Prioritising teacher educator learning: a practitioner inquiry community for teacher educators in a school–university partnership

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Amid increased international emphasis on clinically based approaches to teacher preparation, the field of teacher education has also begun to emphasise the professional learning of teacher educators involved in facilitating such approaches. A range of designs for teacher educators’ professional learning has been described; the purpose of this article is to report a case study from a practitioner inquiry community that was designed and implemented in the context of a school–university partnership focused on clinically based teacher preparation. Qualitative thematic analysis of interviews with eight participating teacher educators, paired with analysis of artefacts generated during the teacher educators’ practitioner inquiry community meetings, indicated that a practitioner inquiry community can support clinically based teacher educators’ adoption of learner identities and stances as integral aspects of their roles. Teacher educators, however, were initially sceptical of the value of dedicating a portion of their professional time to engaging in practitioner inquiry – despite advocating the same process as a valuable approach to clinically based pedagogy for teacher candidates. The findings from this research complicate the notion that teacher educators will learn on the job, indicating that professional learning, as a vital aspect of teacher educators’ roles, can be meaningfully supported through practitioner inquiry communities.