Teacher education and the best-loved self

Abstract

Four narrative fragments involving research disseminated globally – namely, United States, Israel, The Netherlands, The People's Republic of China – are used to instantiate the phenomenon of teachers teaching their best-loved selves, without becoming the curriculum themselves. Next, the development of the best-loved self-conceptualization as it emerged in Joseph J. Schwab's scholarship is traced, along with important connections to Michael Connelly and Jean Clandinin's research programme. After that, two important research questions are addressed: (1) If the best-loved self is integral to the teacher-as-curriculum-maker image, what practices might we engage in in teacher education to foster the best-loved self? And (2) How does change happen in pre-service teachers' pedagogical practices and repertoires, given the potential significance of the teacher's best-loved self-image? To conclude, the work returns to the opening narrative fragments to determine the answers that lie within.

Keywords:

• teacher education
• teacher identity
• best-loved self

Acknowledgements

Preliminary ideas for this article arose from a keynote address that was first delivered at Capitol Normal University in Beijing, China. An early version of this paper then became part of an International Study Association of Teachers and Teaching (ISATT) symposium, which was accepted through blind review for presentation at the American Educational Research Association Meeting held in New Orleans in 2011.The symposium also was offered at the ISATT Conference held in the University of Braga, Minho, Portugal in July of 2011.