Examining the Definitional Edges of "Practice Based Teacher Education:" What Does it Mean? Why Does it Matter?
Abstract
Since the turn of the 21st century, research on teacher education has seen an explosion of research referencing the phrase “practice based teacher education." While the phrase has now become commonplace, the field lacks a shared definition of it. In fact, researchers hold competing and contradictory ideas about what it means to base teacher learning in practice. This talk explores how small differences in what we mean when we say "practice based teacher education" may hold big consequences for the field. By examining the definitional edges of "practice based teacher education," the talk will explore what the opportunities, tensions, and dangers are for the growing field of study.
About the keynote speaker
Dr. Sarah Schneider Kavanagh is an Associate Professor of Teacher Education at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education. Her work investigates the pedagogical approaches that teacher educators use to ground teacher learning opportunities in the practice of teaching. She is centrally concerned with examining how designs for teacher learning balance attention to teaching as a professional practice and teaching as mission-driven work focused on social transformation. As the former director Teacher Education by Design at the University of Washington and the incoming director of the Collaboratory for Teacher Education at the University of Pennsylvania, she works to build professional communities of teacher educators that center on collaborative approaches to learning in, through, and for practice. Her published work can be found in the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Researcher, Cognition and Instruction, Teaching and Teacher Education, The Journal of Teacher Education, as well as other leading educational research journals.