Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2009

Abstract

The literature in teacher education is filled with discourse around the topic of what it is that teacher candidates need to know and be able to do upon completion of their teacher preparation programs. However, a seriously under-researched area in the literature of teacher education is the task of preparing prospective teacher educators in doctoral programs across schools, departments, and colleges of education. Teacher educators must negotiate their varied roles as researchers, teachers, and service stewards without sacrificing their responsibility of modeling sound teaching practices for their teacher candidates. Further, these individuals must learn what the expectations and values are across diverse types of institutes of higher education (IHE). In fact, the transition from P-12 teacher to teacher educator/faculty member often proves difficult while the expectations often seem convoluted. These individuals must have a breadth of knowledge regarding the totality of teacher education as a whole, instead of the prevalent phenomena of a fragmented discipline based on content area-specific scholarship. Thus, an analysis of the pervasive challenge of equipping these individuals with the necessary tools and wisdom of practice needed to fulfill their roles and responsibilities as future teacher educators, warrants attention. This chapter uncovers topics related to the preparation of teacher educators and challenges related to teaching, research, and service for teacher educators. Therefore, this chapter attempts to reveal what it is that teacher educators need to know and be able to do to become effective teacher educators prepared to mentor teacher candidates as well as graduate students in teacher education for the twenty-first century. Implications for future research regarding the topic of preparing teacher educators are outlined throughout each chapter. This discussion is timely and important for sustaining the field of teacher education and its future existence as well as re-negotiating the less than flattering stigmatization of teacher educators in the environment of academia.

Publication Title

Teacher Education: Policy, Practice and Research

First Page

83

Last Page

104

Publisher

Nova Science Publishers

Comments

This is the authors post-print manuscript submitted for publication in Teacher Education : Policy, Practice and Research. (Ed: A. Selkirk and M. Tichenor)

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