Leading together/learning together: shared leadership and professional learning

Date

2020-10-19

Authors

Robertson, Kerry

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Abstract

Teacher education programs have long grappled with the disconnects between campus and classroom in the preparation of teacher candidates. Both are important sites of learning for teacher candidates, and yet the design of conventional teacher education programs leaves little room for teacher candidates to explore theory and practice simultaneously in ways that recognize the multifaceted nature of learning how to teach. In addition, teacher educators are faced with the complex demands of being responsive to the needs of teacher candidates while at the same time challenging assumptions and beliefs in order to ensure new teachers are responsive to the diverse needs of their students. Teacher educators, too, need to make their own dilemmas and tensions of practice observable both to teacher candidates and to one another as they consider and interrogate their beliefs and assumptions about teaching. This study explores Link2Practice, a partnership between the University of Victoria and SD 62 (Sooke) which was organized to provide a campus and classroom experience for Elementary Post-Degree Program students from the beginning of their program. A group of participants involved as teacher educators in Link2Practice engaged in a self-study with the purpose of examining how sharing leadership in teacher education provided the participants the opportunity to engage in conversations about the partnership, and how our professional learning, understandings of teacher education, and understandings of ourselves as teacher educators were informed through the research.

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Keywords

Teacher Education, Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices, District/University Partnerships

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