With its focus on the work and identity of teacher educators, this book addresses an essential but under-researched area in teacher education. It makes a major contribution to analysing the field and develops existing research on the working lives and identities of teacher educators. The book explores ideas about the future of teacher education and the implications for policy changes in education systems across the world. It brings together studies from across the globe on how teacher educators, within higher education institutions, function as both academics and professionals in different institutions and nations. It also considers professional learning for teacher educators as an occupational group and makes practical suggestions for change and improvement in this often neglected area of higher education.
The book deliberately draws on research from a range of traditions, including life history, policy analysis, ethnography and self-study. The contributions come from major researchers in teacher education in Australia, Continental Europe, the USA and Canada, the UK and Asia.
This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Education for Teaching.
Professor Jean Murray is the Research and Knowledge Exchange Leader in the Cass School of Education and Communities at the University of East London, UK. Her research includes sociological analyses of teacher education policies and practices internationally, with a strong focus on the work, knowledge and professional development of teacher educators in Higher Education and schools.
Clare Kosnik is Professor in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada. She has held a number of leadership positions: Director of the Master of Teaching program, Head of the Centre for Teacher Education and Development, Director of the Elementary Preservice Program, and Coordinator of the Mid-Town Cohort and in 2003, was Executive Director of the Teachers for a New Era research and development project at Stanford University,USA. Previous publications include Innovations in Teacher Education, Priorities in Teacher Education, and Teaching in a Nutshell (co-authored with Clive Beck). Clare has also been involved in many large-scale funded research projects on teaching and teacher education: Teacher Education for Literacy Teaching (2003-2007), Key Components of Learning to Teach Literacy (2006-2010), Teacher Change and Growth (2010-2015), and Literacy Teacher Educators (2011-2015).
