ERIC Number: EJ1291504
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Jan
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1835-517X
EISSN: N/A
Working the Third Space: Reformulating Practice in the Transition from Classroom Teacher to Teacher Educator
Diamond, Fleur; Wescott, Stephanie; Molloy, Kristen
Australian Journal of Teacher Education, v46 n1 Article 3 p39-54 Jan 2021
The working lives and identities of teacher educators remain an under-researched aspect of teacher education. This paper reports on a collaborative narrative inquiry by three early career teacher educators as they made the transition from classroom practice in schools, to teacher education in a university setting. The authors confronted technical understandings, or 'official stories' (Zukas & Malcolm, 2019) of what it means to prepare prospective teachers, derived from contemporary standards-based policies about teacher professionalism. The paper proposes the concept of 'working the third space' as a way of framing teacher educators' efforts to draw upon classroom teaching experience while challenging reductive understandings of teachers' work. We argue that understanding teacher education as a 'third space' practice speaks back to narrow discourses of teacher education that frames it as the unproblematic transfer of practice from experienced to novice practitioner.
Descriptors: Teacher Education, Teacher Educators, Adjustment (to Environment), Teaching Experience, Educational Change, Educational Practices, Foreign Countries, Personal Narratives
Edith Cowan University. Bradford Street, Mount Lawley, West Australia 6050, Australia. Web site: http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Australia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A