Qualities of Ideal Teacher Educators

Abstract

 Generally, the relationship between the teacher educators' qualities and the quality of teacher education has not been discussed extensively in the literature. At the same time, various studies can be found in the eastern literature examining the characteristics of faculty members at the education faculties. The effect of teacher educators over teacher candidates has not been explored, and in this sense, there is limited number of studies examining faculty members at education faculties in Turkey. Mostly employing quantitative research designs, these studies have focused on faculty members in terms of various characteristics However, which qualities that faculty members should have as a whole have not been studied. However, faculty members, as well as teachers who are a matter of debate in terms of the qualities they are supposed to have should be examined in research studies. In this context, this study aims to identify the qualities that an ideal teacher educator should have from the perspective of education faculty students as future teachers. The current research is a qualitative study in phenomenology design. The participants of the study are third and fourth year 214 pre-service teachers from the departments of Science and Technology Teaching, Pre-School Teacher Education, Classroom Teacher Education, Social Studies Teaching and Turkish Language Teaching. Criterion sampling was used for participant selection. The data gathering tool consisted of an open-ended question that would reveal the qualities that an ideal teacher educator should have based on teacher candidates’ views. Junior and senior teacher candidates’ views were asked and the data were analyzed according to content analysis approach. As a result, the qualities that an ideal teacher educator should have been gathered under five main themes including ‘professional roles and responsibilities, professional values, personal characteristics, professional ethic principles and social responsibilities’.