From teacher to senior teacher educator: exploring the teaching-research nexus in Israeli Academic Colleges of Education

ABSTRACT

The concept of Teaching-Research Nexus (TRN) is one of the main characteristics of the academic orientation. The current study attempts to examine how this perception is implemented in Israeli Academic Colleges of Education (ACEs) and how it is expressed in the work of senior teacher educators who have previously served as teachers in schools. An analysis of nine semi-structured interviews pointed to teacher students’ and teacher educators’ agency as being prominent patterns in the TRN implementation, and which are expressed in three ways: (a) agency of research insights to the educational field; (b) agency of reflective practitioning (an ability of the individual to create a relationship between his or her social and emotional world in the professional context); and (c) agency of cross-cultural research. The discussion delineates the similarities and differences between the perception of TRN among teacher educators in ACEs and academics in other institutions of higher education.

KEYWORDS:

• Teaching-research nexus
• teacher educators
• agency

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Efrata College of Education and the Mofet Institute.