Learning to teach: knowledge, competences and support in initial teacher education and in the early years of teaching

Abstract

[Excerpt] The need to prepare effective teachers for schools and classrooms in the 21st century has been a major concern in debates about teacher education internationally. One of the topics under discussion relates to the kinds of knowledge and competences required of a teacher as well as the role of professional practice in relation to course work. As Tatto and Pippin (2017) argue, issues such as the globalisation of standards and the increased marketisation of education have led to a greater focus on the quality of teacher education which has become, at the same time, a prominent and contested field. Added to this is the fact that there is no single definition of quality that applies universally nor is there a single recipe for improving quality in initial teacher education programmes (Russell and Martin 2016). Thus, it is possible to identify narrow definitions of quality, in most cases associated with standards, performativity and managerialism, as well as more comprehensive understandings which take into account contextual, professional, political and personal dimensions (Flores 2019). As Loughran, Keast, and Cooper (2016, 416) argue, teacher education is not ‘about training, it should be an educative process that develops thoughtful, informed and highly able professionals’. As such, it is important to look at the ways in which teacher education is responding to the increasingly complex challenges in teaching and learning in contexts marked by rapid technological change, increasing globalisation and movement from one country to others (Townsend 2011). [...]