Teacher educators in Finland and Turkey: their roles, knowledge base, and professional development profiles

The professional development of teacher educators has received global interest worldwide following the notion that teacher educators are profoundly responsible for teacher education quality. Still, research on teacher educator professional development is scarce in Finland and under-researched in Turkey. In this article, the authors examine how teacher educators in two institutes in Finland and Turkey define their roles and knowledge base as teacher educators, professional development practices, problems in professional development, and suggestions for better professional learning opportunities. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 university-based and school-based teacher educators working at two universities and two school settings in Finland and Turkey. Similarities and differences between the two groups in their professional development practices, problems and suggestions are discussed. The results reveal that though teacher education policies in these two countries share certain commonalities in structure and governance, definitions of professional development and practices differ in two contexts.