Teaching our teachers: Practicing what we preach

In the field of Education, teacher-educators hold the privilege and responsibility of teaching our teachers. This is particularly evident in a time which exhibits a clear teacher shortage and issues with retainment across our early years, primary and secondary cohorts. Throughout their pre-service teacher education and beyond, teachers are required to demonstrate their ability to know their students and how they learn. This involves understanding the contexts of diverse learners, and how to cater for effective engagement, while portraying empathy across respectful relationships and authentic interactions. The necessary emphasis upon these three essential factors solidifies the need for teacher-educators to practice what they preach. This presentation explores the significance of these three key areas, and how they can be successfully integrated into the pedagogies of teacher-educators in Higher Education. A range of contemporary, evidence-informed teaching approaches and data sources are discussed to support teacher-educators to gain a clearer understanding of their student's contexts, barriers to understanding context, and issues that influence the changing contexts of our learners in the current and evolving social, cultural, political, economic and environmental climate. Developing these understandings can also enable teacher-educators to demonstrate genuine empathy towards their students while maintaining their professionalism. The connection between context, engagement and empathy addressed throughout this presentation illustrate the ability for teacher-educators to demonstrate specific evidence-driven pedagogies to understand, empathise with, and engage their students in an authentic and contextually appropraite manner, ultimately enhancing educational outcomes and success for student-teachers and the future generations of our school-based learners.