Student Teachers Creating Space for Teacher Educators’ Reflection and Professional Development

Abstract

This chapter presents a study on how to support student teachers’ reflection and how these reflections can be turned towards teacher educators’ professional development. The chapter is based on research conducted in the Finnish initial teacher education context and consists of two parts. The first part laid the foundation through the reconceptualisation of core reflection (principles and practices, relationship and interaction, and teacher disposition), which was further processed in the self-study conducted by the team of teacher educators. Based on the analysis, two themes appeared for teacher educators’ professional development – namely, supporting the sense of community and utilising shared reflection for individual professional development. In conclusion, it is proposed that collaboration and shared reflection with teacher educators creates space for professional development both for student teachers and teacher educators.