Sharing Tacit Knowledge among Expert Teaching Professors and Mentees: Considerations for Career and Technical Education Teacher Educators

Overview & Synopsis

This case study provides viewpoints of knowledge sharing by expert teaching professors and their mentees. Professors who were recognized as expert teachers with an annual award at a mid-western USA university were the units of analysis of this study. Expert teaching professors had difficulty articulating much of their teaching expertise. The difficulty was rooted in three characteristics of teaching expertise. Sharing tacit knowledge was also noted as a difficult task because the nature of tacit knowledge prevented it from being articulated. Methods of sharing tacit knowledge were categorized in two ways: observation and "bringing it to surface." Recommendations for additional study include examining knowledge sharing among expert and novice professors in career and technical education teacher education programs.