Editorial: What is Learning in a Professional Teacher Education Program?

Abstract

Emerging from the backdrop of 21st century learning - which challenges fragmented, individualistic, didactic, competitive, "fixed" mindsets and instead offers holistic, interconnected, collaborative, inquiry-based "growth" mindsets - this MJE special issue presents research, discussion, and commentary that is illustrative of more robust and effective ways to support the learning and growth of new teachers in preparing the next generations of learners with different needs, interests, and talents.From central Canada, McLean and Truong-White, in a case study drawing on Magolda's framework of self-authorship, share their investigation of how teacher candidates at the University of Ottawa have self-authored their identities as civic educators through their experience of developing and delivering citizenship learning modules as part of the national youth leadership program, Encounters with Canada.Through the lens of personal and professional experience with traditional and online education, Vininsky and Saxe probe the advantages and disadvantages of each, leading to a proposed hybrid teacher education program informed by the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework that utilizes the best facets of both traditional and online mediums.In our final Note from the Field, Doerksen presents a discussion of pre-service teachers' engagement in critical citizenship and social imagination based on the powerful statement: when 21st century pre-service teacher education looks inward rather than only forward and outward, we learn to live in the 21st century rather than envision it.