Conference Agenda

This paper conceptualises the role of the teacher educator through the lens of Gert Biesta’s "educational gesture," proposing that module design can be considered pedagogical curation. Drawing on the premise that teaching is an act of pointing to the world, we explore how a module can be designed as a curated collection of encounters with things of value. In this framework, the educator acts as a curator who selects specific educational "objects," inviting the student teacher to enter into dialogue with them.

This study examines a drama and an art leadership module designed as a curated encounter with a shared focus on four distinct "objects" that exemplify professional possibility:

1. Care: Both arts modules are designed through a relational lens and point to a particular primary school that embodies relational pedagogy, offering a lived example where the arts are the essential vehicle for a whole-school curriculum of care.

2. Arts Education: Both modules point to arts education as vital and humanising disciplines that offer an ever more necessary mode of engaging with the complex ethical and social challenges of our world;

3. Inclusion: Both modules point to Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL is presented as a creative design challenge and opportunity that anticipates diversity rather than reacting to it.

4. Partnership: Through a partnership with The Ark (a unique, purpose-built cultural centre for children) and Branar Téatar (one of Ireland’s leading theatre companies), the drama module points to high ambition. These encounters frame the child as a cultural citizen (UNCRC Art. 12) and asserts that children's art merits the same attention as adult art. Similarly, partnering with DCU’s art collection, the art module explored a more reciprocal ekphrastic encounter with campus artworks culminating in a more impactful curation of community art and poetry alongside the professional.

Introduction

In adult education, it is widely assumed that teachers’ professional competences substantially contribute to teaching quality (Collins & Pratt, 2011). In this context, teachers’ pedagogical-psychological knowledge (PPK), as a central subdimension of teacher knowledge (Baumert & Kunter, 2011), has received increasing attention. Building on Shulman (1987), effective teaching is understood to require generic knowledge of pedagogical concepts, principles, and instructional strategies that are not tied to specific subject matter. Given the high diversity of course topics in adult education, this generic nature renders PPK particularly relevant and compared to teachers’ content knowledge, potentially more readily measurable.

PPK has been incorporated as a core competence into theoretical models of professional competence (Strauch et al., 2021), and initial empirical studies have investigated predictors of adult education teachers’ PPK (Marx et al., 2018) as well as its dimensionality (Marx et al., 2022). However, systematic evidence on both the level of teachers’ PPK and its relationship with key dimensions of teaching quality remains limited. This is largely attributable to the lack of a validated measurement instrument, as prior approaches focused on isolated facets of PPK (e.g., Marx et al., 2018). Given the heterogeneous educational backgrounds of adult education teachers in Germany (AutorInnengruppe wb-personalmonitor, 2016), which are likely to influence both PPK and teaching quality, there is a clear need for an appropriate measurement instrument.

In school-based research, a well-established and validated instrument for assessing teachers’ PPK exists. The instrument PUW – Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Teaching (König & Blömeke, 2010) addresses five core instructional demands: dealing with heterogeneity, structuring instruction, classroom management, motivation, and assessment. Empirical studies have shown positive associations between PPK and teaching quality, commonly conceptualized along three quality dimensions – classroom management, cognitive activation, and student support (Klieme et al., 2009). While most studies report positive effects across dimensions (König & Pflanzl, 2016; König et al., 2021), findings for cognitive activation are mixed (Voss et al., 2014). Whether these relationships can be transferred to adult education remains unclear, as adult educators often enter the field through heterogeneous pathways in Germany and often acquire pedagogical competences informally or through experience.

Against this background, the present study examines the psychometric properties of an adapted PUW instrument for adult education (Aim a), the structure of PPK in this field (Aim b), and its predictive validity for teaching quality. In addition, we investigate whether professional experience moderates the relationship between PPK and teaching quality, assuming that experience influences how pedagogical knowledge is enacted in instructional practice. This assumption is particularly relevant in adult education, where experience often substitutes for formal pedagogical training (Aim c).

In recent decades, teacher education has undergone a shift from discipline-based mentoring grounded in subject-matter expertise toward generic mentoring models emphasizing broad pedagogical competencies (Donnelly & Crehan, 2011). This transition, often driven by institutional restructuring and a focus on cross-curricular standards, reshapes the role of college-based teacher educator. Traditionally, their professional authority was anchored in disciplinary expertise; however, generic frameworks demand an expansion of their role into interpersonal and professional dimensions of teaching that transcend specific subjects (Murray et al, 2021).

While research has explored generic teaching strategies, the subjective experience of teacher educators navigating this shift remains underexplored. Specifically, the transition from being a subject-matter expert to a "generic" teacher educator often entails a loss of the disciplinary "anchor", leading to professional uncertainty and a need to redefine the sources of one's expertise. There is limited empirical insight into how teacher educators experience this role expansion, whether as a professional loss or a process of renewal and growth (Beijaard et al., 2004; Goodwin et al., 2014).

This study is framed by the theories of professional identity and professional renewal. Within this framework, professional identity is conceptualized as a dynamic process shaped by ongoing practice and reflection (Beijaard et al., 2004). Accordingly, the transition to generic mentoring is viewed as a period of professional renewal (Avalos, 2011), involving a negotiation between the teacher educator’s established 'disciplinary self' and an emerging 'pedagogical self.' This emergence is driven by the teacher educator’s need to actively expand their pedagogical repertoire and develop new instructional strategies that transcend specific subject boundaries, thereby constructing renewed forms of professional authority.

The purpose of this study is to explore the transformation of professional identity and instructional practices among college-based teacher educators as they transition from discipline-specific to generic mentoring of pre-service teachers. Specifically, the study examines the subjective experiences of these educators during the transition, exploring their initial apprehensions regarding the loss of disciplinary grounding, the subsequent impact on their professional sense of security, and the evolving pedagogical skills they perceive as essential for constructing this new professional identity.

Research question:

1. How do college-based teacher educators describe the shift in their instructional methods for pre-service teachers following the transition from disciplinary to generic mentoring?
2. Which pedagogical tools do teacher educators adopt during this transition?
3. In what ways does a educator's disciplinary background influences the reconstruction of their professional identity as a generic educator in the college setting?

Teacher educators are central to shaping the values, practices, and identities of future teachers, yet their own professional learning often remains fragmented, informal, and under-theorised (Czerniawski et al., 2017; Kelchtermans et al., 2018). In Ireland, the Teaching Council’s Céim standards position Global Citizenship Education (GCE) as a core component of all initial teacher education (ITE) programmes (Teaching Council, 2020). However, embedding critical GCE, understood as justice-oriented, reflexive, and committed to interrogating inequities (Andreotti, 2011; Bosio, 2023), presents significant challenges for teacher educators. These challenges are particularly acute when educators must navigate tensions between institutional requirements, personal values, and evolving professional identities (O’Gallchóir et al., 2025).

These tensions raise wider questions about future educational outcomes. Specifically, how can teacher educators, and by extension future teachers, be supported to develop the reflective, justice-oriented, and adaptive competences required for young people to thrive in increasingly uncertain futures shaped by climate change, technological disruption, and persistent global inequities? We contend that self-awareness is foundational to critical GCE, as it enables educators to interrogate their own identities, assumptions, and positionalities in relation to global power structures, cultural difference, and social justice (Byker & Xu, 2019; O’Flaherty et al., 2025). As pedagogical and ethical leaders, teacher educators must engage in this work in order to model reflexivity, cultivate psychologically safe spaces for critical inquiry, and prepare future teachers to act responsibly within complex and inequitable global contexts.

Despite its importance, there remains limited understanding of how teacher educators are supported to develop self-awareness as an ethical and pedagogical foundation for critical GCE. This study responds to this gap by exploring how teacher educators experience professional learning focused on cultivating self-awareness within an international community of practice (CoP). The research draws on two interlinked collaborative self-studies involving teacher educators and allied professionals across Ireland, Australia, and psychotherapy contexts. These diverse positionalities offer rich insight into how self-awareness, facilitation, and professional identity intersect in GCE-oriented professional learning.

The study addresses two research aims: (1) to examine how self-awareness functions as both a personal and pedagogical imperative for teacher educators engaged in critical GCE; and (2) to explore the role of facilitation in creating conditions of psychological safety, trust, and adaptive learning within communities of practice.