The Janus faced teacher educator

Abstract

This paper focuses on the Janus face-teacher educator and researcher. Drawing on existing international literature, our aim is to position ourselves in the discussion relating to our own and other research. In this paper we limit ourselves to discuss two main components, namely teaching and research in relation to which teacher educators seem to experience a rather strong tension. We maintain that the quality of teaching does not become inferior to research and publishing in teacher education. This necessitates that sufficient resources are provided for assuring the quality of teaching and for research; subsequently the two activities are complementary and not contradictory to each other. Our claim is that teacher educators in most settings are Janus-faced due to the competing demands of excellence in both research and teaching. However, we strongly believe that the two main responsibilities of teacher educators which form the Janus face, can melt into each other in the face of a researching teacher educator.

Expansive Learning for Teacher Educators- The Story of the Norwegian National Research School in Teacher Education (NAFOL)

“…The above findings indicate that NAFOL provides a framework for teacher educators' expansive learning in the process of taking on a dual role as teachers educators, that of teachers and of researchers (Smith and Flores, 2019). Sunde (2020) who has called his paper, Everybody should have a research school, concludes that the scientific community of learning in a research school is a good and important arena for professional development.…”

“…This situation is now changing, mainly because the institutions will only get accreditation for offering master programs if a certain percentage of the staff hold a doctorate, and secondly, promotion and funding are closely linked to the individual teacher educator's publication list. The dual role of teacher educators as teachers and researchers (Cochran- Smith and Villegas, 2016;Smith and Flores, 2019) forced Norwegian teacher educators to engage in expansive learning, mainly in learning how to become research competent and to actively engage in research.…”

“…Teacher educators are expected to be consumers and producers of research. Today teacher educators are projected to be teaching and research competent (Smith and Flores, 2019). However, many teacher educators become teacher educators with a background as successful teachers, and not all are research competent.…”

A collaborative approach to teaching about teaching using models-based practice: developing coherence in one PETE module

“…As a result, Casey (2014) suggests there is now a need to better understand how such an approach might be sustained in the long-term. Several authors suggest that teacher educators play a crucial role in leading change efforts in any context (Goodwin and Kosnik 2013;Smith and Flores 2019), and this claim similarly holds if MBP is to achieve any sustainability (Gurvitch, Metzler, and Lund 2008). However, this can be a challenging task to many teacher educators, as MBP is often as new to them as it is to practicing teachers in the field.…”

Universitetslektorer – en neglisjert profesjonsgruppe?

“…Det er lite snakk om å heve forskningskompetansen hos akademikerne. Forskeropplaeringen er en del av kompetansen stipendiaten tilegner seg gjennom doktorgradsløpet, men både undervisning og forskningsarbeid er en del av den dobbeltrollen alle ansatte i høyere utdanning har og som blir vurdert ved opprykk (Smith & Flores, 2019).…”