The changing work of teacher educators in Aotearoa New Zealand: a view through activity theory

ABSTRACT

The study of recruitment practices for teacher educators (TEs) in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) universities reveals the academic category of TE constituted along three related trajectories: a professional expert (not required to research), a traditional academic (not required to hold a teaching qualification or teacher’s practicing certificate), and one who is dually qualified, to teach (as a registered NZ teacher) and to research. It is the dually qualified type of TE who can service the full scope of university-based initial teacher education (UBITE). Recent recruitment practices have, however, focused on employment of professional experts and traditional academics. Drawing from document analyses and interviews, we present a picture of changing work for TEs. Our study argues that policy environments and universities’ responses are changing the objects, rules, and divisions of labour in UBITE. We comment on the evolution of initial teacher education in NZ, its likely trajectory, and its potential for development.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher education
• New Zealand
• cultural historical activity theory
• teacher educators

Acknowledgements

The study reported in this article was funded by the New Zealand Teaching and Learning Research Initiative under grant no. 9142.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Recent changes (1 July 2015) in NZ have added a requirement for teachers to possess an ongoing certification to teach. Previously, a teacher would hold a recognised qualification and be registered. Now, teachers will hold a qualification, apply for registration, and once registered, maintain an ongoing teachers’ practicing certificate. TEs who supervise students in practice are required to be qualified, registered, and to hold a current practising certificate (Education Council, 2015).

2. Māori language and culture.

3. There is no actual requirement to possess a doctoral qualification in order to do research as an academic worker in an NZ university. However, the cultural norm of doctoral qualification prevails and, as evidenced in our phase 1 analysis, is increasingly seen as a basic requirement of appointment to positions within university-based ITE (with the exception of professional expert teacher educator roles).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Teaching and Learning Research Initiative [grant 9142].

Notes on contributors

Alexandra C. Gunn

Alexandra C. Gunn works at the University of Otago College of Education with research interests in teacher education, early childhood education, inclusion, gender, sexualities, and educational assessment.

Mary F. Hill

Mary Hill in the Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland and has research interests in educational assessment, teacher learning, and practitioner inquiry.

David Berg

David Berg is a former primary teacher and is currently a teacher educator. His research interests include teacher self-efficacy beliefs, assessment, and initial teacher education.

Mavis Haigh

Mavis Haigh supervises doctoral students and also researches in the areas of teaching for equity and the work of teacher education.