Turning Points in the Personal and Professional Lives of Literacy Teacher Educators

• In Event: Teacher and Teacher Educators: Roles and Turning Points

Abstract

This paper examines the personal and professional turning points of literacy teacher educators to understand how they influenced their practices and pedagogies of teacher education. In this qualitative study, three semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants over a three-year period. Findings from the study revealed that key events occurred in the first phases of their lives, but it was during their work as teachers that most directly led them to pursue higher education. Further, each individual held distinct views of literacy, which were directly shaped from personal experiences, especially in their early life. They each developed pedagogy from a set of unique defining personal and professional experiences, and used these experiences to frame their literacy teacher education courses.

Authors

• Pooja Dharamshi, Simon Fraser University

• Clare Kosnik, University of Toronto/OISE

• Lydia Menna, University of Alberta