152 research outputs found
Teacher education in the Netherlands: Teacher Educators' Struggles over Monopoly and Autonomy 1990-2010
Full text linkThe profession of teacher educators in the Netherlands is relatively well developed and has its own association, a journal, annual meetings, a standard which is developed by the profession and a system for registration of teacher educators (http://www.lerarenopleider.nl/velon/about-velon/). As elsewhere in Europe (European Commission 2013), teacher educators are recognized as a distinct professional group within the larger educational profession. Yet, more than ever in history, the Dutch government interferes with teacher education, apparently without involving teacher educators explicitly in decisions that affect their profession (Swennen 2012).In this chapter we discuss the struggles around three important innovations that have affected Dutch primary teacher education in the past decades: the move of teacher education into the field of Higher Education, the rise of school-based teacher education and the implementation of compulsory subject content in the curriculum of teacher education. We focus on how these struggles affect the monopoly and autonomy of teacher educators as a professional group. To analyse the data, we make use of a theoretical framework that analyses professions and professionalization in terms of autonomy and monopoly (Abbott 1988). We define monopoly as the degree to which teacher educators have the (sole) right to educate and examine teachers and autonomy as the control that teacher educators have over various aspects of their work, especially the degree of influence that they exercise on the structure and contents of the curriculumof teacher education. In our analysis we draw on two types of data: written primary and secondary sources concerning the three innovations and extensive interviews with three teacher educators from different generations...
Sociale competentie moet onderdeel worden van 'core business' Anja Swennen in gesprek met prof. dr. Geert ten Dam
No full textBecoming a teacher educator: Voices of beginning teacher educators
No full textThis chapter is about the readers of this book, about the rewards and challenges of beginning teacher educators. As was outlined in the 'Introduction and Overview' of this book, teacher educators are not an easily recognisable group and their problems and rewards during their first years as teacher educators may vary a great deal. Nevertheless, from the limited research that has been done, and from our own experience as teacher educators, we know that the transition from teacher to teacher educator can be more challenging and difficult than beginning teacher educators may expect. This chapter is based on three sources of data. As there has not been a lot of research about beginning teacher educators, we first analysed self-study literature of teacher educators who described their first years in teacher education and the problems they encountered. In their articles, these teacher educators look back and reflect on their transition from teacher to teacher educator. Looking back from a distance gives them a wide perspective on the challenges and problems they encountered. Moreover, these teacher educators were and are involved in self-study and publish about their own development and other issues concerning teacher educators (Guilfoyle, Hamilton, Pinnegar, & Placier, 1995; Knowles & Cole, 1994; Zeichner, 2005). We will refer to these teacher educators as 'the self-study teacher educators'. A second source we drew upon was Australian research on teacher educators and their career trajectories. These narrative and collaborative studies are based on structured and unstructured interviews, written stories, descriptive metaphors of journeys in teacher education, time lines of careers and professional documentation such as curriculum vitas and diaries (Cooper, Ryan, Gay, & Perry, 1999; L. Ling, P. Ling, Burman, & Cooper, 2000; L. Ling, Burman, Cooper, & P. Ling, 2002; Perry & Cooper, 2001). For the purposes of this chapter, we used the data from these studies and focussed on the beginning years of the participants' careers as teacher educators. We will refer to these studies as the 'narrative studies'. A third source we examined was a small-scale study about the induction of beginning teacher educators that was conducted by members of the Research and Development Centre (RDC) 'Professional Development of Teacher Educators', which is one of the many RDCs of the Association of Teacher Education in Europe (ATEE). Eleven members of the RDC, all experienced teacher educators, interviewed 11 beginning colleagues, 8 women and 3 men from 26 to 50 years of age (see for a full description of this study Van Velzen, Van der Klink, Swennen, & Yaffe, 2008). Characteristic of these 11 teacher educators is that they were undergoing their own induction period at the time of the interviews. These beginning teacher educators were not involved in research, let alone self-study about their own development. We will refer to these teacher educators as the 'interviewed teacher educators'. In the chapter, we will describe the transition from teacher to teacher education based on the limited research that is available about this topic. If we want to understand the transition from teacher to teacher educator, we have to understand some of the aspects of the work of teacher educators and we will describe the complexity of the work of teacher educators and the fact that they are always a model for student teachers. We will then describe the main challenges of the beginning teacher educators through the self-study, narrative studies and interviewed teacher educators. These challenges include a heavy teaching workload, pressure to engage research, isolation and a clash of ideas and ideals. Beginning teacher educators do not just face challenges and difficulties; they also experience joys and rewards and these help them to develop their identities as teacher educators. They know about teaching, and this gives them strength to deal with their challenges. Most rewarding, though, is working with students and collaborating with colleagues, and we will describ these aspects of the first years of teacher educators as well. We also discuss if and how beginning teacher educators expand their identity from teacher to teacher educator. As induction for teacher educators is a relatively new idea, beginning teacher educators often have to organise their own networks of support (see Chapter 7). We conclude this chapter with some suggestions for beginning teacher educators on how to organise this support to survive and thrive in the first years as beginning teacher educators and on how to improve and enhance their work and lives as teacher educators
The identity of teacher educators in the changing context of teacher education in the Netherlands
No full textLittle is known about the development of the professional identities of teacher educators, especially within historical and contemporary contexts of teacher education in the Netherlands. Teacher education is undergoing significant change and it is paramount to understand how this relates to the teacher educators who conduct this work. Based on the sociocultural views of Holland et al (1998), we conceive the concept of identity as both one’s self-understanding and the understanding of someone that is held by others. This multifaceted identity develops and unfolds within the many different contexts in which people live and, as such, a professional identity is not unlike a personal identity except that it presents itself primarily within the context of one’s work. Teacher educators who previously worked as K-12 teachers move, in their work, from a “first-order context of schools” (teachers teaching an academic subject to students) to a “second-order context of teacher education” (teacher educators focusing on teaching, writ large) (Murray & Male, 2005). This change in context does not only mean these teachers have to acquire new knowledge, skills, and attitudes but, additionally, means that they need to develop the identity of teacher educator (Swennen, Volman & Van Essen, 2008). This transition is often difficult (Zeichner, 2005). In this paper, which derives from a larger research project, we describe results of an empirical study into the professional identity development of five teacher educators from different generations within the current context of teacher education in Europe. All five worked as teachers in primary education before shifting into positions in teacher education. The participants differ in age (born between 1927 and 1966), subject area, and the geographical location of the teacher education institute at which they work. Both genders are included in the sample. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with the teacher educators and were used to construct five professional life story analyses (Connolly & Clandinin, 1999). We found that teacher educators develop more complex identities over time. All five teacher educators went through a significant transition period, lasting up to seven years, in which teaching their subject or subject area was still their primary focus before they began to develop a second-order professional identity—i.e., an identity focused on teaching teaching, rather than teaching an academic subject. Interestingly, only the youngest ones in our sample reported opportunities for, and support in, talking about this identity shift in their professional contexts. The five teacher educators developed unique professional identities that fit each of their individual abilities, personalities, and the particular contexts of their work. The identity each developed was additionally constructed out of characteristics of the particular historical period in which they were trained. For example, the two youngest teacher educators acquired an identity that included a research focus along with the practical work of teacher education—this was due to the current teacher education climate in the Netherlands and, because it was not available for the three older teacher educators, it was not part of their professional identities. These and other findings are discussed
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