COVID-19 – a boundary crossing event for teacher educators

ABSTRACT

Considering COVID-19 as a boundary-crossing event, the study sought to bring forward the voices of teacher educators (TEs) in Israel as boundary-crossers. It focused on their sense of self-efficacy, professional learning, and professional identities in COVID-19 circumstances. The results of this nationwide quantitative research (N = 385) revealed that TEs were highly satisfied with their professional performance. Their sense of self-efficacy was highest about their ability to teach the content knowledge effectively. Yet, they rated lower their ability to integrate digital tools effectively in their teaching and provide social and emotional support to their students. It was also found that informal (individual self-study) and nonformal (social and collaborative) types of professional learning positively impacted and engaged the TEs. Institutional formal learning was ranked last. Finally, a change in professional self-identification emerged only in a small group of TEs who identified themselves more strongly as mentors, educational entrepreneurs, and curriculum developers over the COVID-19 events than before.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher educators
• COVID-19
• boundary-crossing
• professional development
• professional identities

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).