The Reflexive Teacher Educator in TESOL

Book excerpt: In this book Julian Edge explores the construct of reflexivity in teacher education, differentiating it from, while locating it in, reflective practice. Reflexivity is the key concept underpinning a view of teacher education that binds together the orientations of action research and personal development in a way that establishes common ground, common purpose, and common experience between teachers and teacher educators. Augmenting the field in important ways, The Reflexive Teacher Educator in TESOL: develops the concept of praxis as it resolves the usual theory/practice dichotomy of teacher education introduces a framework (Copying, Applying, Theorising, Reflecting, Acting) that allows present and prospective teacher educators to become reflexive individuals uses a narrative, autobiographical voice that explicates the concepts involved, while also offering practical methodological procedures for teacher education. Written with clarity and style, scholarly yet personal, dealing with reflexivity in an accessible yet non-trivial way, this book – a first in the field, distinctive in terms of what the story is and how it is told – is a gift to the profession of TESOL teacher education.