Chapter 2: Practice Matters: Reflections on the Importance of Teacher Educator’s Practice

This chapter approaches the central questions of this volume from the perspective of teacher educator’s practice. I make the deceptively simple, and some might say self-evident argument that great teacher educators are an essential feature of great teacher education programs. Though many educators are involved in most teacher education programs, this chapter focuses on those individuals who teach courses addressing the professional knowledge base of teaching.¹ Teacher educator’s passion and pedagogy often play a formative role in new teacher’s understanding of teaching and learning (Loughran & Russell, 1997). Along with a well-wrought conceptual framework that orients a program and thoughtfully integrated course and field experiences, the teacher educator’s practice matters.