How do on-site teacher educators approach professional development? A study of insider/outsider hybridity

ABSTRACT

In-service professional development is important for improving teaching. However, little research has examined how the roles, beliefs, and backgrounds of the individuals providing professional development can best be leveraged to create effective professional development programmes. A particularly understudied group are community-based On-Site Teacher Educators (OSTEs) who can serve as the bridge between university-based faculty and school employees. OSTEs are aware of the realities of classroom spaces, yet work outside of them, giving them a hybrid capacity to support teacher learning. In this exploratory qualitative multiple case study, the perspectives and practices of three OSTEs are examined as they supported elementary science teachers (n = 119) in multi-year professional development. Findings indicate that OSTEs have strong alignment between their professional development practices and their beliefs about knowledge and learning. OSTEs revealed that they are introspective about managing the gap between university faculty and classroom teachers. Cross-case analysis revealed that OSTEs identify a tension between affirming teachers as professionals and productively challenging teachers’ assumptions. To address this, they use modelling, co-teaching, and dialogue inside a stance of teaching as intellectual work. In sum, this research suggests that professional development provided by OSTEs can lead to transformative change in schools.

KEYWORDS:

• On-site teacher educators
• professional development
• epistemic beliefs
• science education
• school/university partnerships

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded through the National Science Foundation, Award number: 1812576. All views presented belong to the authors and are not necessarily the views of the National Science Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Catherine Lammert

Catherine Lammert, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in Literacy Teacher Education at Texas Tech University, USA. She is a former elementary and middle school teacher and reading interventionist. Her research focuses on the role of language in science, teacher adaptiveness, and teachers’ decision making around the selection of texts for teaching.

Eric Antwi Akuoko

Eric Antwi Akuoko, M.Phil., is a PhD candidate in Science Education and an M.A. candidate in Educational Measurement & Statistics at the University of Iowa, USA. Mr. Akuoko has more than a decade of K-12 science teaching/research experience in Ghana and USA. His research interests embody the study of the relationships between science teachers’ epistemic beliefs about knowledge/learning and their implementation of classroom learning environments for knowledge development. Additionally, he studies validity and instrumentation for assessment in science education.

Jee Kyung Suh

Jee Kyung Suh, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Science Education at the University of Alabama. Her research addresses sustainable teacher development, adaptive teaching expertise, and epistemic orientation. With active National Science Foundation support, she has developed assessment tools for evaluating teacher knowledge and established comprehensive teacher profiles that highlight adaptive teaching expertise. Her publication record includes 4 book chapters, 17 peer-reviewed articles, and over 50 refereed conference papers.

Brian Hand

Brian Hand, PhD, is a Distinguished Professor of Science Education at the University of Iowa, USA. He was a school teacher for 11 years before moving into academia. His research interests include understanding the fundamental sense of science literacy, the nature of learning environments and the utilization of epistemic tools for learning, and how we can promote teacher learning focused on generative learning environments.

Gavin Fulmer

Gavin W. Fulmer, PhD, is a Senior Research Scientist at NWEA. His research addresses the applications and implications of assessment principles in STEM education. He has published in Assessment in Education, International Journal of Science Education, and Science Education, among others. He is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Research in Science Teaching. Previous positions include the U.S. National Science Foundation, the University of Iowa, and the National Institute of Education Singapore.