Love and critique in guiding student teachers

The aim of this article is to show how the notions of love and critique have become an important source for changing practice in guiding student teachers and forming a foundation for my living theory (McNiff & Whitehead, 2002; 2006). Together with my colleagues in the postgraduate teacher-education programme at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences I have been engaged in an action research process concerning the question, ‘How can I/we improve my/our practice?’ (Whitehead, 1989). The emphasis has been on our role as supervisors. We wanted to explore and improve our guiding of student teachers, both the face-to-face and online guiding-practice. According to Skagen (2007) there is a lack of empirical research in the field of guiding as a practical activity. The aim of this project was to improve our practice as teacher educators and at the same time contribute to further development of theory in the field of teacher-education. Our own learning as well as our influence in students’ learning were explored. We shared stories of guiding experiences in face-to-face encounters, and by reading each others’ texts of guidance written when the encounter was online. Individually, and as a group, we reflected upon our own experiences as well as the shared stories and texts. Through these action-reflection cycles (Kemmis & McTaggart, 2000) the notions of love and critique emerged as expressions of values we considered important, not only in our guiding of the students but also when encountering each other as co-workers.