Exploring Teacher Educator Knowledge: Volume 48

Given the competing contexts of teacher education (universities, school placements, online programs, diversity placements, etc.), it is important to uncover what teacher educator knowledge concerning curriculum development emerges in design, implementation, and instruction. The intimate and particular nature of self-study of teacher education practice as a method of inquiry was chosen for its potential ability to add to what we know about teacher educators themselves. In particular, during the transition from in-person to online teaching contexts, teacher educator knowledge is potentially revealed. Because transitions are an important time to uncover tacit and embodied understanding, this self-study of teacher education practice (S-STEP) was framed as an inquiry into what teacher educator knowledge is carried forward or changed during a time of shifting teaching context such as creating and enacting online teaching, developing a course, program evaluation, etc. To understand the puzzle guiding this research and the framework developed for study, the chapters of the book are then briefly outlined.

It is useful to approach an understanding of teacher education, particularly in the United States, by looking at the roots and aims of teacher preparation. In this chapter, three main tensions are explored. First, there is tension in the positioning of teacher education as it resides in institutions of higher education. Second, an ongoing tension is the question of teacher preparation as training or as education. Third, there is always tension between the balance of teacher education coursework and field experiences. As these tensions play out in various teacher education programs, we can see the influence of each in the structure and processes involved in the program. Decisions regarding these tensions become highly visible in the move toward online teaching and online teacher education. While these tensions cannot necessarily be tidied or completely reconciled, there is evidence that teacher educators are committed to bringing forth best practices, connecting theory and practice and reflection, in their practice and in their scholarship. This chapter ends with an overview of teacher educator knowledge, its roots in teacher knowledge, including theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical considerations, and how teacher educator knowledge informs online education and influences the ways in which we prepare teachers postpandemic.

In this chapter, the details of the design chosen to uncover teacher educator knowledge for this study are explained. By choosing Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices (S-STEP), this methodology positions researchers to examine their own practice and explore beliefs and moral and political values, thereby adding to the research conversation of teacher education, and also turn what we learn into improvement of practice. Self-study of practice is a methodology but without a proscribed set of methods. Rather, other methods of qualitative analysis are employed in self-study. A variety of qualitative methods such as dialogue, a critical friend, exemplars, and analytic narrative vignettes were selected and implemented in order to collect, organize, analyze, and present the data. Issues of positionality and ethics are also addressed. This chapter ends with a discussion about trustworthiness and rigor in relation to methodological approaches and strategies employed in qualitative research, especially highlighting the inherent vulnerable nature of self-study research, and the importance of protecting participants and researchers.

Analytic narrative vignettes are exemplars of the data in a study. When confronted with large data sets of narrative and expository text, researchers are faced with the challenge of how to present their data and findings in a way that is easily comprehensible. One strategy for making complex and large amounts of narrative data accessible is to create exemplars, known as analytic narrative vignettes. This chapter frames the theoretical foundation of analytical narrative vignettes in a discussion about when using exemplars may be useful. For qualitative researchers with large data sets of accounts or interviews, exemplars have the potential to capture findings in a more accessible narrative representation of the data. In addition, the narrative vignettes serve as another cycle of analysis. Using the context of my study on teacher educator knowledge, I will outline the decision-making and process of composing vignettes and their usefulness beyond simple representation to capture complex findings. It is important to employ narrative elements that will invite the reader to experience the story. Just a few to consider are setting, narrative viewpoint, dialogue, plot, an awareness of audience, and for narrative vignettes, a lean toward simplicity.

The strands of teacher educator knowledge are explained using an analytic narrative vignette to represent data collected during the planning of an online course in the spring of 2020. The Planning Vignette represents a meeting of two colleagues planning a course together while an undergraduate teaching assistant joins the meeting on Zoom. The Planning Vignette is analyzed systematically by highlighting the themes as they appeared and noting, when evident, how they interrelated with each other. In this way, I am able to show how the strands of teacher educator knowledge were evident from the beginning, in the process of course design. Following analysis is a summary of insights that emerged from examining my teacher educator knowledge during the planning stage. Each of the seven strands of teacher educator knowledge is discussed.

The strands of teacher educator knowledge are explained using an analytic narrative vignette to represent data collected during the teaching of an online course in the spring of 2020. The Teaching Vignette represents examples of the teaching experiences I was engaged in for an undergraduate class for preservice teachers to learn Content-Based Instruction in Language and Literacy for teaching English language learners. In the vignette, the two instructors taught and managed sessions of the course from their laptops together at the same table. The preservice teachers participated via Zoom. The Teaching Vignette was analyzed systematically by highlighting the strands of teacher educator knowledge as they appeared and noting, when evident, how they interrelated with each other. In this way, I showed how the strands of teacher educator knowledge became more visible during the teaching of the course. In addition, I discussed how the strands are interrelated and connected to each other. After the analysis, I explain the insights that emerged from examining my teacher educator knowledge during the teaching stage by considering each of the seven strands of teacher educator knowledge.

The strands of teacher educator knowledge are explained using an analytic narrative vignette to represent data collected while evaluating the experience of teaching an online course for preservice teachers in the spring of 2020. Because of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, it was my first time moving this particular course from in-person to an online format, and there was much to evaluate and wonder about. The Reflecting Vignette represents the data gathered after teaching, including debriefing meetings that occurred with my co-instructor immediately following a class session, as well as final reflections engaged in after the course was completed. For example, in the vignette, I critique some of my decisions, such as rushing through the directions, but also allow myself a measure of grace, where I am able to be patient with glitches or my own shortcomings with technology. In such narrative description, the strands were revealed. At this point in data collection and analysis, the strands were solidified and robust, with analysis occurring in the work of reflection and in unpacking the vignette. This is made clear in the explanation that follows the vignette. After the analysis of the vignette, I explain the insights that emerged from examining the strands during the reflecting and evaluating stage and how the strands were revealed in both explicit and implicit ways.

This chapter presents an explicit description of each strand of teacher educator knowledge and considers how the context represented in an analytic narrative vignette provided constraints and affordances in terms of my ability as a self-study of teacher education practice to reveal what I came to understand about teacher educator knowledge. I explored individually the seven strands of teacher educator knowledge, which are Content Knowledge, Fixed and Flexible Elements, Knowledge of Milieu, Pedagogical Intent, Preservice Teacher Knowledge and Belief, Value and Fragility of Relationships, and Theory. The discussion is guided by the holistic initial research question, “What does my transition to online teaching reveal about my teacher educator knowledge?” To communicate these strands of teacher educator knowledge in my transition to teaching online, I first defined the strand generally, showed how it operates in terms of planning, teaching and reflecting, and ended with an explanation of how this knowledge informed my identity and commitments as a teacher educator. As a narrative self-study of practice focused on the goals of personal improvement as well as to inform the larger research community, in this discussion, I focus on the learning that emerged during the shifts to teaching online. I have avoided as much as possible making claims about what I uncovered as representing the entirety of teacher educator knowledge.

When this self-study was undertaken, research of the exploration of teacher educator knowledge was in its infancy. Teacher knowledge, such as content area expertise or experience in a K-12 classroom, is an important contributor to a teacher educator's knowledge. However, the particular knowledge held as a teacher educator is positioned differently. The strands of teacher educator knowledge revealed in this study reveal the complicated, variable ways teacher educators design curriculum and interactions that will move forward the knowledge and learning of preservice teachers. Central to the context of this study was the move from teaching a course I had taught before in-person to an online platform. It is a relevant contribution to establish that the strands were revealed in the shift, that the strands were made clear and personal beliefs validated as I made those decisions about preservice teacher curriculum in a new teaching format. Such tacit knowledge is potentially better examined in such settings. This study, in particular its approach as a self-study of practice, also contributes by examining the strands of teacher educator knowledge as a way to uncover knowledge, sources of motivation for teacher educators, and a commitment to improving practice. By positioning the study in the particular context of a shift to teaching online, the strands uncovered in this study can inform the larger research conversation and lead to further explorations of the knowledge, obligations, and responsibilities held by teacher educators in similar or different settings.

Rather than a stance of knowledge for teachers (Clandinin, 2000), the strands of teacher educator knowledge are rooted in an orientation of what teacher educators know and are well positioned to contribute to the research conversation in teacher education. The strands of teacher educator knowledge are interconnected and can help guide teacher educators' practice in curriculum planning and decision-making. In this study, I found that all the strands informed each other and were tightly related; therefore, it would be helpful to understand the interplay between different aspects of teacher educator knowledge, which are more fundamental, and what other strands would emerge. Since my understanding of these strands of teacher educator knowledge was situated my own complex, tacit, moral and relational context, it would also be beneficial for other teacher educators to identify and express their own teacher educator knowledge, so that other possibilities and perspectives on teacher educator knowledge could be conceptualized and deeper, more nuanced definitions expressed. This chapter examines guiding ideas for future research and potential sites for future research into teacher educator knowledge. Implications for practitioners are also explored. As this study made clear, it could be helpful if teacher educators attended to the ethical concerns they hold for their students, themselves, and their colleagues in their practice. Such concerns are made visible when teacher educators consider their own knowledge in the various sites mentioned that can reveal tacit knowledge.