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We welcome new blogs on teacher educators and teacher educator development (500-750 words). For more information see our Blog submission policy or contact your national moderator.
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June 10, 2019
This blog shares some findings from a collaborative study1 on the positioning and development of self-study research in Europe, and complements the ‘research’ building block that is one of 13 building blocks central to the work of InFo-TED Specifically, this blog aligns with the research building block by considering what teacher educators’ engagement in research involves, and how teacher educators’ engagement in research can be meaningfully supported.
June 3, 2019
One of the major quantum leaps in teaching and teacher education in the last 50 years is, in my opinion, related to what Cochran-Smith (2004) calls the learning focus period which took place between 1980–2000. Teacher education focused mainly on developing teachers’ critical reflections on theory, practical skills, and teaching experience, to prepare them to make independent, situated decisions in the classroom. Teachers were encouraged to engage in systematic reflection such as action research...
May 25, 2019
The Salamanca Statement (UNESCO, 1994) highlighted that every child was entitled to an education and stressed the importance of inclusion internationally. The Warnock Report (1978) outlined the importance of addressing special education needs (SEN) and working towards a more inclusive education approach. Furthermore, the Special Education Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice: 0 – 25 (2015) in the United Kingdom (UK), highlights...
May 19, 2019
In the Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education at Maynooth University our work in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) is guided by the philosophy of the German pedagogue, Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852) and by the principles of equality, inclusiveness and social justice in Maynooth University. These principles very much align with the InFo-TED Teacher Educator as an agent of (social) change category. Gaining professional experience in a variety of placement settings is a common feature of ITE programmes.
May 11, 2019
Student teachers often complain about lack of communication between representatives from the different disciplines included in teacher education (Smith, 2015, 2016). In a recent study, a group of school-based teacher educators (mentors) with and without mentor education are interviewed focusing on university-based teacher educators’ (tutors’) competences and responsibilities (Helleve & Ulvik, 2019).
May 5, 2019
Promoting Active Civic Education and Democracy in Teacher-training: A model from an ERASMUS+ project
CURE is a curriculum reform program of an ERASMUS+ Capacity Building Project aimed to develop and promote Active Civic Education and Democracy in teacher training programs in Israel and in Georgia. The program’s selection was in July 2016 and officially began on October 15, 2016. Originally a 3-year-program, the program was extended until March 30, 2020...
April 27, 2019
On the 24th January 2019 a young sixteen year old schoolgirl from Sweden, Greta Thunberg, addressed attendees at the World Economic Forum in Davos. She said to them “Some people say that the climate crisis is something that we will have created, but that is not true, because if everyone is guilty then no-one is to blame. And someone is to blame. Some people, … have known exactly what priceless values they have been sacrificing to continue making unimaginable amounts of money.
April 22, 2019
Teachers in schools play an important role as school based teacher educators – or mentors as we choose to call them. However, they do not always recognise themselves as teacher educators. Their primary task is to teach pupils. The mentor role is vague, and can be understood in different ways. In the literature we find that there is no universal definition of mentoring. It is a contested practice, and different concepts such as mentoring, supervision and coaching are used (Aspfors & Fransson, 2015). Furthermore, even if researchers have underlined...
April 13, 2019
Most student teachers have positive experiences of working in a school when on placement. A minority, however, return to university from their placement feeling stressed and anxious. In Scotland, The Donaldson Review (2011) claims that 23% of their respondents admitted to having ‘variable or very poor’ placement experiences. Problematic experiences have been reported in a range of empirical studies throughout the wider world (see for example Boz and Boz, 2006)...