Becoming a teacher educator – a Norwegian perspective

Project summary

Who are the new teacher educators and what kind of support do new teacher educators experience in Norway during their first three years in the profession?

Despite the growing focus on research in teacher education in recent decades, there is still little research on teacher educators as a professional group, both internationally and especially in Norway. This study therefore aims to identify who the new employees in teacher education are, what support they receive and how they perceive their own development as educators in their first three years in the profession.

The study consists of three sub-projects and is based on a digital survey aimed at new teacher educators at Norwegian teacher education institutions.

The first sub-project provides an overview and analysis of the international research literature on new teacher educators, highlighting the distinctive features and trends in this research.

The second sub-project comprises a study of new teacher educators’ career paths into teacher education. Here key elements such as gender, age, education and professional background are presented and discussed with a view to increasing understanding of the diversity of paths that lead to a career in teacher education.

Finally, the third sub-project focuses on new teacher educators’ experiences in terms of support and professional development in their first three years of practice as a teacher educator.

Supervisors:

• Main supervisor: Professor Kari Smith, University of Bergen
• Co-supervisor: Associate Professor Tom Are Trippestad, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences