Teacher Education
"Simply put, it is reasonable to assume that quality teacher preparation depends on quality teacher educators. Yet, almost nowhere is attention being paid to what teacher educators should know and be able to do" (Goodwin & Kosnik, 2013, p. 334)
For the purpose of this research, teacher education programs are referenced as faculties of education (FoE). These are departments in higher education institutions, usually universities in Canadian contexts, providing a course of study in the discipline of education. Courses in the FoE are designed and delivered to preservice teachers, also referenced as teacher candidates in some literature, who are in the undergraduate program and will graduate to become licensed teachers, usually working within the K-12 sector of education. FoE programs should not be confused with professional development courses, instructional design departments, or higher education centers for teaching and learning, that also provide teaching and learning opportunities and support teacher development without the full range of courses or subject matter found in a FoE.
Since education in Canada falls under provincial jurisdiction, FoE develop programs with limited national oversight. An undergraduate degree followed by a course of study in the education department is the most common design of FoE in Canada (Russell & Dillon, 2015). Some universities offer a concurrent education program whereby education related courses are incorporated into the undergraduate course of study. A subsequent master level of study should not be confused with preservice teacher education or professional-years study. For the purpose of this research, the focus will be on the professional years of study.
Globally, teacher education programs face the challenge of managing the ‘theory-practice’ tension. In Canada, this is a major consideration in FoE reform initiatives (Russell & Dillon, 2015). Program design traditionally includes the what and the how of teaching practice:
“The what includes such familiar elements as foundations, subject area methods, and some generic aspects of teaching (e.g., behaviour management and assessment), as well as more recently introduced topics (e.g., diverse learners, inclusive education, and differentiated instruction). The what may also include issues such as the sequencing of courses and practicum experiences and coherence across courses” (Russell & Dillon, 2015, p. 151).
The term teacher educator (TEds) describes those individuals tasked with teaching in the teacher education programs, seen as the gatekeepers to the teaching profession (Voithofer et al., 2019). These individuals frequently bring extensive practice in the field of education into their course designs. TEds can also be new to the discipline, coming through an academic and research stream of study. While teachers in the Ontario K-12 sector are licensed through the Ontario College of Teachers, this is not a requirement for employment or teaching in higher education sectors such as FoE. Although TEds are "at the core of good teacher education" yet receives far less attention (Vloet & van Swet, 2010). TEds are often overlooked, invisible, and rarely researched within the field of education (Crawley, 2018; Izadinia, 2014; Voithofer et al., 2019; Woloshyn et al., 2017). While this is not often the case, public perception suggests that TEds
With rapid changes in media and digital technologies impacting the preparation of teachers in FoE, there are increasing demands on teacher educators to improve outcomes (Buss, Foulger, Wetzel, & Lindsey, 2018). Research and change efforts in FoE include: a) the infusion of technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge (TPACK) frameworks (Jaipal-Jamani et al., 2018; Voithofer, Nelson, Han, & Caines, 2019); b) the application of participatory teaching (West-Puckett, Smith, Cantrill, & Zamora, 2018); c) networking teaching and learning (Lohnes Watulak, 2018; Oddone, 2019); d) digital literacies and digital citizenship (Choi et al., 2018; Nascimbeni, 2018); and e) open educational practices (Albion, Jones, Campbell, & Jones, 2017; Kim, 2018). Some of these changes are politically driven, specifically with the US Department of Educational Technology 2016 release of the Advancing Educational Technology in Teacher Preparation: Policy Brief and the European Union Practical Guidelines for Open Education for Academics documents."should be able to handle themselves in their practice, to act in an effective way, to take care for themselves and to be physically, emotionally and cognitively balanced. They should have a realistic self-concept, concerning who they are, what they are able to do and how they want to develop themselves, especially when coping with educational innovations. Teachers and their educators should therefore clearly know what they value about being a professional and upon which values, standards and educational concepts they base their teaching and educating methods. They should have insight into their personal experiences, feelings, values and motives, and gain self-knowledge about processes of their identity development, construction of meaning and their professional development" (Vloet & van Swet, 2010, p. 150).
Focusing on these changes, specifically related to digital teaching and learning, research turned to examine the technological practices of teacher educators. The development of the Teacher Educator Technology Competencies (Foulger et al., 2017) establishes a foundational set of skills and attributes to support self-reflection and professional development. Research is beginning to examine these competencies in practice (Thomas et al., 2019) which may lead to explicit connections to OEPr of TEds in FoE and the identification of supports teacher educators require to enact new initiatives or innovations into their teaching. My research will focus on the nexus between MDL and OEPr found in teacher educators in FoE in Canadian contexts, so a deeper awareness of research foci with TEds is essential.