Empowering Pre-service Teachers: Perhaps Being an Influencer Is a Good Thing?

Abstract

In this chapter, I argue that when we empower pre-service teachers through engaging teaching within teacher preparation courses and fostering opportunities for coursework to align with the work in schools we assist them to become ‘profes-sion ready’ rather than ‘researcher ready’ which is a more valuable outcome for pre-service teachers. I argue that it is time to break the assumed rule that essays are the most effective way to assess students. Whilst writing matters, the kind of writing encouraged in some teacher education courses has little value beyond the university. To analyse how this came to be a dominant approach, despite doubts about its efficacy, I examine the Australian Institute of Teacher and School Leader-ship (AITSL), Learning Intentions (Hattie and Timperley in The power of feedback. Review of educational research, 77(1):81-112, 2007); the value of being an ‘influ-encer’ through social media for social justice and democracy; and the importance of Inquiry and the 4Cs framework. As a solutions-driven type of person and an optimist, I propose a new way forward for initial teacher education.