Challenges in teacher education

Abstract

Teacher education is influenced by a global meta-narrative that states that improving the quality of teacher education will lead to improved pupil outcomes, which in turn will lead to economic competitiveness in the global context. Thus, teacher education is seen as a powerful lever for achieving this ambition and is therefore positioned as a policy problem. This article outlines some of the key global challenges both in terms of global teacher education policy and in relation to wider societal influences. It problematises the notion that global challenges can be addressed by wholesale global solutions, arguing that liberal democratic governance in the global north mitigates against longer-term reform that does not achieve results within one election cycle. Instead, the article suggests that certain programme/partnership-level changes can work in powerful ways to achieve the ambition of more socially progressive teacher education