Addressing the Teacher Educators’ Professional Needs through Self-Study Research

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Introduction

In this chapter I take the opportunity to introduce the reader to the major motivation behind undertaking this particular research. The introduction is very important to me since as I engaged in this research I constantly took an introspective look at my own career as a teacher educator. In reflecting on my career it became apparent that I had many biases and assumptions that might have shaped the way I practise teaching. Additionally, reading about research work undertaken in this particular context and in international contexts, and observing teacher educators follow their careers in lecture halls provided lessons that I would not have thought about under normal circumstances. Observing teacher educators in practice was a revealing experience. The lessons that are revealed in the concluding chapter illustrate how this study has impacted on my own career as a teacher educator in many significant ways. I therefore invite the reader to join me on this journey in which I have deliberately begun to search for the foundations of the career I cherish. “Searching for the foundations of the career I cherish” is my story set in a Lesotho context. I am a teacher educator at the National University of Lesotho. Lesotho is a small country with an area of just over 30,000 square kilometres, landlocked by the Republic of South Africa. It is in this context that the search for the foundations of the career that I cherish is set. My story is based on my teaching experiences at different levels of the education system in Lesotho and how I came to be the teacher educator that I am. The story therefore depicts my professional journey, which has largely contributed to my undertaking the study on the “sources and application of professional knowledge among teacher educators”.

The Teacher Educators’ Context

In my capacity as one of the teacher educators based in Lesotho I make three assumptions. Firstly, I entertain little doubt that teaching in practice and the teacher who delivers it determine the quality of the education provided. In this context the quality of the teacher education subsequently determines the quality of the teaching. Secondly, the role of the teacher educator in contributing to the quality of the education provided cannot be underestimated. In practice, therefore teacher educators are the ultimate determinants thereof, which is why the teacher educator is at the heart of this study. Thirdly, throughout the world, teacher educators are at the forefront of preparing teachers at all levels of education systems.

Research on Teacher Education in Lesotho

Although a large number of studies on teacher education have been undertaken at the Lesotho College of Education since its establishment in 1970, studies focusing on teacher educators in Lesotho are very few. The Multi-site Teacher Education Research referred to earlier was undertaken between 1997 and 2000. The second study in the context of teacher educator’s professional knowledge was a pilot study that I undertook during the initial stages of my PhD programme.

The Multi-site Teacher Education Research (MUSTER)

Project The Multisite Teacher Education Research (MUSTER) Project focused on the primary teacher education sub-sector at the Lesotho College of Education. The teacher educators who participated in it were drawn from the following areas of the primary teacher education programme: English Education, Mathematics Education, Science Education and Professional Studies. The study looked into a number of aspects that relate to teacher education, categorised according to sub-studies within this large cross-national study. Among several sub-studies undertaken during the MUSTER Project was one on teacher educators, addressing issues such as teacher educators’ characteristics, including career paths, induction and continuing professional development and their perceptions of good practice.The MUSTER Project established that the tutors who participated in the study, although they taught in the primary department of the College, had trained as secondary school teachers.
The study further established that only 40 per cent of them had any primary teaching experience. They were graduates, with a third holding master’s degrees, some in Education but others in areas such as Development Studies. It was further established that, in view of their education background in the context of the teaching of teachers, none of them had been specifically trained as a teacher educator or had been engaged in a programme of study to prepare them as teacher educators, although two held a diploma in Primary Supervision specifically designed to educate intern supervisors. The findings of the MUSTER Project, in as far as teacher professional qualifications are concerned, suggest a major gap in the education system. It is a system in which the majority of teacher educators is not attended to and the education of teachers who are considered professionals themselves is left in the hands of “teacher educators” who could, because they do not hold a professional credential, be classified as “paraprofessionals”. Those teacher educators who may have taken courses during their careers that are relevant to the teaching of student teachers have done so of their own choice, not because the employing institutions expected or required them to.

he Teacher Educators’ Career

Lewin and Stuart (2003), in a study in which Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi and Trinidad and Tobago teacher education institutions participated, studied among other factors the career paths of teacher educators. Their study found that those in the participating institutions had joined teacher education through applying for advertised posts for teaching at the level of college or university, and for various reasons. Kunje (2002) added that a study that focused on teacher educators who taught primary teachers in Malawi found that they were under-qualified. The study confirmed the contention that the education of teachers is, in the majority of the aforementioned countries, in the hands of under-qualified teacher educators or paraprofessionals. It can therefore be concluded that teacher educators start their careers without a professional qualification. Moreover the institutions that employ them do not have set criteria for attracting people with a teacher educator professional qualification.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS :

  • DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY
  • ABSTRACT
  • Acknowledgements
  • Table of Contents
  • List of tables
  • List of Figures
  • CHAPTER 1 Statement of the Problem: My Academic Context
    • 1.1 Introduction
    • 1.2 The Teacher Educators’ Context
    • 1.3 Teacher Educators: The Lesotho Context
    • 1.3.1 Research on Teacher Education in Lesotho
    • 1.3.2 The Multi-site Teacher Education Research (MUSTER) Project
    • 1.3.3 The Pilot Study
    • 1.3.4 Conclusion on the Lesotho Context
    • 1.4 Teacher Educators: The International Context
    • 1.4.1 The Teacher Educators’ Career
    • 1.4.2 Articulating the Concept Teacher Educators
    • 1.5 Professionalising Teacher Educators
    • 1.6 Transition from Teacher to Teacher Educator
    • 1.7 Formal Programmes and Courses for Teacher Educators
    • 1.8 Learning in the Workplace
    • 1.9 The Pedagogy of Teacher Education
    • 1.10 Rationale and Objectives of the Study
    • 1.10.1 The Rationale for the Study
    • 1.10.2 Objectives and Research Questions
    • 1.11 Conclusion
  • CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY
    • 2.1 Introduction
    • 2.1.1 Interpretivist Research Paradigm
    • 2.1.2 The Case Study of the Faculty of Education at the NUL
    • 2.1.3 Selecting Research Participants
    • 2.1.4 Triangulation or Crystallisation
    • 2.1.5 Achieving Acceptable Quality
    • 2.2 Data Collection
    • 2.2.1 The First Phase – Piloting the Idea
    • 2.2.2 The Second Phase – Conducting the Study
    • 2.2.3 Leaving the Field
    • 2.2.4 Dilemmas Experienced in Conducting the Research
    • 2.3 Data Analysis
    • 2.3.1 Conceptual Framework
    • 2.3.2 The Data Analysis Process
    • 2.4 Conclusion
  • CHAPTER 3 LITERATURE REVIEW
    • 3.1 Introduction
    • 3.1.1 Policies, Quality Assurance and their Implications for the Teacher Educator Profession
    • 3.2 Contemporary Discourse in Education
    • 3.2.1 The Demands on Young People
    • 3.2.2 The Demands of Young People
    • 3.2.3 The Demands on how we Teach
    • 3.3 A Contemporary Teacher Education and Teacher Educator Professional Development Epistemology
    • 3.3.1 Addressing the Teacher Educators’ Professional Needs through Self-Study Research
    • 3.3.2 Relationship between Research Undertaken and Learning
    • 3.3.3 Research Questions and Implications for Learning as a Construct
    • 3.3.4 Implications of Research and Research Questions on Teacher Educators
    • 3.3.5 Implications of Professionalism for Teacher Educators
    • 3.4 Researching Professional Knowledge
    • 3.4.1 Propositional/Received Knowledge
    • 3.4.2 Practical knowledge
    • 3.5 Learning as a Construct/Paradigm
    • 3.6 Constructing Professional Knowledge
    • 3.7 Application of Professional Knowledge
    • 3.8 Modelling Professional knowledge
    • 3.9 Conclusion
  • CHAPTER 4 PRESENTATION OF THE FINDINGS, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
    • 4.1 Introduction
    • 4.2 Biographical Information
    • 4.2.1 Gender
    • 4.2.2 Highest Qualification and Areas of Specialisation
    • 4.2.3 Teaching Experience
    • 4.2.4 Becoming a Teacher Educator
    • 4.3 Conceptualisation of Critical Concepts
    • 4.3.1 The Meaning of the Concept ‘Professional knowledge’
    • 4.3.2 The Meaning of the Concept ‘Teacher Educator’
    • 4.4 Sources of Professional Knowledge
    • 4.4.1 Sources of Propositional Knowledge
    • 4.4.2 Sources of Practical Knowledge
    • 4.5 Application of Professional Knowledge
    • 4.5.1 Enacting Professional knowledge
    • 4.5.2 Other Dimensions of Teaching Practice
    • 4.5.3 Student Teachers’ Activities
    • 4.5.4 Managing Teaching and Learning
    • 4.5.5 Instructional Media
    • 4.5.6 Assessment and Feedback
    • 4.6 Curriculum and Assessment Documents
    • 4.6.1 Analysis of Curriculum Documents
    • 4.6.2 Analysis of Assessment Documents
    • 4.7 Constructing Professional Knowledge
    • 4.7.1 Construction Originates from Professional Practice
    • 4.7.2 Construction Originates from Other Settings
    • 4.7.3 Development of Professional Philosophies
    • 4.8 Modelling Professional Knowledge
    • 4.8.1 Conceptualisation of Modelling of Professional Knowledge
    • 4.8.2 Modelling Professional Knowledge in Practice
    • 4.8.3 Teaching Practice Replicated Inadvertently
    • 4.9 Conclusion
  • CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION
    • 5.1 Introduction
    • 5.2 Concepts Pertinent to the Current Study
    • 5.2.1 Analysis of the Understanding of the Concept Teacher Educator
    • 5.2.2 Determining the Sources of Professional Knowledge
    • 5.3 The Teacher Educators’ Practice
    • 5.4 Engaging in Creating Knowledge
    • 5.5 Modelling Professional Knowledge
    • 5.6 Drawing Practical Professional Knowledge from Practice: the Cumulative Snowball model
    • 5.7 Cases on Learning to Teach Teachers
    • 5.7.1 The Case of Peditta
    • 5.7.2 The Case of Zinzi
    • 5.7.3 The Case of ‘Masethabathaba
    • 5.8 Correlating the Cases to the Teacher Educator Cumulative Snowball Model
    • 5.9 Conclusion
  • CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
    • 6.1 Conclusions
    • 6.1.1 Introduction
    • 6.1.2 The Status of Teacher Educators and Implications
    • 6.1.3 Sources of Professional Knowledge
    • 6.1.4 Propositional or Received Professional Knowledge
    • 6.1.5 Practical or Experienced-based Knowledge
    • 6.1.6 Relationship between Episteme and Phronesis: Contextualising the Snowball
    • 6.1.7 Application of Professional Knowledge
    • 6.1.8 Skills Needed for Assessing Student Teachers
    • 6.1.9 Construction of Professional Knowledge
    • 6.1.10 Constructing Personal/Professional Philosophies
    • 6.1.11 Production of Professionally Developed Documents
    • 6.1.12 Modelling Professional Knowledge
    • 6.2 Challenges of this Study for Teacher Educators and their Professional Learning and Development
    • 6.3 Implications of the Study
    • 6.3.1 Rethinking the Core Business of Teacher Educators
    • 6.3.2 Developments in Education
    • 6.4 Conclusions and the Thesis
    • 6.4.1 Conclusions
    • 6.4.2 The Impact of the Study on the Researcher
    • 6.4.3 The Thesis
    • Reference List
    • Appendices

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Sources and Application of Professional Knowledge amongst Teacher Educators

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