Quality initial teacher education in the grip of teacher educator ‘academic tribes and territories’

Abstract

Examining quality in teacher education is considered a complex task. One dimension of this complexity is examining teacher educators as key stakeholders in ensuring quality teacher education. However, the influence of teacher educators towards quality teacher education seems to be still under-researched. The theoretical framework on academic tribes and territories is employed to investigate how teacher educators' affiliations and scholarly domains lead a quality teacher education. This is a qualitative study reporting on 40 interviews conducted with teacher educators and management staff over three data collection stages in initial teacher education institutions in Kosovo. Teacher educators leading quality teacher education is characterised by many tensions and contradictions that originate in their professional embeddedness. The study endorses systematic interventions that require institutions to recruit and support teacher educators to have: wide-ranging roles that move beyond teaching, competencies to enact contemporary study programmes that facilitate research-based approaches, and open-minded views that promote interdisciplinary collaborations.