Making teacher educators' experiences visible: seeing inside the hopeful and ambiguous dimensions of practice

• Published in: Asia-Pacific journal of teacher education Vol. 52; no. 4; pp. 477 - 491
• Main Authors: McDonough, Sharon, Keamy, Ron"Kim", Brandenburg, Robyn, Selkrig, Mark
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 07.08.2024; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Ambiguity; arts-based methods; data science methods; Education policy; Phraseologisms; Practice architectures; Research methodology; Teacher education; teacher educator work; Teacher Educators; Teacher Improvement
• ISSN: 1359-866X; 1469-2945; 1469-2945
• DOI: 10.1080/1359866X.2024.2381255

The field of teacher education is subject to intense scrutiny and policy reform and within this context, the voices of those working within the field are often marginalised. Drawing on our larger study of teacher educators, we addressed the key research question: "How do those who work in the field of teacher education articulate and represent the nature of their work?." Using a fusion of arts-based and data science research methods and the theory of practice architectures, we examined the ways that teacher educators' work is mediated within cultural-discursive, material-economic, and social-political domains. We argue that while ambiguous dimensions exist in teacher educators' practices, they remain hopeful about their work and find spaces to create alternative sayings, doings and relatings as they prepare teachers for the profession. We contend that using both text-based and visual images facilitates the generation of enhanced meanings to highlight the complexity of teacher educators' work to those within and outside the profession.