Learning to Teach Teachers: An Ethnographic Study of Novice Teacher Education Instructors

Abstract

How do personal biography, personal experience, and professional socialization influence novice graduate students as they learn to become teacher educators? Currently, there is little understanding of what it means to become a teacher educator. This is surprising in light of findings that suggest one important aspect which determines the quality of teacher education programs is the quality of the people who teach in them. This study explored the milieu in which education doctoral students at a major research university learned to become teacher educators. It focused on the process by which novice instructors were socialized into the profession and the factors that influenced them as they learned to teach undergraduates, including their occupational biographies, college teaching seminars, experiences working with undergraduates, and socialization by faculty members and fellow doctoral students. In as much as large research universities prepare the majority of graduates who become teacher educators at regional universities and private colleges, these future teacher educators will be preparing the bulk of the nation’s public school teachers. In this capacity, they will influence the teaching-learning practices of future K-12 teachers and their students. We cannot have better public schools until we have better teachers, therefore, we need better teacher educators. The most important implications of this study lie in the realms of teacher education practice and policy.