Theoretical Frameworks for Exploring Teacher Educator Knowledge and Professional Learning

• In Event: Collaborative Self-Study as Co-construction of Embodied Knowledge in Teacher Education

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to share theoretical frameworks to support collaborative inquiry and construct a shared knowledge base and key underpinnings for creating intentional teacher educator professional learning opportunities.

Perspective(s)

Goodwin and Kosnik’s (2013) framework for teacher educator knowledge includes domains of: 1) personal knowledge 2) contextual knowledge 3) pedagogical knowledge 4) sociological knowledge and 5) social knowledge. Berry’s (2007) work highlights ambiguities and complexities inherent in teacher educator work and describing a knowledge base and helped us focus on tension as an “analytic tool for studying practice” (p. 121). Likewise, Cochran-Smith and Lytle’s (1999) conceptions of knowledge “in” “for” and “of” practice provide a way for us to engage relational witnessing (Jimenez, Sato, Knaus, Shop & Smith-Peterson, 2025) to address theory and practice within knowledge construction. Embodied knowledge (Ord & Nuttall, 2016) provides space for digging deeper into the complexity of knowledge “of” practice by removing a potential theory-practice dichotomy.

Such frameworks support collaborative self-studies by considering knowledge within complex practices, contexts, and domains. Berry (2007) and Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1999) helped us problematize assumptions and situate practices as teacher educators within multiple spaces (e.g., initial teacher preparation, professional development, partner schools, campus meetings) and perspectives. Honoring complexity of the spaces and assumptions undergirding our practice while considering them within these knowledge domains helped actualize unseen practices (e.g., personal, contextual, or social knowledge). Thus, we turned to these frameworks as we collaboratively inquired into what knowledge, skills, and commitments teacher educators need to enact complex work.

Methods and Data Sources

In pursuit of the seminal scholarship that informed our work, we asked teacher educators to respond to this prompt: Please share important readings related to the enterprise of preparing teacher educators that you believe have influenced your work as a teacher educator or you believe are important resources for learning about the work of a teacher educator today.

All participants completed their responses in a data table that was later reviewed for similarities and distinctions. We met as a group of critical friends to discuss the table and note how we used the readings in our work and how each of us were introduced to the readings. Group meeting dialogue was recorded for analysis. We identified consensus for guiding theoretical frameworks when engaging in collaborative self-study toward a knowledge base for teacher educators.

Results

Our commitment to the complexity of teacher education and our daily work indicated a need for looking across knowledge domains (Goodwin & Kosnick, 2013), tensions (Berry, 2007), and embodied knowledge (Ord & Nuttall, 2016) – all key theoretical frameworks for guiding our collaborative self-studies toward identifying a knowledge base for teacher educators. Working with theoretical perspectives for collaborative self-study around teacher educator knowledge led us to recognize the tensions in these frameworks and acknowledge the importance of an inquiry stance.

Scholarly significance

Exploring these theoretical frameworks provided coherence for analysis of complex and often disparate ideas that arose in our analyses and highlighted the importance of shared understandings and analytic tools for professional learning.

Authors

• Diane Yendol-Hoppey, University of North Florida

• Jennifer L. Snow, Boise State University