Teacher Educators' Practices Within a Hybrid Space: Professional and Personal Experiences

• In Event: Navigating Change in Teacher Educator Practice and Identity

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate, through self-study, the impact of our practices designed to create hybrid spaces linking academic and practitioner knowledge within an integrated, school-based, and professionally-oriented semester. Teacher education programs tend to be ineffective as teacher candidates struggle to use the theories offered to them in their courses when they subsequently engage in their practicum placements. Emerging research suggests that Professional Development Schools (PDSs) might enhance school and individual practices of new teacher candidates. Our research considers a new epistemology for teacher education that embraces non-hierarchical, democratic, and inclusive ways of knowing through a theoretical framework of hybridity. This self-study interrogates our professional and personal experiences while designing and implementing a PDS hybrid model.

Authors

• Kevin O'Connor, Mount Royal University

• Gladys Sterenberg