Teacher Educators as Reformers? The Complicated U.S. Case

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Teacher education research is a growing field with many insights to date into what might make an effective teacher education program (Darling-Hammond, 2006). However research about the teacher educators who teach in these programs and the impact and policy implications of their shifting roles, work, identities and professional learning is not yet well understood. Different countries have taken up both the research and teacher education policy imperatives in alternative ways. Our symposium provides a collective examination of the various policy directions and implications for teacher educators across 4 contexts; namely US, Norway, UK and Australia. Each paper explores teacher education policy directions and the implications and possibilities for teacher educators as part of the reform movements.

Sub Unit

• Division K - Teaching and Teacher Education / Division K - Section 10: Teacher Educators’ Learning and Professional Practices

Chair

• Simone Jane White, Queensland University of Technology

Papers

• Teacher Educators as "Disruptive Innovators" in England: The Rhetorics of Reform in Times of Evidence-Free Policy - Viv Ellis, King's College London; Sarah Steadman, King's College London

• Teacher Educators in Norway: Awakening Attention - Kari Smith, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

• Teacher Educators as Policy Reformers? Understanding the Teacher Education Workforce in the Australian Context - Simone Jane White, Queensland University of Technology

• Teacher Educators as Reformers? The Complicated U.S. Case - Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Boston College

Discussant

• Clare Kosnik, University of Toronto/OISE