The teacher educator's experience: case studies of practical professional knowledge

This exploratory study is an attempt to provide some evidence relating to the experiences, assumptions, practical knowledge and expertise that teacher educators hold and use. It aspires to present an illuminative view of some of the roles they fulfil, and tries to capture the sorts of knowledge and understandings that underpin their work with student teachers. Using detailed person-in-context case studies the investigation revealed the teacher educators’ knowledge to be characterized by a number of dimensions: intentionality, practicality, subject specificity, and ethicality. Furthermore, the investigation showed this knowledge to be deeply biographical, intensely practical and distinctive in a number of ways