Queries, Conundrums, and Complexities on Educational Psychology and Teacher Education: Reflections From a New Dean’s Perspective

• In Event: Advocating for Educational Psychology Within Teacher Education: A Reflection Across Career Levels and Institutions

Abstract

Purpose
My role is that of a newly appointed dean at a teaching institution in the northeast whose history is in teacher preparation. In this administrative role, my purpose is to advance education that supports P-20 students. Some of my responsibilities include having a birds eye view of the inner workings of the college, securing and allocating resources that support student success, and advocating for education institutionally, locally, and beyond. My research and scholarly identity are situated in clinically based teacher education with a focus on supervision, school-university partnerships, and teacher education, having served previously as tenured faculty at a research intensive institution and as an endowed professor and director at a research extensive institution. Educational psychology has always intrigued me, and I can see many connections to how this discipline supports teacher preparation, ongoing professional learning, and continued practice in schools.

Conclusions
As a result of journaling, self-reflection, and conversation with educational psychology faculty on my first year as dean, three categories emerge:
1. Queries. First, is queries - more questions than answers about educational psychology, its role and purpose in the teacher education curriculum emerge.
2. Conundrums. Second, is conundrums - the dilemmas that emerge as I listen to faculty discuss and debate the role and purpose of educational psychology in teacher education.
3. Complexities. And the third is complexities - the interconnectedness and interplay of educational psychology and other disciplines in teacher education.

Significance
The implications of this self-study are to better understand the role of college leadership in understanding and advocating for educational psychology in teacher education.

Author

• Rebecca West Burns, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania