Teacher education research is grounded in pedagogy, theory, and best practices for students, teachers, and teacher educators alike, yet it is often ignored and overlooked by policy makers. The question then becomes, how can teacher educators conduct and present research in a way likely to be noticed and listened to by policy makers, as no matter how meaningful the research is, if it doesn't inform change it's of little use.
In spirit of the theme, the conference did have empowering speakers who did in fact speak to ways that teacher educators can work towards informing policy, such as working together across national and international divides to create larger scale research, and the creation of an educational databased controlled by teachers, for teachers to share knowledge and research. However, it was the Plenary Forum discussion on the final day that, perhaps, was most telling in the discourse between teacher educators and policy makers.
The panel participating in the discussion included policy makers alongside academics/researchers in teacher education and administrators in the high schooling sector. Each shared a little about their work, or the challenges facing teacher education, but was most remarkable was the words that were repeated in their addresses. Recurrent words and phrases were "teacher quality", "teacher training", "training institutions", and the sharing of a personal account of one's practicum being a "waste of time".
From these comments, placed innocently within speeches under the guise of supporting teacher education, I surmise that the greatest hurdle for teacher educators informing policy is the constant attack on the professionalism of teachers and our value to shaping education policy. While I was aghast at these comments from members of the panel, I was certainly not alone. The conference used an app called GoSoapBox give attendees the opportunity to ask questions and discuss conference proceedings. The palatable devaluing of teacher professionalism was evident in many of my colleagues comments:
Teacher quality is the most insulting term in Education. Why is it used? It sets up a premise that teachers aren't quality.
Is 'teacher training' and 'training institutions' the most appropriate language for teacher educators to use in promoting their work in higher education?
Much discussion also ensued over the idea that Universities were wholly responsible for creating teachers who were 100% ready for schools the second the leave teacher education spaces, and that schools and education sectors do not need to play a role in supporting pre-service and early career teachers:
Why can't we leave time for a new teacher to learn about the context in which they begin teaching?
How can they be teacher ready if schools dont mentor PSTs?
Why can't we leave time for a new teacher to learn about the context in which they begin teaching?
Demanding that pre-service teachers leave teacher education ready to face anything the classroom can throw at them when educational research continually shows the need for early career teachers to continually develop skills and grow from mentorship and networks, continually devalues the work of teacher educators and attacks the professionalism of teachers through an impossible standard of "quality control" in education.
This constant push from government and policy makers to control education and teachers in order to improve education is exactly what is halting the high quality of research, practice, and discourse of teachers in attempt to improve education. Policy makers devalue teachers and their work, yet teachers are the very professionals with the experience and knowledge to make education better. Beck's theory of risk management, where fear of poor quality leads to tighter controls, resulting thusly in poor quality is very much alive and well in current educational policy.
While it is extremely discouraging to hear this stark reality at a teacher education conference, it is extremely telling of the work educators have to do in shifting policy makers to value teachers as professionals and our work as grounded in theory, research, and best practices.
Despite an rather non inspirational panel discussion, I am extremely thankful for spaces such as teacher educator conferences where we can work towards the goal of informing policy and presenting ourselves and our work as the professionals we are. If we don't believe in and support our profession, who will?
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