A School Perspective on School-Embedded Initial Teacher Education

Abstract

School-university partnerships have been developed to invigorate initial teacher education (ITE). Such partnerships potentially offer rich educational opportunities to pre-service teachers. This paper examines integrated and school-embedded approaches to ITE in the Australian context, drawing on a case study analysis of a three-year, ITE school-university-system partnership named inSITE. inSITE is explored from the perspective of the school educators directly involved in its design and delivery. Complexity science provided the theoretical framework for inSITE and signalled its principles of holism, integration and reflective practice. The factors that contributed to and inhibited school-based initial teacher education from a school's perspective are identified. The paper concludes that, given conducive conditions, an integrated, embedded and reflective approach can address the prevailing theory-practice dualism of ITE and may offer an important third way to prepare new teachers. The challenges and opportunities for school-embedded ITE in Australia are highlighted.