Teacher educator leadership is vital, expert says

Let’s start by discussing teachers’ roles, their jobs and their needs. Think about how to improve teacher education and to build leaders in the education field for Thailand’s brighter future.

At a recent seminar in Bangkok, Prof Hannele Niemi of Helsinki University shared her experiences from Finland where educational quality ranks among the highest in the world. She showed research results on teacher educator leadership and what it means to national education policy.

Teacher educators play an important role in the education system, so increasing teacher educator leadership is clearly a priority, she said. 

Niemi chose to deliver a lecture on “Teacher Educators Leadership and national education policy” during the exclusive programme of “Teacher education for the future – Teacher Educator Leadership programme”. Held by Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Education, the programme organised various practical lectures and forums for its educators. Some sessions were also open to interested outsiders. 

During her session, Niemi encouraged participants to discuss the education situation in Thailand. Addressed were teachers’ role and tasks in future schools and society, methods to integrate education theories and inquiry-based education into practices, how to identify quality teacher educators and develop teacher educator leadership, the principle of teacher professional development and the function of assessment and evaluation in developing teaching in schools and teacher education.

Her main idea was to clarify “How does teacher education strategy relate to the education strategic plan of the country, in particular teacher education, basic education and the education policy of the country?”

From her lecture, I have come to the conclusion that teacher educator leadership is one of the key success factors for educational reform. Regarding the teacher’s role and tasks in schools and society, it is a must for all educators to understand how autonomy, accountability and teachers’ status are connected in order to know how we can define teachers’ professional role and competence.

In other words, teacher educator leadership can be a catalyst for educational change in Thailand. It’s just that we will need to develop such leadership with a sharp vision and commitment.

I now would like to urge all teacher-producing institutions in Thailand to share their visions and address all the relevant and aforementioned issues. I have high hopes that their knowledge and viewpoints will raise public awareness of education and encourage more educators to speak out. 

To bridge inquiry-based teacher education and practice, educators should have an understanding of what it means when teachers are knowledge creators, then reflect on what consequences that has in schools and in teacher education if teachers are knowledge creators.

Importantly, educators should discuss teacher education in Thailand and how theory and practice are integrated or should be better integrated in Thailand.

From the seminar, it is clear that for teachers’ professional development, the teacher education programme should have an understanding of how to create a continuum of pre-serve, induction and systematic in-service training. 

It is essential for school leadership and teacher leadership to support principals’ and teachers’ development through pre- and in-service training.

Should the faculty of teacher education reflect on what are the most important and critical issues in promoting teachers’ and principals’ professional development?

Concerning the function of assessment and evaluation in developing teaching in schools and teacher education, the seminar pointed out that teacher educators should have an understanding of how evaluations are used as tools of improvement in the education systems and at its various levels. If understood clearly, it may reflect on how teacher education can promote teachers’ accountability and students’ learning outcomes in schools.

Teacher-producing institutions must be aware of their vital role in the country’s education. Across the world, such institutions are expected to produce quality teachers, develop a new body of knowledge for teachers and conduct useful research on education. They must be the source of up-to-date knowledge amid the changing circumstances in the world too. In other words, they must be the university-based supply side of educated knowledge production.

It would be great if other teacher educator leaderships in Thailand acquire more knowledge according to the summary above, then share the ideas among their colleagues, discuss the research possibilities and then give feedback to society.

That discussion cycle could be a great practice for educator leaders and become valuable knowledge for Thai teacher education!