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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 Jacobs1, Fernando Naiditch2, Frances Rust3, Jennifer Snow4, Diane Yendol-Hoppey5, Dirck Roosevelt6, Frank Pignatosi7, Connor Warner8, Carrie Nepstad9, Etta Hollins10, James Noonan11, Stefinee Pinnegar12, Brandon Butler13
1University of South Florida, United States of America; 2Montclair State University; 3University of Pennsylvania; 4Boise State University; 5University of North Florida; 6Teachers College Columbia; 7New York University; 8The University of Utah; 9Harold Washington College; 10University of Missouri-Kansas City; 11Salem State University; 12Brigham Young University; 13Old 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.
