Professor Geert Kelchtermans praises NAFOL for its work to develop the necessary research and theory skills for future teacher educators. He argues that NAFOL has shown the necessity of a structure in the educational system that focuses on teacher educators as a profession.

Professor Geert Kelchtermans currently chairs the Center for Innovation and the Development of Teacher and School, at KU Leuven (University of Leuven, Belgium). He is a well known figure in NAFOL as he gave several guest lectures and supervised NAFOL students in their writing process. Kelchtermans argues that Norway and NAFOL made a very strong statement about the particular character of teacher educators’ professionalism, adding that in many countries, people become teacher educators by accident and therefore do not have dedicated training to become teacher educators.

The point NAFOL as a graduate school makes is that moving from teaching to teaching future teachers implies that your subject changes. You’re not teaching mathematics or English anymore, but you’re teaching the teaching of mathematics and English. So this acknowledgment of teacher educators requiring a particular expertise, I think in its mere existence, NAFOL clearly made that point, and I think it’s a strong and valuable statement.

What’s next without NAFOL?

Kelchtermans is concerned that NAFOL is ending as a program, when there still is need for a structure to govern the academical development of teacher educators.

I think having a structure, be it a program or school, which purpose and reason of existence is creating an environment for the training as researchers on educational issues in preparation for people to be teacher educators is vital.

As chair in his department, Kelchtermans tried to create a program for post-graduate students, but this was not successful partly because there was a lack of recognition for the need to educate people as teacher educators. Kelchtermans is impressed that NAFOL was able to establish an arena for teacher educators as part of the education of doctoral candidates.

I feel it’s necessary to keep some kind of structure to continue working on that same agenda, because there will be next generation teacher educators, and it will continue to be very important for them to be trained academically through research. My worry is that when NAFOL ends, what will be put in place to continue the work that NAFOL has been doing?

Importance of valuing theory in teacher educator development

Kelchtermans believes that the only way to properly think of teacher educators’ professionalism is that the profession is based on research, and that teacher educators therefore need to master the necessary skills of being a researcher.

Doing research properly is not just a matter of methodological techniques, data collection and analysis, it is also about theory. What I really appreciated in the whole NAFOL setup is the explicit valuing of theory, and acknowledgment that in order to be a good researcher and teacher educator, you need to master in a careful and thoughtful way theoretical concepts.

International exposure is critical

One of NAFOL’s main goals was to develop binding cooperation with Norwegian and international research schools. In an article about NAFOL, the students praised the research school for bringing the international research community closer to them through inviting international researchers and supporting research trips abroad. Kelchtermans believes this is a critical part of educating future researchers:

A very essential aspect nowadays of being a researcher is that you need to operate in an international community, Kelchtermans explains, adding that this is highly relevant for countries with small populations where many of the researchers in your field are abroad.

Whatever we do, if we really want to connect to colleagues, we have to go abroad. Another important aspect of doing research is going public with your findings, offering them to the international forum and inviting them to criticize your work.

Kelchtermans argues that the scientific quality of the research is based on the scrutiny of the international research community.

Joining the chef in his kitchen

One thing Kelchtermans missed as a Ph.D. student, was to hear skilled researchers sharing their experiences and thoughts on how to deal with different challenges that arise when you are doing research. At NAFOL, he wanted to let the students see behind the scenes of the research process, and compares this to a chef inviting students to participate during a cooking session.

I will absolutely offer this experience to younger colleagues, saying «all right guys, you’ve read the handbooks, you’ve read the cooking books, you’ve practiced the different cooking utensils and you know the technical skills. Let me invite you to my research kitchen where you can see me cooking, or you can see me doing research, and I’ll be happy to explain to you, while I’m doing it, what I’m doing, why I’m making particular choices and how I deal with the unexpected difficulties that I did not see coming.

Watch the full interview with Geert Kelchtermans (YouTube video)