Exploring English language teacher educators’ professional development through collaborative partnership with pre-service teachers in supervised practicum

ABSTRACT

This study explores the perspectives of 190 fourth-year pre-service EFL teachers across Türkiye on their definitions of ideal language teacher educators and the professional development of teacher educators based on their experiences during teaching practicum in university and practice school contexts. Data were collected through open-ended surveys and analysed qualitatively via coding (Saldana 2009) using content analysis (Patton 2015). The findings indicate that some pre-service teachers (PSTs) lack trust in their teacher educators at both schools and universities, particularly regarding the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application during their practicum experience. Additionally, the findings suggest that language teacher educators’ professional development is enhanced by collaborating with PSTs. The results imply that language teacher educators should encourage self-reflection on their teaching practices, facilitate collaboration with PSTs, and prioritise the development of PSTs’ professional identity through partnerships with teacher educators.

KEYWORDS:

• Language teacher educators
• professional development
• student-faculty partnership
• pre-service teachers
• practicum

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ufuk Ataş

Ufuk Ataş is an Associate Professor of English Language Teaching, currently working in the Department of Western Languages and Literatures at Artvin Çoruh University, Artvin, Türkiye. His general research focuses on teacher education, particularly pre-service/in-service teacher education, professional development, teacher identity, and teacher education programmes/curricula. He is a member of the Association for Teacher Education in Europe (ATEE).

Ayşegül Daloğlu

Ayşegül Daloğlu is a Professor in the Department of Foreign Language Education at Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Türkiye. Her areas of professional interest include curriculum development and programme evaluation, teacher education, and testing and assessment in English language education. Her work has been published in various journals.