School co-ordinators : essential partners in professional experiences
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(Published version)
Date
2011
Authors
Le Cornu, R.
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Conference paper
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Proceedings of Australian Teacher Education Conference, 2011, pp.1-13
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Australian Teacher Education Conference (3 Jul 2011 - 6 Jul 2011 : Melbourne)
Abstract
It is widely accepted that professional experience or practicum is ‘a critically important part of teacher education courses and is consistently valued highly by student teachers’ (eg Ramsey, 2000; Teaching Australia, 2006; Parliament of Australia, 2007). In Australia and overseas there is a growing emphasis on teacher educators working in partnership with schools to construct professional experiences that maximise student teacher engagement and learning (Parliament of Australia, 2007). The literature on professional experience in pre-service teacher education provides varied and detailed accounts of the roles of the Pre-service Teacher, the Mentor Teacher and the University Mentor (see for example, Gaffey & Dobbins, 1996; Guyton & McIntyre, 1990; Zeichner, 1999). However the School based Professional Experience Co-ordinator, usually the principal or deputy principal, has, according to Martinez & Coombs (2001), “been dismissed as an administrative outsider to the essential triad of pre-service supervision” (p. 275). Consequently the Co-ordinator’s role has received very little attention in the literature. The study on which this paper is primarily based fills a gap in the existing literature on professional experience with its focus on the School based Co-ordinator role.
The data for the study come from individual interviews and a focus group involving six primary School–based Co-ordinators. The aim of the study was to identify the roles played by these Co-ordinators and to document their exemplary practices in supporting professional experience framed around learning communities. This paper presents some of the findings of this study. It will be seen that the School-based Professional Experience Co-ordinator is crucial to the successful implementation of professional experiences framed around learning communities. It will be argued that Co-ordinators are essential in developing ‘new’ school-university partnerships which are necessary in ensuring high quality professional experiences.
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Copyright 2011 The Author