Teacher Educators and Their Professional Development : Learning from the Past, Looking to the Future

This book focuses on the professional development of teacher educators, forming a definitive and expert resource for all those interested in this area of professional learning. It offers an in-depth overview of existing international research and professional development initiatives in the area of teacher educators’ learning.

The book highlights relevant research on the topic, identifies the lessons learnt from recent initiatives, and indicates ways forward for teacher educators’ professional learning internationally. It provides a unique combination of six years of pan-European collaborative work, resulting in a book with clear relevance and appeal to both academics and practitioners internationally. The book conceptualizes teacher educators’ professional development, in order to deepen understanding of how and why learning occurs and conducts empirical research into the professional development needs of teacher educators internationally using quantitative and qualitative methods in order to redress gaps in existing research.

This book will be of great interest to academics, researchers and post-graduate students in the fields of teacher education and professional development and learning.

Ruben Vanderlinde is a Professor at the Department of Educational Studies at Ghent University in Belgium where he coordinates the research group "Teacher Education and Professional Development".

Kari Smith is Professor of Education and Head of the National Research School in Teacher Education at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

Mieke Lunenberg’s expertise is the professional development of teacher educators. She has had a leading role in multiple projects for supporting the professional development of teacher educators.

Jean Murray is a Professor of Education in the School of Education and Communities at the University of East London in England.