ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with two autobiographical accounts that set the stage for the ensuing discussion of the significance of the teacher educator as practicum advisor to a beginning teacher. The first account describes my own experiences as a student teacher, ‘surviving’ on my own with the benign neglect of my advisors. The second account describes my earliest experiences as a young teacher receiving new teachers into my own classroom. With these two accounts as background, the remainder of the chapter argues for the importance of a number of criteria related to advisors acting as coaches for the development of understandings of teaching.
