Pedagogical Confrontations as a Lens for Reflective Practice in Teacher Education

Being a teacher educator is a complex endeavour and it is through systematic, and evidence-based reflection in and on practice that teaching pedagogy is more deeply understood. Extant literature reveals that reflective practice plays an integral role in understanding teacher educators' work. This chapter focuses on pedagogical confrontations as a lens for reflective practice to reveal the complexity of teacher educators' work. The term 'pedagogical confrontations' (PCs) signifies incidents, interactions or events in teaching which cause us to pause and critically examine our practice. In this chapter we examine the context, descriptions and responses of participant-identified pedagogical confrontations. Through independent and collaborative analysis of the confrontations we identify three key themes: (i) professional roles; (2) the importance of relationships; and (3) the changing nature of universities and teacher education. Using PCs as a lens for reflective practice reveals the relationship between one's values and pedagogical practices and we contend that recognition and deeper knowledge of this relationship leads to richer understandings of teacher educators' work.