while it may seem positive that HEIs will incorporate the registration procedure in
their human resource policy, these changes also imply a power shift from VELON
as the—until now leading—professional community to the HEIs, which may also
affect the quality and focuses of teacher educators’professional learning.
In the Netherlands HEIs still have the overall responsibility for the quality of the
programme, including the practicum, but schools also have powerful voices.
According to the Ministry of Education, most formally recognized co-operations
between HEIs and schools are smoothly organized, the communication is stream-
lined, student teachers feel welcome and many mentors and school-based teacher
educators are trained (this last factor is due in part to the way in which school-based
teacher educators were incorporated in VELON and its professional development
activities at a very early stage). In reality, however, there is a huge variety among
the partnerships with regard to the quality of the coaching in schools and the
assessment of school-based work. The Ministry concludes that the implementation
of a systematic quality circle for partnerships is missing and that more attention to
quality control is needed.
To support already certified teachers to study for a masters degree, the Ministry
of Education provides grants. The increasing focus on enhancing the academic
quality of student teachers, however, has proved to be more complicated. Teachers
for the higher secondary level are already educated at universities to obtain a master
degree, and in the universities teacher education research traditions are strong.
Teachers for primary schools and for the lower level of secondary schools are
educated at Universities of Applied Science and obtain an under-graduate degree.
At these institutions research programmes in teacher education are still scarce and
small, and most teacher educators do not have a research background (often their
master thesis represents their most recent research experience). This evokes ques-
tions when they are requested to supervise their students’research projects. There
are, however, two interesting developments here. Since 2008 several universities
and teacher education institutions for primary education have started collaborative
programmes for primary schools (these are also designed to attract more male
teachers). Since 2010 universities have also offered under-graduate teacher edu-
cation students an educative minor that leads to a degree for the lower secondary
level. The involvement of teacher educator researchers in these programmes offers a
more productive context both for their own professional development and for the
development of the academic quality of their students. For the majority of Dutch
teacher educators, however, professional development activities involving research
are still limited.
In sum, in the Netherlands three issues about teacher educators’professional
learning ask for attention. First, while the organisation of the co-operation between
schools and HEIs is well organized, the implementation of a systematic quality
circle for partnerships is still missing. Second, the professional development of both
school-based and HE-based teacher educators has been initiated by teacher edu-
cators themselves and further developed by the active role of VELON. The focus of
these initiatives was on pedagogical practice, and less attention has been given to
the professional development of the research qualities of teacher educators.
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