Tolerating Ambiguity, Suspending Judgment, and Working Toward Consensus: A Community of Practice for Teacher Educators

• In Event: 49.088 - Roundtable Session 17
  In Roundtable Session: 49.088-4 - Influences in the Lives of Teachers

Abstract

Collaborative design work can be professional development for teacher educators to develop their thinking. This study examines faculty work over three years of an iteratively designed and enacted ambitious graduate preservice program. Guided by ideas
about professional community and sociolinguistics, data were examined for evidence of how teacher educators’ talk illustrated their beliefs and knowledge and how they negotiated these ideas with colleagues who disagreed. Findings illustrate increasingly
sophisticated thinking about teacher education as conversation patterns shift when participants deal with ambiguity and judgment and work toward consensus about teacher preparation. Understanding how faculty engage in collaborative curriculum design work and what they learn is invaluable in creating these opportunities for teacher educators’ learning and supporting improved program design.

Authors

• Jenny Denyer, University of Toledo

• Rebecca M. Schneider, University of Toledo

• Kellie Plasman, University of Toledo