Professional practice in teacher education: an approach to the conceptions constructed by teacher educators

Abstract

Professional practices in the formative trajectories of teacher educators have gained great importance due to their being spaces forencounters between the experiences generated in real work scenarios. Given such relevance, the present study aims to account for the conceptions developed by teacher educators about professional practices, in order to understand the constructs that they communicate to students in the process of teacher training. Its methodological orientation is qualitative, using an interpretive-constructionist approach. The information was gathered through participant observation and in-depth interviews. A purposive sample of two teacher educators from two teacher training schools in the state of Oaxaca was selected. According to our findings,we identified two constructs on professional practices developed by the trainers: as a space for the generation of teaching skills and as a space for community teaching linkage. Both constructs gave a fundamental meaning to the experiences integrated by the students. The first construct directed the experiences around the promotion of teaching skills, while the second focused on the promotion of thinking and teaching actions linked to the conditions and needs of the town or community where the intervention took place. However, both constructs underline the formative character they have in the configuration of the professional teaching profile.