Prelims

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Exploring Teacher Educator Knowledge

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Advances in Research on Teaching

Series Editor: Cheryl J. Craig

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Advances in Research on Teaching Volume 48

Exploring Teacher Educator Knowledge

By

Celina Dulude Lay

Brigham Young University, USA

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

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Emerald Publishing Limited

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First edition 2025

Copyright ©2025 Celina Dulude Lay.

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ISBN: 978-1-83549-883-5 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-83549-882-8 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-83549-884-2 (Epub)

ISSN: 1479-3687 (Series)

About the Author

Dr Celina Dulude Lay is an Adjunct Professor and a Teacher Educator at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. She holds a Master's degree from the University of Utah, with a focus on curriculum design and teaching reading. She earned her doctorate in 2021 from Brigham Young University. Dr Lay has been engaged in the study of her own practice since she was an undergraduate, writing a thesis on the development of teacher identity during student teaching. She has taught secondary English Language Arts and French and enjoyed the energy of teaching adolescents. Currently, she enjoys the energy of her own children, as well as the teacher candidates she teaches in courses on adolescent development and classroom management. For more than a decade, she has also designed and taught university courses in TESOL K-12 for supporting the language and literacy development of English learners. Dr Lay is committed to supporting teacher candidates in their preparation and improving her own practice.

Foreword to A Self-Study of the Shifts in Teacher Educator Knowledge Resulting From the Move From In-Person to Online Instruction

Contributed by Eline Vanassche

About 15 years ago, I took my first steps as a junior researcher at an educational conference in the Netherlands. It was a memorable experience for multiple reasons, not all of which deserve space in the preface of this book. I presented a systematic literature review of the Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices (S-STEP) approach, which was largely unknown in European teacher education practice and research at the time. The literature review was framed as part of a dissertation aimed at understanding the nature of the knowledge, identities and understandings invested in the work of educating teachers.

My initiation into academia was met with some critical questions, two of which remain vivid in memory to this day and are also relevant to understanding the contribution of the book at hand. These questions went something along the lines of: What makes teacher educators so unique that you would dedicate a dissertation to this professional group? And why do you consider professional development as a form of research? Admittedly, these questions have become stronger in my mind than they were perhaps intended or formulated 15 years ago. At the time, as a junior researcher, I struggled to respond. I had prepared for questions about the methodology and practical implications of my research, but my notes did not prepare me to address fundamental criticisms of my dissertation's core premises. In hindsight, however, these questions should hardly have come as a surprise. They reflected the then prevailing view that teacher educators simply teach their subject in higher education. While it was not considered entirely irrelevant that their students are students of teaching (of a particular subject), strong subject knowledge was considered the foundation for the work of educating teachers. The S-STEP community and research was met with suspicion from the more dominant post-positivist research approaches at best or considered yet another exemplar of the perceived lack of rigor in teacher education research at worst.

Over the years, I have matured and learned to address such questions, just as the field of teacher educator and S-STEP research has matured and developed. The unique complexity of the work of educating teachers is now better understood and appreciated. I also believe that “we,” as S-STEP researchers, have perfected “our” practice and learned how to better speak the language of researchers and policymakers while staying true to our own critical agenda (see also Vanassche & Berry, 2020). That said, much work remains to be done as the significance of S-STEP research in and for teacher education is often still judged by the strength of its latest achievement. Each study bears to some degree the burden of demonstrating the worth and value of the community at large. This might seem like a pessimistic view, especially in the preface of a book reporting on a self-study of practice, yet it also signals an important opportunity. Persistent critique keeps us vigilant and proactive in showcasing the transformative potential of our work, advocating for its recognition and integration into more mainstream educational research (a tenuous term in itself).

This book is a strong testimony to that ongoing journey of legitimizing and advancing S-STEP. It demonstrates clear understanding of the types of knowledge claims that resonate with a wider audience while honoring and keeping intact the complexity of the work of educating teachers. In the opening chapter, it is stated that “this study focused on the particular” (p. 4), in line with the S-STEP approach. I would add that this study succeeds in capturing the general in the particular. It shows the potential of research that starts from personal practice, experiences, challenges, and ponderings to also achieve relevance that extends well beyond the local context in which the research was carried out through careful consideration of methods and theory.

The self-study research presented in this book begins with the unexpected and rapid transition from in-person to online teaching in the spring of 2020 due to COVID-19. The transition was initially described as emergency remote teaching in a time of crisis (e.g., Bozkurt & Sharma, 2020), suggesting a degree of forgiveness regarding the inexperience of teacher educators and the challenges associated with inadequate online infrastructure. Gradually, however, it evolved into more stable remote or blended teaching contexts, now commonplace or even mandated across many institutions globally, with associated expectations that such approaches are as effective, or even more effective, than in-person teaching. What constitutes effectiveness is often vaguely defined or confused with cost-effectiveness from the program's perspective or time-effectiveness from the students' perspective. This highlights the marked need for research that focuses on the meaning and reconfiguration of practice in online formats in the post-pandemic teacher education landscape.

This book fills this gap in crucial ways. The self-study work presented here authentically opens up the dilemmas of online teaching and planning. In so doing, it also shows the capacity of large transitions to uncover and rework our tacit and embodied understandings of what it means to teach about teaching. Careful analysis of the data gathered in the process of planning, teaching, and reflecting on an online course together with a critical friend contributed seven strands of teacher educator knowledge that resonate well beyond online practice as a teacher educator. The strands unpacked and brought to life in the book are: Content Knowledge, Fixed and Fluid Elements, Knowledge of Milieu, Pedagogical Intent, Preservice Teacher Knowledge and Belief, Value and Fragility of Relationships, and Theory Matters. These strands of knowledge serve to underscore the complexity of teacher education practice and caution that the shift to online teaching is not merely a transfer in methods or modalities. Celina Dulude Lay's work clearly demonstrates that the question of the effectiveness of online teaching, much like in-person teaching, cannot be answered without serious consideration of its intended goals and outcomes, including questions about the types of teachers we aim to educate and why we deem this important. This is a crucial missing voice in the field of research on online teaching and teacher education.

This book shows the capacity of self-study research to capture and hold onto the ambivalence and contradictions of teacher education and teacher educator knowledge. Findings are presented in the form of three analytic vignettes, with each vignette containing “representative exemplars of events, conversations, and ongoing analysis” (p. 39) that occurred during the phases of planning for the course, teaching the course, and reflecting on the course. By delving into concrete and real-life scenarios, they illuminate the often-overlooked subtleties and contextualities that influence our decisions in and for practice and our reflections on the meaning and value of these decisions. The vignettes not only provide an exceptional window into the experiences of online teaching but also offer an interesting framework for imagining new and different possibilities for practice, both for the self-study researcher involved and for the larger audience engaging with these vignettes.

The book illustrates what professional learning and development as a teacher educator looks like, emphasizing the development of scholarship rather than the development and accumulation of knowledge. The author demonstrates scholarship by making explicit and developing ways to deal with the complexities, uncertainties, and nuances of online teacher education, and by sharing these in a meaningful manner with others. The value of this self-study research lies in the commitment of this teacher educator to provide insights into how the evolving understandings and strands of knowledge revealed in the process of planning, teaching, and reflecting on an online course for student teachers became part of, informed, and influenced her practice. This allows others to build upon these strands of knowledge as a lens to examine their own practice and development.

It serves as a prime example of what Cochran-Smith and Lytle (2004) described as “working the dialectic.” By working the dialectic of researching and teaching about teaching, Celina Lay blends theory and practice, knowledge and action, inquiry and experience, and transforms a private account of practice into a scholarly and public contribution that invites critical reflection and review from the community. Chapter by chapter, she uncovers the enormous potential of giving up the distinction between being a teacher educator and being a researcher. She carefully navigates the pitfalls of individualism and navel-gazing (Kelchtermans & Hamilton, 2004; Vanassche & Kelchtermans, 2015) by avoiding overemphasizing idiosyncratic challenges, questions, and accounts of practice, which, while offering opportunities for professional development, may hold little relevance to the broader teaching and learning community, while also sidestepping the trap of generalizability, which, though suitable for traditional research paradigms, often lacks practical relevance.

This self-study is much more than a strong piece of research; it serves as a beacon illuminating the tacit and embodied dimensions of being and continuously becoming a teacher educator. It shows the deep professional reward and commitment that can stem from honoring and staying true to the complexity of the work of educating teachers. The way it is reported allows it to perform this transformative potential for its readers as well. The book is a tribute to S-STEP and the at times frustrating yet also rewording and nurturing complexity and messiness of the work of educating teachers.

As with anything in life, firsthand experience carries greater power than incomplete attempts by others to convey the meaning or significance of what you are about to experience. Consider this an invitation to embark on and engage with this work.