Jim Fuller, The North Station Academy, Zaragoza, Spain

Differences between developing as a teacher and developing as a teacher educator

Before we look at the ways in which I undertake development, let us first take a moment to reflect on the differences between developing as a teacher and as a teacher educator. I have identified three main differences, although I feel many more could be added to the list:

1. Expectations and perceptions: Teachers are expected to develop AND to take part in CPD programmes. Teacher educators are expected to lead the programme and be model teachers. But what about perceptions? Personally, I feel that teachers see trainers as ‘at the top’, as I often hear comments such as “You’re a trainer. You don’t need to develop”, or worse “What can you learn from me? I’m the one that should be learning from you”. I have also heard this from academic managers who do not see themselves as teacher educators. Perhaps this is a reason why there are very few institutionally offered development opportunities for teacher educators? Having worked with many teacher educators, I know that many of us see the situation far differently. We see the importance of teachers developing, and playing a mediating role in this development, and we also know that we need to continue developing as well.
2. Institutional support: During my time as a teacher, I received quite a lot of institutional support. However, since moving into teacher education, direct development opportunities have rarely been provided to me. Many teacher educators see the importance of working within a socio-constructivist framework when training teachers, and this involves interaction, dialogue and mediation. The same applies to trainers developing. The reality, though, is that teacher educators seldom get the institutional support they need to further their development in such a framework. This is why many of us take on development outside of our institutions, often at a sizable financial cost.
3. Time and responsibilities: Depending on the teacher educator role one takes (see Barkhuizen, 2021), the time one might have for development, compared to that of a teacher, may be significantly lower. For example, many teacher educators also have the added responsibility of carrying out research responsibilities, or as in my case, may be performing academic management roles, in addition to their teacher educator roles.

Some of these differences make ‘development’ somewhat difficult at times. However, as teacher educators we are models to those we work with, and as such we should be developing whenever and wherever we can. I would go so far to say that if we are performing our roles correctly, our responsibilities themselves lead to development. Let us now turn to some of the ways in which I continue my development.

Knowledge

Teacher educators “need to be seen as ‘knowledgeable’ in order to command respect from” the teachers they work with (Wright & Bolitho, 2006, 227), and as such we need to continually develop our knowledge base. I have identified two ways in which I develop in this area: focused reading and courses.

Focused reading

I feel that there are two types of reading: focused reading and reading for pleasure. The former means reading and ‘connecting content to practice’, which involves more focus and attention; the latter is relaxed reading. I believe that one of our responsibilities as teacher educators is to carry out focused reading, especially with research, so that we might have an understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of our own and teachers’ practices. To this end, I spend a great deal of my time reading, although one of the most beneficial things I do is the follow-up on the reading. For many of the books and articles I read, I write a review/notes on my blog spongeelt.org. I find the process of writing the review, which pushes me to review my notes, read difficult sections again, etc., ensures that I get the most out of the reading experience.

Courses

Unfortunately, there are not many courses designed specifically for teacher educators, perhaps due to market demands (i.e., there are many more teachers than there are teacher educators); however, I have found a number that have been beneficial to my teacher educator self: the Cambridge Train the Trainer course, and the NILE MAPDLE Trainer Development module. These courses pushed me to go deeper into SLTE theory, and have helped significantly in my role as a school-based teacher educator. The great thing about these courses is that they are completed with other trainers, and as such one works within a community of practice. Working within this “participate and learn” (Diaz Maggioli, 2011) environment means that ideas and expertise are shared, and as many of the participants bring with them a world of SLTE experience, the learning experience is extremely rich and rewarding. Having said this, I also feel that teacher educators will develop from taking higher education degrees that are related to language teaching and/or teacher education in general, such as, although not limited to, Master’s and Doctoral programmes.

Experience and reflection within a reflective cycle

Having only knowledge of SLTE is insufficient for being an effective language teacher educator, much the same as having only knowledge of teaching is insufficient for being an effective teacher. Wallace (1991, 55), in reference to his Reflective Model (see Figure 1), talks about the importance of the “reciprocal” relationship between received knowledge and experiential knowledge in terms of teacher development; that is, both types of knowledge need to work in unison for teaching and development to be effective. Similarly, this can also be said of teacher educators and received SLTE knowledge and experiential training knowledge - they are both vital. We also need to recognise the “reflective cycle” (Wallace, 1991); that is, the interplay between putting received and experiential knowledge into practice, and then reflecting on this implementation. Within my practice, I have identified three major sources of development that take place within this reflective cycle, drawing on both experiential and received knowledge.

The job itself

There are many challenges I face regularly, and the majority of these are related to supervising and mentoring teachers (e.g., understanding what feedback style works best with a certain teacher or working within teachers’ preferences). These challenges, though, I see as genuine learning opportunities. Moreover, supervising and mentoring teachers is very much a two-way street regarding learning (Malderez, 2009). I am constantly amazed at how much I learn from the teachers I work with, not only through the process of working with them. For example, teachers’ perspectives on teaching certain levels that I may not have taught for a period of time often help me see more clearly my own gaps of knowledge in these areas. More abstractly, helping teachers uncover their implicit beliefs often puts me in a position where my own are challenged, and this forces me to constantly reflect on my teacher educator self and knowledge base.

Articles, blogging and conferences

Engaging in professional discourse and attending and presenting at conferences are tools that I use to develop. Each article or blog that I write, even though I am writing about my experience or opinion, requires reflection and work, and as such I learn more about what I am writing about simply by writing about it. Articles push me to refer to SLTE literature and make my thoughts explicit in a way that can be understood by my peers, much the same as preparing a conference workshop. My blog, on the other hand, I use predominantly as a reflective tool, with many of the posts centering on my experience as a teacher educator (e.g., my reflections on last year’s development programme). One added benefit of blogging is the fact that it is public, and as such this reflection becomes dialogic, with other teacher educators providing their input and reflections alongside those of my own.

Self-observation

I can remember observing my lessons as a teacher and the feelings and awareness that came along with this ‘event’. Some time ago, I started recording my workshops and post-observation feedback sessions, and then watched these with the purpose of answering the question “Is this effective?”. I have found that self-observation is an extremely powerful tool, and one that has helped me identify weaknesses in my practice.

The teacher educator I’d like to be

To conclude the article, I ask, “what is the goal of development?”. I feel it is to get better at my role, so that my teacher education practices are more effective, which in turn will lead to better teaching. One useful activity we can do, though, is to think of a goal for our teacher educator self. There is an activity from Wright and Bolitho’s (2006, 98) Trainer Development called The Teacher I’d like to be. In effect, teachers write adjectives or phrases for how they viewed themselves at the start of the career on one side of a continuum, and then at the other the adjective or phrase of how they want to be in the future. After, they then mark along the continuum their progress from where they were to where they want to be. I completed the same activity, although substituting teacher for teacher educator. You can see a small number of the phrases from my list in Figure 2 below. Perhaps you would like to do the same. If you did, what would be on your list, I wonder?

References

Barkhuizen, G. (2021). Language Teacher Educator Identity. Cambridge University Press.

Diaz Maggioli, G. (2011). Four perspectives in teaching teachers. The Teacher Trainer Journal, 25(3), 4-7.

Malderez, A. (2009). Mentoring. In J. C. Richards & A. Burns (Eds.), Cambridge Guide to Second Language Teacher Education. Cambridge University Press.

Wallace, M. J. (1991). Training Foreign Language Teachers: A Reflective Approach. Cambridge University Press.

Wright, T. & Bolitho, R. (2006). Trainer Development. La Vergne: Lulu.com.