Teacher educators

1. Teacher educators Issues of competence and professionalism Policies and practices in The Netherlands

2. Three perspectives • Professionalism, professional autonomy and professional accountability • Dutch policy measures • Self-responsibility by the profession

3. Five perspectives on professionalism • Traits approach • Demands to modern ‘professionals’ • A professionalisation project • An independent logic • The idealistic and altruïstic professional

4. Traits approach • Compared to classical professions and professionals: doctors, lawyers, … • Ideal characteristics: • Monopoly regulating the entrance to the profession • Ethical code and standards (exclusion from the profession) • Strong academic knowledge base • Independent • Semi-, para- or proto-professions • Critics: Idealized and historical-cultural specific characteristics

5. Modern demands to professionals • Focus on outcomes • Limited budgets (efficiency) • Transparant and steerable • Accountable • control and bureaucracy • No professional isolation – collaborative • No boundaries – multidisciplinairy • Lifelong learning

6. Professionalisation project Emphasis on the development of a profession • Emancipation of a profession or • Securing the quality of the profession or • Self-interest: creating a monopoly, strengthening the position in negotiations, increasing status and income

8. A seperate logic Three logics (Freidson, 2001) • The free market • Bureaucracy • Professionalism • Special position and work of professional asks for a seperate logic and steering • Ensuring quality from within • Professional autonomy to be able to make professional decisions

9. The idealistic and altruistic professional • Power imbalance between customer and professional. Customer can’t judge the quality of the professional. • Service oriented motives of the professional: contribution to society, not income. • Professional freedom and mandate as condition and reward • Condition: deserved public trust • Instrument: quality assurance from within by professional codes, professional registers, …

10. If we want teachers (educators) to be(come) professionals … • They need to have a professional mandate that respects and stimulates their expertise • They need to take that professional responsibility seriously • By developing and maintaining clear quality standards and codes • By tranparancy for public accountablity • By maintanance of professional quality (LLL) • By development of the knowledge base underlying teaching

11. Three stakeholders Ministry ? Employers/ heads of dept Teacher educators/ prof. group

12. The Dutch policy • 1993: The future of the teaching profession • Lack of professional status • Lack of lifelong learning • Low attractivity • Professional standards and professional register … • Standards for teachers • Standards and register for teacher educators

13. 2008: The Teaching Profession • Lack of incentives for LLL • Low status • Increased autonomy of schools has lead to complaints of teachers about a decrease in the professional mandate of teachers within schools • Private Professional register for teachers (under development) • Development of a strong professional group? • Involvement of teachers in decisions in school on curriculum and quality • Support of teacher initiatives with respect to schooling

14. Policy towards teacher educators • Financial and mental support for the professional association for teacher educators VELON • Development of the standard and registration procedures (1994) • Adaptation of the standard for schoolbased teacher educators (2007) • Revision of standard and procedures (2009) • Development of the knowledge base for teacher educators • Addressing the national conference for TEors • Agreements with employers on the qualification levels of teacher educators (masters, PhD)

15. The perspective of the professionals A national association of teacher educators (from 1975) • 1500 members (half of the teacher educators?) –HE based and schoolbased • Those involved in the pre- and in-service learning of teachers” • Mission statement: to support the professional quality of the profession (and increase professional awareness) • National conference, national journal of TE • SIGs (research in TE, induction of new TEors, Schoolbased TE, ICT in TE, educators of teacher educators, …) • Professional standard • Professional register • Professional knowledge base …

16. A professional standard • Developed in 1994 • Revised in 2004 • New version for schoolbased teacher educators in 2007 • Development of different levels: basic, professional, expert (2012?)

17. The professional standard for teacher educators • Foundation: basic attitudes of teacher educators • Interpersonal and pedagogical: creates a safe (working) atmosphere; • Didactical/methodological: creates for student teachers an powerful, inspiring and stimulating learning environment; • Organisational: improvises if necessary; • Working with colleagues in the organisation: actively contributes towards the development and implementation of the organisation’s outlook and policy; • Working in a wider context: has a relevant network and keeps it up-to-date; • Working on your own development: reflects systematically on their own pedagogical approach and (teaching) behaviour towards students, colleagues and others.

18. The registration procedure • Voluntary • Focus on development and assessment • Self-analysis • Development plan • Portfolio • Assessment by peer-assessors • After four years: renewal of the registration • No formal status or recognition • 300 teacher educators are registered

19. Issues • How to increase the number of registered teacher educators? • Make the register compulsory? • Entrance to the basic register after employment and induction • Agreements with employers • Stronger role for registered teacher educators • Development of a course to become teacher educator (develop a second order identity)

20. The perspective of the employers • Independent quality assurance of staff • Instrument for professional development • In-company groups • Employment of teacher educators independent from VELON-registration • Are registered TEors the ‘best’ TEors? • Value for money?

21. Roles and relations of three stakeholders Ministry ? Employers/ heads of dept Teacher educators/ prof. group Employers/ heads of school