Chapter 6: Supervisors as Creators of Teacher Educator Community of Practice

This chapter describes learning spaces created by teacher educators from across eight teacher education programs in the University of California (UC) system. In our group, Supervisors of Teacher Education Network Team (STENT), we collectively unpack the work supervisors do, re-envision supervision practices with a focus on equity and social justice, and develop a shared understanding of the complex spaces supervisors inhabit as boundary workers between K–12 schools and the university. This chapter describes the spaces that emerged from our work together, the organizations of these spaces, our shared professional learning, and the implications of our collaborative work.

The work of teacher education is complex and dynamic; clearly defining who a teacher educator is can be challenging. We consider teacher educators to be those working closely with teacher candidates including faculty, directors, instructors and supervisors. It is common for individuals in our contexts to hold multiple roles (Day, 2004). The professional learning spaces created by STENT focused on supervisory practices within teacher education.