On Deconstructing Folk Theory While Developing as a Teacher Educator: Disorienting Transition Turned Reorienting Opportunity

• In Event: 63.082 - Transforming Self Through Culturally Relevant Lenses

Abstract

Through a reflexive process of examining data and synthesizing findings from eleven previously conducted self-studies, the aim of this manuscript is to present a metanarrative detailing pivotal features of my professional learning and development as a former classroom teacher making the transition to teacher educator. This transition involved several transformational ‘turns’ that deeply impacted on my developing identity and practice as a teacher educator over the course of the last ten years (e.g., taking a reflective turn, an epistemological turn, an ideological turn, and an instructional turn). By situating the narrative in a cultural psychology theoretical framework, I focus on explaining what prompted each of the turns, and why they were significant in my process of becoming a teacher educator.

Author

• Jason K. Ritter, Duquesne University