Teacher Educator Knowledge, Skills, and Self-Efficacy: Systemic Impacts on Initial Teacher Education Programming
Year: 2025
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Initial teacher education programs are the primary means through which student teachers gain teaching apprenticeship, amass core teaching knowledge, and build skills that prepare them to become effective teachers who are ready to combat the realities and challenges of the classroom. The current study examines the level of content knowledge (CK), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), and the self-efficacy of language and foundational literacy instruction among the language teacher educators at teacher training colleges (TTCs) in Malawi. This research further explored the teacher educators’ perceptions of CK and PCK, and how their understanding of the Initial Primary Teacher Education curriculum shapes their teaching practices in foundational learning and language. Lastly, we explore the associations between CK, PCK, self-efficacy, and teacher educators’ characteristics. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, we analyzed data from 60 language teacher educators from 10 TTCs in Malawi. The findings revealed that the teacher educators’ level of CK and PCK was low, but they had high self-efficacy in their ability to teach the component skills of literacy to the student teachers. Of the teacher educators’ characteristics, only continuous professional development was positively correlated with their self-efficacy. The teacher educators’ CK and PCK are shaped by the TTC curriculum, their primary school teaching experiences, and the national education policies and guidelines they implement. Gaps in the curriculum and external constraints hinder them from effectively training student teachers in foundational literacy pedagogies. The findings provide pedagogical and policy directions for stakeholders to improve the quality of preservice education in low–middle-income contexts.
Source: Trends in Higher Education
Institution: Florida State University
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,207
OpenAlex ID: W4413532896