Irish Physical Education Cooperating Teachers’ Experiences of Learning to Become a ‘Teacher of Teachers’

Abstract

This article presents case studies detailing the learning trajectories of two physical education (cooperating) teachers as they strive to establish and maintain their identity as competent and confident supervisors to pre-service teachers on school placement. The cooperating teachers who participated in the study share their experiences in attempting to construct a professional identity within the school placement triad. Lave and Wenger's (1991) theory of situated learning and the concept of legitimate peripheral participation were employed to investigate each of the cooperating teacher's journeys in their attempt to shape their professional identity through participation in a variety of professional learning communities. The data revealed that the cooperating teachers experienced various forms of legitimate peripheral participation and, as a result, their learning trajectories and attempts to construct professional identities were diverse. The cooperating teachers' learning did not always follow a positive trajectory, often meeting obstacles, resulting in the teachers experiencing both highs and lows during the supervision process.

The challenge for school-based teacher educators: establishing teaching and supervision goals

“…The same tendency also has become evident in studies carried out in other countries (Hodgson 2014;Young and MacPhail 2014). The reasons why universities do not sufficiently support SBTEs may be the common notion that supervisors as experienced teachers will be able to cope with supervising on their own (Uusimaki 2013;White 2014 (Hodgson 2014).…”

“…In Israel, SBTEs focus more on the modelling of teaching and on associating pedagogical knowledge with practices in order to learn from the process of supervision (Ben-Peretz et al 2010). A study conducted in Ireland indicated that teachers prefer to observe student teachers and give feedback to enhance their teaching competence (Young and MacPhail 2014). When teachers do not facilitate student teachers by applying knowledge about teaching acquired at university into practice, the supervision goals may remain unachieved (Van Velzen and Volman 2009).…”

“…However, poor communication between universities and SBTEs can lead to misunderstandings regarding supervision goals. If universities do not direct teachers in the supervision process, then teachers may rely on their colleagues' support (Young and MacPhail 2014) or student teachers' notions (Clarke et al 2014), instead of conscious pedagogical options (Nilsson and van Driel 2010). In studying Dutch SBTEs, Van Velzen and Volman (2009) found that teachers who rely on their personal teaching experience may lack the ability to explain their activities or connect them with theoretical teaching concepts.…”

“…To achieve initial training requirements, SBTEs should be familiar with university expectations of them as supervisors (Butler and Cuenca 2012) and receive training in supervising from universities (Ng and Chan 2012). However, SBTEs do not always have the qualification and sufficient skills needed to supervise student teachers (Hodgson 2014;Uibu, Salo, Ugaste, and Rasku-Puttonen 2017;Young and MacPhail 2014). Research in Australia, Hong Kong, and Ireland has concluded that a lack of cooperation between universities and schools adversely effects the professional development of SBTEs (Ng and Chan 2012;Uusimaki 2013;Young and MacPhail 2014).…”

“…However, SBTEs do not always have the qualification and sufficient skills needed to supervise student teachers (Hodgson 2014;Uibu, Salo, Ugaste, and Rasku-Puttonen 2017;Young and MacPhail 2014). Research in Australia, Hong Kong, and Ireland has concluded that a lack of cooperation between universities and schools adversely effects the professional development of SBTEs (Ng and Chan 2012;Uusimaki 2013;Young and MacPhail 2014). Thus, an internationally acknowledged need exists to study teachers' willingness for supervising students in order to improve the quality of teacher training.…”