highlights in the final snapshot, even though the pace of change can be slow, and ‘it is hard to convert some colleagues (and leadership) into new ways of thinking’, change is occurring.

This blog post relates to a paper presented at the BERA Conference 2024 and WERA Focal Meeting on Monday 9 September at 3:30pm. Find out more by searching the conference programme here.

References

Brennan, M., & Zipin, L. (2016). The work of teacher-educators. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 44(4), 302–305. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359866X.2016.1200246.

Ellis, V. (Ed.). (2023). Teacher education in crisis. Bloomsbury Academic.

European Commission. (2013). Supporting teacher educators: For better learning outcomes. https://www.id-e-berlin.de/files/2017/09/TWG-Text-on-Teacher-Educators.pdf.

Leavy, P. (2015). Method meets art: Arts-based research practice (2nd ed.). The Guildford Press.

Mayer, D., & Mills, M. (2021). Professionalism and teacher education in Australia and England. European Journal of Teacher Education, 44(1), 45–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2020.1832987

Selkrig, M., Belton, A., McDonough, S., Keamy, R.K. & Brandenburg, R. (2022). Seeing inside the field: From those who work in the field of teacher education. Gallery and research site. University of Melbourne. https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/seeinginside/.