Who should be involved in deciding what school-based practice in teacher education should look like? Often it is the provider of initial teacher education – a team of teacher educators working at a central base, university or school. Including in this dialogue the school-based teacher educators who are supervising all students in their school and who work with their mentors is vital for a strong collaborative partnership to develop.  Are there any resources designed to enhance the critical conversations that need to take place around school-based practice? The Teacher Educator’s Handbook – A narrative approach to professional learning contains a wealth of such resources for teacher educators. These resources are based on narratives written by teacher educators about the challenges they have experienced ‘on the ground’, collected in England and the Netherlands as part of an international research project by Miranda Timmermans and Elizabeth White. The stories capture the complexities of practice in partnerships with many stakeholders, some of whom cross boundaries between institutions where there are different priorities and a different ethos.

The detailed stories are explored in variety of ways using critical questions that you can use on your own or in professional learning conversations with other teacher educators. These resources have been used effectively with groups of teacher educators at local, national and international professional development workshops. No right or wrong solutions are provided, and interpretation may be ambiguous. This enables freedom for teacher educators to suggest  some possible solutions and explore them together. A further advantage of using stories in workshops is the opportunities they provide to challenge practices, understand power relationships and consider what learning can be transferred between contexts. A story may bring participants in a workshop closer because they provide a way in to share  their perspectives and to listen to the perspectives of others.

The themes covered in the stories include guiding and assessing students; working collaboratively; professionalism and well-being; and quality of provision. Each theme is complemented by a range of coaching questions to advance your practice. Further chapters provide ideas from practice about how to write your own stories about practice and how to use stories of practice collaboratively and creatively. Using a narrative approach may enhance the quality of initial teacher education by recognising and valuing the unique contributions made by teacher educators in the partnership and by supporting effective cooperation within partnerships.  In a time of significant disruption to initial teacher education  and major shifts in policy around the curriculum and induction of new teachers, this narrative approach can provoke a dynamic dialogue to improve and enrich practice.

The Teacher Educator’s Handbook: A narrative approach to professional learning
By Elizabeth White and Miranda Timmermans

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