Looking beyond the trees: police educators’ experiences of teaching and their development as teachers

Police academies have been historically dominated by teacher-centred approaches, limiting the quality of student learning. Ideally, police educators practicing within this context require more effective staff development programs to adopt a learner-centred approach. Using phenomenography, this study establishes the variation in police educators’ experiences of teaching and teaching development. The results of this study established two sets of hierarchically inclusive categories from less to more sophisticated practice. These results are discussed in relation to potential developmental pathways for police educators.