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Session- 3.14 - Symposium (#296) - What Must Teacher Educators Know and Be able to Do? Exploring Essential Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Purpose
Time:
Wednesday, 02/July/2025:
8:50am - 10:10am
Location: WMS - Hugh Fraser Capacity: 40; 9 media tables
Presentations
What Must Teacher Educators Know and Be able to Do? Exploring Essential Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Purpose
Jennifer Jacobs 1 , Fernando Naiditch 2 , Frances Rust 3 , Jennifer Snow 4 , Diane Yendol-Hoppey 5 , Dirck Roosevelt 6 , Frank Pignatosi 7 , Connor Warner 8 , Carrie Nepstad 9 , Etta Hollins 10 , James Noonan 11 , Stefinee Pinnegar 12 , Brandon Butler 13
1 University of South Florida, United States of America; 2 Montclair State University; 3 University of Pennsylvania; 4 Boise State University; 5 University of North Florida; 6 Teachers College Columbia; 7 New York University; 8 The University of Utah; 9 Harold Washington College; 10 University of Missouri-Kansas City; 11 Salem State University; 12 Brigham Young University; 13 Old Dominion University
Recent research on teacher education increasingly positions teacher educators as central to the success of educational reforms (Cochran-Smith, 2003; Hollins & Warner, 2021). Despite this critical role, there remains a lack of clarity about the knowledge and skills teacher educators require to be effective (Conklin, 2020; Goodwin & Kosnik, 2013; Rutten et al., 2024). Only recently, through initiatives like InFo-TED in Europe (see Vanassche et al., 2015; Vanderlinde et al., 2021), has a substantial body of scholarship on the professional learning of teacher educators begun to develop.
Our research is positioned at the intersection of teacher education and school improvement, drawing on the expertise of our diverse group of experienced teacher educators. This symposium features three papers centered around collaborative artifact examination: “Utilizing Artifact Examination to Uncover the Essential Knowing for Teacher Educators,” “Unearthing the Research and Theories Underpinning Our Practice as Teacher Educators,” and “Integrating Equity and Social Justice into the Practice of Teacher Educators.” These papers emphasize the importance of critical reflection in making explicit the knowledge, skills, abilities, and purposes embedded in our work.
Our papers emphasize two theoretical frameworks: Cochran-Smith and Lytle’s (1999) model of teacher knowledge construction and Goodwin and Kosnik’s (2013) framework outlining essential knowledge for teacher educators. We used these frameworks to identify pedagogical principles across our papers: critical reflection to achieve program coherence, attention to localized knowledge, commitment to social justice, student-centered approaches to enable theory and practice, partnership development, and adaptability.
An interactive session led by our discussant will encourage participants to reflect on professional artifacts, reinforcing the importance of recognizing and developing frameworks that inform teacher educators' professional learning. We argue that the knowledge shared and developed in conversations of practice is essential to support the development of educators capable of engaging in quality teaching for a more equitable world.
