An Early Career Faculty’s Journey: Convergence of a Teacher Educator and Educational Psychologist

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

Abstract

Purpose
Throughout my early career journey as an assistant professor of Teacher Education, with a focus on foundations and clinical practice, I navigate between teacher education and educational psychology. I continue to supervise teacher candidates across their clinical experiences and teach foundational courses, such as educational psychology and related pedagogical courses. These experiences remain to be informed by my background as a general education classroom teacher in urban, Title I and Renaissance PK-8 settings. My goal is to continue honoring teaching as a complex, theoretically-informed process for emancipatory action—focusing on cultivating culturally responsive and sustaining beliefs and practices to improve student outcomes.

Methods and Perspectives
By using this lens of narrative self-inquiry (referring to annual performance reports, journaling, and lesson materials), I use a line of questioning from my espoused platform of sustaining inquiry as stance (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2015; Lytle & Cochran-Smith, 1994) to share my beliefs and practices as a teacher educator and educational psychologist.

How do identity as a scholar? As a teacher educator and educational psychologist, my research areas are comprised of teacher education, motivation, and equity, with an intersectional focus on teachers’ (e.g., preservice and in-service) beliefs and practices. During my doctoral studies, I began integrating elementary education into educational psychology, which has since expanded to include PK-16 and graduate level teaching and mentorship. Through these foci, educational psychology has become the basis for my pedagogical decision-making and research-focused, professional development trajectory.

How do I recognize needed change? When conducting research in and teaching educational psychology courses, I focus on bridging the gap between theory and practice. Among critical issues remains to be making the tacit explicit (Freeman, 1991), when helping teachers make connections between teaching experiences and educational psychology (e.g., Kiefer et al., in press). As we discuss perspectives, I focus on not perpetuating inequities (Strunk & Andrzejewski, 2023), but instead promoting inclusion and diversity for the teachers and the PK-12 students they teach.

How do I enact change? Among my scholarship, I heavily rely on courses, teacher pipeline and diversity programs, conferences, and grants to systemically enact change in educational psychology. I focus on developing/sharing success strategies for enhancing teachers’ self-regulation, self-efficacy, and self-determination—focusing on responsive practices that we collaboratively model and resultingly apply in their personal lives and teaching contexts. Thus, students become increasingly aware of making an intellectual case for the value of their learning to improve teaching effectiveness, advocate for questioning, and problematize present conditions.

Conclusions and Significance
My aim is for educational psychology to be a vehicle for cultivating intentional, authentic approaches to make effective decisions based on research-based evidence and instructional strategies to help teachers apply in their educational practices. Thus, strengthening the teacher pipeline and teacher retention. The hope is that educational psychology moves teachers’ motivation toward learning from performance-approach goals to mastery-approach goal orientations (Anderman & Dawson, 2011; Elliot and McGregor, 2001) to promote their cognitive, moral, social, and emotional development for supporting their transition into becoming effective educators (Warren, 2018).

Author

• Raven Robinson-Wilson, University of North Florida