ON-GOING LEARNING FOR LITERACY/ENGLISH TEACHER EDUCATORS: EXAMINING FOUR SPHERES OF KNOWLEDGE Clare Kosnik, Pooja Dharamshi, Cathy Miyata, Lydia Menna, and Yiola Cleovoulou

LITERACY TEACHER EDUCATORS: THEIR BACKGROUNDS, VISIONS, AND PRACTICES.

to study in depth a group of literacy/English teacher educators, with attention to their backgrounds, knowledge, research activities, identity, view of current government initiatives, pedagogy, and course goals.

PARTICIPANTS

28 literacy/English teacher educators

Canada US UK Australia

1-5 years = 7 6 -10 years = 10 11-15 years = 2 16 -20 years= 5 21+ years = 4 New: 0 - 5 years experience; Mid-career: 6 - 10 years

experience Later-career: 10 + years

experience

METHODOLOGY

Interviews Course-related materials Nvivo for data analysis

Goodwin (2008)

Boyd and Harris (2010) content area must be considered separately because each discipline places different demands on teacher educators.

five types of knowledge: • personal; • contextual; • pedagogical; • sociological; • social.

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KNOWLEDGE OF RESEARCH

LTEs unanimously felt a positive disposition towards conducting and using research was essential

developed PD mainly through their own initiative, using all three forms of PD

FORMS OF PD

Building on doctoral research Studying one’s own practice Engaging in scholarly endeavors Being part of a research team  

“one needs to develop the professional and intellectual resources to be able to engage.” Bob

KNOWLEDGE OF PEDAGOGY IN HIGHER EDUCATION

KNOWLEDGE OF LITERACY AND LITERACY TEACHING

KNOWLEDGE OF CURRENT SCHOOL DISTRICT AND GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES

LTEs main difficulty was remaining current with school and government initiatives

PD predominantly a self-directed “informal process within a situated, socio-political practice” (Hardy, 2012, p. 1).

STRATEGIES TO REMAIN CURRENT

Drawing on personal networks Capitalizing on school-based activities Juggling personal vision of education with

government initiatives

“I have experienced 4 or possibly 5 different versions of the national curriculum in the UK, so preparing them for the version that currently exists isn’t doing them any favors, they need to prepare, not only for this version… but also for the other ones that will come along”. Justin