Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, the need for teacher educators' -or those who teach the teachers -professional development became increasingly recognised in both policy and research literature. In this respect, a growing body of publications highly stress the teacher educators' task of engaging in research and becoming a teacher educatorresearcher. This article assumes that teacher educators' professional development can be conceptualised as the development of a 'researcherly disposition'. A researcherly disposition is defined as the tendency to engage in research, and involves an inclination towards research (affective aspect), an ability to engage in research (cognitive aspect) and a sensitivity for research opportunities (behavioural aspect). Twenty in-depth interviews with teacher educators were conducted and analysed in order to empirically explore the concept and assess differences in teacher educators' researcherly disposition. The findings indicate a typology with three types of teacher educators: 'the enquiring teacher educator' (Type 1), 'the well-read teacher educator' (Type 2) and 'the teacher educator-researcher' (Type 3). Based on the proposed definition of a teacher educator's researcherly disposition, each type's disposition towards research is presented. Finally, implications for further research and for future programmes that focus on teacher educators' professional development are discussed.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract