Professional Identities among Teacher Educators: Perception of Pupil Teachers & Trainees

Abstract

It is an interesting question that who becomes a teacher or teacher educator? Teaching is a noble profession and the identities of educators influencing their role in their practice. The job of teacher educators to develop professionals for primary and secondary education and it is interesting to find the nature of work among teacher educators. In this paper we have tried to understand the nature of work of teacher educators and found some professional and personal attributes/qualities among teacher educators. We have done a discussion with pupil teachers and trainees about professional and personal identities among teacher educators and revealed that teacher education institutions needs; knowledgeable, disciplined, friendly and honest teacher educators. We also argue that the role of teacher educators becomes more complex and the performance of teacher educators depend on their pre and in service training.

Keywords: Professional identities, Professionalism, Perception of Pupil Teachers, Teacher Educator