Research Engagement and the Professional Identity of the Teacher Educator
Thinking, Feeling, Being
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How do teacher educators come to see themselves as researchers, and what does it mean to belong in the shifting landscape of contemporary universities? In Research Engagement and the Professional Identity of the Teacher Educator, Alison Griffiths draws on two decades of experience and original empirical research to illuminate the emotional, intellectual, and political realities of academic life.
Blending theory, narrative, and reflection, Griffiths reframes research as a deeply human and affective endeavour. Through a Bourdieusian theoretical framework, and qualitative analysis, she explores how teacher educators navigate the tensions of legitimacy, belonging, and recognition in environments shaped by policy reform and performative accountability. The book offers practical tools and frameworks for reflection, empowering readers to strengthen research culture, foster collegiality, and build confidence in their academic identity.
Written for teacher educators, academics, and practitioners, this timely volume invites readers to reflect, connect, and imagine new possibilities for research engagement. It is both a scholarly intervention and an act of professional advocacy, inviting readers to reimagine what it means to be a researcher, and to belong, in the shifting landscape of higher education.
Foreword; Aimee Quickfall
- Chapter 1. Research and the Teacher Educator
- Chapter 2. Thinking with Theory
- Chapter 3. The Outside In: Policy, Power and Teacher Education
- Chapter 4. The Inside Out: Identity, Legitimacy and Belonging
- Chapter 5. Telling Stories: Methodology, Representation and Narratives
- Chapter 6. Searching for Intellectual Space: Alex’s Story
- Chapter 7. Meeting Academia in the Middle: Charlie’s Story
- Chapter 8. Valued but Not Recognised: Joe’s Story
- Chapter 9. The Reshaping of Teacher Education: Nicky’s Story
- Chapter 10. The Impossible Academic: Andi’s Story
- Chapter 11. Thinking, Feeling and Being a Research-Engaged Teacher Educator
This book explores being a teacher educator in a way that looks into the very soul of being an academic in this space. There is real life in this work – not only through the shared lived experiences of teacher educators but emerging through the nuanced and insightful stance adopted by the author. Everyone in teacher education should read this book and perhaps everyone who is in the leadership of an ITE providing institute – it might aide their understanding of its complexities. The power of this book is captured in one sentence in the final chapter which states ‘teacher educators possess a distinctive form of expertise that cannot be reduced to either successful classroom practice or to conventional measures of academic productivity’.
At a time when education continues to face significant change and challenge, this book provides a nuanced and timely examination of professionalism, identity, and becoming. It makes a substantial contribution to the field by bringing together sophisticated theorisation and emotional resonance in a way that is rarely achieved. The author's work demonstrates how theory can be used responsibly and reflexively to illuminate practice, while never losing sight of the individuals at the heart of educational experiences.
Alison Griffiths is Deputy Head of School (Primary Education) and Program Leader for the Primary PGCE at Leeds Trinity University, UK. Her work focuses on teacher education, professional identity, and research engagement in higher education. Drawing on her experience as both practitioner and academic, Alison’s research explores how teacher educators navigate policy, emotion, and legitimacy within university settings. She completed her Doctor of Education at the University of Chester, where her thesis examined the research engagement and professional identities of university-based teacher educators through Bourdieusian, affective, and narrative lenses.