Professionalising teacher education: Evolution of a changing knowledge and policy landscape

Abstract

This chapter draws on relevant literature to map the history, issues and research developments shaping policy and knowledge in teacher education. It examines the historical positioning and governance structures of teacher education in the past 40 years, identifying three phases of policy and knowledge structures that have shaped teacher education over this period, (1) teacher education as training under government control, (2) teacher education as learning to teach under institutional governance, and, (3) teacher education as policy in a governance context of professional self-regulation and deregulation. To inform this analysis, we examine the evolving knowledge base for teacher education which has informed these policy framings of teacher education over time as well as the questions currently being asked of teacher education globally including: What should (beginning) teachers know and be able to do? How can judgments be made about what (beginning) teachers know and are able to do? What is the value of teacher education? Current policy debates around teacher education governance are contextualised in the increasingly polarized agendas positioning the deregulation of university-based teacher preparation against a defence of professionalism grounded in the academy.