Teacher educators are mainly recruited from the ranks of teachers and are overwhelmingly experienced in teaching. This solid background of experience is frequently taken for granted to be a good, questioned only when experience is seen as obsolete. Turney and Wright (1990), for example, question the contemporary relevance of teacher educators' classroom experience. They recommend that teacher educators spend ‘a period … every three years in work experience in schools’. They believe such work experience will substantially contribute to the solution of two connected problems endemic in teacher education; namely, the problems teacher educators face in appearing both relevant and credible in the eyes of their clientele. This paper offers arguments and provides empirical data concerning teacher educators' use of experience which cast doubt on the Turney and Wright proposal. An alternative solution to the problems of relevance and credibility is outlined.
Anderson-LevittK. (1987). Cultural knowledge for teaching first grade: An example from France. In SpindlerG.SpindlerE., (Eds.), Interpretive ethnography of education: At home and abroad (pp. 171–192). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
2.
BallS.GoodsonI. (1985). Understanding teachers: Concepts and contexts. In BallS.GoodsonI., (Eds.), Teachers lives and careers (pp. 1–26). London: Falmer Press
3.
BeswickD.HarmanG.ElsworthG.FallonB.WoockR. (1980). Australian teacher educators and education policy: A national study of the views and characteristics of academic staff and practising teachers who contribute to teacher education. Melbourne: University of Melbourne, Centre for the Study of Higher Education
4.
Board of Teacher Education. (1984). School experience in Queensland preservice teacher education programs: Research report. Brisbane: Author
5.
Board of Teacher Education. (1985). School experience in Queensland preservice teacher education programs: Conference report. Brisbane: Author
6.
BritzmanD. (1986). Cultural myths in the making of a teacher: Biography and social structure in teacher education. Harvard Educational Review, 56, 442–456
7.
BritzmanD. (1991). Practice makes practice: A critical study of learning to teach. Albany: State University of New York
8.
BuchmannM. (1987). Teaching knowledge: The lights that teachers live by. Oxford Review of Education, 13, 151–164
9.
CarewJ.LightfootS. (1979). Beyond bias: Perspectives on classrooms. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
10.
CarterH. (1984). Teachers of teachers. In KatzL.RathsJ., (Eds.), Advances in teacher education (Vol. 1, pp. 125–141). Norwood, NJ: Ablex
11.
ChadwickV. (1991a). The Macarthur Lecture. Paper presented at the University of Western Sydney, Macarthur Campus, November 1991
12.
ChadwickV. (1991b), New directions in teacher training. Press release. Sydney: Office of the Minister for School Education and Youth Affairs
13.
ChampionR. (1984). Faculty reported use of research in teacher preparation courses: Six instructional scenarios. Journal of Teacher Education, 35 (5), 9–11
14.
DenscombeM. (1985). Classroom control: A sociological perspective. London: Allen & Unwin
15.
ElliottB.J. (1980). Return to the chalkface. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 4, 3–7
16.
Feiman-NemserS.BuchmannM. (1985). Pitfalls of experience in teacher preparation. Teachers College Record, 87, 53–65
17.
GilroyD.P. (1992). The political rape of initial teacher education in England and Wales: A JET rebuttal. Journal of Education for Teaching, 18, 5–22
18.
GrantC.SleeterC. (1987). Who determines teacher work? The debate continues. Teaching and Teacher Education, 1, 61–64
19.
GrossmanP.L. (1991). Overcoming the apprenticeship of observation in teacher education course work. Teaching and Teacher Education, 7, 345–357
20.
GrundyS. (1990). Taking accounting of student background: Dilemmas in the multicultural classroom. Paper presented to the Australian Association for Research in Education, Sydney, November 1990
21.
HargreavesA. (1984). Experience counts, theory doesn't: How teachers talk about their work. Sociology of Education, 57, 244–330
22.
HargreavesD. (1980). The occupational culture of teachers. In WoodsP. (Ed.), Teacher strategies: Explorations in the sociology of the school (pp. 125–148). London: Croom Helm
23.
HattonE.J. (1988). Teachers' work as bricolage: Implications for teacher education, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 9, 337–357
24.
HattonE.J. (1989), Levi-Strauss bricolage and theorising teachers' work. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 30, 74–96
25.
HattonE.J. (1990a). [Review of Advances in teacher education, edited by McClellandA., & VarmaV.P..] Australian Journal of Education, 34, 340–343
26.
HattonE.J. (1990b). Teacher education and bricolage: Towards a model of teachers' work. Unpublished PhD, University of Queensland
27.
HoweM. (1991, March 6). Teachers not taught well, Telegraph Mirror, p. 24
28.
KemmisS.ColeP.SuggettD. (1983). Towards the socially critical school. Melbourne: Victorian Institute of Secondary Education
29.
LaceyC. (1977). The socialization of teachers. London: Methuen
30.
ListonD.P.ZeichnerK.M. (1990). Teacher education and the social context of schooling: Issues for curriculum development. American Educational Research Journal, 21, 610–636
31.
ListonD.P.ZeichnerK.M. (1991). Teacher education and the social conditions of schooling. London: Routledge
32.
LortieD.C. (1975). Schoolteacher: A sociological study. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
33.
McTaggartR. (1989). Bureaucratic rationality and the self educating profession: The problem of teacher privatism. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 21, 345–361
34.
RudduckJ. (1985). Teacher research and research-based teacher education, Journal of Education for Teaching, 11, 281–289
35.
StonesE. (1984). Supervision in teacher education. London: Methuen
36.
TabachnichB.R.ZeichnerK. (1991). Issues and practices in inquiry-oriented teacher education. London: Falmer Press
37.
TotaroP. (1991a, November 7). Teachers' teachers go back to school. Sydney Morning Herald, p. 3
38.
TotaroP. (1991b, March 6). Why our teacher trainers are out of step. Sydney Morning Herald, p. 1
39.
TurneyC.WrightR. (1990). Where the buck stops: The teacher educators. Sydney: Sydmac Academic Press
40.
ZeichnerK.M. (1986a). Contents and contexts: Neglected elements in studies of student teaching as an occasion for learning to teachJournal of Education for Teaching, 12, 5–24
41.
ZeichnerK.M. (1986b). The practicum as an occasion for learning to teach. South Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 14 (2), 11–27
42.
ZeichnerK.M. (1987). The ecology of field experience: Toward an understanding of the role of field experiences in teacher development. In HabermanM.BackusJ. (Eds.), Advances in teacher education (Vol. 3, pp. 94–117). Norwood, NJ: Ablex
43.
ZeichnerK.M.TabachnichB.R.DensmoreK. (1987). Individual, institutional, and cultural influences on the development of teachers' craft knowledge. In CalderheadJ. (Ed.), Exploring teachers' thinking (pp. 21–59). London: Cassell
