Changing roles, relationships and responsibilities in changing times

Abstract

Professional experience in initial teacher education continues to be a very challenging area in which to work in Australian universities, given the changing times in which we live and the multiplicity of political, professional, economic and pragmatic issues that surround professional placements. The past decades have seen myriad responses to these issues and resulted in changes in how professional experiences are conceptualised, structured and supervised. Such changes have had implications for the roles of the various participants. This paper focuses on the changing roles of pre-service teachers, mentor teachers, school coordinators and academics involved in professional experiences. It draws on a number of studies that have investigated professional experiences which have been framed around the notion of learning communities. It will be argued that a learning communities model of professional experience is a significant response to the ‘changing landscape’ (Clandinin, 2008) of both schools and universities.

Keywords:

• professional experience
• practicum
• student teachers
• mentor teachers
• learning communities