Teacher Education Policy and Research: Global Perspectives 9811637741, 9789811637742

Citation preview

Diane Mayer   Editor

Teacher Education Policy and Research Global Perspectives

Teacher Education Policy and Research

Diane Mayer Editor

Teacher Education Policy and Research Global Perspectives

Editor Diane Mayer Department of Education University of Oxford Oxford, UK

ISBN 978-981-16-3774-2 ISBN 978-981-16-3775-9 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3775-9 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

Contents

1

Teacher Education Policy and Research: An Introduction. . . . . . . . . . Diane Mayer

2

Teacher Education/ors in Australia: Still Shaping the Profession Despite Policy Intervention. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alyson Simpson, Wayne Cotton, and Jennifer Gore

3

4

5

6

7

A Critical Examination of the Conception of Teacher Professionalism Enacted in Current Teacher Education Policy in Flanders (Belgium). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Eline Vanassche, Steven Bruneel, and Lore Christiaens

1

11

27

Teaching and Teacher Education for a Post-pandemic Canada: Context, Crisis, Critique and Complication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anne M. Phelan and Jill D. Morris

43

The Complex Policy Landscape of Initial Teacher Education in England: What’s the Problem Represented to Be?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Trevor Mutton, Katharine Burn, Ian Thompson, and Ann Childs

57

Analyzing Practice, Research, and Accountability Turns in Finnish Academic Teacher Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Auli Toom and Jukka Husu

73

Preparing High Quality Teacher Education Graduates in an Era of Unprecedented Uncertainties: The Case of Hong Kong. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sylvia Y. F. Tang and May M. H. Cheng

85

8

Quality Under Pressure in Dutch Teacher Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Paulien C. Meijer

9

Teacher Education Policy in Aotearoa New Zealand: Global Trends Meet Local Imperatives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Fiona Ell v

vi

Contents

10 Teacher Education in Northern Ireland: Policy, Practice and Pragmatism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Linda Clarke and Paul McFlynn 11 Educating Teachers in the Post-Bologna Context in Portugal: Lessons Learned and Remaining Challenges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Maria Assunção Flores 12 Measuring Quality in Initial Teacher Education in Scotland: A Context-Specific Endeavour. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Aileen Kennedy, Paul Adams, and Mark Carver 13 Teacher Education in the United States of America: An Overview of the Policies, Pathways, Issues and Relevant Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 Maria Teresa Tatto 14 A Research Informed Approach to Initial Teacher Education in Wales: Intentions, Examples and Reflections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Alma Harris, Michelle Jones, John Furlong, Jeremy Griffiths, and Cecilia Hannigan-Davies 15 Teacher Education Policy: Future Research, Teaching in Contexts of Super-Diversity and Early Career Teaching. . . . . . . . . . 209 Diane Mayer, A. Lin Goodwin, and Nicole Mockler

Editor and Contributors

About the Editor Diane Mayer is a Professor of Teacher Education at the University of Oxford and Professorial Fellow of Harris Manchester College. Her research and scholarship focuses on teacher education and early career teaching, examining issues associated with the policy and practice of teachers’ work and teacher education.

Contributors Paul Adams University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK Steven Bruneel Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Leuven, Campus Kulak, Kortrijk, Belgium Katharine Burn University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Mark Carver University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK May M. H. Cheng The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China Ann Childs University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Lore Christiaens Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium Linda Clarke Ulster University, Northern Ireland, UK Wayne Cotton University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia Fiona Ell Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand Maria Assunção Flores University of Minho, Braga, Portugal vii

viii

Editor and Contributors

John Furlong University of Oxford, Oxford, UK A. Lin Goodwin The University of Hong Kong, Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong Jennifer Gore University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia Jeremy Griffiths Bangor University, Wales, UK Cecilia Hannigan-Davies Cardiff- Metropolitan University, Wales, UK Alma Harris Swansea University, Wales, UK Jukka Husu Faculty of Education, University of Turku, Turku, Finland Michelle Jones Swansea University, Wales, UK Aileen Kennedy University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK Diane Mayer University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Paul McFlynn Ulster University, Northern Ireland, UK Paulien C. Meijer Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands Nicole Mockler University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia Jill D. Morris University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada Trevor Mutton University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Anne M. Phelan University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada Alyson Simpson University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia Sylvia Y. F. Tang The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China Maria Teresa Tatto Arizona State University, Arizona, USA Ian Thompson University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Auli Toom Centre for University Teaching and Learning, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland Eline Vanassche Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Leuven, Campus Kulak, Kortrijk, Belgium

Chapter 1

Teacher Education Policy and Research: An Introduction Diane Mayer

Abstract In many countries, teacher education is being increasingly framed as a policy problem that requires national solutions and large-scale reforms. In this context, a group of leading teacher education researchers from 15 nations formed the Global Teacher Education Consortium (GTEC) to investigate the impact of teacher education policies and associated reforms within and across these jurisdictions. This book represents the first collective work of GTEC. The chapters provide analyses of current teacher education policy in Australia, Belgium, Canada, England, Finland, Hong Kong SAR, the Netherlands, New Zealand, North Ireland, Portugal, Scotland, the USA and Wales. This introductory chapter provides an overview of global trends in teacher education policy and associated notions of professionalism, and the connections and disconnections between teacher education policy and research.

Introduction In recent decades, teacher education has been subjected to changing policies and reforms as governments aim to improve teaching quality. The policies often look surprisingly similar across countries. However, there are also interesting and unique outliers. In this book, leading teacher education researchers from Australia, Belgium, Canada, England, Finland, Hong Kong SAR, the Netherlands, New Zealand, North Ireland, Portugal, Scotland, the USA and Wales examine teacher education policy and research in each of their contexts. This is the first body of work of the Global Teacher Education Consortium (GTEC) which was formed in 2019 to explore teacher education policy and research across the constituent nations. The authors have established professional links and associations and come from relatively high-income countries that have experienced much teacher education policy change in recent decades. In many cases, teacher education is framed as a policy problem with national solutions and large-scale reforms being developed in the hope of ‘fixing the problem’ (CochranSmith et al. 2018; Furlong 2013; Furlong et al. 2009). However, many policies are D. Mayer (B) University of Oxford, Oxford, UK e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 D. Mayer (ed.), Teacher Education Policy and Research, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3775-9_1

1

2

D. Mayer

ideological in nature rather than research-informed, even though they claim to be evidence-based. In most instances, a limited amount of the available teacher education research is drawn on to inform the policies and it is usually selected according to specific criteria associated with scale, methodology, generalisability, or simply that the findings align with preferred ideological and political positions. The policies and associated reforms usually incorporate more complex and tighter systems of accountability based on the assumption that this is the basis for improving teacher education and thus teaching quality. Sometimes new policies and reforms are formulated and implemented even before the effects of the previous reforms are really known. This can be because of change of governments and new political agendas. At other times, the catalyst for change is concern about the most recent results on international assessments and the perception that another country is ‘doing teacher education better’. In this increasingly regulated context, researchers are encouraged to investigate the impact and effectiveness of teacher education programmes. Government priorities and associated research funding opportunities often frame the preferred indicators of effectiveness to be researched that are aligned with a range of accountability requirements. These can include things like graduating teacher employment rates, attrition and retention of new teachers, and levels of student achievement claimed to be directly attributable to teacher quality. The opinions of employers and the new teachers themselves are regularly sought on whether they feel prepared for teaching. Usually, this happens at the end of a teacher education programme, or soon afterwards, even though the type of employment (that is, whether it is permanent and ongoing, contract or casual) and the opportunities for support and ongoing professional learning and development in the school context during the first year of teaching have been shown to significantly mediate the ways in which new teachers describe themselves as being prepared and being effective (Mayer et al. 2017). GTEC argues that a more comprehensive approach to understanding the consequences of various teacher education policies and practices is needed and that these should incorporate investigating their impact on: teachers and teaching; teacher educators; schools and their communities: school students and their learning; and, education systems as a whole. We suggest that such a positioning of teacher education as part of a complex system (Cochran-Smith et al. 2014) will enable a more nuanced understanding of the impact of the policies as they frame and reframe teacher education, and indeed the teaching profession. We argue that such a research agenda on an international scale will enable both comprehensive analysis of the impact of various teacher education policies and also provide the basis for informing future policies and practices. This chapter provides an introduction to the collected works in this book which provide analyses of teacher education policy and research in Australia, Belgium, Canada, England, Finland, Hong Kong SAR, the Netherlands, New Zealand, North Ireland, Portugal, Scotland, the USA and Wales. It provides an overview of global trends in teacher education policy and associated notions of professionalism, and discusses connections and disconnections between teacher education policy and research.

1 Teacher Education Policy and Research: An Introduction

3

Teacher Education Policy Like education policy more generally, teacher education policy has become an expression of global neoliberal policy imaginaries and reform movements (Ball 2012; Rizvi and Lingard 2010). The neoliberal dominant discourse of teacher education is framed as the ‘construction of the problem of teacher education’ (Cochran-Smith et al. 2013). Various policy initiatives exhibit aspects of marketisation, free-market competition and accountability mechanisms using measurement of graduating teachers’ readiness for teaching and graduating teachers’ impact on school students’ learning outcomes. Country comparisons and competition associated with international assessments fuel policy production that is intended to improve teacher quality and the effectiveness of teacher education. Often, governments identify aspects of teacher education that they are able to control via various accountability mechanisms and these become the foci of reform agendas. Globalisation and the related flows of people, knowledge and practice, means teacher education policy, or at least components of it, can look similar from country to country. In some cases, global corporate actors like McKinsey and Company (McKinsey and Company 2007) as well as trans-national entities like the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD 2019) become significant drivers in policy development and disperse the foci of policymaking away from education bureaucracies (Sellar and Lingard 2013). Reports from these entities are often cited as evidence for the need for policy change and reform. In this context, decontextualized policy borrowing occurs, but often resembles ‘a piecemeal, “pick n mix” approach that ignores the fact that educational policies and practices exist in ecological relationships with one another and in whole ecosystems of interrelated practices’ (Chung 2016, p.207). However, others have argued that what is happening is better characterised as policy translation because ‘policies are not merely being transferred across time and space… [but] their form and their effect are transformed by these journeys’ (Peck and Theodore 2015, p.29). Another aspect of globalisation influencing teacher education policy is the movement of people across borders. The travelling teacher or teacher as cosmopolitan (Mayer et al. 2008) is often seen as a problem by governments as they seek to secure an adequate supply of teachers in their jurisdiction particularly in contexts where growing school student populations and teacher attrition and/or lack of attraction to the teaching profession, have prompted predictions of teacher shortages. Thus, the movement of newly qualified teachers to other jurisdictions is seen as ‘wastage’ and there are instances where national regulation is attempting to make teacher education providers accountable for the rates of employment of their graduates (and sometimes their retention in the profession) as well as the impact of their teaching (see for example the program standards of the Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership and the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation in the US). Despite the travelling, mobile and translating policies, governments strive to ground their new policies and reform agendas locally and provide country-specific

4

D. Mayer

justifications for the change agendas. This often takes the form of setting up government selected review panels which are tasked with calling for submissions from relevant stakeholders, reviewing practices in other countries (usually those deemed to be high performing in international assessments), reviewing relevant research (often the reports from the trans-national entities referred to above), and making a set of workable recommendations which can be directly translated into policy and reform agendas within the political cycle. Quite often, the preferred direction is unambiguous, as for example in Australia when the Minister for Education announced the Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group (TEMAG) review to the media in 2014: And there is evidence that our teacher education system is not up to scratch. We are not attracting the top students into teacher courses as we once did, courses are too theoretical, ideological and faddish, not based on the evidence of what works in teaching important subjects like literacy. Standards are too low at some education institutions - everyone passes.1

A crisis discourse about the quality of teacher education emerges which is further stoked by claims that the country is falling behind its competitors in international assessments and that there is significant public concern about the quality of teacher education. So, as well as teacher education being a problem to be fixed, these reviews create a sense of it needing to be fixed urgently. The answer is usually seen as more rigorous accountability frameworks and standards as well as a substantial emphasis on making teacher education providers accountable for ensuring the ‘right’ people come into teacher education and that new teachers are ‘classroom ready’. In some cases, alternative pathways into teaching are seen as the answer, pathways which reduce or eliminate the role in universities in teacher education. Some of these issues are explored further in the chapters that follow. A practice turn (Zeichner 2012) becomes evident and the role of teacher education becomes framed more narrowly as developing competence in practical skills for teaching. At the extreme, teaching is seen as a craft that is best learned on the job (e.g.Department for Education (DfE) 2010). In England, this view has resulted in significant growth in ‘school-led’ routes into teaching (Whiting et al. 2018) and policy discourses have become increasingly dominated by binary debates about whether the professional education of teachers should be school-led or university-led. Thus, it is clear that teacher education policy has many influencers and it, in turn, influences practice and research, but, of course, none of this is linear. As Vidovich (2007) reminds us, educational policy research ‘has shifted from a macro focus on central authorities to incorporating a micro focus on the multiple (often contradictory) policy practices within individual institutions’ (Vidovich 2007, p.285). Like others, she argues for ‘policy analysis which explicitly links the ‘bigger picture’ of global and national policy contexts to the ‘smaller pictures’ of policies and practices within schools and classrooms (p.285). To do this, she developed a framework for policy analysis which is shown below in Fig. 1.1. In the figure, the influences which frame the entire policy process are presented at macro, intermediate and micro levels of a 1

Hon Christopher Pyne, Minister for Education. Sydney Morning Herald, 18 February, 2014.

1 Teacher Education Policy and Research: An Introduction

5

Fig. 1.1 Hybridized framework for policy analysis. Source Vidovich (2007, p.291)

policy trajectory. At the macro level, the global and international influences impacting on the policy process are considered. The micro level influences include analysis of the specific localized contexts. The policy effects are produced by the complex interactions of the ‘influences’ and ‘text production’ at different levels and can cycle back as influencers. Vidovich (2007) proposed this framework to guide analysis of the complex relationships between global influences, national policies and local interpretations and practices. The chapters that follow highlight some of these influencers and relationships in the policy trajectory in each of the nations.

Teacher Education Policy and Notions of Professionalism As argued above, teacher education is being constructed as a policy problem with governments setting out to improve it by increasing regulation and tightening accountability. Professionalism has become associated with increased levels of accountability with greater use of professional standards and measures of teacher performance linking teachers’ work with national goals and economic agendas (Connell 2009). At the same time, looming teacher shortages have prompted governments to support alternative pathways into the profession such as the various country instantiations of the Teach for All network and these also become part of the solution

6

D. Mayer

to the problem of teacher education. The role of teacher education in developing knowledge for teaching is devalued while discipline knowledge and learning on the job are positioned as key determinants for effective teaching. The increased accountability and standards, as well as a growing performance culture, are shaping policy and practice and constructing organisational or managerial professionalism which in turn is creating a risk averse profession exhibiting compliant professionalism (Sachs 2016). Likewise, Evetts (2013) highlights the notion of organisational professionalism which acts as a discourse of control by incorporating rational-legal forms of authority and hierarchical structures of responsibility and decision-making. It involves the increased standardisation of work procedures and practices and managerialist controls and relies on externalized forms of regulation and accountability measures such as target-setting and performance review’ (p.787). These types of performance cultures and standardisation imply a low level of trust in teachers and teacher educators. Thus, governments set out to define their work (in standards) and establish accountability mechanisms by which they are required to provide evidence of their (increased) performance. This type of professionalism is evident in many of the chapters as they outline their policy contexts. On the other hand, occupational professionalism is framed according to collegial authority, trust, autonomy, professional judgement and guided by codes of professional ethics (Evetts 2013). Similarly, Sachs’ (2003) notion of an activist teaching profession incorporates democratic professionalism focussing on collegial relations and collaborative work practices. However, these ways of thinking of professionalism are usually favoured by teachers rather than governments. Teachers’ and teacher educators’ enacted professionalism comprises behavioural (what they actually do at work), attitudinal (attitudes held) and intellectual (their knowledge and understanding and their knowledge structures) components (Evans 2011). This enacted professionalism is constantly re-shaping itself through the dynamic agency of the teachers and teacher educators. Thus, the teacher education policy context discussed above, with its focus on increased accountability, standards and performance exhibits organisational or managerial professionalism—both for teachers and teacher educators. While research for teaching has been increasingly judged through a ‘what works’ lens and its value for teachers judged according to the use or not of prescribed methodologies (Burns and Schuller 2007), there are calls for rethinking professional identity around practices that are informed and improved by and through teacher and classroom research. This involves teachers being research literate in order to judge the value of publicly available research for their teaching, and also being researchers themselves in order to investigate and improve their classroom practices. Both of these approaches frame a professionalism that involves informed professional judgement and teaching decisions designed to enhance student learning. The BERA-RSA report envisages a repositioning of teacher professionalism where ‘a new environment of self-improving education systems teachers will need to become research literate and have opportunities for research and inquiry. This requires that schools

1 Teacher Education Policy and Research: An Introduction

7

and colleges become research-rich environments in which to work’ (British Educational Research Association 2014, p.5). Again, there is some evidence of this framing of professionalism in some chapters in this book.

Teacher Education Research and Policy Teacher education research, as distinct from research on teaching, is a relatively new field of research. While teacher education research has evolved and grown over the past decades, reviews of this work often conclude that it is underdeveloped, smallscale, undertheorized, fragmentary, and somewhat parochial (e.g. Menter et al. 2010; Murray et al. 2008; Sleeter 2014). The small-scale studies do inform local teacher education practice in helpful ways, however they do not produce the data sets and findings that policy makers generally appear to be seeking. The prevailing view is that this body of work has not systematically built a knowledge base for teacher education policy (Sleeter 2014). Recommendations often call for more large-scale and longitudinal studies. There are suggestions that the current body of teacher education research has been distorted and misused (Zeichner and Conklin 2017) in order to manufacture a narrative of failure and a rationale for tighter accountability and significant reform in teacher education (e.g. Cochran-Smith et al. 2018). Moreover, claims about the paucity of rigorous research get interpreted as a lack of evidence of teacher education’s effectiveness and conclusions are made that therefore it must be ineffective. In the main, teacher education research seems to occur parallel to teacher education policy, rarely informing policy and even more rarely considered as part of teacher education accountability frameworks. Drawing on Vidovich’s framing, teacher education research seems to occur mainly in the local space and rarely becomes an influencer in the space of policy text production and even more rarely in the broader space of policy discussions. However, it must be remembered that teacher education programmes are constantly changing and adapting so researching such a dynamic system is difficult if what might be considered more traditional methods of research and analysis are being used (Cochran-Smith et al. 2014; Gray and Colucci-Gray 2010). The notion of evidence is being widely engaged in accountability frameworks with teacher education programmes being required to provide evidence of their effectiveness and impact. While this could be seen as an opportunity for teacher education research, the evidence requested in the regulations usually relates to aspects that have little to do with the actual teacher education programme and its curriculum. As noted above, these include things like graduating teacher employment rates, attrition and retention of new teachers, and levels of student achievement claimed to be directly attributable to teacher quality. However, examination of the relevant literature and analysis of the discourses informing teacher education policy in Australia suggest that much closer examination of how effectiveness is understood and framed is needed by both teacher educators and policymakers before teacher education research might

8

D. Mayer

gainfully be employed in accountability requirements (Mayer et al. 2017). Moreover, as Helgetun and Menter (2020) remind us, in the current policy ‘evidence era’, evidence is often constructed ideologically for political purposes. This can mean privileging particular types of research both in topic, method and purpose. Instead, the evidence being required usually refers to data rather removed from the programme and in this way teacher education research is further marginalised and the work of teacher educators further de-professionalised. Another dimension requiring more interrogation to inform future research directions is the assumption of a singular and unproblematic connection between teacher education and the quality of graduating teachers. Again, while this does seem to suggest possibilities for future research directions, the multiple ways in which university-based teacher education impacts the education system needs to be considered so that teacher education is positioned as more than just a source of newly qualified teachers. Ell et al. (2019) draw on complexity theory to suggest a nuanced way to conceptualise the impact of teacher education that acknowledges the integrated nature of the education system and the way in which all stakeholders work together to improve student learning. In this way, teacher education research would investigate the impact of teacher education on: teachers and teaching; teacher educators; schools and their communities: pupils and their learning; and, education systems as a whole.

The Contribution of This Book This edited book represents the first collective work of the GTEC group and provides analysis of the current policy context and teacher education research in Australia, Belgium, Canada, England, Finland, Hong Kong SAR, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Scotland, the USA and Wales. The order of the chapters is simply alphabetical according to the name of each nation. The analyses of teacher education policy and research across these 13 nations provide the basis for researching teacher education using a more comprehensive research framework and indicators of effectiveness than is currently being encouraged by governments and some funding bodies. GTEC members have made a commitment to ongoing work together within and across the nations. This edited volume highlights connections and disconnections between teacher education policy and research, and will inform and guide future teacher education research. In the concluding chapter, we provide an analysis of the issues, opportunities and challenges across the nations and consider future policy and research possibilities and opportunities for: teacher education research; equity and preparing teachers for work within contexts of super-diversity; and early career teaching.

1 Teacher Education Policy and Research: An Introduction

9

References Ball, S. J. (2012). Global Education Inc : New policy networks and the neoliberal imaginary. London, UNITED KINGDOM: Taylor & Francis Group. British Educational Research Association. (2014). Research and the Teaching Profession: Building the capacity for a self-improving education system. Final Report of the BERA-RSA Inquiry into the Role of Research in Teacher Education. London: BERA. Burns, T., & Schuller, T. (Eds.). (2007). Evidence in education. Linking research and policy. OECD Publishing. Chung, J. (2016). The (mis)use of the Finnish teacher education model: ‘Policy-based evidencemaking’? Educational Research, 58(2), 207–219. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131881.2016.116 7485 Cochran-Smith, M., Carney, M. C., Keefe, E. S., Burton, S., Chang, W.-C., Fernandez, M. B., & Baker, M. (2018). Reclaiming accountability in teacher education. Teachers College Press. Cochran-Smith, M., Ell, F., Ludlow, L., Grudnoff, L., & Aitken, G. (2014). The challenge and promise of complexity theory for teacher education research. Teachers College Record, 116(5), 1–38. Cochran-Smith, M., Piazza, P., & Power, C. (2013). The politics of accountability: Assessing teacher education in the United States. The Educational Forum, 77(1), 6–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/001 31725.2013.739015 Connell, R. W. (2009). Good teachers on dangerous ground: Towards a new view of teacher quality and professionalism. Critical Studies in Education, 50(3), 213–229. Department for Education (DfE). (2010). The Importance of Teaching: The Schools White Paper 2010. Retrieved from https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/upl oads/attachment_data/file/175429/CM-7980.pdf. Ell, F., Simpson, A., Mayer, D., McLean Davies, L., Clinton, J., & Dawson, G. (2019). Conceptualising the impact of initial teacher education. The Australian Educational Researcher, 46(1), 177–200. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-018-0294-7 Evans, L. (2011). The ‘shape’ of teacher professionalism in England: Professional standards, performance management, professional development and the changes proposed in the 2010 White Paper. British Educational Research Journal, 37(5), 851–870. Evetts, J. (2013). Professionalism: Value and ideology. Current Sociology, 61(5–6), 778–796. https:// doi.org/10.1177/0011392113479316 Furlong, J. (2013). Globalisation, neoliberalism, and the reform of teacher education in England. The Educational Forum, 77(1), 28–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131725.2013.739017 Furlong, J., Cochran-Smith, M., & Brennan, M. (Eds.). (2009). Policy and politics in teacher education: International perspectives. Routledge Taylor & Francis. Gray, D., & Colucci, L. (2010). Challenges to ITE research in conditions of complexity. Journal of Education for Teaching: International Research and Pedagogy, 36(4), 425–439. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/02607476.2010.513856 Mayer, D., Cotton, W., & Simpson, A. (2017). Teacher Education in Australia: Evidence of effectiveness. In J. Lampert (Ed.) The Oxford encyclopedia of critical perspectives on teacher education. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Mayer, D., Dixon, M., Kline, J., Kostogriz, A., Rowan, L., Walker-Gibbs, B., & White, S. (2017). Studying the effectiveness of teacher education: Early career teachers in diverse settings. Springer. Mayer, D., Luke, C., & Luke, A. (2008). Teachers, national regulation and cosmopolitanism. In A. Phelan & J. Sumsion (Eds.), Critical readings in teacher education: Provoking Absences (pp. 79–98). Sense Publishers. McKinsey & Company. (2007). How the world’s best-performing school systems come out on top. McKinsey. Menter, I., Hulme, M., Elliot, D., & Lewin, J. (2010). Literature review on teacher education in the twenty-first century. Edinburgh, Scotland: Education Analytical Services, Schools Research, Scottish Government.

10

D. Mayer

Murray, S., Nuttall, J., & Mitchell, J. (2008). Research into initial teacher education in Australia: A survey of the literature 1995–2004. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(1), 225–239. OECD. (2019). A Flying Start. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/education/talis/a-flying-startcf74e549-en.htm. Peck, J., & Theodore, N. (2015). Fast policy : Experimental statecraft at the thresholds of neoliberalism. University of Minnesota Press. Rizvi, F., & Lingard, R. (2010). Globalizing education policy. Routledge. Sachs, J. (2003). The activist teaching profession. Open University Press. Sachs, J. (2016). Teacher professionalism: Why are we still talking about it? Teachers and Teaching, 22(4), 413–425. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2015.1082732 Sellar, S., & Lingard, B. (2013). The OECD and global governance in education. Journal of Education Policy, 28(5), 710–725. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2013.779791 Sleeter, C. (2014). Towards teacher education research that informs policy. Educational Researcher, 43(3), 146–153. Vidovich, L. (2007). Removing policy from its pedestal: Some theoretical framings and practical possibilities. Educational Review, 59(3), 285–298. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131910701427231 Whiting, C., Whitty, G., Menter, I., Black, P., Hordern, J., Parfitt, A., & Sorensen, N. (2018). Diversity and complexity: Becoming a teacher in England in 2015–2016. Review of Education, 6(1), 69–96. https://doi.org/10.1002/rev3.3108 Zeichner, K. (2012). The turn once again toward practice-based teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 63(5), 376–382. Zeichner , K., & Conklin, H. (2017). Beyond knowledge ventriloquism and echo chambers: Raising the quality of the debate in teacher education. Teachers College Record, 119(4).

Diane Mayer is Professor of Teacher Education at the University of Oxford and Professorial Fellow of Harris Manchester College. Diane’s research and scholarship focuses on teacher education and early career teaching, examining issues associated with the policy and practice of teachers’ work and teacher education.

Chapter 2

Teacher Education/ors in Australia: Still Shaping the Profession Despite Policy Intervention Alyson Simpson , Wayne Cotton , and Jennifer Gore

Abstract This chapter provides an overview of recent key policy changes driving efforts to improve initial teacher education in Australia. It documents the challenges faced by teacher education providers in terms of the discursive framing, subjectification and lived impact of policy imperatives on initial teacher education. By analysing the flow-on effects of Federal and State government policies, the researchers reveal the complexity of competing attempts to shape the profession. All teachers in Australia undertake formally accredited programs of study. Therefore, we call attention to the vital role of teacher educators in leading change and negotiating productive partnerships with stakeholders while responding to political intervention. Our chapter celebrates the strengths of initial teacher education in Australia while also demonstrating how the complex policy landscape interacts with teacher educators’ efforts to keep shaping the profession.

Introduction Teacher education in Australia, as in most nations, is a field of intense political interest, given the attribution of pupil learning outcomes to their teachers and, by extension, to the preparation of those teachers. A long history of teacher education reform has intensified recently, in the name of enhancing the quality of teachers and teacher education. This chapter provides an overview of key teacher education policy changes that have emerged in Australia over recent years. In doing so, we document the existing teacher education system and major challenges faced by initial teacher A. Simpson (B) University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia e-mail: [email protected] W. Cotton University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia e-mail: [email protected] J. Gore University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 D. Mayer (ed.), Teacher Education Policy and Research, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3775-9_2

11

12

A. Simpson et al.

education providers. The analysis highlights much to celebrate about teaching and teacher education in Australia, including increasing demonstration of professionalism, commitment to social justice through education and dedication to excellence. At the same time, we expose several tensions that must be navigated pertaining to: (1) attempting to enhance the status of teaching and initial teacher education through increasing regulation and standardisation; (2) balancing the push for excellence with workforce requirements; (3) accounting for the quality of initial teacher education against diverse notions of evidence and measurement; and (4) maintaining teaching and initial teacher education as intellectual and creative endeavours in the face of external pressures. We argue that teacher educators must continue to take the lead in shaping the profession both to meet our own goals and to engender greater trust from the governments and education systems we serve.

Background The key historical period we address in this chapter is bookended by the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians in 2008 and the Alice Springs (Mparntwe—pronounced M-ban tua) Education Declaration in 2019. The Melbourne Declaration inspired much of the policy change of the last ten years including the conceptualisation of a national approach to curriculum. Initiated by the Council of Australian Governments Education (COAG) all state and territory Ministers of Education were signatories to the policy document. Fast forward to 2019, an updated agreement was approved, which continues to focus on a national vision for education and signals the ongoing commitment of Australian Governments to improving educational outcomes. The amendments include explicit attention to: core actions supporting educators; strengthening early childhood education; and promoting world-class curriculum and assessment. Our discussion below tracks the complex interplay of competing discourses associated with ongoing reform and highlights how the academic autonomy of initial teacher education (ITE) has been framed by increasing regulation. First, we provide some background to the local context, giving insight to key political and systemic factors that impact the work of teacher educators in Australia. The Australian political system operates both Federal and State governments. The Federal government controls higher education while State governments have responsibility for schools. Since 2009, the Federal government has steadily increased its influence over schooling and teachers’ work, and consequently initial teacher education, although with some cross over of influence. For example, in the state of NSW, reforms stimulated through the blueprint Great Teaching, Inspired Learning (GTIL) included design of a literacy and numeracy test for teacher education graduates in 2013. This concept was subsequently taken up at a national level to require literacy/numeracy testing of all initial teacher education students in Australia prior to graduation. The test is known as the Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education (LANTITE). Similarly, all primary pre-service teachers are required

2 Teacher Education/ors in Australia: Still Shaping the Profession …

13

to develop a ‘teaching specialisation’, yet the depth of expertise expected varies substantially between national and state guidelines. The Australian school system is mainly comprised of primary schools (students aged 5–12 years) and secondary schools (students aged 13–18 years). In 2018, there were nearly 4 million students enrolled across 9,500 schools, with 85% of students staying in school until their final year. 65.7% of school students were enrolled in government schools, 19.7% in Catholic schools and 14.6% in independent schools. Across all schools, the ratio of students to teachers is 13.5:1 (n = ~ 290,000 fulltime equivalent teachers). The teaching workforce is predominantly female at 72% (Australian Bureau of Statistics, Cat. No 4221.0). Currently in Australia, there are 48 providers of initial teacher education. As most institutions offer a range of initial teacher education programs including primary and many secondary subject specialisations, sometimes at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, more than 350 accredited programs exist (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership 2020). In 2017, there were just under 100,000 tertiary students enrolled in these programs (AITSL 2019).

Pathways into Initial Teacher Education Teachers in Australia can be prepared via a range of pathways. These include: ● Four-year bachelor’s degrees (e.g., Bachelor of Education); ● Double bachelor’s degrees (e.g., Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Education, Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Education), typically as pathways to secondary teaching; and ● Master’s level degrees (e.g., Master of Teaching) for those with a first noneducation bachelor’s degree ● Alternate pathways into teaching such as Teach for Australia, which are relatively small. Pre COVID-19, one in four ITE students commenced their studies as part of an online ITE program (AITSL 2019). However, during the pandemic, all ITE programs have provided classes largely online when return to on-campus teaching was not viable. Initial teacher education programs in Australia usually comprise professional studies, curriculum studies, and professional experience or practicums, as well as discipline or content study for relevant teaching areas where entrants have no first degree in the discipline. Professional experience or practicum comprises a series of supervised experiences in schools during most years of the program, totalling 12– 20 weeks depending on the length of the program. Secondary teachers are usually prepared to teach two subject areas, and primary teachers to teach across all subject areas, including the arts, English, health and physical education, humanities and social sciences, languages, mathematics, science and technologies (Mayer et al. 2017).

14

A. Simpson et al.

Policies Influencing Initial Teacher Education in Australia (2008–2020) Australian initial teacher education policy tends to be grounded in the premise that weak student results on national or international tests is the direct result of poor quality teachers and therefore poor quality teacher education. This view grossly oversimplifies the complexity of education as a socially contextualised system (Ell et al. 2019). Policy attempts to regulate ITE in response to this perception, which has taken multiple forms over many years, have threatened but not cowed teacher educators’ efforts to exercise their professional autonomy. In this chapter, we use Baachi’s (2009) analytic framework for understanding policy development to inform our exploration of a period of significant policy churn related to ITE. As we read the policy documents, our focus was on the discursive framing of ITE (what was/was not discussed); the subjectification of teacher educators (how policy represents and positions teacher educators); and the lived impact on ITE (how teacher education programs responded). Given the recent announcement by the Federal Education Minister of yet another review of ITE (Tudge 2021), we argue that for teacher educators to gain a position of trust where providers can act with responsible autonomy and collect the practice-based evidence needed to validate their approaches, the time frames within which policy is enacted need to be expanded. Teacher educators also need to exert some influence over the discursive framing of issues identified so the complexity of education systems is more fully recognised. We begin this analysis with a review of recent, major policy influences on initial teacher education, selecting from the total suite of policies to reflect their highly dynamic and sometimes conflicting impact. The policies depicted in Table 2.1 are arranged in chronological order in four key stages noting their date, major driver/reform, and espoused purpose. This descriptive overview of the main policy drivers that shaped the current ITE profession in Australia provides important context for our main analysis provided in the Discussion.

Preparing a Profession To set the context for this analysis it should be noted that in 1996 the Australian Commonwealth Department for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs (DEETYA) approved funding for a project to develop a set of national standards and guidelines for initial teacher education. The Australian Council of Deans of Education (ACDE) responded proactively to this opportunity to frame the debate. After consultation with numerous stakeholders in initial teacher education, the report, Preparing a Profession was published (ACDE 1998). As a result of this work, the first set of national standards and guidelines for initial teacher education in Australia was created. That is, the emergence of a strong framework and structure for judging the quality of ITE programs was led initially from within the profession itself.

2 Teacher Education/ors in Australia: Still Shaping the Profession …

15

Table 2.1 An overview of the major reforms underpinning ITE in Australia: 2008–2019 Stage

Date

Major Driver/ Reform

Purpose/Description

Preparing a Professiona

1998

The report on the National Standards and Guidelines for ITE

This report focuses on the need for national standards and guidelines for ITE

National Agenda Setting

2008

The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians

The Education Ministers across Australia made a collective commitment to enhance ITE

Promoting National Excellence in Initial Teacher Education

2010

Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) was founded

AITSL’s purpose is to provide national leadership for all Australian Governments in promoting excellence in teaching and school leadership

2011

The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers were introduced

This detailed statement from AITSL describes the professional knowledge, practice and engagement expected of Australian teachers at Graduate, Proficient, Highly Accomplished and Lead levels

2014

The establishment of the Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group (TEMAG)

TEMAG was established to ensure that new teachers have the right mix of academic and practical skills needed for the classroom

2015

National standards and procedures for the accreditation of ITE programs were introduced

The Education Ministers across Australia endorsed the standards and procedures to ensure that every ITE program is preparing classroom-ready teachers with the skills and knowledge to make a positive impact on their students. This included the introduction of mandatory literacy and numeracy tests (2016) and capstone teaching performance assessments (2017)

2019

The Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration

The Declaration sets out the Australian vision for education and the commitment of its Governments to improving educational outcomes

Developing a National Vision

a While outside the 2008–2019 period, this report is included in this Table as it sets the scene of Australian ITE policy and reform being initially driven (in part) by the Australian Deans of Education

These standards and guidelines were “intended to be used for the external review of initial school teacher education programs for the purposes of approval or accreditation” (ACDE 1998, p7). The report received overwhelming support among teacher educators due to its professional credibility and its flexibility to accommodate varying approaches to ITE at different universities. While this report was written 10 years prior to the 2008–2020 window selected for this policy analysis, it demonstrates not only clear evidence of leadership from within the field but also a long history of involvement by initial teacher educators in

16

A. Simpson et al.

conversations about the quality of initial teacher education. Indeed, the final statement prefacing the report is, “Properly used it [the report] will help maintain a teaching force of the highest international standard” (ACDE 1998, p2).

National Agenda Setting Building on early work, including the Preparing a Profession report (ACDE 1998) and the 1999 Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-First Century (Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA), 1999), all Australian Education Ministers convened in Melbourne in 2008 and made a commitment to ensure high-quality schooling for all young Australians. The aim of this Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians (MCEETYA 1999) was to set the national agenda for schooling from 2009 to 2018, based on two overarching educational goals, namely that: 1. 2.

Australian schooling promotes equity and excellence; and All young Australians become successful learners, confident and creative individuals, and active and informed citizens.

While the majority of the 2008 Declaration focused on schooling, the Education Ministers also made a collective commitment to enhance initial teacher education (MCEETYA 1999, p. 11). This commitment paved the way for promoting national excellence in ITE for the next decade.

Promoting National Excellence in Initial Teacher Education Delivering on the commitment made in the 2008 Melbourne Declaration, in 2010 the Australian federal Labor government established the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) to promote excellence in the profession of teaching and school leadership. AITSL worked closely with key education stakeholders to develop National Professional Standards for Teachers. The first version of these national standards for teachers was released in 2011 (building from existing state-based work1 ). A revised set of Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (AITSL 2016b) were later developed and supported by research documentation (Louden 2015a, 2015b; Mayer 2015). In 2014, the Federal Minister for Education established the Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group (TEMAG) to provide advice to the Government on how ITE programs could further ensure graduating teachers have the right mix of academic 1

For the historical record, the NSW Professional Teaching Standards, the Western Australian Competency Framework for Teachers and the Victorian Institute of Teaching’s Standards and Professional Learning were implemented in 2004. The Professional Standards for Queensland Teachers were introduced in 2006.

2 Teacher Education/ors in Australia: Still Shaping the Profession …

17

and practical skills. In 2015, the TEMAG, which consisted of vice-chancellors, deans, education professors, school principals and other education professionals, released their Action Now: Classroom Ready Teachers report. This report outlined that major reform in ITE was needed in five areas: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Stronger quality assurance of initial teacher education courses Rigorous selection for entry to initial teacher education courses Improved and structured professional experience for initial teacher education students Robust assessment of graduates to ensure classroom readiness National research and workforce planning capabilities.

These enhancements were presented as a response to concerns expressed by teacher employers about the classroom readiness of ITE graduates and the need to lift public confidence in ITE programs. The Action Now: Classroom Ready Teachers report provided specific advice to the education Ministers on how ITE programs could be improved. This resulted in the Ministers endorsing a series of standards and procedures to ensure that every ITE program prepares classroom-ready teachers with the skills and knowledge to make a positive impact on school student learning. The AITSL Accreditation of initial teacher education programs in Australia: Standards and Procedures (AITSL 2015) document outlined the requirements ITE programs need to meet to be accredited nationally. A key element in the national Program Standards is the requirement for all providers to include within their programs a valid, reliable and moderated Teaching Performance Assessment (TPA). The TPA is mandated to be a ‘capstone’, end of program, assessment intended to provide evidence of professional knowledge, professional judgement and professional practice. Similar to work in the USA on the Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT) and the Teacher Performance Assessment (EdTPA) but a locally derived model, Australian designed TPAs are assessed and approved by a national expert advisory group, mainly composed of university academics. AITSL’s plan was to have TPAs implemented in all ITE programs by the end of 2018. To start the process, in 2017 AITSL sponsored two consortia of ITE providers to develop separate TPA instruments. Since then, a wide range of TPAs have been designed and utilised by ITE providers working in consortia or as individual institutions. As of mid-2021, there are over ten approved TPAs in Australia involving more than half of the ITE providers. However, no cross TPA benchmarking has been undertaken and the predictive validity of the various TPAs has not yet been determined. Another mandated requirement stemming from the Action Now: Classroom Ready Teachers report was the introduction of the Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education (or LANTITE). The LANTITE was introduced in 2016 to ensure all ITE graduates across Australia have personal literacy and numeracy skills broadly equivalent to the top 30% of the Australian population. It is important to note that while the federal body AITSL is responsible for the development and implementation of National Professional Standards for Teachers

18

A. Simpson et al.

and Program Standards for ITE, programs are actually accredited by individual state or territory teacher regulatory authorities. For example, in New South Wales (NSW), the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) is the state government education board that accredits teachers for employment and assesses ITE programs against the National Program Standards. This dual level policy structure allows state and territory regulatory bodies to add locally nuanced specific program requirements in addition to the AITSL standards. An example of these additional requirements are the NESA Elaborations in Priority Areas (2017), which require only NSW ITE providers to demonstrate how their programs will enable their graduates to gain and demonstrate (a specific series of arguably additional) skills and knowledge in the NESA identified priority areas of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education, Classroom Management, Information and Communication Technologies, Literacy and Numeracy, Students with Disability, and Teaching Students with English as an Additional Language or Dialect. Another example of the dual level policy structure is evident in how the LANTITE requirement is enacted. The 2016 AITSL programs standards state that ITE programs must have “…mechanisms to ensure that only those pre-service teachers who pass the Literacy and Numeracy Test will be eligible to graduate” (p. 22). Various states and territories have acted on this requirement in different ways. Some require a pass in the LANTITE for students to be able to undertake their final practicum, whilst other states require a pass to register or be employed as a teacher. The consequence of this variation is often confusion, particularly for those ITE providers and students who work or live across state borders.

Developing a National Vision In late 2019, a decade after the Melbourne Declaration, the Australian Education Ministers again gathered to discuss the country’s education plan for the next 10 years. The resulting Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration (Australian Governments Education Council 2019) acknowledges the vital importance of teachers, educators and leaders to the accomplishment of future education goals. The report highlights the role that teacher educators play noting: All Australian Governments and the education community, including universities, must work together to foster high-quality teaching and leadership … Teachers, educators and leaders are vital to achieving these education goals for young Australians. Australia is fortunate to have excellent teachers and educators; their professionalism, expertise and ongoing engagement in developing education in Australia will be critical (p.11).

Despite all of these declarations, regulations and policies, public uncertainty about the value of initial teacher education still exists. Unfortunately, the claim made twenty-two years ago “Teachers have never been subject to more scrutiny than they are today” (ACDE 1998, p4) continues to resonate. In 2008, Louden identified more than 101 government inquiries into initial teacher education over the preceding

2 Teacher Education/ors in Australia: Still Shaping the Profession …

19

30-year period. Since then, we have seen some of the most extensive changes to ITE requirements ever. Even now, debates continue to focus on the appropriate and transparent development of criteria to improve the quality of ITE, with a broad commitment to ensuring rigour while allowing scope for state-based, professional and institutional forms of autonomy. Time will tell if current government reviews, action plans and policies will have a positive and measurable effect on ITE programs and graduate outcomes. In the meantime, teacher educators have consistently demonstrated a willingness to play a role in, if not lead, reforms and have acted with agility and goodwill in responding to changes.

Discussion The policy overview above demonstrates the premises on which much current policy rests and highlights the persistent discursive framing of initial teacher education as in need of continual improvement. The representation of initial teacher education as a policy problem also unhelpfully positions teacher educators as subjects to be worked on. In paying so much attention to initial teacher education, other, tightly interrelated elements that impact heavily on student learning are ignored. There are also visible disconnections between what policy demands and what teacher educators can and do achieve. In this section of the chapter, we discuss the ‘lived’ impact of policy as manifest in ITE programs. Our brief overview of recent key policy influences on ITE highlights much to celebrate about teaching and initial teacher education in Australia. We have seen increasing professionalisation of initial teacher education in the advent of a national approach to program accreditation. We have embedded concern for social justice in all initial teacher education programs, requiring units on special education, for example, as we embrace commitments made in the Melbourne and Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declarations. We have demonstrated a dedication to excellence with clear efforts to provide rigorous evidence of classroom readiness through the development and implementation of TPAs. More broadly, there are signs of a new appreciation of the profession, spurred on by greater community recognition of teachers’ work during COVID-19 (Garoni and Lampert 2020). Our perseverance in shaping a profession and system of initial teacher education of which we are duly proud, despite growing policy intervention, has meant that ITE in Australia has a strong reputation on the global scene. At the same time, our analysis signals some clear tensions that have been/are still being navigated—tensions that are unlikely to be unique to Australia. First, it requires a fine balancing act to try and enhance the status of initial teacher education by increasing the degree of regulation and standardisation. Increasing regulation, as seen in the program standards, can fortify perceptions of a professional field that has its act together. But over-regulation can strip teacher educators of autonomy and diminish their intellectual /conceptual leadership of the field. Increasing standardisation of graduates can contribute to a perception of well-prepared teachers emerging from every institution. However, there is a risk that by seeking to develop

20

A. Simpson et al.

uniform skills that can be easily measured, over standardised initial teacher education programs will discourage graduates from becoming intellectually creative and adaptive teachers. Similarly, taken too far, the push to restrict entry into a highly regulated field of initial teacher education to the top 30% of the population could deter the very high achieving students the field seeks to attract and thus further reduce the status of teaching (Gore et al. 2016). In many jurisdictions, regulatory bodies and/or individual ITE providers have taken opportunities to improve on the ‘lowest-common-denominator’ of AITSL standards by locally nuancing programs to suit cohort focus, for example, provision of more Indigenous teachers. This resistance to a uniform approach to ITE by going beyond what is mandated is a clear demonstration of professional leadership by teacher educators. Relatedly, there is ongoing tension between professionalising ITE from within— initiated or led by teacher educators—or without—stemming from government or think-tank representations of the field (Goss et al. 2017). Public and media portrayals questioning the quality of initial teacher education have contributed to a broad undervaluing of the profession and increasing levels of government intervention. The external push for program standards, literacy and numeracy tests, and evidence of classroom readiness, for example, have a role to play in lifting the quality of and respect for initial teacher education. It has been suggested that AITSL standards provide a national language to enhance collaboration and creation of shared practice within which teacher educators can act autonomously. Arguably, however, these initiatives fundamentally convey a lack of trust in teacher educators to take responsibility for the quality of their programs. This is despite the field-setting commitments explicated in the Preparing a Profession monograph (ACDE 1998) and consistent drive from within the field to ensure teacher educators are at the table in developing new policy directions. In the current regime, ITE providers must collect and compile extensive documentation attesting to the compliance of our programs with the Standards as well as data proving our impact on pre-service teachers and on the students they teach. Admittedly the system of reporting and accreditation is costly and time-consuming, and yet initial teacher educators have been willing to engage with the process. We have strategically collaborated with accrediting bodies, sometimes introducing innovations to programs that prompt policy catch-up. Now, with the advent of a new review of ITE (Tudge 2021) insufficient time has been given to compile the cohesive evidence TEMAG requested. Changing parameters have again stymied the longitudinal view teacher educators hoped to gain by tracking pre-service teachers through their programs and into the first five years of their appointments as teachers. We can only hope that there is a time in the future when teacher educators are more fully trusted, which would encourage wider innovation in program design and allow for greater responsiveness to local needs as well as robust evidence collection. Second, while recent efforts to restrict entry into ITE to the so-called ‘best and brightest’ are clearly part of a professionalisation agenda aimed at excellence, current workforce demands in Australia suggest severe impending teacher shortages. Estimates suggest between 8 and 50% of Australian teachers leave the profession within their first five years (AITSL 2016c). And the average age of teachers in Australia

2 Teacher Education/ors in Australia: Still Shaping the Profession …

21

(currently 43) signals substantial renewal (Gore and Rickards 2020). In addition, Australia currently has an undersupply of specialist teachers; with a growing number of teachers working outside their area of expertise (du Plessis 2019). Maintaining a hard line on academic excellence as necessary for entry to initial teacher education might not be sustainable in a climate of such changing workforce requirements. Furthermore, this policy has a limited basis in evidence. The idea that better school students (i.e., those with greater academic achievement) make better teachers has not been widely documented (Aspland 2019). And to suggest that we can or should determine who is suitable for teaching at age 17 or 18 is to emphasise ‘inputs’ (what students achieve at the end of school and bring into ITE) rather than ‘outputs’ (what students achieve by the end of their degree) in a way that undermines the value of ITE in providing a form of teacher education that will ensure the next generation of fine teachers. In recent years, teacher educators have been asked to supplement academic criteria for entry into programs with non-academic criteria. This move goes part way to acknowledging the holistic potential of students rather than limiting candidate assessment simply to secondary school academic performance translated to a numerical Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR). Responses to this requirement vary widely with some ITE providers setting up psychometric testing and others using interview or other entry measures such as the capability for study and school support statements. AITSL now requires teacher educators to collect data on student cohorts to explore any alignment between entry characteristics, university results and subsequent performance as teachers (AITSL 2015). While such an approach shifts focus away from ‘inputs’ towards the more important ‘outputs,’ problems arise as ITE providers often lose contact with their students post-graduation making tracking difficult. Certainly, teacher educators are interested in exploring the relationships represented across the trajectory from study to employment, however, such work needs to ensure complexity is accounted for (Ell et al. 2019). Third, while policy demands over the last decade (such as those associated with LANTITE and TEMAG) are clear moves to increase the accountability of teacher educators for the quality of teacher education, what counts as adequate evidence of quality? How are we to demonstrate that our graduates are well-prepared for their important role as teachers? This question is a larger one for the field of teaching itself, where the tendency has been to adopt simplistic or blunt measures (such as test scores without any reference to context) that fail to address what really is at stake. As a case in point, the concept of ‘classroom readiness’ that emerged from the TEMAG in 2014 and is still upheld by Minister Tudge’s (2021) expectation for graduates to be ready ‘from day one’ encourages a view of ITE graduates as ‘future proofed’. Despite the policy requirement for all teachers in Australia to undertake formally accredited programs of study and be inducted into the classroom through substantial practicums, this added concept is to be captured in a final piece of assessment that demonstrates ‘readiness’. We argue that this notion of ‘ready’ works in direct opposition to a portrayal of teaching as a profession where adaptive expertise is developmental in nature. Instead, these policies have intensified data gathering and reporting across

22

A. Simpson et al.

the sector, while the field continues to wrestle with diverse notions of evidence and measurement (Mills and Goos 2017). Similarly, teacher educators have noted the challenge of being asked to work within shifting definitional parameters. Reviews continue to call into question the effectiveness of initial teacher education. Yet, analysis of multiple reports addressing so-called ‘problems’ with ITE reveals little consistency regarding the term ‘effectiveness’ (Louden 2008; Mayer et al. 2017). A clear case of conceptual confusion can also be seen in the genesis of the requirement for degrees to include ‘specialisations’, which are defined differently in national and state-level documentation. Teacher educators regularly publish papers and present at conferences, critically engaging in conceptual, methodological and practical questions of measurement in relation to initial teacher education. Such research is important in either establishing the validity of the tools currently being used to assure the employability of graduates, or calling these tools into question in a way that asserts the field’s leadership of what has too often been driven by policy writers well-removed from the realities of teaching and initial teacher education. Finally, maintaining teaching and initial teacher education as intellectual and creative endeavours in the face of so many external pressures, especially from governments, is an ever-present minefield for teacher educators. With the relatively stagnant performance of Australia’s schools on international rankings (ACER 2019) and on some internal measures of student performance such as our National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), initial teacher education remains an easy target. We have been blamed for inadequate preparation of teachers for the real demands of classroom behaviour management or addressing student and community diversity, but such specific concerns are often political responses to public pressure exerted by outspoken individuals rather than emerging from rigorous evidence of program failings. Widespread public interest in teaching and initial teacher education tends to combine with political agendas to lock ITE into a constant cycle of review in which we feel a lack of trust, despite multiple layers of regulation, surveillance, and accountability—most recently manifest in TEMAG and its associated requirements. The pace of policy change denies teacher educators opportunities to embed new structures and practices and compile evidence of impact. Indeed, we are continually in reactive mode while trying to plan long term. Currently, policy churn does not align with program length or tracking, collection, and analysis of data. ITE could be supported by standards if trust informed the process of course design and approval and therefore teacher educators had more time to provide data addressing the predictive power of entry requirements or exit capstone assessments in relation to graduation and retention in teaching. In short, on the one hand, initial teacher education in Australia is highly regarded, evident even in university rankings by subject, our editorial roles on key journals of the field, and other metrics of institutional performance. On the other hand, many teacher educators in Australia feel worn down, constantly under attack and undervalued for the important and effective work we do. Support in policy for a ‘delivery mode’ of teaching operates in conflict with the complex model of education systems

2 Teacher Education/ors in Australia: Still Shaping the Profession …

23

that inform teacher educator action. Despite these lived, discursive and subjectification challenges, productive signs of cross-institutional collaboration have emerged during the design, implementation and moderation of the TPAs signalling a strengthening of professional leadership. As stated above, we argue that teacher educators must continue to take the intellectual lead in shaping the profession both to meet our own goals and to engender greater trust from the governments and education systems we serve.

Postscript In this chapter, we demonstrate that, for at least the past decade, teacher educators have been leading efforts to shape the teaching profession in Australia. Despite evertightening regulation of program design and graduate qualities, teacher educators have participated in reform efforts whenever we have been able to secure a seat at the table, often taking a leading role. Engaging with government agencies remains critical both for building trust in and respect for our work and for continuing to show intellectual/substantive leadership in ongoing review and reform. Analyses such as those contained in this volume are important if we are to ensure that future leaders have a deep understanding of the history of teacher education provision and reform, positioned within the broader national and global education landscape. Carefully juggling the conceptual and practical needs of both graduates and employers, together with the political needs of governments, is fundamental to maintaining important control of our work and ensuring that initial teacher education contributes to the larger national vision of a world-class education system that supports every student.

References ACER (2019). PISA 2018 in Brief I: Student performance by S. Thomson, L. De Bortoli, C. Underwood, & M. Schmid, (Australian Council for Educational Research). Aspland, T. (2019). It takes more than a great ATAR to make a great teacher. In ‘EduMatters’, February, https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=3608. Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2020). 4221.0 - Schools, Australia, 2019, Australian Government. Retrieved August 18, 2020. https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/lookup/4221.0Me dia%20Release72019. Australian Council of Deans of Education. (1998). Preparing a profession: Report of the national standards and guidelines for initial teacher education project. Canberra: Australian Council of Deans of Education. Australian Governments Education Council. (2019). Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration. Canberra, Australian Capital Territory: Education Council. AITSL. (2015). Accreditation of ITE programs in Australia: Standards and Procedures. Retrieved from https://www.aitsl.edu.au/deliver-ite-programs/standards-and-procedures.

24

A. Simpson et al.

AITSL. (2016b). Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. Retrieved from https://www. aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/national-policy-framework/australian-professional-standardsfor-teachers.pdf. AITSL. (2016c). What do we know about early career teacher attrition rates in Australia? Melbourne: AITSL AITSL. (2019). Initial teacher education: Data report 2019. Melbourne: AITSL. AITSL. (2020). Accredited Program List. Retrieved from https://www.aitsl.edu.au/deliver-ite-pro grams/apl. Bourke, T., Ryan, M., & Lidstone, J. (2013). Reflexive professionalism: reclaiming the voice of authority in shaping the discourses of education policy, Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 41(4). du Plessis, A. (2019). Out-of-field teaching is out of control in Australian schools. Here’s what’s happening. In ‘EduMatters’, February, https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=3778. Ell, F., Simpson, A., Mayer, D., McLean Davies, L., Clinton, J., & Dawson, G. (2019). Conceptualising the impact of initial teacher education. Australian Educational Researcher, 46(1), 177–200. Garoni, S., & Lampert, J. (2020). Speculating on teacher attrition in Australia: Might COVID-19 be ‘the straw that breaks the camel’s back’?. In EduMatters, June https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/? p=6669. Gore, J., Barron, R. J., Holmes, K., & Smith, M. (2016). Who says we are not attracting the best and brightest? Teacher selection and the aspirations of Australian school students. The Australian Educational Researcher, 43, 527–549. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-016-0221-8398-413 Gore, J., & Rickards, B. (2020). Rejuvenating experienced teachers through Quality Teaching Rounds professional development. Journal of Educational Change, Published Online. https:// doi.org/10.1007/s10833-020-09386-z Goss, P., Sonnemann, J., & Griffiths, K. (2017). Engaging students: Creating classrooms that improve learning. Melbourne: Grattan Institute. Louden, W. (2008). 101 Damnations: The persistence of criticism and the absence of evidence about teacher education in Australia. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 14(4), 357–368. Louden, W. (2015a). Research Agenda for Initial Teacher Education in Australia, Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, Melbourne. https://www.aitsl.edu.au/tools-resources/ resource/initial-teacher-education-research-agenda. Louden, W. (2015b). Standardised Assessment of Initial Teacher Education: Environmental Scan and Case Studies. Melbourne: Australian Institute for Teaching and School. Leadership. Retrieved from https://www.aitsl.edu.au/tools-resources/resource/standardised-assessmentof-initial-teacher-education-environmental-scan-and-case-studies. Mayer, D. (2015). An approach to the accreditation of initial teacher education programs based on evidence of the impact of learning teaching, Melbourne: AITSL. https://www.aitsl.edu.au/tools-resources/resource/an-approach-to-the-accreditation-of-initial-tea cher-education-programs-based-on-evidence-of-the-impact-of-learning-teaching. Mayer, D., Cotton, W., & Simpson, A. (2017). Teacher Education in Australia, Oxford encyclopaedia online - DOI/ 10.1093:acrefore:9780190264093.013.305 Mayer, D., Dixon, M., Kline, J., Kostogriz, A., Rowan, L., Walker-Gibbs, B., & White, S. (2017). Studying the Effectiveness of Teacher Education: Early Career Teachers in Diverse Settings. Singapore: Springer. (https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811039287 ) Mills, M., & Goos, M. (2017). The Place of Research in Teacher Education? An analysis of the australian teacher education ministerial advisory group report action now: Classroom Ready Teachers. In: Peters M., Cowie B., Menter I. (Eds.), A companion to research in teacher education (pp. 637–650). Springer, Singapore. (https://link.springer.com/chapter/https://doi.org/10.1007/ 978-981-10-4075-7_43 ) Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs. (1999). The Adelaide Declaration on the Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-First Century.

2 Teacher Education/ors in Australia: Still Shaping the Profession …

25

Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs. (2008). Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians. NESA (2017). NSW Supplementary Documentation: Elaborations in Priority Areas. Retrieved from https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/teacher-accreditation/ how-accreditation-works/higher-ed-providers-ite/program-accreditation-requirements. Rowan, L., Mayer, D., Kline, J., Kostogriz, A., & Walker-Gibbs, B. (2015). Investigating the effectiveness of teacher education for early career teachers in diverse settings: The longitudinal research we have to have. The Australian Educational Researcher, 42(3), 273–298. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s13384-014-0163-y Stacey, M., Talbot, D., Buchanan, J., & Mayer, D. (2019). The development of an Australian teacher performance assessment: Lessons from the international literature. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 1–12,. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359866X.2019.1669137 Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group. (2015). Action now: Classroom ready teachers. Canberra: Department of Education. Tudge, A (2021) Being our best: Returning Australia to the top group of education nations, Speech 11th March, Australia, http://ministers.dese.gov.au/node/19326.

Alyson Simpson is Professor and Associate Dean (Education) in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney. Her research focuses on the role of children’s literature in education, teacher agency and the power of dialogic learning. She has established collaborations with teacher educators in the UK, Canada, Finland, NZ, China and the US. Her current projects investigate hybrid learning designs, teaching performance assessment, constructs of teacher effectiveness and models of dialogic research. Wayne Cotton is Associate Professor and Director of Academic Partnerships and Engagement in the Sydney School of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. He has Masters Degrees in both Education (Health and Physical Education) and Computer Studies. He also has a PhD in Educational Technology. Wayne has been teaching and researching in education for nearly 30 years, including 10 years working in Australian high schools. He utilises these combined skills to design and evaluate innovative educational programs. Jennifer Gore is Laureate Professor and Director of the Teachers and Teaching Research Centre at the University of Newcastle, Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford, and a recently elected Fellow of the American Educational Research Association. Her research focuses on quality and equi-ty, teacher development, pedagogical reform, and enhancing student out-comes. Her current agenda focuses on the impact of Quality Teaching Rounds on teachers and students and the formation of educational aspirations during schooling.

Chapter 3

A Critical Examination of the Conception of Teacher Professionalism Enacted in Current Teacher Education Policy in Flanders (Belgium) Eline Vanassche, Steven Bruneel, and Lore Christiaens Abstract This chapter describes and problematises the conception of teacher professionalism enacted in current teacher education policy in Flanders (Belgium). The entry point for the analysis is the Decree on teacher education of 2018 and its surrounding policy measures which not only resulted in a large restructuring of the landscape for initial teacher education in Flanders, but also articulate a particular normative discourse about what it means to be and become a teacher today. After a brief contextualisation of the Decree in the policy measures that have preceded it, we (re)construct the particular discourse of teacher professionalism enacted in current policy legislation in three key premises: professionalism is a quality acquired, possessed and performed by individual teachers; professionalism is knowing and performing ‘what works’; and professionalism can be mapped and checked. The chapter concludes with drawing critical attention to the implication of this discourse by pointing out two blind spots. In framing teacher professionalism as an individual possession, policy highlights for our attention individual knowledge, skills and attitudes, but risks minimising the importance of contextual factors in understanding ‘success’ or ‘failure’ in teaching. The assumption of professionalism as a technical quality emphasizes questions about ‘what works/does not work’, but deflects attention away from the more fundamental normative question ‘what it should work for’ that teachers grapple with in their practice.

E. Vanassche (B) · S. Bruneel Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Leuven, Campus Kulak, Kortrijk, Belgium e-mail: [email protected] S. Bruneel e-mail: [email protected] L. Christiaens Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 D. Mayer (ed.), Teacher Education Policy and Research, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3775-9_3

27

28

E. Vanassche et al.

Introduction As in many countries, the reform of teacher education is high on the education policy agenda in Flanders. Although the development and deployment of policy in Flanders is not as rapid as seen in surrounding national locations,1 the reform of teacher education over the past decades has been substantive, often judged ineffective both in terms of its preparation and implementation, and failing to address the ‘real’ needs of the teaching profession. The interest in reform is sustained by the ‘usual suspects’ known from international teacher education fora, including the gap between theory and practice, a rapidly changing society which urges for better (or differently) prepared teachers, a purported lack of collaboration between Initial Teacher Education (ITE) providers and schools, persistent teacher shortages across all levels of education and most subjects, high rates of teacher attrition, and the (fading) quality of the Flemish educational system as measured by international metrics (e.g., the Programme for International Student Assessment). Reform was temporarily put to a halt with the Decree on the integration of vocational training programmes in Higher Education Colleges and transfer measures for teacher education programmes in 2018. The title of the Decree refers to its dual purposes of, on the one hand, integrating vocational training programmes offered by Centres for Adult Education and upper secondary education (for nursing school) into higher education and, on the other hand, restructuring the landscape of ITE in Flanders which is the focus of this chapter. This chapter will argue that three decades of reform have not only resulted in important structural changes to ITE provision in Flanders, but also brought along a particular ‘image’ of the teaching profession and teacher professionalism. The term professionalism is used here as a descriptor of what makes up the essence of being a teacher and the (characteristics of the) knowledge, skills and attitudes invested in the work. The goal of this chapter is to reveal what form of professionalism and what kind of teachers are talked into being in recent policy legislation. This reveals an interest in the performative dimension of language or the use of language “as a form of social practice” (Fairclough 1993, p. 134; see also Jorgensen and Philips 2002). In line with the work of Simons and Kelchtermans (2008), Ball et al. (2012), and Lester et al. (2017), policy texts are not treated as legal instruments shaping and changing the structures of ITE, but rather as “the articulation of a very particular (normative) discourse on what it means to be a teacher today” (Simons and Kelchtermans 2008, p. 283). That is, the ways in which policy legislation talks and writes about teaching and the education (or rather: training) of newcomers in the field opens up particular spaces for action, roles and relationships for the stakeholders involved, and at the same time, closes down others. For example, emphasizing the need to make “teaching and teacher education more attractive” (Ministry of the Flemish community 2015, p. 17) immediately frames the teaching career in particular ways, highlighting some aspects of it, but not others, and putting forth particular goals and courses of action for 1

See, for example, Clarke and Phelan’s (2015) analysis of the intensification of policy change in teacher education globally.

3 A Critical Examination of the Conception of Teacher …

29

ITE, but directing attention away from others. We are reminded of Kenneth Burke’s (1935) often-cited aphorism, “every way of seeing is also a way of not seeing” (p. 70). His work helps to direct attention to what policy as discourse does: it selects some things for attention, but also diverts attention away from other things. Extending the metaphor, this chapter will reveal what aspects of teacher professionalism current education policy is attending to and problematize what is left unseen or unspoken. More in particular, the Decree of 2018 and its surrounding policy measures is used as an information-rich case (Patton 1990) revealing characteristic elements of the current policy discourse. We will contend that policy sees teacher professionalism as a technical quality possessed and performed by individual teachers that can be mapped and checked. In framing teacher professionalism as an individual possession, policy highlights the importance of individual knowledge, skills and attitudes, but directs attention away from contextual factors, such as the collegial relationships in the team, schools’ ways of going about things and how these fit one’s personal beliefs about good teaching, students’ expectations, hidden messages in the curriculum, available resources, or even the simple passage of time, which all impact what is happening in practice. Furthermore, the assumption of professionalism as a technical quality emphasizes questions about ‘what works/does not work’, but deflects attention away from the more fundamental normative question ‘what it should work for’ that teachers grapple with in their practice. The structure of the chapter is as follows. First, the reforms aimed at with the Decree of 2018 are briefly contextualized in the policy measures that have preceded it. Second, we analyse the particular normative discourse about what it means to be (and become) a teacher enacted in this recent reform and the policy initiatives which surround it (a.o. updated teacher profiles, entry exams). Finally, critical attention is drawn to what current policy elides with its language of teacher professionalism as a technical quality possessed by individual teachers.

The Context of the Decree of 2018 A Sketch of Three Decades of Reform Teacher education reform has been a central concern with policymakers as of 1989, that is, the moment the government of the Flemish community acquired full legal authority in education policy within the Belgian federal state.2 The numerous research projects and evaluation reports commissioned by the Flemish government since then evidence a ‘policy problem’ approach (Cochran-Smith 2004). The focus is on developing good policies that positively impact teacher quality and desired school outcomes. As White (2016) explains, this policy problem focus has also led to 2

The constitutional reform of 1988–89 installed three self-governing education (policy) systems: the Flemish, French and German-speaking system. Regional governments publish decrees, whereas federal government publishes laws.

30

E. Vanassche et al.

a “problem-solving model or image of research” (p. 53). The expectation is that research informs policy work with the necessary empirical evidence and conclusions. The policy problem logic shows in the 1996 Decree on teacher education and inservice training which aimed for “a thorough restructuring of teacher education” as “quality education depends on quality teachers and school leaders” (Flemish government 1996, p. 2). The Decree provided the legal framework for the establishment of the teachers’ professional profiles in 1998, “a structured description of what a teacher does, and the skills, supportive knowledge and professional attitudes required” (Flemish government 1996, p. 10). These profiles served as the basis for the so-called core competencies (basiscompetenties) which benchmark the minimum level of achievement for all graduates from ITE. The teacher profiles and core competences have been in place ever since then, updated roughly once a decade (i.e., in 2008 and 2017) to catch up with changing societal demands and policy priorities. Although ITE providers themselves decide on how to run curriculum and pedagogy, audits are used to check whether or not the curriculum indeed reflects the core competencies. The “chain teacher profile—core competencies—ITE programmes” (Ministry of the Flemish community 2008, p. 7) is thus a fairly tight one. Also of interest for understanding the reforms installed with the Decree of 2018 is the 2006 Decree on teacher education programmes in Flanders. The Decree of 2006 aimed to integrate ITE in the Bachelor-Master structure in light of the Bologna declaration. It also distinguished between two main routes into the profession provided by three key providers, each of which have a particular role and target particular populations of teacher candidates. The first route consisted of Bachelor’s level ‘integrated programmes’ which were offered by Higher Education Colleges (polytechnic institutions located outside of university). These 180 ECTS programmes combined subject knowledge, pedagogical/didactical knowledge and multiple school placements. Depending on the chosen programme, students earned a qualification to teach in either early childhood, primary or lower secondary education. The second, so-called ‘specific programmes’ were provided by Universities, Centres of Adult Education and Higher Education Colleges, targeting people who already had an initial degree in a specific discipline (or who were in the process of obtaining this) or people with work experience wanting to become a teacher. The 60 ECTS Master’s levelspecific programmes offered by Universities were typically attended by students in the final years of their initial study in a particular discipline (e.g., psychology, mathematics or physics) and resulted in an additional qualification to teach their discipline in upper secondary and higher education. Higher Education Colleges and Centres of Adult Education offered a series of part-time, flexibly organized trajectories targeting primarily (but not exclusively) people with work experience (e.g., woodworkers, hairdressers) wanting to become a qualified teacher for primary or secondary education. All candidates who successfully completed training in one of these routes earned the same teaching degree which granted immediate (and indefinite) access to the profession. Policymakers’ concern with teacher education did not subside after the major reform in 2006, as evidenced by the numerous research projects on the matter, the regular large-scale audits of teacher education programmes, and external evaluation

3 A Critical Examination of the Conception of Teacher …

31

committees commissioned by the consecutive ministers of education. A main push for the reform aimed at with the Decree of 2018 is a critical report from an external evaluation committee led by Gert Biesta in 2013. The goal of the committee was to monitor the quality of ITE in Flanders, “with a specific focus on how the 2006 Decree on teacher education had influenced the structure and practice of teacher education” (Ministry of the Flemish community 2013, p. 5). The committee concluded that the principle of equality of the ‘specific programmes’ organized by the three providers was not fully realized in practice. They noted marked differences between, on the one hand, Higher Education Colleges and Universities and, on the other hand, Centres of Adult Education in terms of funding mechanisms, student rights, attention to subject pedagogy, and the length of school placements. Apart from these structural anomalies, the report also urged for ‘qualitative’ reforms in ITE. Of particular concern were measures that guarantee a sufficient number and quality of teacher candidates, reduce the gap between theory and practice, address the feeling of ‘unpreparedness’ experienced by both ITE graduates and the workplace, and provide adequate support to beginning teachers. The report echoed the findings of an external evaluation conducted in 2001, albeit noted signs of improvement. The fine-grained analysis of the Biesta report and the careful suggestions for improvement quickly evaporated in news media which put Flemish teacher education on a public ‘trial’. In the aftermath of this, the then minister of education launched six policy advisory groups working on an equal number of topics (i.e., student teacher recruitment, the ‘specific programmes’, the content of teacher education curricula, the characteristics and qualities of ITE graduates, beginning teacher support, and the development of a professional profile for teacher educators). The remit of these advisory groups was to translate the recommendations made by the Biesta commission into actual policy initiatives. Two and a half years later, in March 2016, the Flemish government approved the concept paper Strengthening teacher education: Compelling and quality teacher education programmes as a foundation for quality education. This paper provided the framework for the large reform of ITE installed with the Decree of 2018 and adjoining legislation (i.e., the so-called ‘Decisions of the Flemish government’ or Besluiten van de Vlaamse Regering), including an update to the teacher profiles and core competencies in 2017.

The Decree of 2018 The Decree of 2018 did not result in any major structural changes for the ‘integrated programmes’ offered by Higher Education Colleges. Reform for these programmes was limited to “strengthening and updating the content of the curriculum” (Flemish government 2018, p. 4). This included a stronger focus on language pedagogy, classroom management, and preparing teachers for an increasingly diverse society. The main target of the Decree of 2018 was the ‘specific programmes’ organized by Universities, Higher Education Colleges and Centres of Adult Education. The one-year ‘top up’ programmes organised by Universities were replaced by so-called ‘educational

32

E. Vanassche et al.

masters’ from 2019 onwards. These 120 ECTS Master’s level programmes are fully enmeshed with students’ initial study of a specific professional field or discipline and combine the mastery of this discipline (e.g., economics, psychology) with the acquisition of the pedagogy to teach it. With the establishment of these Master’s level programmes, university-based training received a new—and extended—position in the Flemish ITE landscape, whereas the programmes offered by Centres of Adult Education were dismantled altogether. From 2019 onwards, ITE in Flanders is offered by Universities and Higher Education Colleges only—the exclusion clause marking the withdrawal of the accreditation of the Centres of Adult Education which traditionally held a leading role in educating teachers for the practical components of the curriculum in vocational education. The explanatory memorandum (Memorie van Toelichting) accompanying the Decree frames the decision to relocate ITE from adult education (i.e., Centres of Adult Education) to higher education (i.e., Universities and Higher Education Colleges) as a necessary step in the academisation of Flemish teacher education. “The average educational attainment level of the population has increased in recent decades. Each new generation of teachers, however, has less people with a master’s degree” (Flemish government 2018, p. 22). Similar to the rationale provided for the 1996 reform, a tight link is established between the quality of education, teachers and teacher education. The level of concern this decision caused ‘on the ground’ can hardly be overestimated. The Decree of 2018 stripped one of the strongholds of Flemish ITE—the Centres for Adult Education which had developed particular expertise and targeted particular populations of aspiring teachers—from its legal authority to educate and certify teachers. With this also came a redefinition of the occupational group, roles and workplace landscape of teacher educators. From 2019 onwards, the occupational group of teacher educators is, in the main, redefined as those employed by higher education institutions, with corresponding expectations to be research-active and engage in research that informs learning and teaching in the field. While Higher Education Colleges had recently started to develop research expertise, the Centres for Adult Education had not, resulting in a large group of teacher educators judged to be ‘out of sync’ with the demands of the teacher educator role in the higher education sector. As a result, a significant proportion of teacher educators, mostly people having come from schools in their ‘first-order’ professional role, feels ‘displaced’ in their new working contexts or leaves the profession as we speak. In the margins of the Decree, a series of legal initiatives were taken which further shape the structure and organisation of ITE. First, the three separate sets of core competencies (i.e., early childhood, primary and secondary education) were integrated into one common, generic set. The recommendation in the 2016 concept paper to distinguish between different proficiency levels in the core competencies was not retained. Second, the government aimed for the “intake of stronger students” (Flemish government 2016, p. 12) with the installment of ITE admission tests (Instaptoets Lerarenopleiding) from 2017 onwards. The test can be taken online and gauges candidates’ language skills (and mathematics for primary education), as well as

3 A Critical Examination of the Conception of Teacher …

33

their study skills and motivation to become a teacher. Finally, in 2016, the government invested in a 20 ECTS Master’s level programme targeting teacher educators specifically. The programme focused on issues of teacher educator identity, curriculum development, practitioner research, collaboration and reflective learning. While continuing to emphasize the pivotal role of teacher educators in the quality of education, the government withdrew funding for the programme in October 2020. Although the exploratory memorandum accompanying the Decree of 2018 presents the reform as a structural exercise, aiming to optimise “the organisation and financing of programmes and the position of staff” (Flemish government 2018, p. 1), it is clear that the Decree and the surrounding legal initiatives also reflect a particular view of the teaching profession and teacher professionalism which we will substantiate further in the section which follows. This view is not new, nor was it installed with this Decree. The language and text of the Decree of 2018 is indeed markedly similar to that of legal documents in the past. It will be argued that current policy discourse continues a particular view of the profession, that is, an individualized discourse focusing attention on teacher professionalism as a technical quality possessed and performed by individual teachers that can be mapped and checked.

The Discourse of Teacher Professionalism Enacted in Current Policy Legislation This section (re)constructs the discourse of teacher professionalism enacted in current policy legislation in three key premises: Premise 1: Professionalism is a quality acquired, possessed and performed by individual teachers. Premise 2: Professionalism is knowing and performing ‘what works’. Premise 3: Professionalism can be mapped and checked.

Premise 1: Professionalism is a Quality Acquired, Possessed and Performed by Individual Teachers Current policy discourse has adopted an individual approach to teacher professionalism, assuming that professionalism is an individual acquirement and possession of teachers through their engagement with ITE and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) activities.3 In such a logic, professionalism is “a state to be achieved” (Lingard 2012, p. 52): individual teachers have (or lack) professionalism; they are (un)professional(s). Such an individualist policy logic is hardly surprising given its 3

This premise is informed by Lingard’s (2012) critical analysis of how competence is viewed in medical education. She uses the notion of competence as a descriptor of the qualities of health professionals which includes, among other things, professionalism.

34

E. Vanassche et al.

strong theoretical roots in the domain. For example, Schön’s (1987) model of reflective practice and Kolb’s (1984) theory of experiential learning, which are woven into the vision statements of most ITE programmes, both take the individual learner at the centre of activity. Although the surge of socio-cultural learning theories in ITE (a.o. Kelly 2006) has highlighted the importance of social and cultural aspects of learning (to teach), the individual learner is still largely seen as the active agent in ITE. That is, learning (to teach) is predominantly conceptualised as “something that happens primarily internally; inside of our heads” (Merriam and Caffarella 1999, p. 55) and the knowledge resulting from this learning is seen as a possession of the individual learner. The premise that professionalism is a quality of individuals, is strongly evident in the instalment of the ITE admission test in 2017 which was designed to select the ‘proper’ candidates to become teachers. The test is non-binding, meaning that test results do not prevent students from entering their chosen programme of study. It rather is designed as a feedback instrument “holding up the mirror for teacher candidates and reinforcing their choice of study” (Flemish government 2019, p. 1). The ITE admission test is an explicit attempt to make individual candidates aware of their strengths and weaknesses, and allows providers to effectively target these weaknesses by organising “tailor-made content remediation programmes” (Flemish government 2019, p. 1). The policy message is clear: the capacity to (learn to) teach is an individual one. The system is not only designed to select individuals to become teachers; it also educates and qualifies individuals to teach, and it supports and remediates individual teachers (beginning and experienced) working in schools. ITE and CPD have become an issue of moving from a state of relative incompetence to one of competence and, beyond that, expert performance. The language used in the core competencies and teacher profiles further reveals the tacit individual discourse underpinning current policy: ‘the teacher as facilitator of learning processes’, ‘the teacher as content expert’, ‘the teacher as innovator’, etc., are all behavioural competencies which house professionalism in the individual practitioner. While ‘the teacher as member of the school team’ hints at a more relational-collaborative understanding of teacher professionalism, it is conceptualized as the capacities of the individual to, among other things, “collaborate and confer with the school team,” “open up his/her own pedagogical and didactical approaches for discussion with the team,” and “reflect on the collegial functioning of the school team” (Decision of the Flemish government 2017, p. 3). A further interesting point in case demonstrating the individualist logic is the ‘career debate’ started in 2010 by the then minister of education working towards a ‘career pact’ (loopbaanpact) with all actors involved in order to “make teacher working conditions more attractive so that Flanders can build a sufficient number of excellent and diverse teachers” (Flemish government 2015, p. 5). One of the strands in the career debate was competence development, working from a career ladder model in which teachers can gradually move up the ladder (with according pay scales). The career ladder was an attempt to break the flat career in teaching, interpreted as offering individual teachers the opportunity to get promoted, often at the cost

3 A Critical Examination of the Conception of Teacher …

35

of other teachers who do not promote (yet). Although the pact as a whole has not been finalized, the logic of the system is again clear: professionalism is individually possessed and performed, and it can also be checked in light of important career decisions (e.g., getting promoted).

Premise 2: Professionalism Is Knowing and Performing What ‘What Works’ A second premise underpinning current policy discourse is, as Biesta (2007) expresses it, that of “professionalism as effective intervention” (p. 7). The logic is that “professionals do something (…) in order to bring about certain effects” (p. 7). Teachers design learning environments, give an instruction, support groupwork, collaborate with colleagues or partner up with parents, in order to bring about desired effects. The frequent use of terms like ‘effective teachers’, ‘effective teaching’ and ‘effective education’ in recent policy documentation reflects this logic, as does the emphasis on ‘evidence-based teaching’ and ‘evidence-based practice’. Teacher professionalism is framed in the technical scheme of ‘what works/does not work’. The teacher profiles and core competencies are a direct example of this logic: these policy instruments gather the knowledge, skills and attitudes that work. If we examine the texts of the Decree more closely, we find that the demarcation of ‘what works/does not work’ is based on a double logic. On the one hand, it draws on “scientific research programmes that seek the determinants (or variables) of effective teaching and teacher education, and build a knowledge base for use by teachers and teacher educators” (Vanassche and Berry 2019, p. 11). This not only frames what counts as worthwhile research, but also portrays the relationship between practice, policy and research “as existing in a technical, linear and fairly direct ‘cause and effect’ relationship” (p. 11). In this view, teacher professionalism concerns the application of a research-informed body of knowledge to solve problems. This has led to a range of initiatives aimed at narrowing the gap between practice and research and making the outcomes of research more readily available to practitioners. For example, the Flemish Educational Council has funded over a dozen of practice-focused literature reviews over the past decade which “summarize scientific evidence” on “actual and future knowledge needs of the council members” (Flemish Educational Council 2018). This includes, for example, classroom differentiation (Struyven et al. 2013), the relationship between neuroscience and education (Van Camp et al. 2015), effective reading comprehension (Gobyn et al. 2019), etc. Teachers are not only positioned as consumers of research, but are also increasingly encouraged to engage in research themselves and help build evidence about what works. The explanatory memorandum, for example, explicitly stimulates research focused on pedagogy. On the other hand, recent policy documents define the notion of ‘what works’ in relation to the number and the kind of professionals that are needed in the school system. As expressed by Simons and Kelchtermans (2008),

36

E. Vanassche et al.

“what was ‘working’ yesterday is the guiding principle for what ‘shall be working’ tomorrow, and hence, the past practice of teaching orients and determines the future generation of teachers” (p. 289). This is evident from the level of concern around the reported feelings of unpreparedness reported by student teachers and the workforce evident in the explanatory memorandum. It also directly fed into the composition of the advisory group for the renewal of the beginning teacher core competencies in 2017: representatives from ITE providers were joined by representatives of the workforce and teacher unions. The discourse of teacher professionalism as knowing and performing ‘what works’ evokes the related notion of professionalism as fairly generic and context-free. Again, we refer to the latest reform of the core competencies. Following the model of the teacher profiles, the three separate sets of core competencies for teachers working in early childhood, primary and secondary education were reworked into one set. It is an explicit attempt to arrive at a context-free, generic framework, ensuring that “teachers are able to function in all contexts they find themselves in” (Flemish Educational Council 2017, p. 2). What works in primary education is assumed to work in secondary education, and vice versa. The technical scheme of ‘what works’ is not only used as a criterion to judge the proficiency of individual (student) teachers. It also serves a model for the restructuring of the ITE landscape as a whole. A prominent example of this can be found in the framing of the restructuring of the ITE landscape as a way “to group the expertise of current providers in Higher Education Colleges and Universities” (Flemish government 2018, p. 6), offering a more transparent offer, “tailored to the needs of both traditional and wider-access entrants to ITE” (p. 6). Policy-makers’ core concern is optimizing existing ITE structures in order to provide a sufficient number of teachers who know how to run practice. “Flexibility and accessibility are critical success factors in meeting this goal” (p. 6).

Premise 3: Professionalism can be Mapped and Checked With the instalment of the core competencies and teacher profiles in 1998, there was not only a language to talk about the professionalism of graduating and experienced teachers. There was also a system in place to map and check the state of professionalism of individual teachers and distinguish between novice and expert. Teacher profiles serve as “a description of the knowledge, skills and attitudes teachers need to perform their job” (Ministry of the Flemish Community 1999, p. 3). The core competencies benchmarking the minimum level of achievement for graduates are direct derivatives from the teacher profiles, but “formulated in a less demanding way” (Ministry of the Flemish Community 1999, p. 23). Both instruments work from the assumption that we know and can identify a professional teacher when we see one. They further assume that what makes up the knowledge, skills and attitudes of a teacher can be mapped (i.e., teacher profiles) and then used as a template for the education of newcomers in the field (i.e., core competencies).

3 A Critical Examination of the Conception of Teacher …

37

The rationale for these profiles is not only quality, but also accountability. The brochure distributed to schools informing them about the updated teacher profile for secondary teachers in 2008, for example, frames these instruments as representing “the demands of education and society to experienced and beginning teachers. With these instruments, the government indicates the minimum quality criteria so that parents and external partners know what they can expect from teachers” (Ministry of the Flemish Community 2008, p. 9). The teacher profiles are an articulated perception of what is considered good, acceptable professional behaviour. In that sense, they function as a blueprint (Kelchtermans 2013) or a presumably exhaustive list of knowledge, skills, and attitudes “that individual [teachers] need to master or at least actively work towards in order to legitimately consider themselves ‘professional’ [teachers]” (Vanassche and Berry 2019, p. 11). The instalment of the teacher profiles and the legislation and practices which surround these, signal a shift from describing what makes up the particular professionalism of teachers towards prescribing what characteristics the practice of individual teachers should display. The ability to list and map the professionalism of teachers provided with the profiles thus also installed a distinction, or at least the opportunity to do so, between a professional and unprofessional teacher, or expert and beginning teacher. Over a course of two decades, the teacher profiles have become a reality or, as Ceulemans et al. (2012) state, a ‘factuality’. They go without saying, because they are not only based on research about ‘what works’ (premise 2), but are supported with policy measures, appeal to our ethical commitment to offer quality education, allow to monitor how well we are doing (on the individual, institutional and systemic level) and are very much ‘ready for use’. Consider, for example, teacher educators and mentors evaluating student teachers, school leaders hiring new teachers, ITE providers designing teacher education curricula, advisory committees auditing ITE providers, or the Flemish ministry of education deciding on future policy foci. It is hardly surprising then that the Flemish Association of Teacher Educators put forth a professional profile for teacher educators in 2012, which was updated in 2015 in relation to “new scientific findings” (Mets and van den Hauwe 2015, p. 4). Interestingly, although the focus of these profiles is on the performance of the individual teacher (educator), they have become a powerful proxy for programme quality. Providers use the core competencies as a framework to design curricula, as an instrument to work on its continuous improvement, and as a language to report their results to a broad range of stakeholders (including the government). The core competencies also served as the framework for the evaluation committee commissioned by the government in 2015 to screen the quality of the ‘specific programmes’.

Discussion This chapter has used the 2018 Decree on teacher education and its surrounding policy measures as a window into the conception of teacher professionalism enacted in current teacher education policy in Flanders. It has demonstrated that policy discourse

38

E. Vanassche et al.

sees teacher professionalism as a quality acquired, possessed and performed by individual teachers (premise 1), which evolves around knowing and performing ‘what works’ (premise 2), and can be mapped and checked (premise 3). Bearing in mind Burke’s (1935) argument that ‘every way of seeing is also a way of not seeing’, we have shown that the ways in which policy legislation talks and writes about teacher professionalism are not without consequence. Policy discourse shapes attitudes towards what is taught and assessed in teacher education curricula. It (re)produces dominant values about the kind of teachers ITE should aim to deliver. It also (re)shapes relationships between research and practice into a ‘cause and effect’ model: research delivers scientific evidence on the determinants of effective teaching (teacher education) and teachers (teacher educators) acquire and import this body of knowledge into their practice. It could well be argued that this cause and effect logic does not end here. In highlighting for our attention, the individual teacher who is equipped with the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes to perform well, current policy discourse locates the key to quality teaching firmly in the individual teacher. This is not only a gross overestimation of what an individual teacher can do; such an individualist discourse also risks perpetuating the public critique on the quality of education that policy seeks to counteract by not attending to the importance of contextual factors for explaining success and failure in teaching. The literature is replete with examples showing that teachers and their individual knowledge, skills and attitudes are perhaps not as important as policy tells us they are. Consider, for example, the body of research on teacher collegiality (e.g., Shah 2012), micropolitics (e.g., Kelchtermans and Vanassche 2017), the importance of the fit between one’s personal beliefs about teaching and those of the institution (e.g., Vanassche and Kelchtermans 2016), school leadership (Kelchtermans and Piot 2013), etc. None of these factors operate exclusively on the individual level; they operate on the level of the culture and structure of the school as organisation and are central shaping forces in teachers’ identities, learning, work and ‘effectiveness’. Still, policy discourse privileges one single element in the system: the individual teacher. A second blind spot in policy’s way of seeing teacher professionalism is the ethical concerns and considerations implicated in what is presented as a mere technical enterprise. For example, a teacher’s decision about whether or not to continue teaching if one student does not capture the essence of a concept might seem like a technical decision about differentiation and instruction, but actually hides questions of this teacher’s purposes and goals (see also Kelchtermans 2009). This example shows that the question of effectiveness or ‘what works’ (premise 2) is an empty one. As Biesta (2007) explains, “effectiveness is an instrumental value” in that “it refers to the quality of processes but does not say anything about what an intervention is supposed to bring about. This means, among other things, that it is meaningless to talk about effective teaching or effective schooling; the question that always needs to be asked is, effective for what?” (pp. 7–8). Teacher professionalism is thus not just about knowing how to apply research evidence in one’s practice (i.e., the rationale underpinning notions of evidence-informed teaching), but about knowing how to act

3 A Critical Examination of the Conception of Teacher …

39

in light of the purposes and goals one finds meaningful for the learning and development of a particular group of students, in particular stages of their learning (see also Vanassche and Berry 2019). In highlighting for our attention the technical dimension of teacher professionalism, policy directs attention away from the more fundamental ethical questions and decisions that teachers grapple within their practice. This analysis shows that the way policymakers and researchers talk and write about teacher professionalism matters. The language used does not simply reflect the reality (i.e., teacher professionalism) we speak to (or aim to improve), it creates it. Policy discourse both selects and deflects (Burke 1935).

References Ball, S., Maguire, M., & Braun, A. (2012). How schools do policy: Policy enactments in secondary schools. Routledge. Biesta, G. (2007). Why ‘what works’ won’t work: Evidence-based practice and the democratic deficit in educational research. EducatioNal Theory, 57(1), 1–22. Burke, K. (1935). Permanence and change. New Republic. Ceulemans, C., Simons, M., & Struyf, C. (2012). Professional standards for teachers: How do they ‘work’? Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 20(1), 29–74. Clarke, M., & Phelan, A. (2015). The power of negative thinking in and for teacher education. Power and Education, 7(3), 257–271. Cochran-Smith, M. (2004). The problem of teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 55(4), 295–299. Coubergs, C., Struyven, K., Engels, N., Cools, W., & De Martelaer, K. (2013). Binnenklasdifferentiatie: Leerkansen voor alle leerlingen. [Classroom differentiation: Learning opportunities for all]. Acco. Flemish Educational Council. (2017). Advies over de basiscompetenties van de leraren. [Advice on the teacher core competencies]. Flemish Educational Council. Flemish Educational Council. (2018). Themazetting voor praktijkgerichte reviews. [Themes for practice-focused reviews]. https://www.vlor.be/adviezen/themazetting-voor-praktijkgerichte-rev iews-2018 Flemish government. (1996). Memorie van toelichting bij het Decreet betreffende de lerarenpleiding en nascholing. [Explanatory memorandum with the Decree on teacher education and in-service training]. Ministry of Education. Flemish government. (2006). Decreet betreffende de lerarenopleidingen in Vlaanderen. [Decree on teacher education programmes in Flanders]. Ministry of Education. Flemish government. (2015). Opstart van de onderhandelingen in het kader van en loopbaanpact. [Starting negotiations on a career pact]. Ministry of Education. Flemish government. (2016). Conceptnota: Lerarenopleidingen versterken: Wervende en kwalitatieve lerarenopleidingen als basispijler voor hoogstaand onderwijs. [Concept paper: Strengthening teacher education: Compelling and quality teacher education programmes as a foundation for quality education]. Ministry of Education. Flemish government. (2018). Memorie van toelichting en Decreet betreffende de uitbouw van de graduaatsopleidingen binnen de hogescholen en de versterking van de lerarenopleidingen binnen de hogescholen en universiteiten [Explanatory memorandum and Decree on the integration of vocational training programmes in Higher Education Colleges and transfer measures for teacher education programmes]. Ministry of Education.

40

E. Vanassche et al.

Flemish government. (2019). De verplichte niet-bindende toelatingsproef voor de lerarenopleiding houdt studenten een spiegel voor. [Obligated non-binding ITE admission tests holding up the mirror for students]. Ministry of Education. Gobyn, S., Merchie, E., De Bruyne, E., De Smedt, F., Schiepers, M., Vanbuel, M., Versteden, P., Van den Branden, K., Phesquière, P., & Van Keer, H. (2019). Sleutels voor effectief begrijpend lezen. [Keys to effective reading comprehension]. Flemish Educational Council. Kelchtermans, G. (2009). Who I am in how I teach is the message: Self-understanding, vulnerability and reflection. Teachers and Teaching, 15(2), 257–272. Kelchtermans, G. (2013). Praktijk in de plaats van blauwdruk. Over het opleiden van lerarenopleiders. [Practice instead of blueprint. Educating teacher educators]. Tijdschrift voor Lerarenopleiders, 34(3), 89–99. Kelchtermans, G., & Piot, L. (2013). Living the janus head: Conceptualizing leaders and leadership in schools in the 21st century. In: Flores, M., Carvalho, A., Ilídio Ferreira, F., & Vilaça, T. (eds.) Back to the future: Legacies, continuities and changes in educational policy, practice and research (pp. 93–114). Sense. Kelchtermans, G., & Vanassche, E. (2017). Micropolitics in the education of teachers: Power, negotiation, and professional development. In: Clandinin, D., & Husu, J. (eds.) The Sage handbook of research on teacher education (pp. 441–456). Sage Publications. Kelly, P. (2006). What is teacher learning? A socio-cultural perspective. Oxford Review of Education, 32(4), 505–519. Jorgensen, M., & Philips, L. (2002). Discursive psychology. In M. Jorgensen & L. Philips (Eds.), Discourse analysis as theory and method (pp. 96–137). Sage Publications. Kolb, D. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Prentice-Hall. Lester, J., Lochmiller, C., & Gabriel, R. (Eds.). (2017). Discursive perspectives on education policy and implementation. Springer. Lingard, L. (2012). Rethinking competence in the context of teamwork. In B. Hodges & L. Lingard (Eds.), The question of competence: Reconsidering medical education in the twenty-first century (pp. 42–69). Cornell University Press. Merriam, S. B., & Caffarella, R. S. (1999). Learning in adulthood (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass. Mets, B., & van den Hauwe, J. (2015). VELOV ontwikkelingsprofiel voor lerarenopleiders. [VELOV developmental profile for teacher educators]. Flemish Association of Teacher Educators. Ministry of the Flemish community. (1999). Beroepsprofielen en basiscompetenties van de leraren. Decretale tekst en memorie van toelichting. [Professional profiles and core competencies for teachers]. Ministry of Education. Ministry of the Flemish community. (2008). Een nieuw profiel voor de leraar secundair onderwijs. Hoe worden leraren daartoe gevormd? [A new profile for secondary teachers]. Ministry of Education. Ministry of the Flemish community. (2013). Beleidsevaluatie van de lerarenopleidingen. [Policy evaluation teacher education programmes]. Ministry of Education, Commission responsible for the policy evaluation of teacher education programmes. Ministry of the Flemish Community. (2015). Toekomstige arbeidsmarkt voor onderwijspersoneel in Vlaanderen 2015–2025. [Future job market for teachers in Flanders 2015–2025]. Ministry of Education. Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods (2nd ed.). Sage Publications. Schön, D. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner: Towards a new design for teaching and learning. Jossey-Bass. Shah, M. (2012). The importance and benefits of teacher collegiality in schools: A literature review. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 46, 1242–1246. Simons, M., & Kelchtermans, G. (2008). Teacher professionalism in Flemish policy on teacher education: A critical analysis of the Decree on teacher education (2006) in Flanders (Belgium). Teachers and Teaching, 14(4), 283–294.

3 A Critical Examination of the Conception of Teacher …

41

Van Camp, T., Vloeberghs, L., & Tijtgat, P. (2015). Krachtig leren. Cognitief neurowetenschappelijk benaderd. Een praktijkgerichte literatuurstudie over de relatie tussen neurowetenschap en onderwijs. [Powerful learning from a cognitive neuroscientific approach]. Acco. Vanassche, E., & Berry, M. (2019). Teacher educator knowledge, practice, and self-study research. In J. Kitchen, A. Berry, S. Bullock, A. Crowe, M. Taylor, H. Guðjónsdóttir, & L. Thomas (Eds.), 2nd International handbook of self-study of teaching and teacher education (pp. 1–38). Springer. Vanassche, E., & Kelchtermans, G. (2016). A narrative analysis of a teacher educator’s professional learning journey. European Journal of Teacher Education, 39(3), 355–367. White, S. (2016). Teacher education research and education policy-makers: An Australian perspective. Journal of Education for Teaching, 42(2), 252–264.

Eline Vanassche (PhD in Education) is a tenure track professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at KU Leuven, Campus Kulak (Belgium). She is a former Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow at the University of East London (United Kingdom) and assistant professor at Maastricht University (the Netherlands). Her research interest includes a discursive perspective on teacher education. Her more recent work turns to positioning theory and frame analysis to understand (the interaction between) meaning-making on micro- and macro-level contexts. Steven Bruneel is a PhD student at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at KU Leuven, Campus Kulak (Belgium). He obtained a Master’s degree in Educational Sciences at the same university. His dissertation focusses on mentoring in the context of initial teacher education with a specific interest in the interactions between student teachers, mentors, and teacher educators during school placements. Lore Christiaens is a PhD student at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at KU Leuven (Belgium). In her PhD, she starts from an ecological approach to teacher agency, defined as teachers’ will, skill, and opportunities to give direction to educational practice.

Chapter 4

Teaching and Teacher Education for a Post-pandemic Canada: Context, Crisis, Critique and Complication Anne M. Phelan and Jill D. Morris

Abstract Over the past 25 years, Canadian teacher education has been characterized by a trend towards professionalization of teaching. A concern, however, is that in the absence of a federal education system, the trend has not served to integrate teacher education programs within and across provinces. A Canadian compromise has been achieved by the Association of Canadian Deans of Education (ACDE) committed to creating and fostering a pan-Canadian space for dialogue on issues important to the provision of public (teacher) education. Against this backdrop, we examine a recent position paper titled, “Teaching and Teacher Education for a Post-pandemic Canada” issued by ACDE (2020) and calling for investment in and reimagining of teaching and teacher education. Our Foucauldian analysis of the document reveals that rather than unsettle prevailing educational discourses and disturb existing power relations in the name of transformation, the position paper offers Canadians ‘more of the same but worse’. We identify and examine four key power relations (global–local; school–society; research–practice; and centre–margin) that structure the document, arguing that they reflect the imminent capture of teaching and teacher education in Canada by instrumentalism—the pervasive view that the main purpose of teacher education is to serve the needs of the economy—and consensualism—the unifying of multiple points of view into a single perspective. We conclude by speculating about how acknowledgement of a multiplicity of conflicting relations and positions—via a process of ‘disidentification’—might be more conducive to Canadian efforts to re-imagine teaching and teacher education for our times.

Context Over the past 25 years, Canadian teacher education has been characterized by a trend towards professionalization of teaching, with an associated knowledge base, practice and identity (Morales Perlaza and Tardif 2016). A concern among some Canadian researchers, however, is that, in the absence of a federal education A. M. Phelan (B) · J. D. Morris University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 D. Mayer (ed.), Teacher Education Policy and Research, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3775-9_4

43

44

A. M. Phelan and J. D. Morris

system, the trend has not served to integrate teacher education programs within and across provinces and territories. The goal for these researchers is a national, pan-Canadian, consensus about the structure and content of teacher education (Hirschkorn et al. 2013), especially in light of increasing teacher mobility across provinces (due to the Internal Trade Agreement (ITA)). For others, however, there is a more pressing concern of meeting local needs within jurisdictions as diverse as British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Nunavut (Morales Perlaza and Tardif 2016). A Canadian compromise has been achieved by the Association of Canadian Deans of Education (ACDE)—an association committed to “pan-Canadian leadership in professional and teacher education, educational research, and policy in universities and university-colleges” (http://csse-scee.ca/acde/)—which issued a pan-Canadian Accord on Teacher Education, one of a series of accords representing the ACDE’s “most public statements” concerning its “role and responsibility in public education in Canada” (http://csse-scee.ca/acde/publications/). The Accords outline a series of “shared commitments and values relative to education” (http://csse-scee.ca/acde/pub lications/) while acknowledging “the unique regional, institutional, and linguistic differences” that exist among institutions that offer teacher education programs. One of the stated purposes of the ACDE is to create and foster “a pan-Canadian space for dialogue on issues important to the provision of public education” (http://csse-scee. ca/acde/publications/). While previous ACDE publications, specifically the so-called ‘Accords,’ have been the consequence of extensive consultation with faculties of education across the country, the appearance of a recent ACDE position paper, “Teaching and Teacher Education for Post-pandemic Canada,” is unprecedented, much like the pandemic to which it responds. The stated purpose of the position paper is “to signal education priorities and where investment is needed in teacher education, teachers, and research as a recovery strategy” (ACDE 2020, p. 3). In the position paper, the ACDE identifies seven characteristics of the current context in a COVID-19 Canada (e.g. growing pressures on education professionals; challenge of equitable access to online education; women as central to educational response; curtailment and delay of teacher candidates’ studies; insufficient teachers in the workforce; and risks and health needs of teachers and students); it issues a “call on Canada’s governments and post-secondary institutions” to attend to a series of “priorities” (e.g. mental health; immediate and relevant research; professional education; equity-centred education responses; continuity of teacher education programming) (p. 9); and it identifies “five markers of success” (e.g. mental health and well-being; respect, reconciliation and rights; capacities and capabilities; connectedness and cohesion; resilience and transformation) (p. 11). In this chapter we argue that the appearance of the position paper during the “pandemic crisis,” (ACDE 2020, p. 1) is significant. The crisis label not only constitutes “a descriptive claim (how things stand), but it is at the same time a prescriptive claim (how things should be)” (Schapira 2019). It is claimed that the “current disruption” offers both “challenges and opportunities” to reimagine “a system of education based largely around physical schools” (ACDE 2020, p. 1). If this is the time for reimagining education and by implication teacher education, one would

4 Teaching and Teacher Education for a Post-pandemic Canada …

45

expect that the ACDE (2020) position paper might unsettle prevailing educational discourses and disturb existing power relations. Our analysis suggests otherwise. While acknowledging some tensions in the position paper, we assert that instead of transformation, we get “more of the same but worse” (Latour 2020). We argue that the paper signifies the imminent capture of teacher education in Canada by a ‘discursive duopoly’ (Clarke 2012) of instrumentalism, involving the pervasive view that the main purpose of teacher education is to serve the needs of the economy, and consensualism, involving the valorization of agreement regarding this purpose (Clarke and Phelan 2017). While the position paper identifies multiple players in the field of education, it seeks to unify those players into a single perspective or ‘ordered multiplicity’ (Foucault 1979). We conclude the chapter by speculating about how acknowledgement of a multiplicity of relations and positions, via ‘disidentification’ (Muños 1999), might be more conducive to the project of re-imagining teacher education for our times.

Crisis Education and teacher education in North America have been well acquainted with crises during the past century. While A Nation at Risk (National Commission on Excellence in Education 1983) warned that educational mediocrity was a key element in the global economic position of the USA, What do our 17-year-olds know: A Report on the First National Assessment of History and Literature (Ravitch and Finn 1987) raised the alarm about the challenge of sustaining a well-informed citizenry in light of American youth’s lack of historical knowledge. It was argued, that the need for a common curriculum was paramount. In both cases, the debate over national educational standards in the United States assumed the role of education in social reproduction, identified the need for transformation, and laid the responsibility for such change squarely at the feet of teachers and teacher education. Canada has had its own history of crises though neither as extreme in discourse nor extensive in consequence as that of the United States. In September 1995 John Snobelen, Minister of Education in Ontario’s Conservative government under Mike Harris, was caught on tape promising to “invent a crisis to whip up support for overhauling the [province’s education] system” (Brennan 1995, p. A3). Twentyfive years later, this is, arguably, a different moment; and Canadians are facing a different sort of crisis as we consider the implications of the corona virus pandemic for education and teacher education. There is, however, a resonance between then and now, and between here and there, that presents an opportunity to think about what this moment of “crisis” could mean. Snobelen’s invented crisis in education in Ontario in 1995 and the very real questions COVID-19 poses of education today are different in kind—but perhaps not in their “discourses of crisis” upon which particular kinds of interventions are established as “the most rational and viable approach” (Cordero 2017, p. 144). The ACDE (2020) position paper claims that “the current disruption has changed education

46

A. M. Phelan and J. D. Morris

forever through a transformation and reimagining of education and teacher education” while at the same time asserting that these recommendations are integral to a “recovery strategy” (p. 2). However, as Cordero (2017) explains, following Foucault’s thinking, transformation resists “recovery”; re-imagining rests in unrest, in taking up crisis as ongoing critique in which nothing is taken for granted, everything is “dangerous,” and any conception is productively “fragile” in that it could always be otherwise. This in opposition to the neoliberal rationale that produces and relies on a discourse that seeks to “fix the boundaries of the political and social space”—the power relations within a discipline such as education—through “retracing the limits of what is conceived as possible, rational and adequate,” especially in times of crisis (p. 146). To what extent, then, does the ACDE position paper take this moment of ‘crisis’ as an opportunity to disrupt the power relations that produce what we know and can know about education and teacher education in the present? To what extent does this position paper trouble existing educational discourse in order to open up a genuine possibility of reimagining what it means to be a teacher, teacher-candidate, or educational researcher? Our examination of these questions takes the form of Foucauldian problematization. Problematization is “a description of thinking as a practice” (Bacchi 2010, p. 1), an inquiry into “the terms of reference” within which an issue or phenomenon is cast—into its problematization” (p. 1). “[W]hat we want to do about something indicates what we think needs to change and hence how we constitute the “problem” (p. 4). An analysis of the stated priorities, desired outcomes and indicators of success (markers) in the ACDE (2020) position paper tells us a good deal about how educational leaders in Canada are constructing teacher education as an object of thought, as a ‘problem’ in the Foucauldian sense. The assumption is that no different to other ‘objects,’ teacher education does not exist outside the power relations “forged” by particular knowledges and rules. What fixes teacher education as a stable policydriven practice in which policy makers find the ‘best way’ to do teacher education is “a network of power relations embedded in a hierarchy of discursive positioning” (Eveline and Bacchi 2010, p. 147). In constituting the ‘problem,’ the ACDE produces teacher education within “a system of limits and exclusions,” practiced consciously and unconsciously in the position paper. Our analysis of the position paper is two-fold. First, we examine how teacher education is being classified, regulated, questioned and analyzed—the discursive practices used to conceive of “teachers,” “education,” “teacher educators” or “educational professionals”—during these very specific circumstances of a pandemic. Second, we identify the relations of power that undergird such classification—the limits of the thinkable or the knowable—as well as associated tensions and contradictions. A crisis could be understood as the disruption of the “taken-for-granted” and in this could be seen as a moment in which a re-imagining might be possible; but it could just as easily serve as an opportunity for doubling down on the mechanisms of the prevailing rationale. Put simply, we wish to open up teacher education for examination of the power relations that produce, enact and maintain it through the normalizing of “taken-for-granted practices, arrangements and structures” (Spencer

4 Teaching and Teacher Education for a Post-pandemic Canada …

47

and Taylor 2010, p. 48), by dismantling teacher education as an object of thinking in the position paper.

Critique Whether crises are imagined, invented or real, the major fear is that no one is in control (Bauman 2005). This may be one of the reasons that position papers in a time of perceived crisis tend not to stray too far from the established reality despite their aspirational rhetoric. The ACDE (2020) position paper is no different in that it adopts “a framework of institutional intelligibility and manageability” (Matus and McCarthy 2008, p. 74) and tries to provide a clear, orderly (not chaotic) list of priorities, actions and markers of success. In doing so, however, the document emphasizes a familiar “technicist discourse—a discourse of experts, professional competence, and boundary maintenance,” (p. 74) peppered throughout with neoliberal tropes such as ‘investment,’ ‘innovation,’ ‘world class,’ ‘economic performance’ and ‘human capital.’ In what follows, we focus on four relations of power evident in the document: global–local; school–society; research–practice; and finally, centre–margin.

Global–Local: Scaling Back Democracy The ACDE position paper “call[s] on governments and post-secondary institutions to invest in a national strategy for teacher education recovery post-COVID-19” (2020, p. 11). Who will define such a strategy, one wonders—but not for long. The predominant relation which determines what will count as relevant and responsive to what is happening in the classroom is less visible for its (textual) pervasiveness: the single most referenced source for the ACDE document is the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The OECD coordinates international cooperation in the interest of national development conceived of and measured according to economic progress. Not surprisingly, therefore, one of the “indicators that can be used to quantify “flourishing…in present and post-pandemic Canada” (p. 11) is how “education positively impacts Canada’s post-pandemic economic performance through human capital, innovation, and knowledge transfer” (p. 11). Quantification, the reader is advised, is required because “[s]ystems with established and tested information tools and response plans have been found by the World Bank to fare better in recovering from previous emergencies” (p. 11). A reliance on Big Data, complex algorithms and best practices, wherein students and teachers are positioned as means to an end, is evident. A familiar tale yet one couched in the ACDE position paper in terms of “innovation, efficiency, equity, and responsiveness in our schools, and learning environments [in order to build] Canada’s place as a leading, world-class education system” (p. 9). The expressed desire to have the country’s school system recognized as “world-class” solidifies the power relation between Canada as a nation

48

A. M. Phelan and J. D. Morris

and the international ‘community,’ as represented by OECD. Goals for our education system are to be defined, and so potentially limited, by terms emerging from this competitive relationship via the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA); what counts educationally is overtly framed and textually justified by economic discourse. This can lead to individual as well as collective student alienation from ‘direct’ educational experience in favour of ‘symbolically mediated’ ones (Clarke and Phelan 2017, pp. 18–20). Moreover, it ignores the role of the school as an arena in which democracy is directly experienced, lived and reinvented daily, avoiding exclusion in the name of inclusion (Hansen and Phelan 2019). All that remains is debate about how to measure measurable outcomes. Few would argue that there is a need to appreciate that our lives and educational efforts are now lived out within the tension of the local and the global. Not only does this call from us “a new sense of place, but also a new kind of response to the world” (Smith 2008, p. 36). Such a response, we would argue, includes careful vigilance as to what globalization is up to and what it makes of us. The ACDE’s reliance on the global and globalizing discourse-practices of bodies such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and indeed, the World Bank, affirms Berger’s (2014) account of globalization: governments no longer govern; we are governed from elsewhere, seeming to act but all the while herded by extraterritorial bodies which are not only free from local constraints but can abdicate local responsibility and accountability. Such noneducation groups are rarely called to give an account of the results of their aggressively promoted globalizing policies (Bauman 2005; Berger 2014). Might the ACDE be more vigilant with regard to the protection of democratic principles or is this so-called pan-Canadian thinking about teacher education in danger of scaling back democracy?

School–Society: Responsibilizing the Teacher There is little doubt that the figure of the teacher is a central component of the ACDE position. The teacher is located at the nexus of a risk/safety discourse, being at once the figure upon whom ‘moving forward’ relies and the figure who most threatens post-pandemic prosperity. The language used to describe teachers and their work— and to enscribe the teacher’s ethical relation to self—expresses the limit of what it means—and can mean—to be a teacher: I am able to think of myself as a teacher only insomuch as I embody the norms and values rationalized by the discourse. As the document points out, women make up 84% of the “education profession” and despite the fact that given “longstanding gender inequities” they “carry much of the home responsibilities” and are at greater risk of infection and job loss, they are still identifiably “leading the educational response” (ACDE 2020, p. 6). While there is much to unpack in the implications of this apparent feminization of teaching (and many scholars continue to do this important work), the assumption here is that a teacher is self-sacrificing. A teacher, at their own personal risk, does more than their

4 Teaching and Teacher Education for a Post-pandemic Canada …

49

fair share of the work. Teachers’ “concerns” about workload are figured as individual factors enmeshed in what it means to be a teacher, neatly resolving any need for workload concerns to be recognized and taken up as a systemic problem (or as injustice). Self-sacrifice and a willingness to overwork are here lauded as “capabilities”—what teachers can do—that “government and post-secondary institutions” must then account for and harness in order to ensure that teachers continue “leading the educational response.” While this clearly indicates a relation of power between teachers and those who must (effectively) employ them (or deploy them like so many “rapidly mobilised” (p. 5) troops), it also constructs the ethical dimension of a teacher’s understanding of self, of what one can do, and of what one ought to do. Ensuring that teachers feel responsible for that over which they have no control— identifying with this sacrifice of themselves to systemic inequities—also resonates with the document’s conceptualization of “resilience.” Characterized as an ability to tough it out or bounce back from difficult circumstances, the document presents resilience as key to efforts to “prioritize mental health and well-being for students, teachers, and teacher candidates” in order to maintain “student learning in a time of pandemic crisis and recovery” (ACDE 2020, p. 9). Well before the current crisis, responses to mental health concerns in schools were framed by this discourse of “resilience”; it was assumed that teachers would find a way to manage the mounting stress brought about by increasingly stringent cultures of accountability (arguably a direct result of previous “crisis” discourses of which Snobelen’s 1995 invented crisis in Ontario is an example). Teachers were assumed to be resilient and were charged with the responsibility of developing resiliency in their students. In this current moment the ACDE document merely calls for more of the same and in so doing reveals something quite telling about the confusion—and perhaps intent—of this crisis discourse. The fifth marker of “high-level” achievement resulting from implementation of the association’s recommendations for investment in education and teacher education couples “resilience” with “transformation” (ACDE 2020, p. 10) revealing a conceptual tension that threatens (or promises) to undermine the rationale of the current crisis discourse of education represented in this document. What we know as resilience—what is assumed to be a central defining characteristic of a teacher, what teacher educators can “prepare current and future teachers” (p.8) for—communicates a value for holding the course in the face of counter forces, returning to form after disruptions. If transformation refers to things being otherwise then resilience directly undoes the possibility of transformation, entrapping the teacher yet again as the instrument of “positive change” (p.10), defined in terms of “Canada’s post-pandemic economic performance through human capital, innovation, and knowledge transfer” (p.11) and investing in “innovative” “educational research and development” that will form new knowledge technologies or discursive practices to govern the limits of what is possible in education (p.10).

50

A. M. Phelan and J. D. Morris

Research–Practice: Patrolling Boundaries The ACDE position paper differentiates between the educational researcher and the knowledge that they produce, and the experience or lack of experience of the teacher and teacher-candidate. In this document teacher–researchers and educators are described as “providers” of “professional expertise” (p. 8). Teachers, teacher candidates, and in some instances teacher educators are referred to as “receiv[ing]” this “professional support and learning” (p. 9). This transactional power relation positions teachers and teacher candidates as passive recipients rather than producers of knowledge. However, while the authority of the educational researcher can only be asserted through the subordination of the teacher and what they can be said to (not) know, this relation cannot be described as granting agency to the educational researcher. Defined as producers of knowledge, educational researchers are constituted by their ability to produce recognizable expertise in terms of what is currently taken as “true” or knowable about education. Educational research then is governed by knowledge claims that emerge out of an instrumental rationale for education that values educational expertise to the degree that it aligns with what has been identified as “relevant,” and “responsive” to what is happening in schools. The current crisis discourse refines this focus: research must “support innovations in current and post-pandemic teaching and learning” (p. 8). To be clear, knowledge claims regarding what is happening in schools do not emerge from teachers or teacher–candidate experience. The view in this document is that knowledge of “the activity, outcomes and needs across different parts of the teacher education system” will come about through “independent analysis” of “real-time data” (p. 10). Rather than challenging and transforming historical power relations amongst education researchers, teachers and educational knowledge, the ACDE position paper can be read as taking advantage of the particulars of this crisis—the perceived need to respond to the changes that a pandemic and post-pandemic education system could face—to tighten the parameters of what is taken as relevant and useful for education and educational research. And, what appears as relevant and useful in the current moment are digital technologies. Heralded as the solution to the challenges associated with “the physical school” (p. 1), “digital technology would now, it seems, have this phenomenal power to change, or even dismantle the school form”—with its familiar curriculum content, teaching approaches, organization of time and space, relation between school and communities—as we know it (Gauthier 2020, p. 1). Yet, it seems that far from disappearing, the school form “will unfold even more in the reign of [the] digital” (p. 10) as new modes of control—increased surveillance on platforms such as Zoom, for example—are made possible by the technology. There is of course a sense of expediency at a time of crisis and one could read the emphasis on researcher knowledge as a presumption of “a certain right to speak and act in a way deemed vindicated by current events” (Smith 2008, p. 37). That said, “[f]undamentalism always thrives in times of cultural confusion, offering clear and simple answers to questions that are difficult and long range in implication” (p. 44).

4 Teaching and Teacher Education for a Post-pandemic Canada …

51

Increasingly, Smith argues, the perennial curriculum question—what knowledge is of most worth?—is being replaced by the question of how much is knowledge worth? As teacher–educators, we may need to ask ourselves whether knowledge, in this case researcher knowledge, should be the ultimate arbiter of worth in teaching and teacher education. This brings us to the concerns for “equity” throughout the position paper.

Margin–Centre: Settling Differences Both education and equity are addressed in the position paper through the discourse of economics. While economics is a factor in both education and equity, to speak of either or both in concert with each other only in terms defined by economic values is to hobble our understanding of what is possible for either. In addition to framing education and equity in terms of economics, it is important to note that the emphasis on growth and progress fundamental to the discourse of economics gives particular weight to the notion of “innovation.” “Innovation” is so often tied to technological advances that the two are commonly interchangeable. Further, “technology” has come to be synonymous with digital connectivity. Through this tangle of associations, the ACDE position paper asserts that the success of the Canadian educational system should be conceived in terms of its ability “[t]o help build strong social and economic futures for Canada” through an “equitable access to computers and internet” (p. 5) which is in close association with, if not causally linked to, addressing “ongoing systemic and structural inequities experienced by Indigenous communities, communities of colour and diverse learners” (p. 5). To be sure, restrictions on in-person schooling intended to curb the rate of infection for COVID-19 increased our need for digital education technology at all levels— from, for example, reliable internet connections for remote Indigenous communities; to “expand[ed] understandings of what is acceptable as ‘practicum’ [in order] to recognise supervised digital teaching experience” (p. 7). These immediate needs have “amplified existing inequalities in access and quality of learning” (p. 5) but only inasmuch as “quality” learning is defined in terms of access to existing skills and mechanisms identified with technological “innovation” and, by association, economic progress. Equitable access through educational technology to a system that is defined according to an economic rationality based on the reduction of human complexity to objective measurement such as “teacher supply” (p. 7), “opportunity costs” (p. 6), and “target equity groups” (p. 9) does not constitute a “reimagining” or “transformation” (p. 2) for education or equity. That is not to suggest that increased digital connectivity cannot be used to support other sorts of innovations—other than narrowly defined digital technologies—such as reimagining an on-line education program through Indigenous values that honour cultural teachings that speak of balance, reciprocity, and environmental stewardship. This form of innovation would speak from outside of the economic discourse and in doing so actually disrupt the violent historical and ongoing power relations that grant

52

A. M. Phelan and J. D. Morris

authority to education systems over and against Indigenous culture and communities. A disruption of this kind would make it less likely that we might confuse the colonialism inherent in “provid[ing] to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities” “targeted information, guidance, and support” with a marker for “respect” and “reconciliation” (p. 11). Equity—or for that matter education—does not rest in bringing “others”—on the margin—in line with “us”—at the centre—by providing them with knowledge that can only pretend claim to objectivity within a particular discourse. Equity demands heterogeneity, an unrest that defies settlement of differences and is capable of maintaining the fragility that makes it possible to continue to imagine together how things could be otherwise.

Complication As Snobelen seemed to appreciate, there’s nothing quite like a crisis to pave the way for transformative political intervention. A crisis erupts: a threat or unexpected danger requires an immediate response and we must decide what is to be done. A political response to a crisis is different from political action. In its thinnest form, political action can be conceived as action taken in response to a population’s perception that the government has failed in some way (Cordero 2017, p. 141); for example, voting to replace a representative. At the limits of its conception, political action could be understood as the practice of critique emerging from ongoing and heterogenous critical engagement in issues of shared concern. In political conversation understood as a practice of critique we differ in our perspectives and perceptions. To the extent that these differences are permitted, encouraged, and perhaps suffered, they ensure we will not be able to rest simply in ‘what is to be done,’ instead keeping us open to imagining what else might be done. The tension and un-rest of differences in conversation with each other also destabilize the way in which we think about and respond to authority. In the fullness of this conception, political action as critique brings us and our world into question, keeps it in play, and opens up the possibility of imagining otherwise. When crisis strikes we are perhaps more apt to see ourselves ‘together in this.’ Under threat most people willingly—and “reasonably”—put aside differences in order to come together to address, and so survive, the crisis. When everything seems at risk we are more likely to view critique and the questioning that results from difference as unwelcome or even suspicious. Because the moment of crisis seems to invite the suspension of political action, it leaves us particularly vulnerable to a “productive moment of governmentality” (Cordero 2017, p. 141). Crisis smooths the way for increased governmentality, for the extension and reinforcement of knowledge regimes through the promise of rescue, recovery, and a clear path forward beyond this moment of uncertainty. The neoliberal rationale that undergirds this moment does particularly well in a crisis with its atmosphere of “instability and disorder” (Cordero 2017, p. 144); by framing the problem in terms of irrational and irresponsible behaviour on the part of the individual, the institutions of government can be

4 Teaching and Teacher Education for a Post-pandemic Canada …

53

seen to provide objective solutions—clear and simple answers—that call on the individual to put differences aside, to hold their questions and to do what needs to be done now with little consideration of long term consequences. In its evocation of crisis, its diagnosis of the present, and its prognosis of what is to come for teaching and teacher education, the ACDE (2020) position paper inevitably directs Canadian educators toward a norm. “Evoking crisis entails reference to a norm because it requires a comparative state for judgement: crisis compared to what?” (Roitman 2014, p.1 8) That norm is the association’s ‘position’ going forward. Asserting that his written words were not meant as “dogmatic assertions that have to be taken or left en bloc,” Foucault (1991, p. 90–91) asked that we perceive his writing as an invitation to join in conversation with him, to engage the openings he set in play. While recognizing the distinction between theorizing and policymaking, it seems to us that position papers issued from associations such as the ACDE are key sites within the academy from which particular vocabularies are articulated and disseminated (Ball 1995). The ACDE has chosen to locate its aspirations within “an essentially utilitarian tradition…based upon measuring the social outcomes of educational policies” (p. 266). Choosing the “sober tones” and “technical and desolate language[]” of rational planning and outcomes (markers) the ACDE re-inhabits old redemptive assumptions based upon an unproblematic role for educational professionals (including researchers) “in a perpetual process of progressive, orderly growth or development achieved through scientific and technological ‘mastery’ or control over events” (p. 267–268). It is a conceit, for example, to think that somehow teacher education and educational research have neutral status, progressive forces in the fight against inequity, when their practices and policies are complicit. The ACDE response to COVID-19 reveals a kind of mad scramble to latch onto an image of who we are as educators and what our work might mean. We try to overcome our sense of uselessness with remedies and assurances and in so doing we overly identify with dominant discourses of global capitalism—production, and competition and futurism. Reimagining teaching and teacher education, however, requires disidentification—managing and negotiating but not assimilating nor rejecting dominant ideology. As a “third mode,” disidentification “tactically and simultaneously works on, with, and against, a cultural form” (Muñoz 1999, p. 12). Instead of giving sway to the pressures of neo-liberal discourse via identification or trying to escape via counter identification or utopianism might it be possible to perform politics in education otherwise? Rather than produce a position paper, for example, it might have been more strategic to issue a discussion paper where educational leaders could offer the opportunity for exploration of perspectives and thinking otherwise. While there is no escaping dominant ideology, it is possible to write policy papers that rely on complexity as well as on reflexivity about the ways in which our rational utopian visions are always formed within the discourses from which we seek to escape (Ball 1995). The question we may have to face as educational leaders is “do we do whatever we have to do to make ourselves useful as technicians of social management, or do we re-invent ourselves as intellectuals and cultural critics” in the management stream? (p. 269) Disidentification as a practice involves “a loss of identity,” and it may interrupt “our sense of usefulness” but the means is the end. Our speaking, thinking,

54

A. M. Phelan and J. D. Morris

and leading are at best tentative, uncertain and unguaranteed (de Lauretis 1990). In that spirit, we offer the following ethico-political questions for consideration: ● Might we find in the pandemic an opportunity to (re)claim (educational) spaces as zones of indistinction (Agamben 1990) in which suspension of normal rules and innovative leaps from the neoliberal utopian logic that ordinarily governs education? ● Might we find in the pandemic an opportunity to (re)examine the positioning of the researcher as expert, consultant or moral disciplinarian (Ball 1995) ready at hand to promote self-regulation and resilience among schoolteachers? ● Might we find in the pandemic an opportunity to (re)generate a commons as a space of dissensus, fluidity and incoherence where educators stand together without bannisters to support, expectations to guide, or consensus to be achieved? ● Might we find in the pandemic an opportunity to (re)cognize conjunction, intersection, and discontinuity rather than rely upon identity, unity and continuity in our thinking and leading? At this moment of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is much to mope about. But crises only become catastrophes when we respond to them with preformed judgements, that is, with only familiar frames of reference (Arendt 1993). In doing so, we forfeit the opportunity for reflection that every crisis provides.

References Agamben, G. (1998). Homo Sacer: Sovereign power and bare life. California. Stanford University Press. Arendt, H. (1993). The crisis in education. In H. Arendt (Ed.), Between past and future: Eight exercises in political thought (pp. 173–196). Penquin. Association of Canadian Deans of Education (2020). Teaching and Teacher Education for Postpandemic Canada: A Position Paper of the Association of Canadian Deans of Education. http:// csse-scee.ca/acde/publications/. Association of Canadian Deans of Education (2020). Accord on Teacher Education. Association of Canadian Deans of Education. http://csse-scee.ca/acde/publications/. Bacchi, C. (2010). Why study problematizations? Making politics visible. Open Journal of Political Science, 2(1), 1–8. Ball, S. J. (1995, September). Intellectuals or technicians? The urgent role of theory in educational studies. British Journal of Educational Studies, 43(3), 255–271. Bauman, S. (2005). Education in liquid modernity. The Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 27(4), 303–317. Berger, J. (2014). Times of Crisis. Lecture presented at The Gender Research Institute at Dartmouth, April 22. Retrieved from https://arcade.stanford.edu/content/crisis-thinking Brennan, R. (1995, September 13). Minister plotted “to invent a crisis.” Toronto Star, p. A3. Clarke, M., & Phelan, A. (2017). Teacher education and the political: The power of negative thinking. Routledge. Clarke, M. (2012). The (absent) politics of neo-liberal education policy. Critical Studies in Education, 53(3), 297–310.

4 Teaching and Teacher Education for a Post-pandemic Canada …

55

Cordero, R. (2017). “Making Things More Fragile: The Persistence of Crisis and the Neoliberal Disorder of Things—Michel Foucault”, in Crisis and Critique. New York: Routledge, https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315753904. De Lauretis, L. (1990). Eccentric subjects: Feminist theory and historical consciousness. Feminist Studies, 16(1), 133–146. Gauthier, C. (2020). From goose feather pen to keyboard. Does the school form still have its relevance in the contemporary world? Paper presented at the Canadian Curriculum Studies Seminar Series, October. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wabQzfZPgE&t=12s. Eveline, J., & Bacchi, C. (2010). Power, resistance and reflexive practice. In C. Bacchi & J. Eveline (Eds.), Mainstreaming politics: Gendering practices and feminist theory (pp. 139–161). University of Adelaide Press. Foucault, M. (1991). Questions of Method. The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality. Brighton, Harvester/Wheatsheaf. Foucault, M. (1979). Discipline and punish. Penguin. Rüsselbæk Hansen, D., & Phelan, A. M. (2019). Taste for democracy: A critique of the mechanical paradigm in education. Research in Education: Theory, Practice and Policy, 103(1), 34–48. Hirschkorn, M., Kristmanson, P., & Sears, A. (2013). Toward a national conversation about teacher education in Canada: An examination of CATE conference presentations. In L. Thomas (Ed.), What is Canadian about teacher education in Canada? Multiple perpectives on Canadian teacher education in the twenty-first century (pp. 61–86). Canadian Association for Teacher Educators (CATE). Retrieved from http://Www.csse-scee.ca/associations/about/cate-acfe. Latour, B. (2020). What protective measures can you think of so we don’t go back to the pre-crisis production model? Trans. by Stephen Muecke. Retrieved at: https://aoc.media/opinion/2020/03/ 29/imaginer-les-gestes-barrieres-contre-le-retour-a-la-production-davant-crise/ Matus, C. & McCarthy, C. (2008). The triumph of multiplicity and the carnival of difference: Curriculum dilemmas in the age of postcolonialism and globalization. (pp. 73– 82) In Pinar, W. F. (Ed.). International handbook of curriculum research. Taylor & Francis e-Library. Mayer, D., Luke, C., & Luke, A. (2008). Teachers, national regulation and cosmopolitanism. In A. M. Phelan & J. Sumsion (Eds.), Critical readings in teacher education: Provoking absences (pp. 79–98). Sense Publishers. Muñoz, J. E. (1999). Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics. University of Minnesota Press. Morales Perlaza, A. & Tardif, M. (2016). Pan-Canadian Perspectives on Teacher Education: The State of the Art in Comparative Research. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 62(6): 199– 219. Summer. National Commission on Excellence in Education. (1983). A nation at risk: The imperative for educational reform. Report to the Nation and the Secretary of Education, United States Department of Education. Ravitch, D., & Finn, C. (1988). What do our 17-year-olds know: A report on the first national assessment of history and literature. Harper Collins. Roitman, J. (2014). Anti-crisis. Duke University Press. Schapira, M. (2019, July 29). The ‘crisis’ in teacher education. Oxford research encyclopedia of education. July. Retrieved 18 Oct. 2020, from https://oxfordre-com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/ education/view/https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.001.0001/acrefore-978019026 4093-e-744. Spencer, B. L., & Taylor, A. (2010). Mobilizing knowledge through partnerships”. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, 26(3), 47–60. Smith, D. G. (2008). Curriculum and teaching face globalization. In Pinar, W. F. (Ed.). International handbook of curriculum research. (pp. 34–52). Taylor & Francis e-Library.

56

A. M. Phelan and J. D. Morris

Anne M. Phelan is Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy at the University of British Columbia, and Honorary Professor, in the Department of Policy and Leadership at the Education University of Hong Kong. Her research focuses on the intellectual and political freedom of teachers and on the creation of teacher education policies, programs and practices that support that end. Jill D. Morris is a doctoral student in the field of Curriculum Studies in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy at the University of British Columbia. Her research theorizes phenomenology as a means of broadening conceptions of education through the ‘saturated event’ of the material classroom and the student teacher relationship. Her scholarship is grounded in over twenty years as a high school teacher in Ontario, Canada.

Chapter 5

The Complex Policy Landscape of Initial Teacher Education in England: What’s the Problem Represented to Be? Trevor Mutton , Katharine Burn , Ian Thompson , and Ann Childs

Abstract Teacher education policy and practice in England differs from that of many other countries, even compared to other jurisdictions within the United Kingdom and, it has been suggested, is something of an outlier. Increasing government intervention in teacher education has led to a somewhat complex and, many might argue, confused policy landscape. Current teacher education policy and practice in England is framed by major policy reforms begun in 2010 and informed by the government’s White Paper The Importance of Teaching. These reforms were ostensibly about improving the quality of teacher education in England but the emphasis was on market-driven approaches. The government has introduced the Early Career Framework—a prescribed curriculum for all recently qualified teachers in their first two years of teaching, with full implementation from September 2021—and a revised Core Content Framework, with implementation from September 2020. This chapter presents a critical examination of the recent policy trajectory within initial teacher education in England, interrogating policies designed to bring more recruits into the profession by following a market ideology: increasing the choice of available pathways while treating teacher preparation as on-the-job training for work in a specific setting. We investigate the espoused dual imperatives of quality and quantity in teacher education and the resulting policies and practices as postulated ‘solutions’ in order to tease out their implicit problem representations and the implications that they entail.

T. Mutton (B) · K. Burn · I. Thompson · A. Childs University of Oxford, Oxford, UK e-mail: [email protected] K. Burn e-mail: [email protected] I. Thompson e-mail: [email protected] A. Childs e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 D. Mayer (ed.), Teacher Education Policy and Research, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3775-9_5

57

58

T. Mutton et al.

Introduction This chapter considers recent and ongoing policy developments in initial teacher education (ITE) in England and offers a critical analysis of the underpinning rationales for change that have acted as policy drivers for the substantial reforms undertaken within the past decade. We critically examine the current complex policy landscape, interrogating policies framed within a market-led model (George and Maguire 2019), designed to ensure that more teachers come into the profession through the diversification of routes and underpinned by the philosophy that schools should ‘take more control over training the next generation of teachers’ (Department for Education (DfE) 2013a). While teacher education reform is not something unique to England but is, rather, a characteristic of many countries globally (see Darling-Hammond and Lieberman 2012; Kosnik et al. 2016; Mayer et al. 2017; Tatto and Menter 2019) the specific nature of the reforms in England has made it, to some extent, an outlier in international comparisons and even within the four jurisdictions of the United Kingdom (Beauchamp et al. 2015; Loughran and Menter 2019; Teacher Education Group 2016). Having set out the way in which ITE policy reform in England has attempted to address the ‘policy problem’ of teacher education (Cochran-Smith 2005), we go on to examine both the way in which the problem has been represented and the way in which ‘solutions’ to the problem have been identified in light of such representations (Bacchi 2012). For Bacchi the ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be’ (WPR) approach: starts from the premise that what one proposes to do about something reveals what one thinks is problematic (needs to change). Following this thinking, policies and policy proposals contain implicit representations of what is considered to be the ‘problem’ (‘problem representations’) (2012: 21).

The task of determining ‘what’s the problem represented to be?’ is then carried out by applying six key questions: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

What’s the ‘problem’ represented to be in a specific policy or policy proposal? What presuppositions or assumptions underpin this representation of the ‘problem’? How has this representation of the ‘problem’ come about? What is left unproblematic in this problem representation? Where are the silences? Can the ‘problem’ be thought about differently? What effects are produced by this representation of the ‘problem’? How/where has this representation of the ‘problem’ been produced, disseminated and defended? How has it been (or could it be) questioned, disrupted and replaced? (adapted from Bacchi 2012: 21–22)

5 The Complex Policy Landscape Of Initial Teacher Education …

59

The Context of Initial Education or Training In England Even before we can begin to describe the policy context in England, we need to determine how to refer to the process of preparing teachers, since the choice of terms, in itself, indicates how that process is understood and so shapes the ways in which it can be deemed to have gone wrong. As university-based tutors and education researchers we regard our own work with beginning teachers as one of initial teacher education (ITE) and will therefore use that term when referring in general terms to the processes of teacher preparation. Since the Department of Education refers exclusively to initial teacher training, we will therefore adopt their favoured abbreviation—ITT when referring specifically to government policies. In England, Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) is the normal requirement for a teacher in a maintained school. There is no obligation for teachers to have achieved QTS in order to teach in independent (private) schools, nor in Free Schools or Academies, but the majority of teachers in the latter would have QTS and such schools appear not to have exploited the freedom to employ more unqualified teachers (Mathou, Sarazin and Dumay 2020). In order to be recommended for the award of QTS teachers must demonstrate that they have met the requirements of the Teachers’ Standards (DfE 2011c). ITE is offered as either a three or four-year undergraduate programme (usually for primary teaching but some undergraduate secondary courses do exist) or as a oneyear postgraduate programme. The Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) is a one-year course for those with an undergraduate degree, and is offered by a Higher Education Institution (HEI) leading to the award of an academic qualification as well as QTS. The PGCE can also carry credits towards a Masters level qualification. Both primary and secondary PGCE programmes require student teachers to spend at least 120 days within their course in at least two different practicum settings. Launched by the Coalition Government in 2012, School Direct is a route into teaching that enables schools to select the teachers that they want to train. A ‘lead school’ offers training places in conjunction with a university or a School Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) provider, with the aim being that the school should have more involvement in the leadership and content design, as well as the delivery, of the training programme. SCITTs are usually run by a school, or consortia of schools, and SCITT providers are accredited to award QTS. They offer programmes for both primary and secondary teachers and many also offer a PGCE if the SCITT in question works in conjunction with an HEI. Standards and quality are monitored by the government inspection service, the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted). ITE providers are inspected regularly using a rigorous framework, which has recently been revised (DfE 2020). Finally, it is worth mentioning the extent to which the teaching profession in England is representative of the population as a whole. In 2019, where ethnicity was known, 85.7% of all teachers in state-funded schools in England identified as White British (UK Government, 2021). By contrast, in January 2020 33.9% of pupils in

60

T. Mutton et al.

primary schools and 32.3% of pupils in secondary schools were of minority ethnic backgrounds (up from 33.5% and 31.3% in January 2019, respectively).

Overview of Recent ITE Policy Development in England ITE policy reform in England is well documented (see, for example,MacBeath 2011; Childs and Menter 2013; Murray and Mutton 2016; Tatto et al. 2018) and recent analysis (Menter et al. 2019) has identified distinct ‘periodisations’ within a broad historical overview, each characterised by a particular approach. Most recently, the period between 1984 and 2010 is seen as being one of ‘diversification and standardisation’ and the period since 2010 as one of ‘marketization’, the latter characterised by ‘complexity and competition in training routes’ (2019: 67–68) emanating directly from the reforms of the Coalition Government which came to power in 2010. The major reforms following the 2010 White Paper The Importance of Teaching (DfE 2010) and the subsequent policy documents addressing initial teacher training (ITT)1 specifically ‘Training our next generation of outstanding teachers – An improvement strategy for discussion’ and ‘Training our next generation of outstanding teachers – Implementation plan’ (DfE 2011and DfE 2011b respectively) could be seen as the latest attempts by various governments in England to address the long-standing dual imperatives of quality and quantity in teacher education. These measures, however, represented a very different approach to previous reforms (see Furlong et al. 2008 and Furlong 2013, for an analysis of policy reform under the 1997–2010 New Labour government). While the 2010 reforms certainly continued the ‘the pendulum swing of ITE in England … away from the dominance of HEIs and towards schools and teachers’ (Murray and Mutton 2016: 72) the aim to make more than half of ITE provision ‘school-led’ by 2015, primarily through the introduction of School Direct and the expansion of SCITT provision, was far more radical than anything that had preceded it. The rationale was set out in the above documents and was regularly reiterated as the policies started to be enacted: (T)he School Direct model … is designed to meet the following main aims: To give schools the ability to influence the way in which ITT is delivered, improving the system by creating more school-led training programmes that better meet the needs of schools and trainees To enable schools to recruit and select the trainees that best meet their and their partnership’s needs, with the expectation that those teachers will go on to work in the group of schools where they trained To introduce choice into the ITT system by enabling schools to negotiate with their chosen provider how they wish to use their School Direct place (or places). The School Direct Training Programme also enables a school to negotiate their choice of accredited ITT provider, the funding they receive from the provider and the way in which the training is delivered. (DfE 2013b) 1 In all government policy documents since 2010 the term initial teacher training (ITT) has been used.

5 The Complex Policy Landscape Of Initial Teacher Education …

61

The mechanism by which the move from ‘university-led’ to ‘school-led’ provision was to be achieved was the imposition of allocation ‘controls’ which determined the number of teacher training places that could be allocated to any one provider, thus ensuring sufficient capacity within the sector for ‘school-led’ provision.2 Whereas the number of postgraduate student teachers training with university providers declined from 28,669 in 2011–12 to 22,224 in 2015–16, the number of postgraduate trainees within School Direct during the same period grew from none to over 17,000 (Roberts and Foster 2015). The overall policy, however, was predicated on the need, within a market-led model, to diversify the routes by which it would be possible for applicants to train to teach (see Whiting et al. 2016). Thus, the majority of the changes implemented in the years immediately following the publication of the 2010 White Paper were focussed on structural reform—establishing the necessary infrastructure through which new routes could be established, and it was only subsequently that the government turned its attention to the quality and content of ITE provision. In 2014, consistent with its previously identified perception that quality was a matter of concern, the government commissioned an independent review of the content of ITT. The final report of the review (Carter 2015) can be seen to grapple with a complex range of issues which it seeks to resolve, including maintaining a sufficient number of highly qualified new entrants to the teaching profession; the professional knowledge base of teaching and how this is acquired; equity in terms of the trainee teachers’ access to high-quality teacher education; and parity of esteem between different types of provision (Mutton et al. 2017). The final report made a number of recommendations, some of which focus on the subject content of ITT programmes, while others focus on the knowledge that trainee teachers require and how they gain access to it; the need for effective mentoring; and the nature of effective ITT partnerships. The first and most significant recommendation, however, was that: DfE should commission a sector body … to develop a framework of core content for ITT (Carter 2015: 67).

As a response to this recommendation, the government set up a number of ‘expert groups’ which it said would ‘lead vital work to improve the quality of initial teacher training (ITT) courses in England’ (DfE 2015). The remit of one of the groups was to establish a framework of core content for ITT (with the other two focusing on detailed content related to behaviour management content and on developing national standards for school-based ITT mentors, respectively). The findings of these expert groups were published in July 2016 (DfE 2016b), with the government making clear that all ITT providers should align their programmes with the newly established core content framework for ITT. The rationale for the development of this first iteration of an ITT core content framework was set out by Stephen Munday, the chair of the expert group, who said in his introduction to the document:

2

These allocation controls were subsequently removed in 2017–18 in light of a growing recruitment ‘crisis’.

62

T. Mutton et al. Our aim has been to improve the consistency and quality of ITT courses by supporting teacher trainers and trainees themselves to have a better understanding of the essential elements of good ITT content. This, in turn, will help to ensure that gaps identified by the Carter Review are closed. (DfE 2016b).

The arrival of Nicky Morgan as the new of Secretary of State for Education in 2014 coincided with the period of the Carter Review (which had been set up by her immediate predecessor Michael Gove) and there was little by way of teacher education policy proposals until the publication of the White Paper Educational Excellence Everywhere in 2016 (DfE 2016). This outlined the government’s commitment to ‘strengthening’ ITT, arguing that: It is crucial that teachers receive high quality initial teacher training (ITT) that prepares them for a successful and fulfilling career in the classroom. (DfE 2016a: 28, para 2.19).

The White Paper also contained further commitments to pursue the goals of the 2010 reforms, stating for example: ‘We will therefore continue to increase the proportion of ITT delivered and led by Schools’ (para 2.26) and ‘We will accredit new school-led providers and support a major expansion of SCITT-led training’ (para 2.27). The document did, however, appear to acknowledge a role for the university providers and confirmed: There will continue to be an important place for high quality universities in ITT with a strong track record in attracting well-qualified graduates. We want the best universities to establish ‘centres of excellence’ in ITT, drawing on their world-leading subject knowledge and research. We will seek to recognise both the best university and school-led ITT through guaranteed, longer-term allocation of training places, allowing providers to plan their provision into the future. (2016a: 31, para 2.28).

Perhaps the most striking feature of the White Paper, however, was the quite radical proposal to: replace Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) with a stronger, more challenging accreditation based on a teacher’s effectiveness in the classroom, as judged by great schools. (2016a: 32, para 2.33).

Although this particular proposal was never implemented, due in large part to the subsequent departure of Nicky Morgan from office, and the ‘churn’ within the post—which saw the arrival of three further Secretaries of State for Education in rapid succession—some of the thinking that underpinned it was to resurface in subsequent initiatives. Effectively some aspects of Morgan’s White Paper (in particular those linked to previous policy initiatives) were pursued, but others were not. While there had long been concerns about teacher recruitment, attention at this point also became increasingly focused on the issue of retention of new teachers. The idea for a more rigorous qualification awarded by schools after a more extensive period of experience came to be transformed into plans for a much more tightly structured induction phase. The publication of the government’s Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy (DfE 2019a) saw the establishment of the Early Career Framework (ECF) (DfE 2019b)—a programme for all newly qualified teachers in their first two years of teaching which:

5 The Complex Policy Landscape Of Initial Teacher Education …

63

… underpins an entitlement to a fully-funded, two-year package of structured training and support for early career teachers linked to the best available research evidence (2019b: 4).

The ECF was introduced through an initial ‘roll-out’ in 2020 with full implementation planned for September 202. It is clear in the introduction to the ECF that is intended to: … build on and complement ITT. … As is the case for other professions, areas covered in initial training will be covered in greater depth as part of induction as teachers continue on their journey to becoming experts. (2019b: 5).

Having stipulated the content of the ECF for newly qualified teachers, it was now a much easier step to re-introduce the idea of a Core Content Framework (CCF), to be implemented from September 2020 (DfE 2019c), within initial teacher education. The latter has been presented as complementing the ECF in order to ‘establish an entitlement to a 3 or more year structured package of support for future generations of teachers’ (2019c: 1) and it follows the ECF closely both in terms of its structure and in its designation of exactly what new teachers must learn. Furthermore, both frameworks include specific research citations to underpin each of the elements specified. The CCF document indicates that: … key evidence statements (‘Learn that…’) have been drawn from current high-quality evidence from the UK and overseas. (2019c: 4).

There is little indication as to what makes the evidence ‘high quality’, or the way in which the references may have been selected unless to reflect a particular perspective. The references themselves are not annotated so it is not possible to discern the warrant for their inclusion, other than that the evidence has been deemed to be of ‘high quality’. While a long list of references to provide evidence in support of both the EAF and the CCF could be interpreted as placing research and theory at the heart of ITE programme content, it is worth noting Helegtun and Menter’s (2020) analysis of the role of evidence in recent policy making in England and their conclusion that: … the role of ‘evidence’ in policymaking has moved the environment from an age of measurement to an ‘evidence era’. Furthermore, we have shown how ‘evidence’ has become a tool of government to justify policy, but also to grant speaking rights to selected actors whom ministers deem to have the right ideological leanings. This takes place under a tight central control with ‘evidence’ translated through an emphasis on how it will be received by politicians and the general public, not through any academic notions of rigour, robustness or reliability. (2020: 11).

In summary, England has, as can be seen, undergone significant policy reform in ITE over the past decade; reform, one could argue, that demonstrates a high degree of policy coherence in that the original direction set by the 2010 White Paper has continued to inform subsequent policy developments. Much of this reform has been premised on the idea of teacher education as a ‘policy problem’ which can only be addressed by an interventionist approach and increasing moves towards standardisation. In going beyond this initial analysis of the policy context, we now seek to examine this policy trajectory in light of the questions that Carol Bacchi raises.

64

T. Mutton et al.

What’s the Problem (of ITE in England) Represented to Be? While policy reform has ostensibly been driven by the need to attract more highquality teachers to the profession, driven by an economic imperative around the influences of globalisation and aligned with similar policy trends elsewhere in the world (Paine et al. 2017; Tatto and Menter 2019), one distinct representation, and recurrent theme over recent decades, has been the identification of university teacher education as the central problem. Linked with this theme is a related view of the disputed relevance of educational theory. This narrative emerged strongly in the 1980s among those labelled the ‘New Right’ (Furlong 2005), for whom universities were seen as introducing teachers to progressive educational ideas and not focussing sufficiently on the teaching of substantive subject knowledge. The related critique is that university teacher education focuses too much on irrelevant theory and not enough on the practical skills of teaching which, it is argued, can only come from extensive classroom practice. This argument is central to the Policy Exchange Report ‘More Good Teachers’ (2008): Over the past 30 years there has been a reluctant acceptance that practical, competencebased training is more valuable than theory. At the beginning of their careers, new teachers need to acquire the craft of managing classrooms so that their pupils learn effectively. This is not achieved through the acquisition of abstract knowledge in a seminar room; it is gained through apprentice-style training in classrooms. (2008: 28).

Likewise, the report uses economic arguments to support the case for reducing the role of the university and moving responsibility for teacher education into schools. Interestingly, it is this report that acts as the blueprint for many aspects of teacher education policy that took shape in the first two years of the Coalition Government and is echoed in the rhetoric of Michael Gove and Nick Gibb, writing during a brief period when he was not Schools Minister: Teaching is a craft and it is best learnt as an apprentice observing a master craftsman or woman. (Gove 2010). In the past, the education debate has been dominated by education academics—which is why so much of the research and evidence on how children actually learn has been so poor. (Gove 2013). Who is to blame for our education system slipping down the international rankings? The answer is the academics in the education faculties of universities. (Gibb 2014).

In the Carter Review, the issue of the relationship between theory and practice in teacher education is once again evident, and the arguments around the apparent university-led/school-led division come again to the fore, but here the problem is represented more as one of equity for trainee teachers, whatever route they have chosen. Content is identified as being too variable, and one of the report’s recommendations is for the government to establish: A central portal of synthesised executive summaries, providing practical advice on research findings about effective teaching in different subjects and phases (Carter 2015: 54).

5 The Complex Policy Landscape Of Initial Teacher Education …

65

Evidence submitted to the review by headteachers indicated another underlying representation of the policy problem in teacher education, namely that recently qualified teachers are not sufficiently prepared to enter the teaching profession, particularly in their competence in relation to behaviour management. This links back to a critique of the lack of relevance of traditional models of training and supports the argument that the most valuable aspects of any teacher education programme are those related to direct classroom experience.

What Presuppositions or Assumptions Underpin This Representation of the ‘Problem’? The underlying assumptions here, as noted above, are that little can be learned about teaching other than through direct experience of the classroom through the practicum experience. There are, however, varying levels of acknowledgement in the policy documentation in England that it is the quality of the practicum experience that is important, not just the number of days or hours spent observing other teachers or actually teaching. Likewise, the prevailing assumption is that theory in teacher education programmes is largely irrelevant, rather than acknowledgement of the potential contribution that it might make to beginning teachers’ learning as an integrated part of an effective clinical practice model. As Burn and Mutton (2015) point out: … the school-based elements of ITE programmes cannot be construed merely as providing scope to learn from experience or by imitating experts. … For beginning teachers working within an established community of practice, with access to the practical wisdom of experts, ‘clinical practice’ allows them to engage in a process of enquiry: seeking to interpret and make sense of the specific needs of particular students, to formulate and implement particular pedagogical actions and to evaluate the outcomes. (2015: 219).

How Has This Representation of the ‘Problem’ Come About? It is, at one level, easy to understand the representation of ITE as being inherently a problem of the perceived irrelevancy and inadequacy of university provision, stemming from a period in the 1970s in England when this argument may have had some justification (Whitty 2014). Yet by any objective standards, this is not the case currently in England where 100% of age-phase partnerships have been judged by Ofsted to be at least good and 37% of these outstanding (Ofsted 2020). Instead of celebrating the success of the system, at least as judged by the government inspectorate, the Department for Education has announced in the middle of the current Covid-19 pandemic a fundamental review into the shape and structure of the ITE market.

66

T. Mutton et al.

So why is ITE represented as the ‘problem’ rather than the solution? Part of the answer lies in the international discourse around the improvement of both teacher quality and the professional education of teachers that has been underpinned almost universally by neoliberal political agendas (Cochran-Smith 2005; Furlong 2013). The question of what type of teacher is needed has been combined with debates around their preparation through ‘school-led’ or ‘university-led’ systems. In England, in particular, this has been accompanied by government attempts to encourage a market economy of alternative providers and routes into teaching that either bypass or reduce the role of universities. Ironically, of course, this is the very market that the DfE now wishes to rationalise. Education has historically been highly politicised in England. The current government’s political stance is seen by many to be hostile to both university involvement in ITE and what is viewed as ‘progressive’ forms of education. Government initiatives such as teaching apprenticeships or the Troops to Teachers non-graduate programme may have had limited impact on recruiting teachers but their existence reflects the political view of ministers, both past and present, who believe that teaching should be seen as a trade that can be learnt through apprenticeship or by those who have a particular form of resilience.

What Is Left Unproblematic in This Problem Representation? Can the ‘Problem’ Be Thought About Differently? What is left unproblematic or unproblematised in the simplistic and short-sighted view of university involvement in ITE as the problem, is a focus on what makes a teacher fully professional and able to navigate different challenges and contexts in their career. Government reforms aimed at improving teacher quality have relied on a focus on the structures and content of courses rather than the pedagogical assumptions around the sort of curriculum that can help to produce effective teachers. At the same time, ITE has become a growing and highly competitive industry. This has led to perverse incentives for ITE providers to both maximise numbers as an economic necessity and produce standardised and conformist beginning teachers. In ‘training’ the ‘craft’ of teaching complexities and contradictions are either ignored or not recognised, reflected in the use of the term initial teacher training, or ITT (rather than the established term ITE) where the focus is rarely on the processes of professional learning across multiple sites and cultures of practice or on conceptualisations of what makes a teacher fully professional.

5 The Complex Policy Landscape Of Initial Teacher Education …

67

What Effects Are Produced by This Representation of the ‘Problem’? Perhaps the major effect of this representation has been an increasing polarisation of views that affords little room for exploring developments in teacher education pedagogy. This has been the result of a sector that is reliant on effective partnership becoming increasingly competitive and market-driven. Instead of collaboration across the sector in concerted research focussed on beginning teachers’ learning, the discourse can descend into unhelpful binaries between educational theory and academic research on the one hand and practical or craft knowledge on the other. Teacher education development has long been hampered by problems associated with this theory/practice divide. Seeing the university as the problem has led to some ITE providers rejecting theory altogether, insisting that if teaching is really a practical craft then the only learning can be from the practicum. There are also polarised debates about what sort of evidence can inform the profession. Concepts associated with research-informed clinical practice (Burn and Mutton 2015) such as practical theorising (testing theory in practice and evaluating them in relation to academic criteria) and adaptive expertise are seen as the property of a few established partnerships rather than a potential tool for all. In contrast, learning in many SCITTs is limited to the specific context in which the student–teacher is situated.

How/Where Has This Representation of the ‘Problem’ Been Produced, Disseminated and Defended? The representation of the ‘problem’ of ITE has been through both policy documentation and through the guidance around the ways in which information about a career in teaching is disseminated. Problems of retention and recruitment in teaching have been used as both a smokescreen for the real issue and a way of representing previous conceptions of ITE as failing. Concerns about a shortfall in the numbers of teachers needed for schools in England, and figures suggesting that around a quarter of newly qualified teachers who join state-funded schools leave within four years, have resulted in intense government focus on recruitment and incentives to become a teacher. Yet the incentives have been market-driven with generous bursaries available to candidates in shortage secondary school subjects such as physics and mathematics, but nothing at all offered to trainees in early years or primary. The economic crisis caused by the pandemic and the subsequent rise in applications for ITE places has resulted in major cuts in most subjects other than physics, chemistry and mathematics. Marketing of teacher training opportunities has focussed on the teacher being an inspiration or role model, rather than on the learning involved in becoming a teacher.

68

T. Mutton et al.

Conclusions We have argued in this chapter that increasing government intervention in teacher education in England has led both to a somewhat complex and confused policy landscape and the creation of a politically driven characterisation of the policy problem in ITE. Government reforms have led to a teacher education sector that is dependent on partnership working that is in practice characterised by competition and marketdriven approaches. Current teacher education policy and practice in England has been framed by major policy reforms begun in 2010 and informed by the government’s White Paper The Importance of Teaching (DfE 2010) with an emphasis on market-driven approaches resulting in wide diversity of ITE provision. The subsequent Carter-led independent review of teacher education and the new Core Content Framework for ITE reflect the government unease at autonomy in the sector, reflected in an anti-intellectual and anti-university discourse. This has increased polarisation, limited collaboration and obscured a real need to focus on the complexities of learning to teach. This will require a focus on the pedagogy of learning to teach by interrogating the lessons from both practice and research.

References Bacchi, C. (2012). Introducing the ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be?’ approach. In A. Bletsas & C. Beasley (Eds.), Engaging with Carol Bacchi: Strategic interventions and Exchanges (pp. 21– 24). The University of Adelaide Press. doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/UPO9780987171856.003 Beauchamp, G., Clarke, L., Hulme, M., & Murray, J. (2015). Teacher education in the United Kingdom post devolution: Convergences and divergences. Oxford Review of Education, 41(2), 154–170. Burn, K., & Mutton, T. (2015). A review of ‘research-informed clinical practice’ in Initial Teacher Education. Oxford Review of Education, 41(2), 217–233. Carter, A. (2015) Carter review of initial teacher training (ITT), London: DfE. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/carter-review-of-initial-teacher-training Childs, A., & Menter, I. (2013). Teacher education in the 21st Century in England: A case study in neo-liberal policy. Revista Espanola De Educacion Comparada, Spanish Journal of Comparative Education, 22, 93–116. Cochran-Smith, M. (2005). The new teacher education: For better or for worse? Educational Researcher, 34(7), 3–17. Department for Education (2010). The importance of teaching: The schools’ white paper 2010. Retrieved from https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/att achment_data/file/175429/CM-7980.pdf Department for Education (2011a). Training our next generation of outstanding teachers: an improvement strategy for discussion. London: DfE. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/govern ment/publications/training-our-next-generation-of-outstanding-teachers-implementation-plan Department for Education (2011b). Training our next generation of outstanding teachers: implementation plan. London: DfE. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tra ining-our-next-generation-of-outstanding-teachers-implementation-plan Department for Education (DfE) (2011c). Teachers’ Standards. Retrieved from: https://www.gov. uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/301107/Teachers__Standards.pdf

5 The Complex Policy Landscape Of Initial Teacher Education …

69

Department for Education (2013a). Michael Gove speaks about the importance of teaching Speech to Policy Exchange. 5th September 2013.Retrieved from: Michael Gove speaks about the importance of teaching - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) Department for Education (2013b). Guide to School Direct 2013/14, Retrieved from: Guide_to_School_Direct_2013–14.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk) Department for Education (2015). Initial Teacher Training: government response to Carter review, Retrieved from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/carter-review-of-initial-tea cher-training Department for Education (2016a). Educational Excellence Everywhere Retrieved from: Educational Excellence Everywhere (publishing.service.gov.uk) Department for Education (2016b). Initial Teacher Training: government response to Carter review, Retrieved from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/initial-teacher-traininggovernment-response-to-carter-review Department for Education (2019a).Teacher recruitment and retention strategy. Retrieved from: Teacher recruitment and retention strategy - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) Department for Education (2019b). Early Career Framework, Retrieved from: https://assets.pub lishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/773705/EarlyCareer_Framework.pdf Department for Education (2019c). ITT Core Content Framework, Retrieved from: https://assets. publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/843676/Ini tial_teacher_training_core_content_framework.pdf Department for Education (2020). Initial teacher education inspection framework and handbook, Retrieved from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/initial-teacher-education-ite-inspection-frameworkand-handbook Freedman, S., Lipman, B., & Hargreaves, D. (2008). More Good Teachers. Policy Exchange. Furlong, J. (2005). New Labour and teacher education: The end of an era. Oxford Review of Education, 31(1), 119–134. Furlong, J. (2013). Globalisation, neoliberalism, and the reform of teacher education in England. The Educational Forum, 77(1), 28–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131725.2013.739017 Furlong, J., McNamara, O., Campbell, A., Howson, J., & Lewis, S. (2008). Partnership, policy and politics: Initial teacher education in England under New Labour. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 14(4), 307–318. George, R., & Maguire, M. (2019). Choice and diversity in English initial teacher education (ITE): Trainees’ perspectives. European Journal of Teacher Education, 42(1), 19–35. https://doi.org/10. 1080/02619768.2018.1544613 Gibb, N. (2014) Teaching unions aren’t the problem – universities are. The Guardian. 23rd April 2014 Retrieved from: Teaching unions aren’t the problem – universities are | Teaching | The Guardian Gove, M. (2010): Speech to the National College Annual Conference 16th June 2010 (http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/speeches/a0061371/michael-gove-to-the-national-col lege-annual-conference-birmingham) Gove, M. (2013). Michael Gove speaks about the importance of teaching. London: Department for Education. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/michael-gove-speaks about-the importance-of-teaching Helgetun, J. B., & Menter, I. (2020). From an age of measurement to an evidence era? PolicyMaking in Teacher Education in England, Journal of Education Policy,. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 02680939.2020.1748722 Kosnik, C., Beck, C., & Goodwin, A. L. (2016). Reform efforts in teacher education. International Handbook of Teacher Education (pp. 267–308). Springer. Loughran, J., & Menter, I. (2019). The essence of being a teacher educator and why it matters. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 47(3), 216–229.

70

T. Mutton et al.

MacBeath, J. (2011). Education of teachers: The English experience. Journal of Education for Teaching: International Research and Pedagogy, 37(4), 377–386. Mathou, C. Sarazin, M.A.C. & Dumay, X. (2020). Whither employment protections? Deregulation and the flexibilisation of the teaching workforce in the state-funded sector, Journal of Education, 1–23 Policy, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2020.1819568 Mayer, D., Dixon, M., Kline, J., Kostogriz, A., Moss, J., Rowan, L., Walker-Gibbs, B., & White, S. (2017). Studying the effectiveness of teacher education. Studying the effectiveness of teacher education (pp. 13–26). Springer. Menter, I., Mutton, T., & Burn, K. (2019). Learning to teach in England - Reviewing policy and research trends. In T. Tatto & I. Menter (Eds.), Knowledge, Policy and Practice in Learning to Teach: A Cross-National Study (pp. 61–80). Bloomsbury. Murray, J., & Mutton, T. (2016). Teacher Education in England; change in abundance, continuities in question. Teacher Education Group (pp. 57–74). Policy Press. Mutton, T., Burn, K., & Menter, I. (2017). Deconstructing the Carter Review: Competing conceptions of quality in England’s ‘school-led” system of initial teacher education.’ Journal of Education Policy, 32(1), 14–33. Paine, L., Aydarova, E., & Syahril, I. (2017). Globalization and teacher education. Sage Handbook of Research on Teacher Education, 2, 1113–1148. Roberts, N., & Foster, D. (2016). Initial teacher training in England, Briefing Paper 6710. House of Commons Library. Teacher Education Group. (2016). Teacher Education in Times of Change. Policy Press. Tatto, M. T., & Menter, I. (Eds.). (2019). Knowledge, policy and practice in teacher education: A cross-national study. Bloomsbury Publishing. Tatto, M., Burn, K., Menter, I., Mutton, T., & Thompson, I. (2018). Learning to Teach in England and the United States: The Evolution of Policy and Practice. Routledge. UK Government (2021a) School teacher workforce. Retrieved from: https://www.ethnicity-factsfigures.service.gov.uk/workforce-and-business/workforce-diversity/school-teacher-workforce/ latest#by-ethnicity UK Government (2021b) Schools, pupils and their characteristics. Retrieved from: https://exploreeducation-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics Whiting, C., Black, P., Hordern, J., Parfitt, A., Reynolds, K., Sorensen, N., & Whitty, G. (2016). Towards a new topography of ITT: a profile of Initial Teacher Training in England 2015–16. An Occasional Paper from the IFE No. 1. Retrieved from: http://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/8254/ 1/8254.pdf Whitty, W. (2014). Recent developments in teacher training and their consequences for the ‘University Project’ in education. Oxford Review of Education, 40(4), 466–481.

Trevor Mutton is Associate Professor of Education at the University of Oxford, Department of Education and Director of Graduate Studies. His re-search focuses on initial teacher education policy and practice, and beginning teachers’ learning. He is Deputy Editor of Journal of Education for Teaching and also vice-chair of the University Council for the Education of Teachers (UCET). Katharine Burn is an Associate Professor of Education at the University of Oxford, where she acts as the PGCE Partnership Director. She also coordi-nates the work of the Oxford Education Deanery, a knowledge-exchange partnership with schools that promotes local teachers’ engagement in and with research. As Deputy President of the Historical Association and co-editor of the subject-specific professional journal, Teaching History, she also seeks to support forms of professional discourse that bring together teachers, academic historians and educational researchers. Ian Thompson is Associate Professor of Education at the University of Oxford, and PGCE Course Director. He is co-editor of the journal Teaching Education. His research focuses on initial

5 The Complex Policy Landscape Of Initial Teacher Education …

71

teacher education and issues of social justice in education. His recent research projects include Collaboration for Teaching and Learning and Excluded Lives: Disparities in rates of permanent school exclusion across the UK. He is currently co-Primary Investigator on the ESRC funded project The Political Economies of School Exclusions and their Consequences. Ann Childs is an Associate Professor of Education at the University of Oxford, where she is the Director of the Masters in Teacher Education. She is on the editorial board of the journal Research in Science and Technological Edu-cation where she was co-editor for three years. Her research focuses on ini-tial teacher education and science education and she is currently involved in two research projects, OARs (Oxford Argumentation in Religion and Science) and Project Calibrate looking at the assessment of practical work.

Chapter 6

Analyzing Practice, Research, and Accountability Turns in Finnish Academic Teacher Education Auli Toom

and Jukka Husu

Abstract This chapter considers the evolution of Finnish teacher education since it was placed into universities according to a political decision over 40 years ago. While being a part of scholarly community and academic university education, it has both internally and also externally undergone several changes and developments. Finnish universities and faculties of education are autonomous in providing research-based teacher education, and they follow the qualification requirements and formal guidelines for university degrees in teacher education. All student teachers complete a five-year research-intensive master’s degree in order to receive a formal teacher qualification. They are educated by academic teacher educators who are active researchers in teacher education. Teacher education is highly appreciated, the entrance is highly competitive and only the best applicants are selected to study in teacher education programs. Although Finnish teacher education has its unique characteristics, it has always been in interaction with international research and educational policy trends related to teacher education. During its existence, it has experienced the influences of practice turn, research turn and quite recently perhaps the first waves of accountability turn (cf. Cochran-Smith, M. (2016). Foreword. In G. Beauchamp, L. Clarke, C. Daly, M. Hulme, A. Jephcote, G.M., Kennedy, I. Menter, T. Murray, T. Mutton, T. O’Doherty & G. Peiser (Eds), Teacher Education in times of change– Responding to challenges across the UK and Ireland (pp. x-xiii). Policy Press.), and they have been realized in a specific way in Finnish teacher education and educational policy context. This chapter explores the development of Finnish teacher education, strengths, challenges, and research through these internationally identified “turns” as broader theoretical framing lenses.

A. Toom (B) Centre for University Teaching and Learning, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland e-mail: [email protected] J. Husu Faculty of Education, University of Turku, Turku, Finland e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 D. Mayer (ed.), Teacher Education Policy and Research, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3775-9_6

73

74

A. Toom and J. Husu

Introduction Finnish academic teacher education has been the focus of interest of policy makers, researchers, and practitioners before and especially after being placed to the university context after a political decision over 40 years ago. The national reform in basic education was implemented from the start of the 1970s and implied one comprehensive school and the curriculum for all primary and secondary students throughout the country. The reform in basic education was followed by the reform in teacher education in the late 1970s, and the academization of Finnish primary teacher education started in 1979. The reasons behind moving Finnish teacher education to the universities were many. There was a need to raise the level of teacher education, to take into account the needs of the new comprehensive school, and to promote, but also benefit from, the general national appreciation of education in Finland. While the decision was largely political, it had several consequences during the following decades. Teacher profession has become very popular in Finland, Finnish school system has developed in many different ways, and research-based Finnish teacher education has consolidated its status and has also received a wide international appreciation. Somewhat shared understanding is that these “right” decisions made in Finnish teacher education have contributed to the quality of Finnish basic education and the success of Finnish pupils in the several PISA measurements (Välijärvi na Sulkunen 2016). However, while the developments have been designed and decided in Finland from the specific and characteristic needs of Finnish society and Finnish educational system, it is evident that those turns have also been influenced by the shared international trends and developments. We argue that the turns in Finnish teacher education have emerged as repeated waves and have been intertwined with each other in a variety of ways. While the practice turn dominated Finnish teacher education seminars before the academisation of teacher education, Finnish teacher training school system has been a key component of Finnish teacher education. Also, and throughout the developments, these two poles reflect the theory–practice gap emphasized especially in the 1990s in Finnish teacher education context. The major “research turn” in Finnish teacher education was the placement of teacher education in the university context. This development was intensified by the stance of inquiring teacher in the 1990s, the aggregation of research outputs and outcomes in the 2000s, as well as the increase of doctoral studies in teacher education departments. During the last decade, the “accountability turn” has taken shape through various administratively initiated teacher education development projects, which have mainly been related to the teacher education curricula both nationally and internationally. Also, the establishment of the national Teacher Education Forum in 2016 can be seen as a sign of the accountability turn in teacher education. These have been conducted in Finnish way—through shared negotiations and collegial collaboration. In this chapter, we present certain key characteristics of Finnish teacher education, its major developmental lines, and also outline some historical trajectories. We analyse the developments in Finnish teacher education through the identified practice,

6 Analyzing Practice, Research, and Accountability …

75

research, and accountability lenses or “turns” in relation to the international literature. We aim to show their unique characteristics in detail, and also briefly discuss the next possible developments in Finnish teacher education in terms of these turns.

Finnish Teacher Education: Key Characteristics In Finland, teacher education takes place in the Departments of Teacher Education in the Faculties of Education in the respective research universities. There are altogether ten teacher education units in eight universities in which teachers are educated. All teachers—kindergarten, primary, special education, and subject teachers—are educated in these university departments. Primary school teacher education was placed to universities in 1979 through a political decision soon after the reform of Finnish comprehensive schools. In this move, Finnish teacher education received a similar status as all other disciplines in the universities. While receiving the higher status, it also brought the responsibilities to follow the same broad principles in teacher education as in education in all other disciplines. In the universities, teacher education departments follow the Government Decree on University Degrees, they are autonomous in deciding and organizing the teacher education, and they need to guarantee that they take the Decree on Qualification Requirements for Teaching staff into account in their teacher education curricula and studies. Development of teacher education is based on empirical evidence and teacher educators’ research they conduct in teacher education. Teacher educators—full professors and senior lecturers—are researchers who lead research projects, publish in the international journals, supervise doctoral and master students, and do research-based development in teacher education. Universities provide research-intensive and academic contexts for teacher education. University education in different disciplines and in teacher education is researchbased, and students learn about research results, learn to do research in their own field, and learn an inquiring stance towards their own practical profession during their studies. The student teachers normally complete their degree in teacher education (300 ECTS, European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System, European Commission 2017) in five years. It includes major subject studies in educational sciences (140 ECTS), compulsory multidisciplinary studies in subjects taught in comprehensive school (60 ECTS), optional studies including optional minor subject (75 ECTS) and orientation studies (25 ECTS). The major subject studies include bachelor thesis (in the third study year) and master thesis (in the fourth or fifth study year). Student teachers complete three teaching practicums during their studies. An integrated practicum during the first study year, a multidisciplinary practicum (12 ECTS) in university teacher training schools during the third study year and advanced practicum (8 ECTS) during the fourth or fifth study year in the municipal field school. Teacher training school system is a unique characteristic of Finnish teacher education, and since 1970s when teacher education was placed into university context, the teacher training schools have administratively been part of the universities. The

76

A. Toom and J. Husu

schools provide education for neighbourhood children similarly to regular Finnish schools. In addition, their special responsibility is to organize teaching practicums for student teachers, provide supervision for student teachers during the practicums, and develop these in close collaboration with the Departments of Teacher Education. University schools participate in the teacher education curriculum work and develop teaching practice and supervision in line with the needs of teacher education institutions. Teaching practice periods and their organization as a part of the schools’ activities characterize university schools and differentiate them from regular schools. The schools follow Finnish National Core Curricula as all the other schools, and teacher candidates teach a significant part of the lessons at schools. Throughout the practicums, student teachers are supervised and supported by the teachers in teacher training schools. Besides supervision, the university schools and teachers in them are intended to be active in research, professional development, and in-service teacher education. Teachers at teacher training schools are the ones who actually make real Finnish research-based teacher education curriculum, and build the links between research and practice. Their role in supporting student teacher learning to become qualified teachers is crucial in this process.

Turns in Teacher Education: Practice, Research, and Accountability Teacher education has always been a focus of interest and actions among educational policy makers, and this can be seen in the various reforms that have been conducted in teacher education internationally but also in Finland. For example, the discussions concerning the context, curriculum, qualifications, length, regulation and funding can be found all over the Western world (Cochran-Smith 2004; Menter 2016). In Finland, the broad reform in teacher education has been made in 1970s, when teacher education was completely moved to the university context and to their faculties of education. The reform in teacher education was related to the extensive reform in Finnish basic education, in which a same comprehensive school system with the same curriculum, resources and teacher qualifications was established for all children throughout Finland. After the 1970s, Finnish teacher education has experienced mainly reforms related to harmonization of degrees and curricula in teacher education in Finland (KATU-project 1976–78), or in relation to Bologna process on European Union level (VOKKE 2004). In the international comparison, these changes and reforms are relatively typical. They are—in one way or another—related to the broader changes and regulations of the educational system as a whole. International research in and on teacher education has identified certain broad trends or turns that emerge in teacher education. These are called as “the practice turn”, the research or university turn”, and “the accountability turn” (Cochran-Smith 2016). In principle, the turns describe the facets that are all central and important

6 Analyzing Practice, Research, and Accountability …

77

aspects in teacher education. The facets are essential in how they become realized and regulated in teacher education and by whom, and in what kind of balance they are in relation to each other.

The Practice Turn in Finnish Teacher Education Before the broad primary teacher education reform in Finland in 1979, teachers were educated in the three-year seminars and their education was mostly practical. Thus, one can say that everything started from the “practice turn”. Teacher candidates had to manage the school curriculum and its’ contents, and study educational studies, languages, and a broad variety of arts studies. They had to be exemplary and moral in their character and behaviour. The starting point for Finnish teacher education was practically emphasized, and these trends can still be found in the history of Finnish teacher education. Although teacher education has been in the universities for over 40 years, and all Finnish Departments of Teacher Education have the University Teacher Training Schools, there is an ongoing discussion about the relevance and amount of the student teachers’ school experience and relationships with the schools during teacher education. In Finnish teacher education, the amount of the teaching practice or the intensity of collaboration with the schools during teacher education are not regulated, but they are decided in the Departments of Teacher Education and in the curriculum committees in collaboration with the University Teacher Training Schools (cf. Murray 2016; Reid 2011). The “practice turn” takes many shapes in academic Finnish teacher education, and a permanent question has been to find the meaningful solution for the practical experience of the teacher’s work for the student teachers. Student teachers emphasise the importance of the practice studies in teacher education (Saariaho et al. 2018). They perceive that they receive confirmation and confidence for their professional choice to become teachers when they succeed in the practice of teaching. The challenges of the practice turn and the solutions related to it are often considered and balanced with the identified theory–practice gap in teacher education (cf. Feiman-Nemser and Buchmann 1985; Ronfelt 2012; Wilson et al. 2001). The “practice turn” has taken different shapes in the history of Finnish teacher education, but the key question has always been as follows: How are student teachers able to implement the knowledge and skills learnt in teacher education in the practice of teaching? Student teachers do observation tasks in the classrooms, shadow the more experienced teachers, interview pupils in the authentic school settings, and organize after school activities for the pupils. The amount of student teachers’ teaching practice days has varied during the decades, and they have had more or less teaching practice in their teacher education curriculum. Adding or decreasing the number of practice days as such is not regarded essential, but rather, what is done and how during the practice days is crucial (DarlingHammond et al. 2005; Payne and Zeichner 2017; Ronfeldt and Reininger 2012; Tatto 2015).

78

A. Toom and J. Husu

Despite the variation in the practice days and practical experience, the first key principle in Finnish teacher education has been to build and maintain the link between theory and practice throughout the teacher education studies to make sure that the theoretical studies do not remain separate from the practice of teaching. The second key principle related to “practice turn” in Finnish teacher education has always been to educate the student teachers as pedagogically thinking teachers, who are able to conceptualise practice of teaching, understand it comprehensively and approach it in an inquiring manner (Husu 2002; Kansanen et al. 2000; Toom et al. 2010). The third key principle related to “practice turn” in Finnish teacher education is the engagement in research, meaning that student teachers can collect the data for their bachelor or master thesis from the school while doing their teaching practice, and thus, concretely perceive the links between the theory and practice. The concerns related to the “practice” of schools have varied during the decades, and currently they are related to the capabilities in responding to the needs of diverse pupils, increasing inequality in schools, and supporting pupil learning in a meaningful way (Kosunen 2016; Seppänen et al. 2015).

The University/Research Turn in Finnish Teacher Education In 1970s, there was a clear “university or research turn” in Finnish teacher education, when teacher education was moved to the university through a political decision. It was also decided that all primary and secondary teachers needed to have master’s degree and complete master’s thesis in order to receive a formal teacher qualification and license to teach. Since the 1970s, the role of university has been really strong and unquestioned in Finnish teacher education, and the “research turn” has strengthened—broadened and deepened—during the years in the university. In Finland, teacher education is organized only at the universities. The curriculum of teacher education follows the general regulations set for the university level bachelor degrees (180 ECTS) and master degrees (120 ECTS): general studies, major subject, minor subjects, practicums, bachelor thesis and master’s thesis. The academic circumstances including lectures, seminars and small group activities from the frame for teacher education studies. The curriculum has developed significantly since the early years of teacher education in the university, and the research-based understanding of the organizing theme, aims, and pedagogies of teacher education has developed (Brew 2003, 2006; Cochran-Smith and Lytle 2009; Elen et al. 2007; Kansanen et al. 2000; Mena 2017; Toom et al. 2010). In the beginning, the curriculum was more or less technical, and it has gradually become more cultivated and more relevant for the student teachers learning to become teachers due to the research conducted on the student–teacher learning and the relevance of the teacher education pedagogies for their learning. During the forty years, many reforms in line with the international developments of teacher education have been implemented (Tatto and Pippin 2017). The “research turn” in Finnish teacher education has deepened, and the understanding of the research-based teacher education program has broadened and

6 Analyzing Practice, Research, and Accountability …

79

developed further systemically on institutional, curricular, and teacher–educator— student–teacher levels (Kansanen et al. 2000; Heikkinen et al. 2015; DarlingHammond 2016; Westbury et al. 2005) during the 40 years of academic teacher education. The idea of pedagogically thinking teacher as a key aim (Husu 2002; Kansanen et al. 2000) was developed and integrated to the curriculum of Finnish teacher education. The curricular structure in teacher education follows the scientific structure of the educational sciences and allows student–teacher learning of both scientific and practical knowledge and skills relevant in teacher’s work. The aim is that student teachers learn key knowledge, skills, and attitudes for their work as teachers (Evens et al. 2018; Skourdoumbis 2019; Soini et al. 2015; Toom 2017; Toom et al. 2017). The learning contents are defined based on the empirical research evidence on teacher’s key knowledge and skills (Blömeke and Kaiser 2017; Brown 2017) and understanding for teacher learning and professional development (Clandinin and Husu 2017). Finnish teacher education curriculum in relation to the international curricula (Kansanen et al. 2014), teacher educators’ perspectives on teacher education (Krokfors et al. 2011), and student–teacher learning in teacher education (Soini et al. 2015; Toom et al. 2017) have been investigated extensively, and the results are utilized in the development of Finnish teacher education. The “research turn” touches also the requirements set for the teacher education staff: most of them have a PhD degree, they do research in schools and in teacher education in the research groups with their colleagues, publish internationally and supervise doctoral students in their field. The strong role of universities in Finnish teacher education is clearly related to the high status of teachers and teacher education in Finland, which is internationally unique. The research conducted at the universities produces evidence about the teacher education and school education, and thus, supports educating high-quality teachers and improving the capacity of education systems.

The Accountability Turn in Finnish Teacher Education In addition to the “practice turn” and the “university/research turn”, a third turn emerging in teacher education in developed countries is the “accountability turn”. It is related to the policies and practices that intend to reform and improve teacher education outside the institutions (Avalos 2017; Cochran-Smith 2016). In many countries, this means monitoring the inputs, processes, practices, and/or outcomes of teacher education institutions so that they would be approved and funded by the ministries of education. This has also led to the development of new standards, competencies, and auditing procedures that are applied for teacher education institutions that are willing to become accepted as the official teacher education provider. The “accountability turn” emerges relatively smoothly in Finnish teacher education context, and the general accountability measures for universities apply also for teacher education. In terms of education, teacher educators are accountable of the applicants to the teacher education, progress of studies, and number of completed degrees. In terms

80

A. Toom and J. Husu

of research, teacher educators are accountable for number and quality of publications, doctoral degrees, and competitive research funding. So far, teacher educators are not accountable for the graduating student teachers’ effectiveness, classroom performance, impact, or retention. The elements of accountability have emerged relatively smoothly in Finnish teacher education, and they often have had a reformative function. In 1976–78, the national KATU-project intended to increase coherence in the degrees in the field of educational sciences. In 2004, VOKKE-project focused on harmonizing Finnish teacher education degrees in line with the Bologna regulations in order to be more coherent nationally and aligned with the European frameworks. The National Teacher Education Forum established by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture in 2016 aimed at developing the continuous development of teachers, establishing a mentoring system, and increasing the collaboration between teacher education and schools in the development of pre-and in-service teacher education. All the activities are done collaboratively by negotiating, by co-creating the development strategy for Finnish teacher education and by providing extensive funding for the development projects that teacher education institutions themselves have planned. It is clear that accountability is a powerful policy tool for reforming teacher education (CochranSmith et al. 2017), but as the case of Finnish educational policy shows, the tone in how accountability is executed can be really, even radically, different. In Finland, the emphasis has always been in the consensus, collaboration, and shared development.

Discussion Academic research-based teacher education has evolved over forty years in Finland and is nowadays highly positioned in our universities. There are historical, cultural, political, and practical reasons, but during the last decades also a growing body of research-initiated reasons behind the developments conducted in teacher education (Husu and Clandinin 2019). Naturally, and due to the intensive international interaction and collaboration of researchers in teacher education, many international trends have long influenced the development of Finnish teacher education. As elaborated in the article, the emergence of the international trends or “turns” has been obvious, and they have had their unique flavour in Finland. The recent recommendations concerning the next steps for the Teacher Education Forum launched by the evaluation group (Niemi et al. 2018) are primarily related to the accountability in teacher education, which is demanding to identify in Finnish context. In order to continue the reform, the evaluation group suggests to ensure systematic monitoring for teacher education covering responsibilities, scheduled goals, and their observation on the level of municipalities, schools, and teachers. They suggest national structure to support the change of teacher education and guarantee the reform of pre- and in-service teacher education throughout the teacher career. They also encourage to guarantee the implementation of the new pedagogical models created in the development projects. The report sums up by recommending to

6 Analyzing Practice, Research, and Accountability …

81

make major reforms in teacher education on macro-level in order to renew the preand in-service teacher education, and to make teacher education institutions fully responsible of the recommended change agenda (Niemi et al. 2018). The recommendations have a positive tone and intention, and the areas of development they are focusing on have been identified and agreed among the teacher educators. The recommendations are ambitious, and at the same time, the way they are presented is relatively new in Finland. They raise questions, and perhaps also concerns, of the scope of freedom and autonomy of Finnish teacher education and universities. The possible ‘dangerousness’ of this evolving accountability turn means it needs careful study and reflection to understand what we are carrying along with us as we walk in this direction. Armed with our awareness and tensions of Finnish teacher education context at the universities, we see that the three turns require us to work with their competing lines that we have presented as teacher education as ‘practice’, ‘research’, and ‘accountability’. Instead of looking at those early phases as passed, they need to be explicitly brought back together in synthesis, and in full recognition of the limitations and affordances of each of them, in order to move forward our scholarship of teacher education.

References Avalos, B. (2017). The evolving social and political contexts of teacher education. In D. J. Clandinin & J. Husu (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of research on teacher education (pp. 1081–1083). Sage Publications. Blömeke, S., & Kaiser, G. (2017). Understanding the development of teachers’ professional competencies as personally, situationally and socially determined. In D. J. Clandinin & J. Husu (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of research on teacher education (pp. 783–802). Sage Publications. Brew, A. (2003). Teaching and research: New relationships and implications for inquiry-based teaching and learning in higher education. Higher Education Research and Development, 22, 3–18. Brew, A. (2006). Learning to develop the relationship between research and teaching at an institutional level. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 107, 11–22. Brown, G. (2017). What we know we don’t know in teacher education. In D. J. Clandinin & J. Husu (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of research on teacher education (pp. 123–138). Sage Publications. Clandinin, D. J., & Husu, J. (Eds.). (2017). The SAGE handbook of research on teacher education. Volumes 1 & 2. Sage Publications. Cochran-Smith, M. (2004). The problem of teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 55(4), 295–299. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487104268057 Cochran-Smith, M. (2016). Foreword. In G. Beauchamp, L. Clarke, C. Daly, M. Hulme, A. Jephcote, G.M., Kennedy, I. Menter, T. Murray, T. Mutton, T. O’Doherty & G. Peiser (Eds), Teacher Education in times of change–Responding to challenges across the UK & Ireland (pp. x-xiii). Policy Press. Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. L. (2009). Inquiry as stance, practitioner research for the next generation. Teachers College Press. Darling-Hammond, L. (2016). Research on teaching and teacher education and its influences on policy and practice. Educational Researcher, 45(2), 83–91.

82

A. Toom and J. Husu

Darling-Hammond, L., Holtzman, D. J., Gatlin, S. J., & Heilig, J. V. (2005). Does teacher preparation matter? Evidence about teacher certification, Teach for America, and teacher effectiveness. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 13, 1–47. Elen, J., Lindblom-Ylänne, S., & Clement, M. (2007). Faculty development in research-intensive universities: The role of academics’ conceptions on the relationship between research and teaching. International Journal for Academic Development, 12, 123–139. Evens, M., Elen, J., Larmuseau, C., & Depaepe, F. (2018). Promoting the development of teacher professional knowledge: Integrating content and pedagogy in teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 75, 244–258. Feiman-Nemser, S., & Buchmann, M. (1985). Pitfalls of experience in teacher education. Teachers College Record, 87, 49–65. Heikkinen, H. L. T., Aho, J. & (2015). Ope (ei) saa oppia. Opettajankoulutuksen jatkumon kehittäminen. Jyväskylä: Jyväskylän yliopisto, Koulutuksen tutkimuslaitos. Husu, J. (2002). Representing the practice of teachers’ pedagogical knowing. Turku: Finnish Research Association. Husu, J. & Clandinin, D. J. (2019). Opening possibilities for research in teacher educators’ learning. In J. Mena, A. Garcia-Valcárel & F. G. Penalvo (Eds.), Teachers professional development in global contexts: Insights from teacher education (pp. 3–22). Leiden/Boston: Brill Sense. Kansanen, P. (2007). Research-based teacher education. In R. Jakku-Sihvonen & H. Niemi (Eds), Education as a societal contributor. Reflections by Finnish educationalists (pp. 131–146). Peter Lang. Kansanen, P. (2014). Teaching as a Master’s level profession in Finland: Theoretical reflections and practical solutions. In O. McNamara, J. Murray & M. Jones (Eds.), Workplace learning in teacher education. International practice and policy (pp. 279–292). Dordrecht: Springer. Kansanen, P., Tirri, K., Meri, M., Krokfors, L., Husu, J., & Jyrhämä, R. (2000). Teachers’ pedagogical thinking: Theoretical landscapes, practical challenges. Peter Lang. Kosunen, S. (2016). Families and the social space of school choice in urban Finland. University of Helsinki, Institute of Behavioural Sciences, Studies in Educational Sciences 267. Krokfors, L., Kynäslahti, H., Stenberg, K., Toom, A., Maaranen, K., Jyrhämä, R., Byman, R., & Kansanen, P. (2011). Investigating Finnish teacher educators’ views on research-based teacher education. Teaching Education, 22(1), 1–13. Menter, I. (2016). Introduction. In G. Beauchamp, L. Clarke, C. Daly, M. Hulme, A. Jephcote, G. M. Kennedy, I. Menter, T. Murray, T. Mutton, T. O’Doherty & G. Peiser (Eds), Teacher Education in times of change–Responding to challenges across the UK & Ireland (p. 3). Policy Press. www. scde.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Report-Ian-Menter-2017-05-25.pdf Mena, J. (2017). Learning through pedagogies in teacher education. In D. J. Clandinin & J. Husu (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of research on teacher education (pp. 509–512). Sage Publications. Murray, J. (2016). Teacher education and higher education. In G. Beauchamp, L. Clarke, C. Daly, M. Hulme, A. Jephcote, G. M. Kennedy, I. Menter, T. Murray, T. Mutton, T. O’Doherty & G. Peiser (Eds), Teacher Education in times of change – Responding to challenges across the UK & Ireland (pp.179–200). Policy Press. Niemi, H., Erma, T., Lipponen, L., Pietilä, M., Rintala, R., Ruokamo, H., Saarivirta, T., Moitus, S., Frsik, T., Stylman, V., & Huhtanen, M. (2018). Maailman parhaiksi opettajiksi: Vuosina 2016– 2018 toimineen Opettajankoulutusfoorumin arviointi [The world’s most competent teachers – Evaluation of the Teacher Education Forum in 2016–2018] Kansallinen koulutuksen arviointikeskus. Julkaisut, 27, 2018. Payne, K., & Zeichner, K. (2017). Multiple voices and participants in teacher education. In D. J. Clandinin & J. Husu (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of research on teacher education (pp. 1101– 1116). Sage Publications. Reid, J. A. (2011). A practice turn for teacher education? Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 39(4), 293–310.

6 Analyzing Practice, Research, and Accountability …

83

Ronfelt, M. (2012). Where should student teachers learn to teach? Effects of field placement school characteristics on teacher retention and effectiveness. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 34, 3–26. Ronfelt, M., & Reininger, M. (2012). More or better student teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 28(8), 1091–1106. Saariaho, E., Anttila, H., Toom, A., Pietarinen, J., Soini, T., & Pyhältö, K. (2018). Student teachers’ emotional landscapes in self- and co-regulated learning. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 24(5), 538–558. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2018.1430565 Seppänen, P., Kalalahti, M., Rinne, R. & Simola, H. (Eds.) (2015). Lohkoutuva peruskoulu. Perheiden kouluvalinnat, yhteiskuntaluokat ja koulutuspolitiikka. Turku: Suomen Kasvatustieteellinen seura. Skourdoumbis, A. (2019). Theorising teacher performance dispositions in an age of audit. British Educational Research Journal, 45(1), 5–20. Soini, T., Pietarinen, J., Toom, A., & Pyhältö, K. (2015). What contributes to first year student teachers’ sense of professional agency in the classroom? Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 21(6), 641–659. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2015.1044326 Tatto, . (2015). The role of research in the policy and practice of quality teacher education: An international review. Oxford Review of Education, 41, 171–201. Tatto, M., & Pippin, J. (2017). The quest for quality and the rise of accountability systems in teacher education. In D. J. Clandinin & J. Husu (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of research on teacher education (pp. 68–89). Sage Publications. Toom, A. (2017). Teachers’ professional and pedagogical competencies: A complex divide between teacher work, teacher knowledge and teacher education. In D. J. Clandinin & J. Husu (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of research on teacher education (pp. 803–819). Sage Publications. Toom, A., Kynäslahti, H., Krokfors, L., Jyrhämä, R., Byman, R., Stenberg, K., Maaranen, K., & Kansanen, P. (2010). Experiences of a research-based approach to teacher education: Suggestions for future policies. European Journal of Education, 45(2), 331–344. Toom, A., Pietarinen, J., Soini, T., & Pyhältö, K. (2017). How does the learning environment in teacher education cultivate first year student teachers’ sense of professional agency in the professional community? Teaching and Teacher Education, 63, 126–136. https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.tate.2016.12.013 Välijärvi, J., & Sulkunen, S. (2016). Finnish school in international comparison. In H. Niemi, A. Toom, & A. Kallioniemi (Eds.), Miracle of Education: The Principles and Practices of Teaching and Learning in Finnish Schools (pp. 3–22). Sense Publishers. Westbury, I., Hansen, S.-E., Kansanen, P., & Björkvist, O. (2005). Teacher education for researchbased practice in expanded roles: Finland’s experience. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 49(5), 475–485. Wilson, S., Floden, R., & Ferrini-Mundy, J. (Eds.). (2001). Teacher preparation research: Current knowledge, gaps, and recommendations. Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy.

Auli Toom PhD, Full Professor of Higher Education works as the Director of the Centre for University Teaching and Learning at the Faculty of Educa-tional Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland. She is the President of the Finnish Educational Research Association (FERA). Toom is also the fellow of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. Her main research areas are teacher knowing, teacher agency and teacher education and learning and teaching of academic generic competencies in higher education. Jukka Husu PhD, Full Professor of Teaching and Teacher Education works as a Dean of the Faculty of Educational Sciences at the University of Turku, Finland. His research focuses on teachers’ pedagogical and practical knowledge, reflection, and ethical judgement in teaching. Together with Jean D. Clandinin, he is a co-editor of The SAGE Handbook of the Research of Teacher Education Volumes 1 & 2 (2017).

Chapter 7

Preparing High Quality Teacher Education Graduates in an Era of Unprecedented Uncertainties: The Case of Hong Kong Sylvia Y. F. Tang

and May M. H. Cheng

Abstract Teaching has become increasingly challenging as a result of high expectations and demands placed on education systems. With an overview of the pathways to become a teacher and the teacher policy context in Hong Kong, this chapter presents the case of an undergraduate ITE programme offered by the Education University of Hong Kong. The ITE programme aims at preparing high quality ITE graduates with the key attributes of Professional Excellence, Ethical Responsibility and Innovation. The heightened expectations and demands placed on teachers in Hong Kong have been exacerbated by the enormous difficulties at the societal level since 2019. The outbreak of the COVID-pandemic and the major socio-political issues have generated unprecedented uncertainties in society at large and the education community. The chapter examines how these extraordinary circumstances place novel demands on teachers’ professional competence, and hence requiring new professional knowledge. The creation of hybrid spaces in ITE and communicative safe spaces is needed to foster the co-construction of new professional knowledge. The chapter ends by arguing that professional competence coupled with teacher buoyancy can likely enhance the potential for ITE graduates to stand tall against immense everyday challenges of beginning teaching in an era of unprecedented uncertainties.

Introduction Teaching has become increasingly challenging as a result of high expectations and demands placed on education systems and teachers. It is important for initial teacher education (ITE) to prepare professionally competent teachers. With an overview of the pathways to become a teacher and the teacher policy context in Hong Kong, this chapter presents the case of an undergraduate ITE programme offered by the S. Y. F. Tang (B) · M. M. H. Cheng The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China e-mail: [email protected] M. M. H. Cheng e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 D. Mayer (ed.), Teacher Education Policy and Research, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3775-9_7

85

86

S. Y. F. Tang and M. M. H. Cheng

Education University of Hong Kong. The ITE programme has recently undergone a curriculum reform, and has the aim of preparing high quality ITE graduates who face immense challenges arising from the demands of the teaching job. The heightened expectations and demands placed on teachers in Hong Kong have been exacerbated by the enormous difficulties and uncertainties at the societal level since 2019. Major socio-political issues and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic have generated unprecedented uncertainties in society at large and in the education community in particular. The chapter will examine how these extraordinary circumstances place novel demands on teachers’ professional competence, hence requiring new professional knowledge. Implications for ITE and the importance of coupling professional competence with teacher buoyancy are discussed.

Pathways to Becoming Kindergarten, Primary and Secondary School Teachers in Hong Kong University-based ITE prevails in Hong Kong. ITE programmes for primary and secondary school teachers are run by universities. Universities and post-secondary institutions are the providers of ITE programmes that prepare kindergarten teachers. Graduates from recognized ITE programmes obtain the Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). The teacher registration system is administered by the Education Bureau of the Hong Kong Government, and involves entry into teaching. University-based ITE programmes are mainly run according to the ‘concurrent’ and ‘consecutive’ models. The ‘concurrent’ model runs at the sub-degree and undergraduate levels for preparing teachers of different sectors. The ‘consecutive’ model admits bachelor degree graduates to a Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) programme. The ITE programmes are offered in full-time and part-time modes. The quality assurance of the ITE programmes is both through internal mechanisms in the university / teacher education provider and in the context of the quality audit exercises of the Quality Assurance Council of the University Grants Committee (UGC).

Full-Time ITE Programmes Full-time ITE programmes are offered for secondary school graduates and university graduates who aspire to become teachers. The various pathways to become a teacher include: ● Secondary school graduates who aspire to become primary and secondary school teachers can study a five-year full-time undergraduate ITE programme (either BEd or Double Degree) which takes one more year of study compared to other undergraduate programmes.

7 Preparing High Quality Teacher Education Graduates …

87

Table 7.1 Full-time ITE programmes Programme

Duration Early Primary Secondary Professional Special childhood education education and educational education vocational needs education

Higher Diploma (HD)

2 years

X

Bachelor of Education (BEd)

5 years

X

Double Degree: BEd & BA, BEd & BSc, BEd & BSocSc

5 years

1 year Postgradudate Diploma/Certificate in Education (PGDE/PGCE)

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

● Five-year full-time undergraduate (BEd) and two-year full-time sub-degree (Higher Diploma) ITE programmes are offered for those who aspire to become kindergarten teachers. ● University graduates of non-ITE programmes who want to become teachers can study a Postgraduate Diploma of Education (PGDE) programme. Table 7.1 shows the different types of full-time ITE programmes for the preparation of teachers of different sectors in Hong Kong.

Part-Time ITE Programmes In Hong Kong, some subject teachers at the primary and secondary levels are not required to be trained before they enter into teaching. Some individuals enter into teaching with positions such as teaching assistants, untrained teachers, etc. The current situation is that a minority of teachers possess academic qualifications at nongraduate level. Table 7.2 shows the existence of untrained teachers as well as trained and untrained teachers with non-university graduate qualifications in kindergartens, primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong. Part-time ITE programmes are offered for untrained teachers, employees (e.g. teaching assistants) in kindergartens, primary and secondary schools to obtain QTS. Table 7.3 shows the various types of part-time ITE programmes for the preparation of teachers of different sectors in Hong Kong. Two-year part-time PGDE programmes are offered for university graduates who work in schools to undergo professional training and obtain QTS. Part-time BEd programmes are offered for obtaining QTS status and professional upgrading.

88

S. Y. F. Tang and M. M. H. Cheng

Table 7.2 Number of teachers in kindergartens, primary and secondary day schools by academic qualification and training status in 2019 (Census and Statistics Department 2020) Kindergarten teachers

Primary teachers

Secondary teachers

Trained

8 398

26 324

27 811

Untrained

336

1 142

1 266

Trained

5 574

468

211

Untrained

81

53

16

Total

14 389

27 987

29 304

Academic qualification / Training status University graduate or equivalent

Non-university graduate

Table 7.3 Part-time ITE programmes Programme

Duration

Early Childhood Education

Bachelor of Education (BEd)

3 years

X*

Bachelor of Education (BEd)

4 years

X*

Postgradudate Diploma / Certificate in Education (PGDE/PGCE)

2 years

X

* Candidates

Primary Education

X

Secondary Education

X

Professional and Vocational Education

Special Educational Needs

X

X

X

entering this programme have attained QTS

Teacher Policy Context: T-Standard+ and Training Requirements for Newly-Joined Teachers In the policy context, two major teacher policy measures have been initiated to take forward the enhancement of teacher professional development and hence the quality of the teaching force in Hong Kong. First, the T-standard+ serves as a set of expectations and goals for the teachers and teacher education institutions. Second, mandatory training / professional development for teachers is introduced. With the advice given by the Committee on Professional Development of Teachers and Principals (COTAP), a set of teaching standards has been developed as an institutionalized form of professional competence. On the basis of the Teacher Competencies Framework formulated by its predecessor (the ACTEQ) in 2003, the

7 Preparing High Quality Teacher Education Graduates …

89

COTAP launched the T-standard+ in September, 2018 (COTAP 2018). A studentcentred approach was adopted in formulating the T-standard+ , identifying the essential knowledge, skills and attitudes required of teachers for nurturing students’ allround development and preparing them for the challenges of the twenty-first century. In formulating the T-standard + , the COTAP conceives of teachers’ major roles as Caring cultivators of all-round growth, Inspirational co-constructors of knowledge, and Committed role models of professionalism in the Professional Standards for Teachers. Stage descriptors at Threshold, Competent, and Distinguished levels portray different stages of teachers’ professional growth. Similarly, a set of Professional Standards for Principals is formulated under the T-standard+ . The visions and missions under the teacher roles, as defined by the T-standard+ , signify the increasing demands of the teaching job and hence heightened expectations of teachers’ professional competence. Unlike the use of teaching standards for teachers in initial and continuing licensure for teachers in the Anglophone world, the T-standard+ has been formulated as a reference / development tool for teachers and teacher education institutions rather than a regulatory mechanism for teacher registration. Though there is absence of a regulatory mechanism in relation to teaching standards for teacher registration, mandatory training / professional development for teachers is introduced. In 2019, the Government promulgated teacher policy measures enhancing the career structure of teachers, namely moving towards an all-graduate teaching force and establishing a professional ladder for primary and secondary teachers (Hong Kong Education Bureau 2019). The Education Bureau (2020a) put forward measures for providing systematic and focused professional development opportunities for teachers. Starting from the 2020–21 school year, newly joined primary and secondary teachers are required to participate in the Training Programme for Newly-joined Teachers within the first three years of service. Beginning teachers are required to complete 30 hours of core training run by the Education Bureau on teachers’ professional roles, values and conduct, as well as the latest developments in education policy issues. Besides, they need to engage in not less than 60 hours of elective training based on individual professional development needs.

Preparing High Quality ITE Graduates: The Case of an Undergraduate ITE Programme in the EdUHK The Education University of Hong Kong (the EdUHK) is one of the publicly-funded universities which offer ITE programmes for preparing kindergarten, primary and secondary teachers. In the five-year undergraduate ITE programme, the curriculum comprises Major (Academic Subject) courses, Major (Pedagogy) courses, Education Studies courses, Minor/Elective courses, the Undergraduate Core Curriculum (e.g. courses in the General Education domain), and Field Experience.

90

S. Y. F. Tang and M. M. H. Cheng

The undergraduate ITE programme went through a curriculum review, resulting in a revamped five-year ITE programme introduced for the student cohort entering the university in September 2019 (EdUHK, 2019). The revamped programme has the aim of preparing high quality ITE graduates with the key attributes of Professional Excellence, Ethical Responsibility and Innovation, i.e. ‘PEER & I’. The revamped undergraduate ITE curriculum includes an enhanced Field Experience component, with options for international field experience, promotes interdisciplinary courses, introduces experiential learning courses, and encourages multiple format outputs in the final year project. The curriculum was designed with reference to local and international teacher education standards.

Professional Excellence Field Experience is an integral component of the undergraduate ITE programme in which student teachers develop professional competence. In the curriculum review, the revision of Field Experience is in line with Zeichner’s (2014) call for strengthening the ‘clinical component’ and providing a more ‘connected and school-based’ form of teacher education. With reference to the T-standard+ (COTAP 2018), the Field Experience Intended Learning Outcomes (FEILOs) are formulated, which drives the design of the three components of Field Experience, namely Field Experience Foundation Course, Block Practice and Field Experience Professional Learning Portfolio Courses. The Field Experience Foundation Course was introduced in the second year of the programme, and aims to facilitate the development of students’ pedagogical skills, professional learning, an early understanding of the knowledge of context, and adaptation to the changing role from a student to a teacher (Zeichner 2010; Zeichner and Payne 2013). Block Practice takes place from the third year of study onwards, and consists of two blocks of ITE fieldwork in which student teachers engage in the practice of teaching in placement schools. Alongside Block Practice, student teachers engage in in-depth reflection on the theory–practice link in their professional learning in the Field Experience Professional Learning Portfolio Courses. These new components of Field Experience are significant to the development of ITE graduates’ professional competence. We shall discuss in the next section how these components are formulated to cultivate ethical responsibility for prospective teachers. Niemi and Nevgi’s (2014) study in Finland shows that student teachers’ research studies in ITE have clear predictive value in terms of their professional competence, and mutually reinforce active learning, which facilitates the student teachers’ growth in professional competence. The revamped undergraduate ITE programme in the EdUHK recognizes research into teaching (Furlong et al. 2014; Grossman 2010) as an important competence for teachers, and provides the opportunity for student teachers to conduct different forms of research or inquiry into practice as they conduct their final year project which takes on two different forms / options. Students can

7 Preparing High Quality Teacher Education Graduates …

91

conduct an academic-oriented research project in their Honours Project or an action / practice-oriented inquiry in their Capstone Project. Zeichner (2010), Zeichner et al. (2015) and Mayer et al. (2017) advocate the creation of hybrid spaces in ITE to allow academic, school-based and communitybased knowledge to come together to provide a platform for student teachers’ access to a broad knowledge base from multiple sources. Tang et al. (2020) found that student teachers’ professional learning experiences in school and community settings contributed to the development of professional competence and broader educationrelated professional aspirations. In the General Education domain of the revamped undergraduate ITE programme, student teachers are required to undertake the Cocurricular and Service Learning Course and the Experiential Learning Course.

Ethical Responsibility Campbell (2000) calls for putting into practice ethical standards, and suggests two reasons for developing a code of practice in teaching. These reasons include reassuring the importance of ethical dimensions and responsibilities towards enhanced professionalism, and the contribution to an in-depth examination of ethics in teaching. There have been efforts to study the role of ethics in teacher education. For example, Jeder (2013) looked into teachers’ ethical responsibilities in the different types of curricula ranging from hidden to implemented curricula. Shapira-Lishchinsky (2011) suggested the development of ethical educational programmes for teachers which can ‘empower them to develop pluralistic attitudes and more complex moral understanding of the choices open to them’ (p. 655). In the revamped undergraduate ITE programme of the EdUHK, the objective of nurturing ethical decision-making among graduates is achieved through two major routes, namely the Field Experience, and the Positive and Values Education Strand in the General Education domain. Intended Learning Outcomes related to ethical decision-making have been set in these domains and courses. Two of the Field Experience Intended Learning Outcomes (FEILOs) emphasize moral values and ethical practices in school. ● FELO-4 Demonstrate an ability to act as a caring cultivator of students’ allround development with moral virtues, positive and ethical values and attitudes, multicultural awareness, and an entrepreneurial spirit. ● FELO-10 Reflect on and evaluate the process and outcomes of their own teaching, their roles as a model, a caring cultivator and a knowledge co-constructor, and their ethical practices in school for the purpose of continuous professional learning. To achieve these outcomes, the Field Experience Foundation Course which is offered in the second year of the programme aims to support student teachers to critically reflect on personal moral and ethical values and beliefs with reference to the professional roles and responsibilities of a teacher to establish a teacher identity. To achieve this aim, the course includes topics and activities such as the Code of

92

S. Y. F. Tang and M. M. H. Cheng

the Education Profession of Hong Kong, ethical decision-making in the role of a teacher, and a mentorship scheme where student teachers are engaged in schools with teachers or principals in shadowing or providing services to the schools. The assessment of the course echoes the theme and one of the tasks is to invite student teachers to provide an explanation for dealing with a given /simulated case requiring a teacher to struggle with professional judgement and ethical decision-making. Student teachers are required to complete a Field Experience and Professional Learning Portfolio. The Portfolio is an evidence-based reflection that supports students’ preparation for, learning from and reflection on their teaching practice before, during and after their block practice. In the final year, the following outcomes are expected from the ITE graduates: ● apply ethical principles in supporting students’ all-round development … ● reflect their role… with moral virtues, positive and ethical values and attitudes… Student teachers need to demonstrate their ability to recognize complex ethical issues in a school context, identify the ethical dilemma and related ethical dimension, identify alternatives and implications, explain reasons, evaluate their action, and consider perspectives of different stakeholders, etc. The portfolio also needs to include an evidence-based reflection on contribution to supporting students’ development of moral virtues, positive and ethical values and attitudes. In the General Education domain, one of the learning objectives is to nurture students to make good judgements and ethical decisions, based on values and standards which are sensible and reasonable. The following are examples of intended learning outcomes of three courses under the Positive and Values Education (PAVE) Strand in the General Education domain: ● People, the Biosphere and Conservation Ethic: think critically about controversies and the real-world challenges affecting humans, living things and the environment, and develop a sense of responsibility and a duty of care for people, living things and the environment. ● Meaning, Happiness and the Ethics of the Good Society: understand different ethical approaches to living a worthwhile life: the ethics of happiness; the ethics of the person; and the ethics of virtue. ● Want to be a Good Teacher? Exercising Teacher Professionalism: demonstrate an appreciation of the importance of the ethical code of the teaching profession.

Innovation In light of the rapid development in technology, the professional role of teachers has been re-defined as a learning designer who can harness the benefits of technological innovations to facilitate student learning. In a discussion on the contemporary teacher role, Kalantzis and Cope (2010) state that teachers are expected to be ‘purposeful learning designers’ and to be comfortable working in new multimodal, online social media spaces. Being innovative implies more than making use

7 Preparing High Quality Teacher Education Graduates …

93

of technology in teaching; teacher educators should emphasize innovative thinking (Lew 2010), ‘perception of novelty’ (Straub 2009, p. 626) as well as using ‘all the resources at their disposal’ (Davis et al. 2010, p. 10). With a definition covering more than using technology, a range of implications for teacher education are drawn. Davis et al. (2010) call for engaging student teachers in identifying the meaning of an innovative teacher, and developing effective practice through the integration of technology in facilitating student learning. Cheng and Szeto (2016) introduced the concept of teachers as leaders of innovation, and recommended enhancement of ITE programmes to prepare student teachers to take up this role. In the revamped undergraduate ITE programme of the EdUHK, equipping student teachers to make use of technology in their classroom teaching is one of the foci. With the recent development of the COVID-19 pandemic, the programme has stepped up efforts and reformulated the Information Technology Competency Requirements for the graduates. The importance of being professionally competent in delivering online lessons is to be reflected in the Requirement. In order to promote STEM education and encourage student teachers to be innovative in their own teaching, two new STEM-related minors have been developed and offered for the student teachers.

An Era of Unprecedented Uncertainties Whereas the revamped undergraduate ITE programme offered by the EdUHK prepares ITE graduates for the demands of the teaching job, the heightened expectations and demands placed on teachers in Hong Kong have been exacerbated by the enormous difficulties and uncertainties at the societal level since 2019. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020 and the major socio-political issues since mid-2019 have generated unprecedented uncertainties in society at large and in the education community.

The Outbreak of COVID-19 The outbreak and continued occurrence of COVID-19 since early 2020 has led to postponed public examination arrangements and prolonged class suspension of schools in Hong Kong. In the prolonged class suspension from February to June in the 2019–20 school year, schools adopted diversified modes of learning to support students’ learning at home to achieve the goal of ‘suspending classes without suspending learning’ (Hong Kong Education Bureau 2020d). e-Learning, including real-time online teaching, is one of the modes of learning during the class suspension period. Schools, teachers, students and parents face challenges such as the availability of digital devices and equipment, online resources, online learning and teaching strategies, student engagement with online learning, etc. The challenges are more acute for specific types of students and / or groups, e.g. students with

94

S. Y. F. Tang and M. M. H. Cheng

Special Educational Needs, cross-boundary students (students who have to travel to Hong Kong every day from nearby Mainland cities like Shenzhen), students from under-privileged backgrounds, ethnic minority students, etc. Resumption of face-to-face classes in schools has gradually taken place from late September in the 2020–21 school year. The Hong Kong Education Bureau (2020e) requires schools to put in anti-epidemic preventive measures for students to learn in a safe environment. In this new normal, face-to-face teaching takes place with teachers and students wearing masks, and in classrooms with space and seating arrangements for maintaining proper social distancing, and possible installation of partitions on tables. As the epidemic situation may fluctuate, schools need to be prepared to switch to half-day schooling or online learning from time to time when circumstances require. Class suspension for an extended period of time, changes in daily routine and learning mode, and reduced opportunities for social activities and going out, etc. have engendered students’ learning and emotional needs. Teachers need to provide support for students’ learning and emotional needs, be agile in flexibly deploying suitable modes of teaching, including e-learning during class suspension, and make adjustments in face-to-face teaching with class resumption in the new normal. In the case of the EdUHK, Field Experience is reorganized in view of this new normal in schools from 2020/21 onwards. Three modes of teaching are arranged with increasing sophistication in different phases of Field Experience: Phase I: Microteaching: simulated mode of teaching; Phase II: Virtual mode of teaching, online teaching in synchronous and / or asynchronous mode; Phase III: Face-to-face teaching in authentic classrooms in school. The arrangements aim to provide progressive learning-to-teach experience for student teachers’ development of competence in different modes of teaching while maximizing opportunities for face-to-face teaching. To prepare student teachers for online teaching, the EdUHK provides training via self-access online training materials and online workshops, e.g. An Easy Way to Produce Teaching Video Clips, Preparation for Quality Online Learning in Zoom Classes in Teaching Practices. Furthermore, an online platform (EdU Online Classes Platform, EOCP) has been developed to support the virtual mode of teaching, including facilitating student teachers’ online teaching in synchronous and / or asynchronous mode for schools.

Major Socio-Political Issues in Hong Kong The Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill movement has taken on different forms since mid-2019, ranging from peaceful rallies to violent confrontations between protestors and the police. The socio-political issues have turned Hong Kong into a polarized society with highly divided positions around late 2019 to mid-2020, with numerous conflicts within families, among friends and even among strangers (Ng 2020; Wong and Lee 2019). The political and social conflicts in the wider society

7 Preparing High Quality Teacher Education Graduates …

95

were manifested in the form of advocacy of class boycotts, students forming human chains to express political stance, etc., in universities and secondary schools. Among those arrested from June 2019 to May 2020 in relation to the social incidents, about 2,000 were students of post-secondary institutions, and 1,600 were aged under 18. Besides, about 10 staff of post-secondary institutions and about 100 staff or teachers of primary and secondary schools were arrested (Legislative Council 2020). To address public concerns about education arising in the aftermath of high-profile incidents of violence and social disorder, the Hong Kong Education Bureau (2020b) has put forward measures to set expectations for schools, students and teachers. Schools are requested to, ‘remind students ….. they should always put their own safety as the top priority, be considerate to themselves and family members who care about them, and must not participate in dangerous or unlawful activities. They should not participate in class boycotts, or take part in activities such as chanting slogans, forming human chains, and posting slogans or singing songs which contain political messages at schools for expressing political stance.’ ‘Teachers are students’ significant role models and their every word and deed (both inside and outside school) have a far-reaching impact on students. Therefore, teachers, whether at school or in their private life, are required to uphold the professional conduct of education, show respect for the law and the behavioural norms acceptable to society. They also need to stay cautious with their words and deeds, in order to fulfill the expectation of society on the ethics and professionalism of teachers.’

The National Security Law marked another major socio-political development in Hong Kong. In mid-2020, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong promulgated that the National People’s Congress Standing Committee of the People’s Republic of China passed the National Security Law and listed the legislation in Annex III to the Basic Law (The Government of HKSAR 2020). The Education Bureau (2020c) set expectations for schools, teachers and students. ‘Schools are required to explain to students the significance of national security, the legislative background and meanings of the National Security Law, etc. taking into account their cognitive development and abilities in a timely and proper manner, so that students could have the correct information and a clear understanding of the Law.’

Subsequently, the Education Bureau (2021a, b) issued guidelines on school administration and education in relation to the National Security Law with a view to maintaining a safe and orderly learning environment in schools and nurturing students to become good law-abiding citizens, and formulated the Curriculum Framework of National Security Education in Hong Kong. Alongside the Education Bureau’s promulgation of the guidelines and new curriculum framework, teacher training related to the National Security Law becomes a part of the mandatory training / professional development requirements for teachers. For example, a three-hour session on the Constitution, Hong Kong Basic Law and Hong Kong National Security Law is introduced as a part of the Core Training Programme for Newly-joined Teachers (Hong Kong Education Bureau 2021c). The aforementioned Education Bureau’s requirements for schools, teachers and students are implemented in the education community in which stakeholder groups

96

S. Y. F. Tang and M. M. H. Cheng

hold opposing views and stances. Whereas the T-standard+ (COTAP 2018) includes the following expectation for teachers, the education community will need to work on how to operationalize this expectation in the school context, which is a daunting task under the macro socio-political circumstances in the wider society. ‘Uphold ethical practices and abide by the Code for the Education Profession of Hong Kong; understand the principles of the Basic Law and respect the rule of law as a core value of Hong Kong.’

Teachers in Hong Kong face unprecedented challenges and uncertainties in making sense of teacher professionalism, which echoes Sachs’ (2016) view of teacher professionalism as a contested site. ‘Professionalism is a practice and concept that is plastic, emotive and is constantly being challenged and changed as a result of internal and external pressures’ (p.423).

Professional Competence and Teacher Buoyancy in an Era of Unprecedented Uncertainties In Hong Kong, unprecedented challenges stemming from the outbreak of COVID-19 and major socio-political issues have placed novel demands on teachers’ professional competence which requires new professional knowledge. The creation of hybrid spaces in ITE and communicative safe spaces is needed to foster the co-construction of new professional knowledge.

Demands on New Professional Knowledge The new professional knowledge includes content knowledge (CK), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), general pedagogical knowledge (GPK), technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK), and knowledge of context (Grossman 1990; Mishra and Koehler 2006; Shulman 1987). Arising from the possible fluctuation of the epidemic situation, new PCK and TPACK are demanded of teachers who are expected to be flexible in deploying suitable modes of teaching during class suspension and making adjustments in faceto-face teaching under the new normal. Regarding socio-political issues, new CK is required in teaching topics related to the National Security Law. Teachers may face pedagogical challenges in touching on controversial issues and contested knowledge in their teaching. Specific PCK is likely needed to guide students to think independently, to form their own rational judgements based upon knowledge, to learn to live with others despite diverse ideas and perspectives, and to navigate the complexities of living with opposing views and respecting different opinions (Wong and Lee 2019).

7 Preparing High Quality Teacher Education Graduates …

97

As the wider societal context has gone through extraordinary circumstances, teachers need to learn new knowledge of context which includes knowledge of the school setting, the wider context in which teachers work, as well as specific students and communities. New GPK is probably needed to address students’ learning and emotional needs arising from the extremely unusual experiences in the 2019–20 and 2020–21 school years.

Third Hybrid Spaces in ITE and Communicative Safe Spaces Learning to teach ‘occurs across multiple spaces in messy and recursive ways’ (Mayer et al. 2017, p. 129). The new demands on professional knowledge and contested knowledge arising from the unprecedented challenges in Hong Kong likely put teacher learning in ITE ‘at the centre of the contradictory and often conflicting spaces associated with teacher education, community and school’ (Mayer et al. 2017, p. 132). Third hybrid spaces in ITE (Zeichner 2010; Zeichner et al. 2015) are essential for a broad knowledge base from multiple sources. Communicative safe spaces are needed for student teachers to interact with peers, teacher education faculty, stakeholders of schools and the community in order to co-construct new professional knowledge and sense of professionalism relevant to addressing the circumstances which student teachers face. These are possible ways out for ITE, although there will be great challenges to pursue in the education community in which there are diverse stakeholder groups holding different views in the case of Hong Kong.

Teacher Buoyancy While developing professional competence grounded on new professional knowledge is important for facing extraordinary challenges, there is limited information on how ITE graduates who may be professionally competent fare in the realities of beginning teaching in schools in an era of extraordinary circumstances and unprecedented uncertainties. The immense challenges, and the continuous and cumulative difficulties in teaching make it necessary for ITE to prepare teachers who are professionally competent and who possess the capacity to face everyday challenges without being emotionally drained. Wong et al. (2021) put forward the concept of ‘teacher buoyancy’ to denote the capacity to bounce back successfully from the hurdles and hitches encountered in everyday teaching. This encompasses personal assets which facilitate not only adaptive response to work-related setbacks, but which also enhance individuals’ general strength to flourish when faced with daily work-related challenges. In an era of unprecedented uncertainties, professional competence coupled with teacher buoyancy can most likely enhance the potential for ITE graduates to stand tall against the steady stream of immense everyday challenges of beginning teaching.

98

S. Y. F. Tang and M. M. H. Cheng

References Campbell, E. (2000). Professional ethics in teaching: Towards the development of a code of practice. Cambridge Journal of Education, 30(2), 203–221. Census and Statistics Department of HKSAR. (2020). Hong Kong Annual Digest of Statistics. Retrieved April 2, 2021, from https://www.statistics.gov.hk/pub/B10100032020AN20B0100. pdf. Cheng, A. Y. N., & Szeto, E. (2016). Teacher leadership development and principal facilitation: Novice teachers’ perspectives. Teaching and Teacher Education, 58, 140–148. Committee on Professional Development of Teachers and Principals [COTAP]. (2018). T-standard+. Retrieved May 30, 2020, from http://www.cotap.hk/index.php/en/t-standard. Davis, H. A., Hartshorne, R., & Ring, G. (2010). Being an innovative teacher: Preservice teachers’ conceptions of technology and innovation. International Journal of Education, 2(1), E7. Furlong, J., Menter, I., Munn, P., Whitty, G., Hallgarten, J., & Johnson, N. (2014). Research and the teaching profession: Building the capacity for a self-improving education system. Final report of the BERA-RSA Inquiry into the role of research in teacher education. London: British Educational Research Association (BERA). Retrieved June 20, 2020, from https://www.thersa.org/globalass ets/pdfs/bera-rsa-research-teaching-profession-full-report-for-web-2.pdf.. Grossman, P. (2010). Learning to practice: The design of clinical experience in teacher preparation. American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education & National Education Association. Grossman, P. L. (1990). The making of a teacher: Teacher knowledge and teacher education. Teachers College Press, Teachers College, Columbia University. Hong Kong Education Bureau. (2019). Report of the Task Force on professional development of teachers. Retrieved August 10, 2020, from https://www.edb.gov.hk/en/teacher/report-tftpd/index. html. Hong Kong Education Bureau. (2020a). Continuing professional development of teachers.. Retrieved June 20, 2020, from https://www.edb.gov.hk/en/teacher/qualification-training-develo pment/development/cpd-teachers/index.html. Hong Kong Education Bureau. (2020b). Letter from Secretary for Education to school principals on 10 June 2020. Retrieved June 15, 2020, from https://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/news002/ Letter_from_SED_to_school_principals%20_10_June_2020_eng.pdf. Hong Kong Education Bureau. (2020c). Implementation of The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (Education Bureau Circular No.11/2020). Retrieved August 15, 2020, from https://applications. edb.gov.hk/circular/upload/EDBC/EDBC20011E.pdf. Hong Kong Education Bureau. (2020d, March 31). Deferral of class resumption for all schools together, we fight the virus (EDB(SDCT)3/PRO/10/1/1). Retrieved June 10, 2020, from https://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/sch-admin/admin/about-sch/diseases-preven tion/edb_20200331_eng.pdf. Hong Kong Education Bureau. (2020e). Prevention of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): Health protection measures for schools (for resumption of face-to-face classes in September 2020). Retrieved September 30, 2020, from https://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/sch-admin/ admin/about-sch/diseases-prevention/Guidelines%20to%20Schools%20on%20Resumption% 20of%20Face%20to%20Face%20Classes%20(E).pdf. Hong Kong Education Bureau. (2021a). National security education in school curriculum: Implementation mode and learning and teaching resources. (Education Bureau Circular No.2/2021). Retrieved April 3, 2021, from https://applications.edb.gov.hk/circular/upload/EDBC/EDBC21 002E.pdf. Hong Kong Education Bureau. (2021b). National security: Maintaining a safe learning environment, nurturing good citizens. (Education Bureau Circular No.3/2021). Retrieved April 3, 2021, from https://applications.edb.gov.hk/circular/upload/EDBC/EDBC21003E.pdf. Hong Kong Education Bureau. (2021c). Core Training Programme for Newly-joined Teachers – Training Programme on the Constitution, Hong Kong Basic Law and Hong Kong National

7 Preparing High Quality Teacher Education Graduates …

99

Security Law. Retrieved April 3, 2021, from https://tcs.edb.gov.hk/tcs/admin/courses/previewCo urse/forPortal.htm?courseId=PDT020210123&lang=en. Jeder, D. (2013). Teachers’ ethic responsibilities in the practice of education and training. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 92, 432–436. Kalantzis, M., & Cope, B. (2010). The teacher as designer: Pedagogy in the new media age. ELearning and Digital Media, 7(3), 200–222. Legislative Council, HKSAR. (2020, June 17). LCQ15: Impacts of social incidents on teachers, students and parents [Press release] Retrieved June 20, 2020, from https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/ general/202006/17/P2020061700495.htm. Lew, M. M. (2010). Teacher education: Innovative, effectiveness and global. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 9, 1815–1820. Mayer, D., Dixon, M., Kline, J., Kostogriz, A., Moss, J., Rowan, L., Walker-Gibbs, B., & White, S. (2017). Studying the effectiveness of teacher education: Early career teachers in diverse settings. Springer. Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017–1054. Ng, M. K. (2020). The making of ‘Violent’ Hong Kong: A centennial dream? A fight for democracy? A challenge to humanity? Planning Theory & Practice, 21(3), 483–494. Niemi, H., & Nevgi, A. (2014). Research studies and active learning promoting professional competences in Finnish teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 43, 131–142. Sachs, J. (2016). Teacher professionalism: Why are we still talking about it? Teachers and Teaching, 22(4), 413–425. Shapira-Lishchinsky, O. (2011). Teachers’ critical incidents: Ethical dilemmas in teaching practice. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27, 648–656. Shulman, L. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57(1), 1–23. Straub, E. T. (2009). Understanding technology adoption: Theory and future directions for informal learning. Review of Educational Research, 79(2), 625–649. Tang, S. Y., Wong, A. K., Li, D. D., & Cheng, M. M. (2020). Millennial generation preservice teachers’ intrinsic motivation to become a teacher, professional learning and professional competence. Teaching and Teacher Education, 96, 103180. The Education University of Hong Kong [EdUHK]. (2019). The new undergraduate curriculum. Retrieved June 20, 2020, from https://curriculum.eduhk.hk/. The Government of HKSAR. (2020, June 30). The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region [Press release]. Retrieved July 21, 2021, from https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202006/30/P2020063001015. htm. Wong, A. K., Tang, S. Y., Li, D. D., & Cheng, M. M. (2021). An exploratory study of teacher buoyancy. Journal of Professional Capital & Community, 6(3), 281–297. Wong, K. L., & Lee, C. K. J. (2019). Learning to live together in polarized and pluralistic societies: Hong Kong teachers’ views of democratic values versus patriotic values. Citizenship Teaching and Learning, 14(3), 307–330. Zeichner, K. (2010). Rethinking the connections between campus courses and field experiences in college- and university-based teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 61(1–2), 89–99. Zeichner, K. (2014). The struggle for the soul of teaching and teacher education in the USA. Journal of Education for Teaching, 40(5), 551–568. Zeichner, K., & Payne, K. (2013). Democratizing knowledge in urban teacher education. In J. Noel (Ed.), Moving teacher education into urban schools and communities: Prioritizing community strengths (pp. 3–19). Routledge. Zeichner, K., Payne, K. A., & Brayko, K. (2015). Democratizing teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 66(2), 122–135.

100

S. Y. F. Tang and M. M. H. Cheng

Sylvia Y.F. Tang is currently Professor (Practice) and Associate Dean (Learning and Teaching) of the Faculty of Education and Human Development at the Education University of Hong Kong. Before working in teacher education, she was a secondary school teacher in Hong Kong. Professor Tang’s main areas of research are various aspects of teacher education and development, including initial teacher education, student teachers’ teaching motivation, learning and professional competence, teachers’ continuing professional development, and teacher buoyancy. May M.H. Cheng is currently Chair Professor of Teacher Education, Associate Vice-President (Academic Affairs) cum Registrar at the Education University of Hong Kong. Prior to taking up this position, she was Reader in Professional Education at the Department of Education, University of Oxford. Professor Cheng’s main areas of research are teacher education and science education. She researches in inquiry learning, practitioner research, and STEM education, with a focus on teacher learning and teacher professional development.

Chapter 8

Quality Under Pressure in Dutch Teacher Education Paulien C. Meijer

Introduction Growing teacher shortages have lead policy makers in the Netherlands to measures that directly affect the quality of teacher education and, as such, of teachers and of education in general. And instead of focusing on the fact that many teachers quit teaching within the first five years after certification, most policies have focused, and still focus, on developing shorter and/or alternative routes to teacher certification. The view is that current teacher education programs are too much of a barrier that teachers can just as well learn “on the job,” and that teacher shortages are caused by a presumed unattractiveness of teacher education programs. Although policy makers, nationally and on the level of school boards, all point to the invaluable role of teachers in the quality of education, their opinions about solving the problem of teacher shortages seem to contradict this. For example, some primary school boards prefer not to talk about non-licensed teachers, but about “otherqualified teachers.” This leaves room for, for example, artists, technicians, sportsmen, and librarians (some schools go so far as to even ask their pupils’ parents to teach) who do not have a qualification to teach, to be included in schools as “teachers.” The idea is that such “hybrid” solutions will help to address the problem of teacher shortages, since teaching is then not the sole area of licensed teachers, but open to anybody. A combination of “on the job” induction programs, which are subsidized by the government to help schools with supporting beginning teachers—qualified or not—is supposed to contribute to a solution for the teacher shortage problem. There is no reference to the quality of education or to the quality of teachers. Meanwhile, there is disturbing evidence that the level of education attainment in the Netherlands is decreasing, as we are facing an increasing number of illiterates and scores in international studies (such as PISA) are dropping. The idea that “everybody can P. C. Meijer (B) Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 D. Mayer (ed.), Teacher Education Policy and Research, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3775-9_8

101

102

P. C. Meijer

teach,” without attention to quality in teacher education, is dangerous and could take a serious turn for the worse. Teacher dropout, however, is often a consequence of the unattractiveness of the school as a working environment, let alone as a learning environment (see Ingersoll 2001). Teachers feel undervalued, underpaid, work many extra hours, and, in addition, feel ill-prepared to face an increasingly complex task since they are supposed to tackle an increasing number of societal issues (e.g., Perryman and Calvert 2020). Teacher education programs struggle to maintain quality under this pressure and are combating the oversimplified views that policy makers seem to have of the responsibilities of teachers. This is no different in the Netherlands.

Context Teacher Education in the Netherlands In the Netherlands, most teacher education programs are located in universities of applied sciences (“hogescholen”). Students typically enter these programs when they have finished secondary education, at the age of 17 or 18, and then follow a fouryear program that prepares them for teaching in either primary education, for most types of secondary education, or for vocational education. In addition, almost all Dutch universities offer teacher education programs, mostly for secondary education (including pre-university tracks), and a few for primary education. For the universitybased secondary education programs, students typically enter when they have earned their master’s degree in a subject area. They then follow a one-year postmaster program. A new university-based route is a two-year master program that combines a subject-related master and a teacher education master, which students can commence when they have earned a Bachelor’s degree. The current problems with this “model” are different for the four-year programs in the hogescholen on the one hand, and the one- or two-year programs at universities. The four-year programs suffer from a decrease in the number of students who choose to enter a teacher education program immediately after secondary education. Still teenagers themselves, they see themselves more as students, not as (prospective) teachers. Combined with a fairly high dropout rate, these programs struggle to address the increasing demand for new teachers. University-based teacher education programs also struggle to attract enough students, but the reason for this is different. These teacher education programs suffer from being perceived as low status among university faculties, who often tend to favor research over teaching in their own work as well. As a result, students—in particular those who have earned high grades—are not stimulated to enter teacher education after their master’s degree. This low-status issue has a long track record and has only recently been addressed in universities. Here, one sees that university policy makers tend to stimulate teacher education as

8 Quality Under Pressure in Dutch Teacher Education

103

a way to increase their “societal impact,” but not all scientific staff have grown used to the idea (yet) that teaching has an equal status to research. A consequence of these problems is a shortage at the beginning of teacher education tracks, both in terms of quantity (not enough students enter the programs) as well as quality (they are not always the best students).

Dutch Society Teaching does not have a high status in Dutch society. Being a teacher is associated with long working hours, hard work, low salaries, and dealing with complex students and an increasing number of what feel to be additional tasks. Teachers are supposed to address an increasing number of pupils in large groups, with increasingly diverse (socio-economic and cultural) backgrounds as well as increasing numbers of those with special needs. The recent COVID-19 pandemic-related lockdown has had a positive effect on respect for teachers (parents suddenly had to get involved in schoolwork with their children and experienced how complicated this was), and teaching was labelled as a “crucial profession,” along with, among others, healthcare. This led to an enhancement in the status of teaching. A substantial increase in the number of applications for teacher education programs (sometimes up to 30 percent) at the start of the new academic year, shows the power of this new enhanced status within society.

Dutch Schools as a Work Environment Teachers in the Netherlands often do not see schools as attractive work environments. Partly due to national policies, and particularly in secondary education, teachers feel that they are puppets who can be moved around by administrators. Also, they often feel that a professional dialogue is lacking. National policies over the last decades have encouraged schools to collaborate under the care of expanding school boards. Power has since shifted from heads of schools to these large boards. Finances used to go to schools, whereas currently, national financing ends up in the wallet of these large school boards in a “lump sum” allocation. School boards can decide on how to spend the money, whether it is on school buildings, salaries (including their own), marketing strategies, or teaching materials. What with expanding administration in addition to all the wheeling and dealing in schools, many teachers feel that the actual job of teaching is at one of the lowest levels of importance for these school boards, whereas the increasing number of administrative jobs are better paid. The perception is that the further you are away from pupils, the more you get paid. Research in the Dutch context shows that teachers, in particular beginners, experience many professional tensions and much stress (e.g., Harmsen, Helms-Lorenz, Maulana, and van Veen 2019; Pillen, Beijaard, and den Brok 2013), sometimes with a

104

P. C. Meijer

high impact on their wellbeing and other parts of their lives (van der Wal et al. 2019). These studies reveal an environment with too much work, not enough support, and distortion of the work–life balance, all pointing to poor working conditions. Dropout rates in this phase are alarmingly high. Teachers leave the profession out of frustration, and the chances that they will ever return, are little, if circumstances do not change. In addition, beginning teachers do not feel that their ideas and ideals are taken seriously, and that they are not assumed to be capable of developing leadership skills or able to exercise their potential for innovation (e.g., Meirink et al. 2020). Recently, schools have tended to address the coaching of beginning teachers in a more serious manner and organize this in induction programs. Through separate funding, policy directs schools to collaborate with universities in these programs, and studies about the effects of these collaborations are positive. For example, Harmsen et al. (2019) found that specific elements of induction arrangements appear to be powerful in reducing stress levels among beginning teachers, and also over a period of time. Noordzij and van de Grift (2020) reported lower attrition rates when beginning teachers followed these programs. In conclusion, teaching is among the professions with the highest levels of burnout and dropout, which could be dealt with in induction programs if they are designed as a shared responsibility of schools, universities, and hogescholen. But this is not enough. Due to a high workload and increasing responsibilities, which have grown even more during the COVID-19 pandemic, burnout is still high. This is a huge problem for these teachers’ lives personally, and also adds to the teacher shortages in general.

The Position of Teacher Educators in the Netherlands In this context, the quality of teacher educators is extremely important. They are in pole position to equip future teachers for their job and to maintain a professional relationship with them so that they can add to teachers’ expertise during their induction phase and beyond. Slowly, the expertise that teacher educators need for this is being recognized, and this is one of the few bright spots for maintaining a focus on quality in education. However, courses or preparation trajectories for teacher educators are scarce and non-compulsory. The Netherlands hosts registration trajectories for teacher educators, focusing on those who already work in institutes for teacher education or in schools, but these are not mandatory. If initiatives such as the Summer Academy of the International Forum for Teacher Educator Development (InFo-TED) could be provided on a larger scale, this would add to the quality of teacher educators. The InFo-TED focuses on the professional development of experienced teacher educators, particularly in a pan-European context, and its core aim is to contribute by conceiving teacher education as a profession. This would imply a sound knowledge base underpinning the work of teacher educators and a continuous professional dialogue. The Dutch organization of teacher educators (VELON) aims to address both. Policy makers, however, do not automatically turn to VELON for input. In the

8 Quality Under Pressure in Dutch Teacher Education

105

meantime, due to increasing pressure on schools to take up a larger responsibility in teacher education (I will come back to that later), VELON sees an increase of school-based teacher educators among its members, marginalizing university-based teacher educators, among others.

Research on Teacher Education The Netherlands has had a strong tradition on research in teacher education, featuring scholars such as Fred Korthagen (who has reflected on teacher education and about “realistic teacher education,” e.g., Korthagen 2004) and Douwe Beijaard (on teachers’ professional identity, e.g., Beijaard et al. 2004), amongst others. Recently, research has become more scarce and scattered, and has focused on the development of teacher educators (e.g., Swennen et al. 2008), research-based teacher education (e.g., Bronkhorst 2013), and innovative practices in teacher education (e.g., Meijer 2020). What strikes one is that policy and research are two silos, resulting in policies that are not based on research. Rather, it is the other way around: policies are developed, and only then is academia asked to underpin these policies with research. A recent exception is the research on teacher induction, as discussed earlier in this chapter, which is increasingly seen as an extension of teacher education. Here, the research was funded in the same initiative that focused on setting up induction programs. It is striking that policies regarding initial education do not build on research in the same way.

Current Policies Although the current teacher shortages were forecast three decades ago, national policy makers only took this problem up recently. What to them appears to be a quantitative issue, is in fact the result of, among other things, the context as described above. They support the following measures: (a) attract second-career teachers, (b) develop career tracks in teaching, and (c) develop a system that focuses on “stacking” qualifications.

Policy Measure: Attract second-Career Teachers Partly impacted by the current liberal government which tends to seek solutions in business and enterprises, policies now focus on the development of alternative routes for second-career teachers (“zij-instroom”). The idea behind this is that people who have experience in other settings, such as the financial or industrial sector, can be retrained to become teachers through shorter teacher education tracks. Also,

106

P. C. Meijer

since they often are older and more mature, they are supposedly better able to start teaching right away and can bear the full responsibility of the classes they teach. However, many of these second-career teachers leave the profession more quickly than their colleagues who followed the regular routes (Tigchelaar et al. 2010). These teachers report that they feel ill-prepared to deal with the school subject matter, and with large groups of pupils with increasingly diverse backgrounds. Also, many are disappointed in schools as a working environment which they do not view as sufficiently professional, in addition to indicating that they feel isolated in school. Of course, these second-career teachers form an intriguing group (see Tigchelaar et al. 2010). They bring an abundance of additional expertise into teaching. Tigchelaar et al. state that this group needs a “tailor-made pedagogy.” Policy makers seem to translate this into shorter training routes, but this is not what Tigchelaar et al. advocate: they claim that this group follows a different learning path, which needs to be addressed in alternative pedagogies. Accordingly, teacher education institutes are designing new programs for this particular group. Diversity in this group is large, however, and the call for “personalized” or sometimes even individualized programs is growing. The pitfall here is that the personalizing of teacher education contributes to the feeling of isolation of these teachers mentioned above. Also, it models and reflects a view that teaching is not teamwork. Finally, it reflects the tendency to look for quick fixes, since the quest for personalization by policy makers means shorter programs. On top of that, there is no evidence that personalizing teacher education results in decreasing dropout rates.

Policy Measure: Develop Career Tracks in Teaching This policy measure stems from the assumption that people do not want to become teachers, because of a perceived lack of career possibilities in teaching (Snoek, de Wit, Dengerink, van der Wolk, van Eldik, and Wirtz 2017). Here, policy makers aim to stimulate the development of tracks for teachers in primary education to become a teacher in secondary education, or the other way around. Also, within secondary education, it should be easier to become licensed to teach in pre-university tracks, which is now only open for teachers with a university’s master degree. Focusing attention on the development of career tracks is of course interesting. But it does not relate to the reasons that teachers report for burnout or dropout, which tend to be related to workload and too little support. It remains to be seen if this policy measure can attract more teachers. There is another danger lurking. This measure only seems to shift the problem. Teacher shortages are the biggest in primary education, and the proposed tracks might encourage teachers in primary education to move towards secondary education. In secondary education, salaries are higher, after all. For that very reason, teachers in secondary education lack an incentive to become primary school teachers. They will see this option as a downward movement. The effect is that even larger shortages are expected in primary education, the opposite of what is needed.

8 Quality Under Pressure in Dutch Teacher Education

107

Policy Measure: “Stacking” of Teaching Qualifications Related to the previous measure is the request for the “stacking” of teaching qualifications. There is a call for a broad starting qualification which is equal for everyone who enters a teacher education program—whether in a one-year post-master program at university, a four-year post-secondary education program at hogescholen, or in alternative tracks for second-career teachers. On top of this basic qualification, one can “stack” several additional “modules,” which should all seamlessly connect. This would allow for a very flexible teaching force, and teachers could easily be put to work in the places and for subjects where shortages are highest. This is an attractive idea, particularly interesting for school administrators, but not always—or not often—for teachers themselves. For example, a French teacher who earns an additional degree in teaching mathematics, can do the school a favor by also teaching math. However, they will probably end up teaching only math, since there is a huge shortage of math teachers. In addition, there is, of course, the pitfall of quality loss. Instead of requiring a full understanding of the subject matter, learning to teach another subject in secondary education is reduced to following a “module” that focuses on acquiring the very basics of the subject. The example above of the French teacher who is requested by their school administrator to take up the teaching of math, is an actual case. The request from the school involved them starting the math teaching immediately. They were told to “just use the curriculum books”, and to study additional math courses in the evenings. School administrators such as in this case can request even shorter modules, or that teachers offer all kinds of subjects, without additional certification. This is not a rare case. I have seen a history teacher teaching German (because she was married to a German), and a social sciences teacher teaching mathematics without additional qualifications. It is not far-fetched to state that this does not add to the quality and depth of the lessons. Teacher education institutes have a task here: they first need to safeguard the quality of teachers, and develop high-quality routes for teachers who wish to, for example, change subjects.

Analysis Leaving out the quality issue in policy measures is part of the trend to oversimplify teaching, and this perspective is gaining ground in educational policies. The idea seems to be that if you lower the threshold for entering teacher education and allow for short and stackable tracks, as well as lowering the standards by merely requesting a basic qualification, many will enter teacher education and the problem of teacher shortages will be solved. In the meantime, teacher education is confronted with the request to develop shorter programs, sometimes even for people who have less entry qualifications than needed for the regular programs. The high burnout and dropout rates among teachers are not being addressed.

108

P. C. Meijer

Under the influence of powerful and large school boards, national policy in the Netherlands has tended to shift the responsibilities for teacher education away from universities and towards these school boards. In this way, they can work around teacher education institutes, whether in hogescholen or universities, who oppose (parts of) the plans above. For school boards, this an attractive idea, and some large boards even go as far as wanting the responsibility for granting certifications. This would allow them to educate their new staff so that they fit exactly a particular school. It is also cheaper—a strong argument for national policy makers. Expensive higher education programs, supported by scientific research, are not needed anymore. Since school boards are in charge of the money for their schools in a lump sum allocation, adding finances meant for the education of (new and experienced) teachers, would put the responsibility in their hands as well. This would mean that school boards could decide to underprioritize teacher education and the guidance of beginning teachers. Also, school boards can decide for themselves if they would be building knowledge about teacher learning and teacher education developed in international literature or whether they will instead focus on educating teachers for their own context. The stakes are high. In a society where PISA scores are dropping and illiteracy is on the rise, every policy measure that is not focused on increasing quality on all levels stimulates a further deterioration of education. Teacher education institutes, however, have the preparation of teachers as their primary focus, and do not see it as a side issue. This allows for long-term development of expertise, through research and experience. They are also responsible for preparing teachers in such a way that they are able to teach in all schools in the Netherlands, and they are not limited to one school or one particular school board. There is a counter-movement, however, which claims that quantity problems are best approached by increasing the quality of teacher education. If teacher education programs are challenging instead of simplified, it will attract better students, who do not drop out of the program, or during the first years of teaching, since they are better prepared. For this, teacher education programs need to be accompanied by scientific research and have a sound theoretical basis (Darling-Hammond and Hammerness 2005). So, instead of lowering entry qualifications, the standards for these might be increased. Instead of shortening tracks and developing stackable modules, the learning paths of the student teachers should be central and sometimes might require longer tracks. And instead of focusing on the very basics for initial certification, a higher standard might be developed. The idea in this counter-movement is that teaching becomes more attractive for people who do not settle for less than quality, and that they take this attitude along when they teach children.

Lessons to be Learned and Ways Forward Work from the scientific knowledge base on teaching and on learning to teach. For many years, and in connection to international developments and research, teacher

8 Quality Under Pressure in Dutch Teacher Education

109

education institutes have worked to develop a sound and science-based knowledge base on teaching and on the process of learning to teach (e.g., Verloop et al. 2001). This knowledge-base is still developing, and will always be dynamic, since it has to take into account, among other things, developments in society. It is important to invest in sound research that focuses on developing deep insights in the processes that are involved in becoming a teacher and in further developing as teacher. Emphasize and define quality in teaching as well as in teacher education. This will positively affect the societal status of teaching as a profession and, as such, attract more and better candidates. We do not just need teachers, but we need GOOD or excellent teachers. Teachers who also value their own development and see this a prerequisite for their pupils’ learning. Defining quality teaching demands a sophisticated vision on teaching, including a view on the role and function of education in society (see Hammerness and Bransford 2005). If we want to teach children to, in the end, address societal issues together, and take a shared responsibility in this, we cannot use a model that normalizes quick fixes in the societal problem of quantitative as well as qualitative teacher shortages. If we want children not to focus on just passing tests, but to develop a deep understanding of the subjects they are studying, we cannot use a model which does not rely on the full body of knowledge that is available on how to best prepare teachers (e.g., Darling-Hammond and Bransford 2005). Invest in high-quality teacher education programs, in which higher thresholds are preferred over lower ones. Build these programs on sound science-informed knowledge on teaching and learning to teach and make strong connections to collaborative induction programs in order to prevent burnout and dropout. This asks, among many things, that teacher education is not reduced to a random amount of curriculum building blocks where candidates can shop as they please, but that a coherent program is underlying each candidate’s trajectory, allowing for specific choices that relate to their own background, school choice, or personal circumstances (see Darling-Hammond and Hammerness 2005). Develop close(r) relationships between (university-based) teacher education institutes and schools. This includes collaborations on the level of school and university boards. In doing so, the education of future, new, and experienced teachers is explicitly addressed as a joint responsibility of schools and universities. The big gain here, is that “practicing teaching” and “researching teaching” are equally valued. I emphasize that schools are not equivalent to “practice,” and research is not equivalent to “theory.” In a closer relationship, maybe even a partnership, both practice and theory will be addressed and valued by schools and universities (see Brouwer and Korthagen 2005). This opens up new, hybrid opportunities in which a shared responsibility for combining and further developing theory and practice can be taken up (e.g., Imants et al. 2020). Define the education of future, beginning, and experienced teachers as a responsibility of universities. Do not allocate teacher education to be a side issue of separate faculties (Arts, Science, etc.) in universities, but (further) develop institutes within

110

P. C. Meijer

universities that see teacher education as their main task, so they can further develop the expertise that is needed through experience and research. Develop trajectories for second-career teachers that are based on suitable pedagogies. Since much has changed lately on the labor market due to, among other things, the COVID-19 pandemic, a relatively high number of people are looking for a career change. Teaching is one of the areas of relatively high job security, so there is an increasing demand for second-career trajectories for people who now want to become a teacher. The pitfall here, as discussed earlier, is the development of quick-fix trajectories for this group of people, resulting in the danger of high dropout rates. This is bad for pupils, but also for these potential teachers, who might then face a second career change. Particularly for these people, trajectories need to take into account their expertise, and also their situation, which can be often fueled by disappointment and full of uncertainties (see Tigchelaar et al. 2010).

References Beijaard, D., Meijer, P. C., & Verloop, N. (2004). Reconsidering research on teachers’ professional identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20(2), 107–128. Bronkhorst, L. H. (2013). Research-based teacher education: Interactions between research and teaching. Utrecht University. Brouwer, N., & Korthagen, F. (2005). Can teacher education make a difference? American Educational Research Journal, 42(1), 153–224. Darling-Hammond, L., & Hammerness, K. (2005). The design of teacher education programs. In L. Darling-Hammond & J. Bransford (Eds.), Preparing teachers for a changing world. What teachers should learn and be able to do (pp. 390–441). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Harmsen, R., Helms-Lorenz, M., Maulana, R., & van Veen, K. (2019). The longitudinal effects of induction on beginning teachers’ stress. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 89(2), 259–287. Ingersoll, R. M. (2001). Teacher turnover and teacher shortages: An organizational analysis. American Educational Research Journal, 38(3), 499–534. Korthagen, F. A. (2004). In search of the essence of a good teacher: Towards a more holistic approach in teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20(1), 77–97. Meirink, J., Van Der Want, A., Louws, M., Meijer, P. C., Oolbekkink-Marchand, H., & Schaap, H. (2020). Beginning teachers’ opportunities for enacting informal teacher leadership: Perceptions of teachers and school management staff members. European Journal of Teacher Education, 43(2), 243–257. Meijer, P.C. (2020). Innovative practices in teacher education. Why should we? How can we? In D. Andron & D. Gruber (Eds.), Education beyond crisis (pp. 176–190). Dordrecht: Brill Sense. Noordzij, T., & van de Grift, W. J. C. M. (2020). Attrition of certified teachers in secondary education during the induction phase. Pedagogische Studiën, 97(2), 96–107. Perryman, J., & Calvert, G. (2020). What motivates people to teach, and why do they leave? Accountability, performativity and teacher retention. British Journal of Educational Studies, 68(1), 3–23. Pillen, M., Beijaard, D., & den Brok, P. (2013). Tensions in beginning teachers’ professional identity development, accompanying feelings and coping strategies. European Journal of Teacher Education, 36(3), 240–260.

8 Quality Under Pressure in Dutch Teacher Education

111

Snoek, M., de Wit, B., Dengerink, J., van der Wolk, W., van Eldik, S., & Wirtz, N. (2017). Een beroepsbeeld voor de leraar: Over ontwikkelrichtingen en groei van leraren in het onderwijs. https://www.beroepsbeeldvoordeleraar.nl/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Een-beroepsbeeldvoor-de-leraar-VO.pdf Swennen, A., Lunenberg, M., & Korthagen, F. (2008). Preach what you teach! Teacher educators and congruent teaching. Teachers and Teaching, 14(5–6), 531–542. Tigchelaar, A., Brouwer, N., & Vermunt, J. D. (2010). Tailor-made: Towards a pedagogy for educating second-career teachers. Educational Research Review, 5(2), 164–183. Verloop, N., Van Driel, J., & Meijer, P. (2001). Teacher knowledge and the knowledge base of teaching. International Journal of Educational Research, 35(5), 441–461. van der Wal, M. M., Oolbekkink-Marchand, H. W., Schaap, H., & Meijer, P. C. (2019). Impact of early career teachers’ professional identity tensions. Teaching and Teacher Education, 80, 59–70.

Paulien C. Meijer PhD., is full professor “teacher learning and development” at Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands. She is the scientific director at the Radboud Teachers Academy and vice-chair of the interuniversity committee on teacher education in the Netherlands. Together with her research group, she publishes in high-indexed scientific journals in the field of educational research with an emphasis on teacher education and creativity in education. She is member of the International Forum on Teacher Educator Development (InFo-TED) and former chair of the International Study Association on teachers and Teaching (ISATT).

Chapter 9

Teacher Education Policy in Aotearoa New Zealand: Global Trends Meet Local Imperatives Fiona Ell

Abstract There is an increasing realisation in Aotearoa New Zealand of the impacts of colonisation and racism on the education system and inequity in society. The voices of students and communities, sought to inform policy, have clarified the local significance of these key challenges. Two new policy documents, promulgated by the regulatory authority for teaching, the Teaching Council, outline the goals and requirements for initial teacher education in Aotearoa New Zealand. These policy documents respond to the local context, but also contain many elements of global discourses about initial teacher education, some of which are disguised by being presented as solutions to local problems. Some teacher educators and teacher education researchers are shaping the way the new policies are expressed, by taking up the central local challenge of responding to Aotearoa New Zealand’s 1840 Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Whether the global trends embedded in the new policies, or the local challenges they also address, become more significant in the conduct and shape of teacher education in Aotearoa New Zealand, remains to be seen.

Whakamaua te pae tata kia tina. Whaia te pae tawhiti kia tata. Take hold of your potential so it becomes your reality. Explore beyond the distant horizon and draw it near.

This whakatauki, or M¯aori proverb, is the guide for Aotearoa New Zealand’s new thirty-year Education Vision (Ministry of Education 2020c). Drawing on the idea that the people of Aotearoa are the descendants of explorers and innovators, the vision calls for learning to be ‘inclusive, equitable and connected’ so everyone can be prepared for their ‘future journeys and encounters’ (Ministry of Education 2020c). The Education Vision frames a new set of five ‘National Education Learning Priorities’(NELP) (Ministry of Education 2020c) for the schooling sector, derived from a series of conversations with a wide range of stakeholders during 2018. These F. Ell (B) Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 D. Mayer (ed.), Teacher Education Policy and Research, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3775-9_9

113

114

F. Ell

five priorities are: learners at the centre, barrier-free access, quality teaching and leadership, future of learning and work, and world-class inclusive public education. The Education Vision and the NELP are a deliberate attempt to create education policy to last longer than a three-year parliamentary term, and to focus on the experiences of a¯ konga (learners) in Aotearoa New Zealand. Initial teacher education (ITE) in Aotearoa New Zealand is therefore tasked with educating teachers to be able to enact the vision and contribute to the NELP. Central to the NELP is tackling racism in schooling. In this chapter, I focus on English-medium initial teacher education for compulsory schooling (5–16 years) in Aotearoa New Zealand. I begin by outlining a shift in discourse about teaching that arises from the NELP, and place two policy documents that shape ITE (Our Code, Our Standards; Teaching Council 2017; ITE Programme Approval, Monitoring and Review Requirements; Teaching Council 2019) into this context. The Teaching Council is the body charged with teacher registration, discipline and ITE approval and regulation in New Zealand. It has undergone several name changes and structures under recent Governments, and has lately returned to being a body governed by elected representatives of the profession. An analysis of these two Teaching Council documents, tracing international trends and local concerns is presented, showing how we may have shifted our policy focus to very local concerns, but we are still using ‘borrowed’(Phillips and Ochs 2003) or ‘travelling’ (Ozga and Jones 2006) policy solutions in the ITE space. Recent research that takes up the challenge of tackling challenges posed to ITE by the NELP (Ministry of Education 2020c), Our Code, Our Standards (Teaching Council 2017) and the ITE Programme Approval, Monitoring and Review Requirements (Teaching Council 2019) is then reviewed and discussed. In order to understand the local aspects of this analysis, a brief explanation of the wider Aotearoa New Zealand context is needed. M¯aori are the indigenous people of Aotearoa, descendants of Pacific explorers who migrated huge distances across the Pacific using sophisticated methods of navigation. In 1840, M¯aori hap¯u signed a treaty with the British Crown. This treaty is known as the Treaty of Waitangi and also as Te Tiriti o Waitangi, because the English and the M¯aori language versions of the Treaty differ significantly in their promises and commitments. Honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi through tangible practices is a significant policy focus in New Zealand, especially in health, education and social services where M¯aori are systemically disadvantaged by colonial systems and their maintenance of white privilege. For this reason, Aotearoa New Zealand has taken up the idea of ‘biculturalism’ as a foundation for policy. Immigration and migration have made Aotearoa New Zealand culturally diverse, with a significant population of Pacific peoples and more recent immigration from a range of Asian countries. One in four school-aged learners in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest city, were not born in Aotearoa New Zealand. In the 2018 Census, there were 160 ethnic groups represented by more than 100 people each (Statistics New Zealand 2020). This is sometimes referred to as ‘superdiversity’ (Chan and Ritchie 2020). Thus, Aotearoa New Zealand has a very rich cultural environment, with a fundamental commitment to M¯aori as tangata

9 Teacher Education Policy in Aotearoa New Zealand: Global Trends …

115

whenua (indigenous people) and many layers of cultural and linguistic diversity in the group of ‘tauiwi’ (non-indigenous New Zealanders).

Quality Teaching in Aotearoa New Zealand Education occupies a significant space in governments’ policy agendas. Positioned as both a problem (not serving the country’s future needs; producing and reproducing social inequities) and a solution (the way to make people more productive and to reduce social inequities), education policy has come to focus globally on teacher ‘quality’ as critical to improving education system outcomes (UNESCO 2014). Teachers themselves are positioned as key to leveraging system improvement, making teacher education central to efforts to increase ‘teacher quality’. However, teacher quality as a concept is defined in different ways in different places at different points in history. Definitions of teacher quality are highly significant to ITE providers, because they define the types of graduate that the system is asking for, which in turn determines the people who will be selected for teacher education, the experiences teacher candidates need as part of their teacher education programme and the outcomes that they need to achieve. At times quality teachers are defined as teachers with sound content knowledge and high grades, at other times as teachers who can set and maintain behavioural standards. Out of the NELP (Ministry of Education 2020c) and a cluster of other policies released since 2011 (T¯ataiako 2011; Tapas¯a 2018; Ka Hikitia-Ka H¯apaitia 2020; Action Plan for Pacific Education 2020), one element of quality teachers for Aotearoa New Zealand is becoming clearer and clearer—quality teachers can uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi, enact culturally sustaining pedagogies (Averill and McRae 2019) and are not racist. In 2018, the Office of the Children’s Commissioner and the New Zealand School Trustees Association released a joint report summarising a study of children and young peoples’ views of their education. Entitled ‘Education Matters to Me’, it was intended to inform the forthcoming NELP work by providing clear student voice about education (Office of the Children’s Commissioner 2018). The findings of the study were summarised in six top-level statements, the second of which was ‘people at school are racist towards me’. This theme was borne out in the NELP consultation itself, which sought input from a wide range of stakeholders, including seeking out ‘missing’ voices, such as those who had left school early or were in correctional facilities. The NELP report on student perspectives, ‘Treat kids like they’re gold’ (Ministry of Education 2019), found “alarming levels of racism, discrimination and marginalisation in schools” (p.4). In Ka Hikitia-Ka H¯apaitia (the M¯aori Education Strategy) (Ministry of Education 2020a) racism is identified as a major barrier for M¯aori in the education system, and the goal is set that “M¯aori are free from racism, discrimination and stigma in education” (Ministry of Education 2020a). The Action Plan for Pacific Education (Ministry of Education 2020b) is also clear: in order to

116

F. Ell

achieve a ‘world class inclusive public education’ for Pacific learners, the system needs to “confront systemic racism and discrimination in education” (p. 7). The NELP’s (Ministry of Education 2020c) five priorities are embedded in the Ka Hikitia-Ka H¯apaitia and Action Plan for Pacific Education documents, with actions aligned to each priority. Attempts are being made to join up policy efforts within education in order to concentrate energy and effort on the identified priorities. In the NELP itself, the Ministry of Education has identified particular immediate goals for each of the five broad priorities. To achieve ‘quality teaching and leadership’ there are two actions: ‘grow the workforce to strengthen teaching and leadership and to contribute to a stronger profession across the system’ and ‘incorporate te reo M¯aori (M¯aori language) and tikanga M¯aori (M¯aori ways of doing things) in the everyday life of places of learning’. This second action suggests a definition of quality teaching that includes being capable in te reo M¯aori and tikanga M¯aori – and compared to the first action, it is clear and specific about what it means. Of all the indicators of ‘teacher quality’ that could have been selected as priorities, te reo M¯aori and tikanga M¯aori are centred. Further, as the action related to the ‘future of learning and work’, schools are required to ‘ensure they offer learning that equips learners with an understanding of New Zealand’s cultural identities and our history’. This action recognises that to move forward we need to understand each other and our colonial past as a fundamental first step. Quality teaching in this space requires particular knowledge, skills and dispositions that will not be present in all candidates for teaching—and therefore need to be part of initial teacher education.

New Policy in Initial Teacher Education Initial teacher education occupies a tense space in relation to these goals for the Aotearoa New Zealand education system. Like schooling, ITE is positioned as both the problem (graduates are the wrong people, or have learned to know and do the wrong thing, teacher education is too theoretical, is not closely enough linked to schools, schools do not have enough say in who is chosen, what is learned or how it is learned, teacher education providers are not competent, are failed teachers, would not survive in a classroom, universities are only interested in ‘bums on seats’ and not in quality, it is a money making venture for ITE providers, everyone passes, it is too easy) and the solution (changing the curriculum, shape, length, and nature of teacher education as well as the entry standards and the amount of involvement schools have in teacher preparation, will change the education system, because new graduates will have skills and commitments that better serve the system’s goals)(Gunn and Trevethan 2019). These concerns echo international discourses about initial teacher education (Hardy et al. 2020). This thinking has led to the common pattern of review of teacher education, followed by the implementation of some element(s) of the reforms proposed by the reviews—with the additional twist that highly principled policy made in times of over supply alternates with ‘quick fix’ solutions in times of under supply (Alcorn 2014).

9 Teacher Education Policy in Aotearoa New Zealand: Global Trends …

117

The Our Code, Our Standards (Teaching Council 2017) document, which lays out the code of professional responsibility for teachers and the standards that teachers must meet to be certificated in Aotearoa New Zealand and the ITE Programme Approval, Monitoring and Review Requirements (Teaching Council 2019) document, which lays out the necessary features of ITE programmes for Aotearoa New Zealand, were developed to respond to these concerns.

Our Code, Our Standards (Teaching Council 2017). Our Code, Our Standards (Teaching Council 2017) outlines four areas of responsibility and six broad standards for teachers at all stages of their professional lives. At graduation from ITE, beginning teachers must meet the standards ‘with support’. The document aims to “set out what it is, and what it means, to be a teacher in Aotearoa New Zealand” (Teaching Council 2017, p. i). The Code outlines four levels of commitment for teachers: to the teaching profession, to learners, to families and wh¯anau (extended families) and to society. Explicit elaborations of these commitments include “promoting and protecting the principles of human rights, sustainability and social justice”, “demonstrating a commitment to a Te Tiriti o Waitangi based Aotearoa New Zealand”, “respecting the diversity of the heritage, language, identity and culture of learners, families and wh¯anau”, and “effectively managing my assumptions and beliefs” (Teaching Council 2017, pp 10–12). These statements describe non-racist practitioners who can work with communities for equity. The Standards are “holistic descriptions of what high quality teaching practice looks like ….in Aotearoa New Zealand” (Teaching Council 2017, p.14). The purposes of the standards include: increasing public confidence, raising the status of teaching and “describing the essential professional knowledge in practice and professional relationships and values for effective teaching” (Teaching Council 2017, p. 16). The document is bilingual (English and M¯aori). The first of the six standards is Te Tiriti o Waitangi partnership. This foregrounds the Tiriti in teaching practice, and makes Te Tiriti o Waitangi partnership much more prominent than in the previous standards for teaching. The use of ‘Te Tiriti’ rather than ‘the Treaty’ significantly names the M¯aori text as the basis of the partnership, not the English version of the Treaty. The standards emphasise the use of inquiry for professional learning, collaboration with families, examining assumptions and beliefs and their impact, the use of culturally responsive practices that reflect Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and “specifically supporting the aspirations of M¯aori learners, taking shared responsibility for these learners to achieve educational success as M¯aori” (Teaching Council 2017, p. 20). The expression of ‘achieving success as M¯aori’ refers to self-determination by M¯aori over what educational success is, as well as indicating that M¯aori learners should not have to put aside their M¯aori identity to have access to education. The whole Standards section of the document is oriented towards inclusive practice that centres identity, language and culture, collaboration and open mindedness. The implications

118

F. Ell

of this for ITE are many: what curricula, experiences and arrangements in ITE can support teacher candidates to develop the necessary skills, knowledge and attitudes to enact the Code and Standards (Teaching Council 2017).

ITE Programme Approval, Monitoring and Review Requirements (Teaching Council 2019) The ITE Programme Approval, Monitoring and Review Requirements (Teaching Council 2019) set out the parameters for initial teacher education that the Teaching Council believes will enable teacher candidates to meet the Code and Standards ‘with support’ at graduation. The requirements emerged after a lengthy period of development, preceded by a trial of post-graduate qualifications that were given additional government funding allocated through a competitive tender. They represent a large shift in philosophy for the Teaching Council, moving from a model where approval processes judged programme inputs (courses, readings, practicum arrangements, programme structures) to judging programme outputs (whether or not graduates can meet the Standards with support). The challenge is how to judge programme outputs before a programme has been operating, meaning that approval centres on how the programme addresses the standards and assesses the standards, including through two new compulsory forms of assessment: the ‘key teaching tasks’ and the ‘cumulative integrative assessment’. The requirements put the Code and Standards at the heart of ITE, effectively placing Te Tiriti at the heart of ITE, and shaping the definition of quality teaching that ITE providers can adopt. One of the key tasks of the requirements is a ‘local unpacking’ of each standard, with school partners and local M¯aori hap¯u engaged in the process of saying ‘what does this standard look like for us here’. Surrounding the Standards are several other key ideas: authentic and rich partnership between ITE and schools and M¯aori, flexible pathways into teaching (to promote workforce diversity), explicit addressing of the ‘theory–practice’ divide, mandated practicum length with additional time specified (ten more days for one-year programmes, twenty more days for three-year programmes), teaching as inquiry, inclusion, evidencebased decision making and adaptive expertise, and concern about selection criteria. The ghost of the postgraduate qualifications trial can be seen when the Teaching Council sets the qualification level at undergraduate, with the statement “the Council does, however, remain committed to making ITE a post graduate qualification at some stage in the future… to position the profession where it needs to be in the longer term” (Teaching Council 2019, p.12). The requirements thus include both very local concerns and approaches, and clear links to more international trends in ITE, sometimes appearing in local guises, and at other times appearing more obviously derived from international policy and political directions (Phillip and Ochs 2003; Ozga and Jones 2006; Hardy et al. 2020).

9 Teacher Education Policy in Aotearoa New Zealand: Global Trends …

119

Local and International Influences on ITE Policy Having briefly outlined the purposes and content of the two key ITE policy documents, Our Code, Our Standards (Teaching Council 2017) and ITE Programme Approval, Monitoring and Review Requirements (Teaching Council 2019), this section considers the extent to which these documents represent Aotearoa New Zealand-made solutions and discourses, and the extent to which they represent instantiations of global discourses about ITE. At the centre of this consideration are two inter-related educational issues highlighted by the NELP and other education policy frameworks (Ka Hikitia-Ka H¯apaitia; Action Plan for Pacific Education): racism in schooling and giving effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. One of these is a pervasive international issue, the other is local to Aotearoa New Zealand. In the period leading up to the development of Our Code, Our Standards and the ITE Programme Approval, Monitoring and Review Requirements, more overt and deliberate consideration was given to overseas policies and solutions (Alison and Aitken 2013; Lind 2013 for example). Following international trends, the government in 2010 introduced National Standards (Ministry of Education 2010) in literacy and numeracy into primary schools, with associated mandatory reporting of student progress. Aotearoa New Zealand experienced the same narrowing of curriculum focus as other countries, with an increased emphasis on accountability and international comparative testing (Ell and Grudnoff 2013; Hardy et al. 2020). However, the National Standards were abolished in 2017, as almost the first act of a new Labour Government. This change fed into national conversations about education that form the basis of the NELP, which broadened public discourse about important education outcomes from literacy and numeracy scores to concern about wellbeing. Central to concern about wellbeing is racism in schooling, and the impacts of colonisation on M¯aori and the fabric of Aotearoa New Zealand (to which centring Te Tiriti o Waitangi is often offered as a response). Within this context—a turn towards the local in broader education policy and a clearer articulation of colonisation and racism as central to education—Our Code, Our Standards (Teaching Council 2017) and ITE Programme Approval, Monitoring and Review Requirements (Teaching Council 2019) represent an opportunity to stimulate local responses and shape ITE based on evidence from Aotearoa New Zealand (Gunn and Trevethan 2019). Despite the milieu into which these documents arrived, they inevitably embed (Ozga and Jones 2006) or have markers of (Hardy et al. 2020) international ITE policy, including ITE policy developed under the neo-liberal logic of the US and UK system developments (Hardy et al. 2020). The ITE Programme Approval, Monitoring and Review Requirements (Teaching Council 2019) in particular provide a reference point for how far Aotearoa New Zealand’s policy has shifted in the direction of overseas policy ideas. Phillips and Ochs (2003) propose a four-stage process for policy borrowing, the fourth stage of which is internalisation or indigenisation. In this stage, foreign policies become part of the borrowing country’s rhetoric and activity, such that they are an integrated part of the policy fabric. In understanding how and why this happens,

120

F. Ell

Phillips and Ochs (2003) emphasise the significance of context in determining the motivation and enactment of the policy in particular places. The traces of foreign policy borrowing in the Our Code, Our Standards (Teaching Council 2017) and ITE Programme Approval, Monitoring and Review Requirements (Teaching Council 2019) are surrounded by local motives and imperatives, and presented as local solutions. Harnessed to partnership with schools and M¯aori, the foreign policy trends are cloaked in context and packaged as solutions to Aotearoa New Zealand’s particular education issues. Hardy et al. (2020) point out that mutations in policy such as this can lead to productive solutions in local spaces—when broader discourses adapt to local spaces this can lead to useful local versions of international ideas. O’Neill (2017), in reviewing 40 years of ITE policy in New Zealand, states plainly that ‘local context matters greatly’ (p. 590). He highlights the promise and significance of tikanga M¯aori (M¯aori ways of doing things) for ITE policy, contrasting this indigenous frame with the discourses of professionalisation and marketisation that he sees as dominating ITE policy in the last four decades. Examining Our Code, Our Standards (Teaching Council 2017)and the ITE Programme Approval, Monitoring and Review Requirements (Teaching Council 2019) we thus have two significant forces in play: the embedding (Ozga and Jones 2006), or mutation (Hardy et al. 2020) or internalisation/indigenisation (Phillips and Ochs 2003) of international policy ideologies and trends, and the contextual forces of the colonial history of Aotearoa New Zealand and the gifts of bicultural approaches under Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Evidence of Contextual Influences on Aotearoa New Zealand ITE Policy At first glance, Our Code, Our Standards (Teaching Council 2017) and the ITE Programme Approval, Monitoring and Review Requirements (Teaching Council 2019) are intensely local documents. The key local elements of the two policy documents are: – The centrality of Te Tiriti o Waitangi – The focus on M¯aori learners and te reo M¯aori (M¯aori language) and tikanga M¯aori (M¯aori ways of doing things) – An explicit focus on assumptions and beliefs, admission of systemic racism and description of anti-racist practice through linking to T¯ataiako (framework for teaching M¯aori learners), Tapas¯a (framework for teaching Pacific learners) and the National Education Learning Priorities (Ministry of Education 2020) – An emphasis on developing local curriculum – Including collaboration with wh¯anau (families) and communities, as well as with colleagues and students, as key teacher skills Our Code, Our Standards (Teaching Council 2017) is written in English and M¯aori throughout, M¯aori terms are used (and interpreted rather than translated) for

9 Teacher Education Policy in Aotearoa New Zealand: Global Trends …

121

the values that underpin the profession. In the introduction to the Code, a page is dedicated to ‘Our commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi’ (Teaching Council 2017, p.4). Skills, knowledge and attitudes pertaining to Te Tiriti o Waitangi are foregrounded and appear as the first standard in the list of six. References to the primacy of identity, language and culture appear throughout the standards and their elaborations, alongside working with community and wh¯anau, not just working with children. There is reference to the self-determination agenda, with the phrase ‘M¯aori achieving success as M¯aori echoed in the elaboration of the ‘Teaching’ standard. ‘Design for learning’ is elaborated with “Design and plan culturally responsive, evidence-based approaches that reflect the local community and Te Tiriti o Waitangi partnership in New Zealand’ (Teaching Council 2017, p.20). With the abolition of National Standards in 2017, there was a return to the original intention of the New Zealand curriculum for Englishmedium schools—that each school should re-interpret the curriculum for their local area and students’ needs. This intention is reflected in the Standards, which list skills, knowledge and attitudes necessary for this work in the elaboration of each Standard. The ITE Programme Approval, Monitoring and Review Requirements (Teaching Council 2019) follow these trends. While the document is presented in English, it contains M¯aori terms and concepts throughout. The Code and Standards are embedded at the heart of the requirements, being the central reference point for the assessment of ITE programmes. The requirements build on this to mandate attainment of the graduate-level goals of T¯ataiako (Teaching Council 2011) and Tapas¯a (Ministry of Education 2018), Ministry of Education documents that provide descriptors of culturally responsive practice for M¯aori and Pacific peoples respectively. They also mandate explicit responses to the NELP (Ministry of Education 2020c) and that graduates can devise ‘local curriculum’ (Teaching Council 2019, p. 16). Partnership with M¯aori, via iwi (tribal) or hap¯u (local M¯aori groups) is required for all ITE programmes. The Standards have to be ‘unpacked’ by each ITE provider, outlining local contexts and emphases consistent with their conceptual frameworks and local imperatives. However, behind these very visible local features can be seen global trends and ideas that have entered the Aotearoa New Zealand context through Our Code, Our Standards (Teaching Council 2017) and the ITE Programme Approval, Monitoring and Review Requirements (Teaching Council 2019).

Evidence of International Policy Influences on Aotearoa New Zealand ITE Policy The term Global Education Reform Movement (GERM) (Sahlberg 2011; Ellis et al. 2019) defines a cluster of neo-liberal policy responses to education that build on the logic that education is the engine of economic growth, better outcomes can be measured by competitive international testing and teacher quality is a leverage point on student performance and enhanced social and economic outcomes. Teacher

122

F. Ell

education is critically placed to ‘produce’ the teachers that the system needs in this framework: teachers that can overcome economic and social inequities through their practice, by driving improvements in student outcomes, especially on comparative measures of literacy, numeracy and scientific literacy (Ellis et al. 2019). In this framework, the best way to improve teacher education is to create a market, because a market will ensure innovation, options and competition, which will in turn increase quality (Hardy et al. 2020). Cochran-Smith and Fries (2008) chart the ways in which teacher education has been problematised in public discourse and research since its inception in the USA in the early twentieth century. Since the 1990s, Cochran-Smith and Fries (2008) describe teacher education as a ‘policy problem’, where “improving teacher education was conceptualised as a matter of identifying and implementing cost effective, outcomes-focused policies” (p. 1052). The ITE Programme Approval, Monitoring and Review Requirements (Teaching Council 2019) are an example of this: an attempt to move teacher education paradigmatically, using policy as the lever. The key international policy trends that are present in Our Code, Our Standards (Teaching Council 2017) and the ITE Programme Approval, Monitoring and Review Requirements (Teaching Council 2019) are: – The introduction of employment-based pathways – Opening the market for ITE, allowing new providers to enter, including schools, clusters of schools, and private entities, thereby providing more choice and diverse pathways into teaching – Requiring evidence of coherence between theory and practice, explicitly describing a ‘divide’ between the two – The ‘turn towards practice’ with an increase in mandated time in schools and requirements for ‘authentic’ partnership over entry procedures, course content, practicum assessment and suitability to graduate – Strengthened entry requirements in literacy and numeracy – A shift to exit requirements/performance assessment rather than judging programme quality or inputs, with an emphasis on ‘classroom readiness’ – Signalling a move to postgraduate teacher preparation in the future The ITE Programme Approval, Monitoring and Review Requirements (Teaching Council 2019) are most relevant here, as they represent the means by which the Teaching Council aims to regulate ITE so that graduates can enact the Code and Standards. In looking for ways to develop graduates who can enact equitable practice, support M¯aori aspirations, work in ways that are consistent with Te Tiriti o Waitangi and collaborate with diverse communities, the ITE Programme Approval, Monitoring and Review Requirements (Teaching Council 2019) embed (Ozga and Jones 2006) and internalise (Phillip and Ochs 2003) international policy trends. Formal employment-based routes into teaching began with the trial of ‘Teach First New Zealand’, a branch of ‘Teach for All’, in 2012. The 2019 Requirements include employment-based ITE for the first time, opening up the path for other employmentbased programmes to be developed. The rhetoric of bringing a range of people into the teaching profession is used to encourage innovative qualifications, and the shift to evaluating programme outputs means that programmes can now take any form that

9 Teacher Education Policy in Aotearoa New Zealand: Global Trends …

123

leads to graduates who can enact the Code and Standards. The 2019 ITE requirements policy was developed during a period of under-supply of teachers, and like the policies developed in previous periods of under-supply (Alcorn 2014; O’Neill 2017) seeks to relax constraints on providers so that teacher education options become less uniform, and attract different groups of people for whom the common pathways are not palatable or possible. To this end, a 20-year moratorium on the development of new programmes was lifted, re-opening a marketplace for teacher education. The relationship between ITE and schools is emphasised in the ITE Programme Approval, Monitoring and Review Requirements (Teaching Council 2019). Drawing from a commissioned review of ‘high quality practica’ (Whatman and McDonald 2017), the requirements reflect the features of quality practica identified in the international literature: close partnership with schools, explicit attention to coherence between programmes and schools and effective integration of theory and practice. In addition, and without evidence, the requirements extended the mandated length of practica by 10 days in one year programmes and 20 days in three year programmes. ITE providers are also required to have ‘authentic partnership’ input (not consultation) on entry procedures, course content, programme structure and assessment. These requirements ask more of schools, and require providers to persuade schools to give time and energy to partnership, but without reasonable resources being put into the system to support this activity. Recent ITE reforms in Australia (Hardy et al. 2020; Mayer 2014) have echoes in the ITE Programme Approval, Monitoring and Review Requirements (Teaching Council 2019). Increased literacy and numeracy standards for prospective teacher candidates is an international trend (Hardy et al. 2020) that appears in the Aotearoa New Zealand requirements as pre-entry testing at university entrance level. How this is done and what the test is, is still up to providers, unlike the national testing scheme in Australia. Similarly, exit assessment tasks are mandated in the new Aotearoa New Zealand requirements, echoing the ‘teacher performance assessment’ required in Australia, but in a softer version, with more provider control and less oversight—and less stringent requirements of the test’s performance. The two summative assessments in the ITE Programme Approval, Monitoring and Review Requirements (Teaching Council 2019) are illustrative of the overall position of this policy in relation to overseas and local policy influences. The assessments are both representative of global trends and discourses, but inflected, ‘mutated’ (Hardy, Jakhelln and Smit 2020), embedded (Ozga and Jones 2006) or internalised (Phillip and Ochs 2003) for the Aotearoa New Zealand context. Each programme needs to develop two summative assessments, which are the ‘key teaching tasks’ and ‘cumulative integrative assessment’. Key teaching tasks are a response to the international ‘graduates must be classroom ready’ discourse. The key teaching tasks are a list of things that beginning teachers can be entrusted to do independently and effectively from their first days as beginning teachers. They must be developed with school partners, and thus also represent the turn towards practice and the practical that is evident globally. The ‘cumulative integrative assessment’ is an echo of a teacher performance assessment task of the type found in Australia or in the USA (Charteris 2019). A counterbalance to the reductionist nature of the key

124

F. Ell

teaching tasks, which must be discrete and observable, the cumulative integrative task must reflect the complexity of teaching. The task can take a range of forms, and is designed by the provider, but it has to contain an oral component, and it has to be based on a “open-ended, authentic practice situation…that requires synthesis of learning (cognitive and affective) from across the programme” (Teaching Council 2019, p. 32). Its purpose is to help judge readiness to teach at the end of the teacher education programme, so it is positioned in the same place as a teacher performance assessment, and it contains the same type of material—evidence of authentic practice and attainment of standards. However it does not have the same emphasis on measurement rigour, and evaluating the efficacy of the cumulative integrative assessment to test teacher readiness is left to programme approval processes that are carried out by panels of teacher educators and members of the teaching profession and education community. The centrality of Te Tiriti o Waitangi to the Standards and Code means that both the key teaching tasks and the cumulative integrative assessment put overseas discourses and assessment methods into the Aotearoa New Zealand context, showing how ideas are filtered through local conditions to produce initial teacher education that is “resolutely national in (its) organisation and dispositions” (Menter .la te 2017, p.2).

Responding to the Policies: Research Into How Ite Programmes Respond to Te Tiriti O Waitangi and Racism The local elements of Our Code, Our Standards (Teaching Council 2017) and the ITE Programme Approval, Monitoring and Review Requirements (Teaching Council 2019) challenge ITE providers to engage deeply with Te Tiriti o Waitangi and with M¯aori - and with how to provide teacher candidates with experiences that will develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to teach in ways that are not racist and do not perpetuate inequity. Two particular programmes of research and development focused on partnership with M¯aori and Te Tiriti o Waitangi in ITE have been reported in the literature: one from the University of Canterbury (Te Whare Wananga o Waitaha)(Clarke, Macfarlane and Macfarlane 2018; Fickel et al. 2018; Heng, Quinliven and du Plessis 2019) and the other from Victoria University of Wellington (Te Herenga Waka) (Averill and McRae 2019; McRae and Averill 2019). Both programmes of development and research begin by challenging the ‘Eurocentric limitations’ (Averill and McRae 2019, p. 299) of thinking about ITE programme’s structures and methods, and recognising that “culturally sustaining teacher education is limited by historically Eurocentric policy and programme design” (Averill and McRae 2019, p. 294). In this way they shift the discourse back from the global to the local, recognising the primacy and potential of indigenous M¯aori frameworks and world views to shape ITE that really addresses Aotearoa New Zealand’s need for teachers who can work in culturally

9 Teacher Education Policy in Aotearoa New Zealand: Global Trends …

125

responsive (Clarke, Mcfarlane and Macfarlane 2018) and sustaining (Averill and McRae 2019) ways. Averill and McRae (2019) and McRae and Averill (2019) discuss the use of a four level framework to evaluate ITE programme responses to M¯aori and Te Tiriti o Waitangi. They point out that it is possible to make only superficial responses to the challenge of Our Code, Our Standards (Teaching Council 2017) and the ITE Programme Approval, Monitoring and Review Requirements (Teaching Council 2019) and that reforming, transforming and representative responses are harder to create and sustain within Eurocentric frames. Their ITE programme examples tease out what it means to transform ITE based on indigenous ways of knowing rather than just add on or accommodate ideas into a fundamentally Western structure. The joint development (between local M¯aori iwi and ITE staff) of a framework (known as Poutama, meaning staircase) to describe progress in culturally responsive practice at the University of Canterbury is at the heart of re-orienting ITE programmes there towards Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the aspirations of M¯aori (Clarke, Macfarlane and Macfarlane 2018; Fickel et al. 2018). In addition, participatory cultural experiences that build confidence and competence are integral to the ITE programme at the University of Canterbury. Fickel et al. (2018) describe the Poutama as a “sensitising conceptual framework that enables pre-service teachers to positively engage” (p. 287), emphasising the importance of pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards this work as they continue their careers. These two programmes of research, and the ITE developments that they explore, are illustrative of how teacher education is taking up the new policy documents and their requirements. The primacy of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in Our Code, Our Standards (Teaching Council 2017) and the new requirement of testing and progressing competence in te reo M¯aori and tikanga M¯aori (Teaching Council 2019) are shaping ITE programme frameworks and structures in a way that make them intensely local. While the Our Code, Our Standards (Teaching Council 2017) and the ITE Programme Approval, Monitoring and Review Requirements (Teaching Council 2019) contain significant elements from global discourses, teacher educators and researchers are taking up the local elements of the policies as spaces for research and development.

Conclusions ITE is often positioned as a service that ‘provides’ teachers to the education system, but is somehow separate from it In fact, ITE is an integral part of the education system, with a wide range of interdependencies with many parts of the system: from national policy making and knowledge generation through research, to relationships with schools, teachers, students and communities (Ell et al. 2019). The embedded nature of ITE means that it is shaped by many forces within the education system, not just by instruments of policy or overseas trends. ITE takes place day-to-day in local communities, and the increasing focus on local curriculum (Teaching Council 2019) and place-based pedagogies as decolonising practices (Chan and Ritchie 2020) mean

126

F. Ell

that teacher educators, in their research and practice, are turning towards the local concerns of racism and the dishonouring of Te Tiriti o Waitangi that are repeatedly identified as underpinning inequity in education in Aotearoa New Zealand. Gunn and Trevethan (2019) outline how ITE in Aotearoa New Zealand has been constructed as a problem requiring policy interventions, focusing on the last two decades. Their analysis presents research evidence from Aotearoa New Zealand that belies some of the problems identified in the policy space: disconnection between ITE and practice and the use of outdated pedagogies being two examples. They call for more attention to be paid to teacher education research in Aotearoa New Zealand when policy is developed. The emergence of ITE research that takes up the issues that are of significance to Aotearoa New Zealand, rather than global concerns about rankings, measuring effectiveness in terms of student scores or raising entry standards suggests a re-focusing on what matters here and now. Teacher educators’ privileging of the local in their ITE research and practice may help to shape the Aotearoa New Zealand education system towards more locally-informed and locally-derived solutions and away from global neoliberal discourses.

References Alcorn, N. (2014). Teacher education in New Zealand 1974–2014. Journal of Education for Teaching, 40(5), 447–460. Alison, J., & Aikin, S. (2013). Who should develop initial teacher education policy and why? Waikato Journal of Education, 18(1), 135–145. Averill, R., & McRae, H. (2019). Culturally sustaining initial teacher education: Developing student teacher confidence and competence to teach indigenous learners. The Educational Forum, 83(3), 294–308. Chan, A. & Ritchie, J. (2020). Responding to superdiversity whilst upholding Te Tiriti o Waitangi: Challenges for early childhood teacher education in Aotearoa New Zealand. In J. Fox et al. (Eds.). Teacher Education in Globalised Times. Springer: Singapore. Charteris, J. (2019). Teaching performance assessments in the USA and Australia: Implications of the ‘bar exam for the profession.’ International Journal of Comparative Education and Development, 21(4), 237–250. Clarke, T., Macfarlane, S. & Macfarlane, A. (2018). Integrating indigenous M¯aori frameworks to ignite understandings with initial teacher education – and beyond. In P. Whitinui (Ed.). Promising practices in indigenous teacher education. Springer: Singapore. Cochran-Smith, M., Ell, F., Grudnoff, L., Haigh, M., Hill, M., & Ludlow, L. (2016). Initial teacher education: What does it take to put equity at the center? Teaching and Teacher Education, 57, 67–78. Cochran-Smith, M., & Fries, K. (2008). Research on teacher education: Changing times, changing paradigms. In M. Cochran-Smith, S. Feiman-Nemser, D. J. McIntyre, & K. E. Demers (Eds.), Handbook of research on teacher education (3rd ed., pp. 1050–1093). Routledge. Ell, F., & Grudnoff, L. (2013). The politics of responsibility: Teacher education and ‘persistent underachievement’ in New Zealand. The Educational Forum, 77(1), 73–86. Ell, F., Simpson, A., Mayer, D. M., Davies, L., Clinton, J., & Dawson, G. (2019). Conceptualising the impact of initial teacher education. The Australian Educational Researcher, 46, 177–200.

9 Teacher Education Policy in Aotearoa New Zealand: Global Trends …

127

Ellis, V., Steadman, S., & Trippestad, T. (2019). Teacher education and the GERML polciy entrepreneurship, disruptive innovatio and the rhetorics of refrom. Educational Review, 71(1), 101–121. Fickel, L., Abbiss, J., Brown, L., & Astall, C. (2018). The importance of community knowledge in learning to teach: Foregrounding M¯aori cultural knowledge to support preservice teachers’ development of culturally responsive practice. Peabody Journal of Education, 93(3), 285–294. Gunn, A., & Trevethan, H. (2019). Constructing the problem of initial teacher education in Aotearoa New Zealand: Policy formation and risk, 2010–2018. New Zealand Annual Review of Education, 24, 5–20. Hardy, I., Jakhelln, R., & Smit, B. (2020). The policies and politics of teachers’ initial learning: The complexity of national initial teacher education policies. Teaching Education. https://doi.org/10. 1080/10476210.2020.1729115 Heng, L., Quinlivan, K., & du Plessis, R. (2019). Exploring the creation of a new initial teacher education programme underpinned by inclusion. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 23(10), 1017–1031. Lind, P. (2013). What are the characteristics of exemplary initial teacher education programmes in countries similar to Aotearoa New Zealand? Waikato Journal of Education, 18(1), 87–99. Mayer, D. (2014). Forty years of teacher education in Australia: 1974–2014. Journal of Education for Teaching, 40(5), 461–473. McRae, H., & Averill, R. (2019). Ensuring M¯aori success and inclusion of tea o¯ M¯aori through initial teacher education. New Zealand Annual Review of Education, 24, 160–176. Menter, I., Peters, M., & Cowie, B. (2017). A companion to research in teacher education. In M. Peters et al. (Eds.). A companion to research in teacher education. Springer: Singapore. Ministry of Education. (n.d.). National standards archives. https://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Arc hives/Assessment/National-Standards-archives. National Standards 2010 Ministry of Education. (2018). Tapas¯a. Ministry of Education: Wellington. Retrieved from https://teachingcouncil.nz/assets/Files/Tapasa/Tapasa-Cultural-Competencies-Frameworkfor-Teachers-of-Pacific-Learners-2019.pdf. Ministry of Education. (2019). Treat kids like they’re gold. Ministry of Education: Wellington. Retrieved from: https://conversation-space.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/EDC ONVO+ESP+0437+NELP+Consultation+Document-AW-web.pdf Ministry of Education. (2020a). Action plan for Pacific education 2020–2030. https://www.edu cation.govt.nz/our-work/overall-strategies-and-policies/action-plan-for-pacific-education-20202030/ Ministry of Education. (2020b). Ka Hikitia - Ka H¯apaitia. https://www.education.govt.nz/ourwork/overall-strategies-and-policies/ka-hikitia-ka-hapaitia/ka-hikitia-ka-hapaitia-the-maori-edu cation-strategy/ Ministry of Education. (2020c). National education learning priorities. https://conversation.educat ion.govt.nz/conversations/national-education-and-learning-priorities/ Office of the Children’s Commissioner. (2018). Education matters to me.: Key insights. https://www. occ.org.nz/assets/Uploads/OCC-STA-Education-Matters-to-Me-Key-Insights-24Jan2018.pdf O’Neill, J. (2017). A biographical experience of teacher education in Aotearoa New Zealand. European Journal of Teacher Education, 40(5), 589–600. Ozga, J., & Jones, R. (2006). Travelling and embedded policy: The case of knowledge transfer. Journal of Education Policy, 21(1), 1–17. Phillips, D., & Ochs, K. (2003). Processes of policy borrowing in education: Some explanatory and analytical devices. Comparative Education, 39(4), 451–461. Sahlberg, P. (2012). How GERM is infecting schools around the world? https://pasisahlberg.com/ text-test/ Statistics New Zealand (2020). Ethnic group summaries reveal New Zealand’s multicultural make up. https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/ethnic-group-summaries-reveal-new-zealands-multiculturalmake-up

128

F. Ell

Teaching Council. (2011). T¯ataiako. Ministry of Education: Wellington. Retrieved from https://tea chingcouncil.nz/assets/Files/Code-and-Standards/Tataiako-cultural-competencies-for-teachersof-Maori-learners.pdf Teaching Council (2017). Our code, our standards. Education Council: Wellington. Retrieved from: https://teachingcouncil.nz/sites/default/files/Our%20Code%20Our%20Standards%20web%20b ooklet%20FINAL.pdf Teaching Council (2019). ITE Programme approval, monitoring and review requirements. Teaching Council: Wellington. Retrieved from: https://teachingcouncil.nz/sites/default/files/ITE_Requir ements_FINAL_10April2019.pdf UNESCO. (2014). Teaching and learning: Achieving quality for all. UNESCO Publishing. Whatman, J. and MacDonald, J. (2017). High quality practica and the integration of theory and practice in initial teacher education. NZCER: Wellington.

Fiona Ell is an Associate Professor and Head of Initial Teacher Education in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland She began her career as a primary school teacher before moving into teacher education and research. Fiona’s research is concerned with how people learn in complex social settings, such as schools, universities and communities. She tries to keep her research focused on questions that will improve educational outcomes for all learners.

Chapter 10

Teacher Education in Northern Ireland: Policy, Practice and Pragmatism Linda Clarke and Paul McFlynn

Abstract This chapter will outline the policy and practice and infrastructural arrangements for teacher education in this small and contested corner of the United Kingdom, examining briefly how these continue to be influenced by a distinctive range of contextual factors and attempts to review and reform. Finally, it will bring the story up to date in respect of the challenges and potential legacies of expedient modifications of practice in teacher education during the COVID pandemic and cast an eye to the next one hundred years.

Introduction Whilst policy for Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in Northern Ireland (NI) is somewhat thin on the ground, reviews of teacher education, attempts to reshape both policy and infrastructure, are more commonplace. The gap between these two is very revealing of the essential nature of teacher education in this detached and devolved part of the UK. The geopolitical location of Northern Ireland is also significant in terms of policy borrowing/eschewal in this small (c.3 percent by population) part of the UK, which is geographically part of the Island of Ireland, but not within the independent nation of Ireland from which it has been partitioned by a contested 310-mile-long border, since 1921. As it approaches its contested centenary, Northern Ireland is a society still largely divided on roughly 50/50 basis on political, cultural and religious grounds between the Unionist/UK-facing/Protestant and the Nationalist/Ireland-facing/Catholic populations. This divide is the palimpsest that underlies all societal endeavours and is still widely reflected within modern day educational landscapes. The teacher education infrastructure largely reproduces these divisions and teacher education policy fragments have been pragmatically L. Clarke (B) · P. McFlynn Ulster University, Northern Ireland, UK e-mail: [email protected] P. McFlynn e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 D. Mayer (ed.), Teacher Education Policy and Research, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3775-9_10

129

130

L. Clarke and P. McFlynn

borrowed/eschewed along both west–east (NI-UK) and north–south (NI-Ireland) axes at various times throughout this unsettled century (Farren et al. 2019). This chapter will begin by outlining current policy and infrastructural arrangements before examining the outcomes of the most recent reviews of teacher education which have become ensnared within the distinctive local political context. The chapter will then move to examine the position of education research, the work of the unique cross border network for teacher education, the Standing Conference on Teacher Education, North and South (Clarke et al. 2020) and the potential of the Learning Leaders strategy (DE 2016) for Teacher Professional Development. The chapter will conclude more speculatively by pondering the balance between the ephemeral and enduring impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic on ITE. Responses to the pandemic have shown some potential for agile and collaborative responsiveness within a relatively small, divided, yet stable system. ITE courses in Northern Ireland are approved by the Department of Education (DE, who decide on the size of student quotas for these courses), funded via the Department for the Economy (DfE, as part of higher education provision) and accredited by the General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland (GTCNI) based on evidence from inspections by the Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI). Course approval allows ITE providers to offer programmes, the successful completion of which entitles individuals to seek registration with the GTCNI. The Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) that provide ITE courses are required to undertake a self-evaluation process against a framework of quality indicators agreed jointly by the ETI, the GTCNI and the ITE providers. Courses are audited and quality-assured by the ETI (DE Circular 2010). Distinctively, teacher education partnerships between schools and HEIs are arranged on a voluntary basis around a handbook that provides guidance for each partner (DE 2010). GTCNI was created in 1998, and whilst it has not suffered the abolition which befell the Teaching Council for England and Wales during the Conservative-Liberal Coalition Government’s deregulatory ‘bonfire of the quangos’ (Page 2013), neither has it moved to a fuller version of independent regulatory and professional body status, akin to the older General Teaching Council for Scotland which was established in 1965 (Weir 2001) or the Teaching Council for Ireland (TCI) which was established in 2006 (TTC 2007). GTCNI has not yet acquired the intended position of complete independence from the Department of Education, nor has it developed a fully operational regulatory role. In addition to the registration of teachers, its main contribution to ITE has been the articulation of a distinctive vision for the profession in its Code of Values and Professional Practice, Teaching: The Reflective Profession (GTCNI 2011). This document includes a competence framework consisting of 27 competence statements, divided into three areas: Professional Values and Practice; Professional Knowledge and Understanding; and Professional Skills and Application which are specified across the initial, early career and continuous professional development phases of a teacher’s career. Ambitiously cast in this document as reflective activists, Northern Ireland’s teachers are tasked to act inter alia as researchers and change agents (GTCNI 2011, p.9). This chapter demonstrates, it is hard to tell which aspiration presents the larger, most important or most implausible challenge.

10 Teacher Education in Northern Ireland: Policy, Practice and Pragmatism

131

Teacher Education Courses All ITE courses in Northern Ireland are based in universities or university colleges. There are no school-based routes (of the kinds which have developed rapidly in recent years in England) and no private provision, akin to that run by Hibernia College in Dublin in which most teaching is done online and for which there is no government quota for student places (unlike HEI-based provision). Hibernia is the largest provider of primary phase teacher education in Ireland. Teacher Education in Northern Ireland is led by the local Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University (at its Coleraine Campus, the only course provision outside Belfast) offer one-year Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) courses for post-primary curriculum subjects, distributing the subject range between them, with the exception of English which is offered in both universities. Ulster provides the only PGCE for primary phase teaching, which is heavily oversubscribed, attracting several times as many applicants as there are places (currently 33). St Mary’s College and Stranmillis College in Belfast which is affiliated to Queen’s University mainly offer heavily oversubscribed four-year Bachelor of Education (BEd) courses and, whilst the university provision is ‘integrated’, drawing students from across the religious divide in Northern Ireland, the colleges are, in effect, mostly segregated with St Mary’s students mostly drawn from the Catholic/Nationalist population and Stranmillis from the Protestant/Unionist population. The two colleges have the lion’s share of the student quota with the more heavily research-intensive universities sharing just 20 percent of the allocation. This arrangement is a marked contrast to both the UK and Ireland—these types of colleges have ceased to exist in many countries, including England, Scotland and Wales, but not fully in Ireland, where, following recent reviews, just two such colleges remain, both in the Catholic sector (Marino Institute of Education in Dublin and Mary Immaculate College, Limerick). As is discussed elsewhere in this volume, there has been somewhat of a bifurcation in the nature of teacher education provision across the globe. Postgraduate, masters level, research-based/led/informed course provision, led by universities, is prevalent in countries such as Finland, Norway and Ireland, (Afdal and Nerland 2014; Madali´nska-Michalak et al. 2018). By contrast, an increasing deregulation and diversification of provision (led by private colleges and schools) is the case in parts of the United States (Zeichner 2014; Burn and Mutton 2016), whilst in England, school-led provision is increasingly prevalent. Northern Ireland has not moved in either of these directions. This is despite the fact that the most recent review of teacher education recommended a masters level, research-based route (DfE 2014).

Reviews of Teacher Education Over the past 50 years, teacher education in Northern Ireland has undergone a series of reviews (Farren, Clarke and O’Doherty 2019) which have only brought about

132

L. Clarke and P. McFlynn

relatively minor changes to policy and practice. Often these reviews have become caught up in political debates along the sectarian political divide, which has been characterised as Northern Ireland’s Wicked Problem (Rittel and Weber 1973). This was the case with the most recent two-phase review, despite the fact that it was established by the Department for the Economy, whose minister was, crucially, not affiliated to either of the two main political parties (the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Fein) who between them wield most power within the devolved, consociationalist Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont (Birrell and Heenan 2017). Minister Stephen Farry of the Alliance Party was, however, in favour of more integrated approaches to schooling and teacher education, as found in the universities but not in the university colleges. The first phase of the review was a financial review of infrastructure, conducted by the consultancy firm Grant Thornton (DfE 2013) which established inter alia, that the costs of ITE provision in St Mary’s and Stranmillis Colleges were higher per student teacher than those in the rest of the UK, due to the payment of premia for small institutions which is received by the colleges. However, it should be noted that the costs of teacher education in England have increased substantially in recent years because of the introduction of bursaries for subject areas with teacher shortages (DE 2020). The second stage of the review was conducted by an international expert panel (DfE 2014) chaired by Pasi Sahlberg. It made recommendations for changes to the infrastructure and also emphasised research-based teacher education, pointing towards research-based, masters level provision, citing the seminal BERA-RSA Inquiry into The Role of Research in Teacher Education (2014). Both universities are research-intensive institutions. Whilst research is not such a priority in the colleges, Stranmillis has, in recent years, become more research-focused relative to St Mary’s which has championed its focus on teaching. The recommendations of this review have never been implemented due to the political turmoil which ensued around the proposed infrastructural changes. The panel put forward four proposals, each aimed at increasing collaboration and recognising the ‘importance of the historic context of Northern Ireland society and its continuing diversity’ (DfE 2014, p.43) by respecting the role of the different faith traditions. The report emphasised that the ‘existing infrastructure of teacher education in N Ireland is currently too fragmented to deliver the changes that are necessary’ (ibid, p.47). The first proposal was that ITE would continue to be provided by all four providers but that there would be an enhanced partnership between St Mary’s, Stranmillis and QUB. A condition of the funding grant to all three institutions would be that they were required to work more closely together. Ulster University would continue its provision in the North West. The second option was the creation of a two-centre model whereby there would be two main centres for teacher education in Northern Ireland. One of these would be based at Ulster University in the North West and the other would be an Institute of Education in Belfast. The Institute would comprise of St Mary’s, Stranmillis and QUB and whilst St Mary’s and Stranmillis would continue to exist in their current locations, all academic staff would be transferred to the Institute. The third option was the creation of a Northern Ireland Initial Teacher Education Federation. This Federation would be entrusted with ‘the responsibility of ensuring that the various

10 Teacher Education in Northern Ireland: Policy, Practice and Pragmatism

133

institutions achieved greater efficiency through the rationalisation of provision whilst at the same time driving-up quality to world-class standards’ (Ibid, p.53). Whilst each institution would retain their individual ‘ethos and mission’, this would be within a common framework of provision where a focus on reducing duplication and an increase in cross-institution collaboration in the planning and design of programmes would lead to greater efficiency. The fourth option was the establishment of a single institute of education which would have a single budget, a single suite of academic programmes and a single set of academic and support staff who would be responsible for the coordination and provision of ITE and in-service provision across the whole of Northern Ireland. In response to the review panel’s report, however, both the DUP and Sinn Fein united (across the political divide) to dissent and to defend the continuance of the status quo, in particular, the sustained funding of St Mary’s and Stranmillis Colleges. The review also recommended that an agency or body be established that is concerned with the strategic direction of teacher education in Northern Ireland, but even this most pragmatic collaborative affordance has not been developed, as yet. The Nationalist/Unionist political divide also feeds into the complex pattern of school types that have developed in Northern Ireland across its highly divided and intermittently violent one-hundred-year history. The partisan Unionist dominant regimes which existed until the 1970s produced enormous inequalities in the distribution of power and of state-funded resources. In this context, Catholic schools may have been seen as a way to ensure that there was denominational education, but also, crucially, that Catholic/Nationalist pupils had access to high quality education which would permit the creation of a Catholic/Nationalist middle class. Broadly, schools are still divided on religious grounds, (Hansson and Roulston 2020) and, in the post-primary sector, also by academic ability, as assessed by private exams— two separate exams (broadly, for Protestant and Catholic schools) which replaced the single government 11 + exams which were abolished in 2008. The Integrated Education movement has led to the creation of Integrated Schools which draw their pupils from across the religious-political divide and also from across the ability range (with the exception of the oldest post-primary Integrated School, Lagan College which has recently begun to select 35 percent of its students on the basis of academic ability). Integrated schools attract 7 percent of the school population. In Ireland, the Educate Together movement has created schools that are open to pupils from all backgrounds at time of considerable secularisation when denominational schools are declining in numbers and influence (Educate Together 2011). Extending Northern Ireland’s Integrated Schools further would require a considerable infrastructural reform, working against the political tide which, on both extremes of the political divide, is largely in support of denominational schools. The more recently developed Shared Education approach was designed to permit ‘sharing’ of teaching and learning experiences between denominational schools across the religious divides. It may be viewed as maintaining the status quo, or alternatively, as being a pragmatic response to parental preferences for schooling. Recent work by Milliken et al. (2019) has investigated employment patterns of graduate teachers whose employment is exempt from fair employment legislation and

134

L. Clarke and P. McFlynn

who mostly find employment in those schools which match their denominational backgrounds. The communal divisions which are embedded in schooling and in teacher education have also had considerable impacts on the funding, focus and scope of educational research.

Educational Research The political divides within schooling are linked to those in HEI provision for ITE with the colleges supporting a Shared Education approach whilst the student– teacher cohorts in both universities are integrated. Two recent academic papers; by Gardner (2016), presenting an acerbic deconstruction, and Hagan and Eaton, (2020), presenting a relative homage to the status quo, are revealing of the political gulf that divides the teacher education landscape. It is notable that the latter paper does not cite the former. However, education research in the two local universities manifests its own Shared Education/Integrated Education divide, which plays out in the funding and focus of education research. The development of both Integrated Education and Shared Education have been supported by both university research and by very considerable amounts of US philanthropical funding from The Atlantic Philanthropies and the International Fund for Ireland (Borooah and Knox 2015). The UNESCO Chair (Smith) at Ulster has been successful in obtaining considerable funding from the philanthropists and from the philanthropically funded Council for Integrated Education. The Shared Education project was developed in Queens University Belfast and has also been sustained largely by US philanthropic funding. This divide has had a considerable impact on the focus of education research in Northern Ireland. Millions of dollars of philanthropic funding for research have been poured into each side of the Integrated/Shared divide, sustaining eminent academic careers and prominence on a local and global scale for this work. The generous philanthropic funding for research in education is to be welcomed for its contribution to peace building but also because academics working in both universities are increasingly pressed to acquire funding in the increasingly marketised higher education system in the UK (Ball 2016). However, it is pertinent to question opportunity costs—how useful this funding might have been in supporting research and researchers in the many other areas of education where their insights are needed, not least along the other major faultline (Gardner 2016) in education in Northern Ireland, around academic selection at 11 and its concomitant socio-economic causes and effects (Carlin 2003). Philanthropists, however, are rarely concerned to challenge these types of socioeconomic inequality (Giridharadas 2018; Reich 2018), nor are the powerful middle classes in NI who can afford to purchase extra tutoring for their children who most benefit from the grammar school system. The figures for pupils’ entitlement to Free Schools Meals (FSM) are revealing of the socio-economic divide: 51.7% in special schools, 37.8% in non-grammar and 13.7% in grammar schools (NISRA 2020). Other important parts of the field, such as teacher education,

10 Teacher Education in Northern Ireland: Policy, Practice and Pragmatism

135

have likewise been relatively disadvantaged in relation to the funding which might have been used to build a broader and stronger education research base for Northern Ireland. Such wide-reaching support is, by contrast, right at the heart of SCoTENS, (the Standing Conference on Teacher Education, North and South) a unique scholarly, professional organisation operating across a contested border (Clarke et al. 2020). Formed following the signing of the Good Friday/Belfast peace treaty in 1998, the organisation has had a pivotal role in supporting research in teacher education across the island. Now in its 18th year, SCoTENS runs an annual cross-border student– teacher exchange, an annual conference (which brings eminent keynote speakers to the island) and, most importantly, an annual seed funding competition for education research projects. Project teams must comprise members from both sides of the border. There have been over 120 of these projects to date, many leading to further funding bids and joint publications in peer-reviewed international journals. The organisation has, until recently, been jointly funded by government departments on either side of the border and by members (HEIs, CPD providers, Teaching Council Curriculum Authorities and Teachers Unions), but in 2017, citing austeritydriven cutbacks and in the absence of a government minister (the NI Assembly had been suspended) the DE and DfE in Northern Ireland unilaterally (in terms of the North–South funding arrangements) removed their funding. The SCoTENS committee (made up of senior institutional representatives) has been lobbying hard for a reversal of this decision and has managed to retain a reduced array of its most important activities, notwithstanding the currently lopsided funding model. This chapter began by noting a paucity of policy in teacher education, but there has been one potentially important recent development in the form of the Learning Leaders Strategy (DE 2016). The strategy frames Teacher Professional Learning (TPL) across teachers’ career trajectories, based around a professional learning framework, greater collaboration and an emphasis on improving leadership. Despite the lack of funding for the planned 10-year roll out, working groups have been rewriting the GTCNI Teacher Competences (unpublished as yet), considering how the highest standards may best be identified and maintained within TPL provision and considering the key principles which should underlie the planned TPL framework: a balance between teacher autonomy and accountability, continuity from ITE, through Induction and into TPL and better collaboration between the various stakeholders to support a research informed profession (Clarke and Galanouli 2019). That recent disputes between employers and teaching unions have been resolved is also a cause for optimism (Education Authority 2019). The Learning Leaders Strategy roll out plan has, of necessity, been interrupted by the COVID19 pandemic in 2020. The chapter will conclude by looking at some of the ways in which teacher education has been changed—changed utterly, or merely altered expediently—by this global disruption.

136

L. Clarke and P. McFlynn

Teacher Education During the Pandemic—Pragmatics and Lasting Impacts? The introduction of lockdown in March 2020 resulted in the cessation of school placements for all BEd and PGCE students in N Ireland. Teacher education teams from the four ITE providers were quickly involved in consultation and negotiation with DE, ETI and GTCNI. It was agreed that each provider would implement alternative methods of assessment that would permit student teachers to meet the respective module learning outcomes and complete their courses, based on the competence in school experience which had been demonstrated by that stage. As the beginning of the new academic year of 2020–21 approached, it was clear that the move to mainly online teaching would entail a number of further challenges and constraints (Carrillo and Flores 2020), particularly for practice-based subjects such as Physical Education, Technology and Design, Music, Home Economics, Art and Design and the Sciences. Whilst the forced transition from face-to-face teaching to ‘emergency remote teaching’ (Bozkurt and Sharma 2020) saw each institution adapt as best they could, practitioners recognised the need to move beyond emergency online practices and develop online teaching and learning experiences of the highest quality (Hodges et al. 2020). The initial changes were deemed necessary to protect the health and well-being of staff and students but it is too early to tell whether they have adversely impacted the educational experience of student teachers (Flores and Gago 2020). The other key changes relate to the disruptions to the distinctively voluntary teacher education partnerships in Northern Ireland where schools are not paid for their role in teacher education and can reject a placement request. In addition, class teachers are informal mentors for student teachers and do not have a formal assessment role. The challenges which schools faced during the pandemic meant that placements were more difficult to secure—quite often teacher tutors utilised their personal links with schools to help administrative staff secure these placements. Again, all four providers consulted with DE, GTCNI and ETI around a number of contingency plans. The main issue to consider in relation to classroom observation was the situation where a HEI tutor had to self-isolate for 14 days and thus could not visit a school to assess a student’s practice. It was agreed that in the absence of direct observation, staff could observe lessons live via the use of cameras such as the Swivl camera technology (McCoy et al. 2018) first deployed by Ulster University. To ensure a simpler and more consistent approach to student assessment against the teaching competences, it was agreed that each competence would be assessed at one of three levels. Each provider expressed concerns about the technicist nature of this approach. It is interesting but perhaps, far-fetched, as yet, to speculate as to whether such approaches, coupled with an emphasis on remote teaching, might open the door to the more extensive uses of technology, particularly the promise of personalised learning powered by Artificial Intelligence, which is explored by Neil Selwyn (this year’s SCoTENS Webinar Keynote Speaker) in his latest book, Should Robots Replace Teachers? One might further speculate as to the potential for class teacher assessment to become part of the formal assessment process for student teachers on placement. These

10 Teacher Education in Northern Ireland: Policy, Practice and Pragmatism

137

collaboratively negotiated and pragmatic disruptions of long-standing practice may have the potential to challenge and change long-standing partnership arrangements for teacher education. Whilst there has been an impressively agile collaboration between providers during the pandemic, made easier by the small number of institutions involved, an important divergence has also developed which may have some lasting repercussions. Admission to the four-year BEd courses in the colleges in 2020 has been substantially expanded following the decision to award A-Level students their teacher-predicted grades (examinations were cancelled due to the pandemic). This meant that St Mary’s and Stranmillis had a higher number of applicants who met the required entry grades. In order to ensure that no applicants were disadvantaged, each college was allocated extra student places. This change has wider systemic implications because both institutions will need to receive this extra funding for the next four years, thus creating further imbalance in the distribution of funding for teacher education between the universities and the colleges. Flores and Gago (2020) have highlighted that for student teachers the experiences of learning to teach during the pandemic were diverse and resulted in ‘inequalities in terms of opportunities to learn’ (p.8). They emphasised that the expedient responsiveness of the system may contribute to the view that teachers are ‘mere doers’ who simply do ‘what works’, as opposed to being committed professionals whose practice and pedagogical actions are research-informed. If this is to be the legacy of COVID19 in teacher education, and if it is coupled by a further skewing of course funding away from the universities, a global pandemic may lead to unintended distortions in provision. The changes to practice may also have lasting impacts on pedagogy and on partnerships. Boin et al. (2010) have highlighted the unique opportunity that crises provide for reshaping and reforming organisations, suggesting that the extent of organisational learning after a crisis is not yet well understood or researched. The importance of taking the time to learn from crises has also been emphasised (Deverell 2011).

Conclusion This chapter has presented a picture of ITE in Northern Ireland which recruits successfully to a highly esteemed profession, which has been agile and cooperative in its research foci and in its response to the pandemic, even whilst working within a system which might be viewed as divisive, or alternatively, as one which is well matched to the needs of a divided society. As Northern Ireland approaches the centenary of its creation in 2021, education is currently a ‘devolved matter’ – it is under the control of the Northern Ireland Assembly in Belfast (rather than the Westminster government in London). The Assembly reconvened in January 2020, following a three-year suspension, and the Minister returned to his post with considerable gusto, promising review and reform. The New Decade, New Approach document (NI Assembly 2020) which outlines the priorities of the reconvened Assembly

138

L. Clarke and P. McFlynn

promises a thoroughgoing independent review of education—a footnote suggests that Initial Teacher Education (ITE) will be included in this review. Teacher educators might be forgiven for seeing this promise as merely more of the same—there have been many reviews over the past century, but little has changed. The Learning Leaders strategy has, however, got some potential to be important in picking up the baton of reform which had been cast aside amidst the local political maelstrom, but this may depend on the democratic freight and funding which can be brought to bear for the greater good of education in Northern Ireland. It may be that the disruptions brought about by the pandemic can point to the potential for changes in teacher education policy and practice, particularly around the pedagogy and partnerships which are central to both policy and practice. Local education research can help to separate the ephemeral from the lasting and the genuinely useful from the merely pragmatic in a period when learning rather than politics has been an all too unusual priority. Biesta makes a useful connection between education research professionals and democracy. He sees democracy as a deliberative and educative process of collective needs identification that can establish what should have authority in our collective lives (Biesta 2020, p. 116). How much better it might be if decisions about the future of ITE in Northern Ireland were to be informed by relationships of authority which are built on the collective definition of needs rather than the partial priorities of embedded power bases.

References Afdal, H., & Nerland, M. (2014). Does teacher education matter? An analysis of relations to knowledge among Norwegian and Finnish novice teachers. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 58(3), 281–299. Ball, S. J. (2016). Neoliberal education? Confronting the slouching beast. Policy Futures in Education, 14(8), 1046–1059. BERA-RSA (2014). Research and the Teaching Profession. Final Report of the BERA-RSA Inquiry. London: British Educational Research Association. Biesta, G. (2020). Educational research, An unorthodox introduction. London: Bloomsbury. Birrell, D., & Heenan, D. (2017). The continuing volatility of devolution in Northern Ireland: The shadow of direct rule. The Political Quarterly, 88(3), 473–479. Boin, A., Kuipers, S., & Overdijk, W. (2013). Leadership in times of crisis: A framework for assessment. International Review of Public Administration, 18(1), 79–91. Borooah, V., & Knox, C. (2015). The economics of schooling in a divided society: The case for shared education. Palgrave Macmillan. Bozkurt, A., & Sharma, R. C. (2020). Emergency remote teaching in a time of global crisis due to CoronaVirus pandemic. Asian Journal of Distance Education, 15(1), i–vi. Burn, K., & Mutton, T. (2015). A review of ‘research-informed clinical practice’ in initial teacher education. Oxford Review of Education, 41(2), 217–233. Carlin, J. (2003). The Northern Ireland Selective System: a Wind of Change Author(s): Jacqueline Carlin Source. The Irish Journal of Education / Iris Eireannach an Oideachais , 34, 15–29 https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/30077484.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A79302aabe8 ab453b1627a0444a1434bc

10 Teacher Education in Northern Ireland: Policy, Practice and Pragmatism

139

Carrillo, C., & Flores, M. A. (2020). COVID-19 and teacher education: A literature review of online teaching and learning practices. European Journal of Teacher Education, 43(4), 466–487. https:// doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2020.1821184 Clarke, L., Galvin, C., Campbell, M., Cowan, P., Hall, K., Magennis, G., et al. (2020). Assessing the Value of SCOTENS as a Cross-Border Professional Learning Network in Ireland using the Wenger-Trayner value-creation framework. Oxford Review of Education, 47, 1. Clarke and Galanouli (2019). The Teacher Professional Framework UCETNI Project. https://www. ulster.ac.uk/research/topic/education/our-research/current-research-projects Department for Education (2020). Initial teacher training bursaries funding manual: 2020–2021 academic year https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/initial-teacher-training-itt-bursaryfunding-manual/initial-teacher-training-bursaries-funding-manual-2020-to-2021-academic-year Department for the Economy (Formerly the Department for Employment and Learning, DEL) (2013). Study of the Teacher Education Infrastructure Stage 1, Grant Thornton. https://www.eco nomyni.gov.uk/articles/initial-teacher-education#toc-0 Department for the Economy (Formerly the Department for Employment and Learning, DEL) (2014). Study of the Teacher Education Infrastructure Stage 2 - Aspiring to Excellence: Final Report of the International Review Panel on the Structure of Initial Teacher Education. https://www.economyni.gov.uk/sites/default/files/publications/del/Structure%20of%20Init ial%20Teacher%20Education%20in%20Northern%20Ireland%20Final%20Report.pdf Department of Education (2010.) Circular 2010/03 - Initial Teacher Education: Approval of Programmes. https://www.education-ni.gov.uk/sites/default/files/publications/de/2010-03-ini tial-teacher-education-approval-of-programmes.pdf Department of Education (2010). The teacher education partnership handbook. https://www.edu cation-ni.gov.uk/articles/teacher-education-partnership-handbook Department of Education (2016). Learning Leaders Strategy. https://www.education-ni.gov.uk/art icles/teacher-professional-learning-strategy Deverell, E. (2011). Organizational learning from crisis. In A. DuBrin (Ed.), Handbook of research on crisis leadership in organizations (pp. 290–310). Edward Elgar Publishing. Educate Together (2011). Submission to the forum on Patronage and Pluralism. https://www.edu catetogether.ie/sites/default/files/patronage_forum_submission.pdf Education Authority, Northern Ireland (2020) “Agreement between Management and Trade Union Side of the Teachers’ Negotiating Committee.” https://www.eani.org.uk/sites/default/files/202004/Joint%20TNC%20Communication%20-%20Teachers%20%20Pay%20and%20Workload% 20Settlement%202017-19%20%28002%29.pdf Farren, S., Clarke, L., & O’Doherty, T. (2019). Teacher preparation in Northern Ireland: History, policy and future directions. Emerald, Bingley. Flores, M. A., & Gago, M. (2020). Teacher education in times of COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal: national, institutional and pedagogical responses, Journal of Education for Teaching, 1–10. Gardner, J. (2016). Education in Northern Ireland since the Good Friday Agreement: Kabuki theatre meets danse macabre. Oxford Review of Education, 42(3), 346–361. Giridharadas, A. (2018). Winners take all: The elite charade of changing the world. Alfred Knopf. GTCNI (General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland) (2011). Teaching: The Reflective Profession. Belfast: GTCNI. http://www.gtcni.org.uk/uploads/docs/GTCNI_Comp_Bmrk%20% 20Aug%2007.pdf Hagan, M., & Eaton, P. (2020). Teacher education in Northern Ireland: Reasons to be cheerful or a ‘Wicked Problem’? Teacher Development, 24(2), 258–273. https://doi.org/10.1080/13664530. 2020.1751260 Hansson, U., & Roulston, S. (2020) Integrated and shared education: Sinn Fein, the Democratic Unionist Party and educational change in Northern Ireland, Policy Futures in Education, 1–17 https://doi.org/10.1177/1478210320965060. Hodges, C., Moore, S., Lockee, B., Trust, T., & Bond, A. (2020) “The Difference between Emergency Remote Teaching and Online Learning.” EDUCAUSE Review. Accessed 9

140

L. Clarke and P. McFlynn

November 2020. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2020/3/the-difference-between-emergency-rem ote-teaching-and-online-learning Hulme, M., Beauchamp, G., & Clarke, L. (2020). Doing advisory work: The role of expert advisers in national reviews of teacher education. Journal of Further and Higher Education., 44(4), 498–512. NISRA (2020). Free School Meal Entitlement https://www.nisra.gov.uk/contacts/school-educationstatistics Madali´nska-Michalak, J., O’Doherty, T., & Flores, M. A. (2018). Teachers and teacher education in uncertain times. European Journal of Teacher Education, 41(5), 567–571. https://doi.org/10. 1080/02619768.2018.1532024 McCoy, S., Lynam, A., & Kelly, M. (2018). A case for using Swivl for Digital observation in an online or blended learning environment. International Journal on Innovations in Online Education, 2(2), 1–10. Milliken, M., Bates, J., & Smith, A. (2019). “Education policies and teacher deployment in Northern Ireland: Ethnic separation, cultural encapsulation and community cross-over. British Journal of Educational Studies, 68(2), 139–160. https://doi.org/10.1080/00071005.2019.1666083 Northern Ireland Assembly (2020) New Decade, New Approach https://assets.publishing.service. gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/856998/2020-01-08_a_new_ decade__a_new_approach.pdf Page, D. (2013). The abolition of the General Teaching Council for England and the future of teacher discipline. Journal of Education Policy, 28(2), 231–246. Reich, R. (2018). Just giving: Why philanthropy Is failing democracy and how it can do better. Princeton University Press. Rittel, H., & Webber, M. (1973). Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy Sciences, 4(2), 155–169. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01405730 Selwyn, N. (2019). Should Robots replace teachers? Polity Press. The Teaching Council (2007) Annual Report. https://www.teachingcouncil.ie/en/Publications/Ann ual-Reports/ Weir, D. (2001). A new parliament reviews the general teaching council for Scotland. British Journal of Educational Studies, 49(1), 71–86. Zeichner, K. (2014). The struggle for the soul of teaching and teacher education in the USA. Journal of Education for Teaching, 40(5), 551–568.

Linda Clarke qualified as a teacher in 1983 and served as a Geography teacher and Head of Department for 15 years. She was appointed as a Lecturer in Education at Ulster University in 2001 and served as Head of the School of Education at Ulster from 2009 to 2013. Linda’s key research interests lie in initial teacher education, education technology and global learning. She is currently Professor and Research Director for Education at Ulster and is member of the UK REF (Research Excellence Framework) 2021 Sub-Panel for Education. Paul McFlynn Paul is coordinator of the post-primary PGCE course and course director for the PGCE in Physical Education (PE). His research to date has concentrated on the role of critical reflection in initial teacher education and on the role of mentoring in initial teacher education. His other main interest is SEN in PE where he is in the early stages of investigating current practice in Northern Ireland post-primary schools. Paul is currently chairperson of AfPE NI (Association for Physical Education N Ireland) where his role is to promote the subject and help develop an improved CPD framework. He is also an associate assessor with the Education and Training Inspectorate.

Chapter 11

Educating Teachers in the Post-Bologna Context in Portugal: Lessons Learned and Remaining Challenges Maria Assunção Flores

Abstract In this chapter, I look at the Portuguese context as far as initial teacher education (ITE) is concerned, particularly after the implementation of the Bologna process and I identify some lessons learned and remaining challenges. I draw on my own experience as a teacher educator as well as on research in which I have been involved. Existing data point to positive, and in some ways innovative features, particularly the inquiry-based approach, but there is room for improvement. Issues such as the development of a scholarship of teacher education, the collaborative dimension of professional learning, the ethical, social and cultural dimension, stronger connections between course and field work, and the need to develop more explicit pedagogies for identity development in ITE are examples of aspects that need further consideration if ITE is to be seen as a space of transformation and innovation.

Introduction Initial teacher education (ITE) is not the panacea for all problems in education, but it certainly has a pivotal role in improving teaching and learning in schools and classrooms. High quality teachers matter and, therefore, their education must be taken seriously in policy development. In a review of 40 years of publications in the European Journal of Teacher Education, Livingston and Flores (2017, p. 555) highlight a “language shift from teacher training to teacher education alongside philosophical and political shifts in beliefs about the role of teachers in the twentyfirst century. This includes shifts in expectations about the contribution education makes to the economy and society and what contribution teachers make to improving student learning”. Whilst teacher education has been seen as a key element in driving change in education (Marcelo 1994), concerns about its quality and effectiveness in preparing high quality teachers has also been identified along with different understandings of what quality means (Darling-Hammond 2017; Flores 2016; Mayer 2014; Menter M. A. Flores (B) University of Minho, Braga, Portugal e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 D. Mayer (ed.), Teacher Education Policy and Research, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3775-9_11

141

142

M. A. Flores

and Hulme 2011; Tatto and Pippin 2017). Issues such as globalisation, definition of standards, focus on performativity and the increased marketisation of education have been discussed in the international context as factors which have an impact on how teacher education is understood and enacted in a given context (Tatto and Pippin 2017; Townsend 2011). In Europe, quality teachers have been described as those ‘equipped with the ability to integrate knowledge, handle complexity, and adapt to the needs of individual learners as well as groups’ (European Commission 2013, p. 7). In turn, quality initial teacher education is associated with ‘teachers’ knowledge, skills and commitment’ (European Union 2013, p. 8). In the international arena, different orientations and aims for ITE are related to policies associated with issues of control and accountability which are visible in given modes of government intervention (through, for instance, the external imposition of restrictive standards) and in specific views of what teaching and being a teacher is all about. This more instrumental and outcomedriven orientation in which teachers are seen as doers and technicians co-exists with more open and flexible approaches to teaching and teacher education (Flores 2016; Townsend 2011). If we are to fully understand the nature and aims of teacher education, attention needs to be paid to the political, cultural, economic and social context in which it is embedded. Equally important is the need to look at the role of teachers in curriculum development and the conditions for its enactment along with their degree of autonomy and agency. In other words, teacher education entails given views of teacher professionalism and of what it means to be(come) a teacher. In this chapter, I look at the Portuguese context as far as initial teacher education is concerned, particularly after the implementation of the Bologna process and I identify some lessons learned and remaining challenges. I draw on my own experience as a teacher educator as well as on research in which I have been involved.

A Snapshot of the Teaching Profession In Portugal: From a Teacher Surplus to the Urgency to Attract More Entrants to the Profession In order to become a teacher in Portugal a master’s degree is required for all sectors of teaching (from pre-school to secondary education). This decision was the result of the implementation of the Bologna process through the publication of the Decree-Law No. 43/2007 which stipulates the “professional qualification” for teaching. Although teaching is a high qualified profession, its socio-economic status and public image do not correspond to what other professions with the same level of qualification enjoy. Along with this is the ageing of the teaching workforce. In a recent report published by the National Council for Education (2019a), the teaching profession is described as follows: (i) a feminised profession; (ii) a profession marked by the ageing of the teaching workforce; (iii) an average professional grade of 14

11 Educating Teachers in the Post-Bologna Context in Portugal: Lessons Learned …

143

points (out of 20); (iv) a high professional experience in terms of years of service; (v) a decrease in the attractiveness of the profession; (vi) by 2030 more than half of the teachers will have retired (57.8%). The last TALIS (Teaching and Learning International Survey) report (OECD 2019) highlights a “dramatic change” in this regard as there was a significant increase of teachers aged 50 or above in Portugal from 28% in TALIS 2013 to 47% in TALIS 2018. Another report stresses the lack of valorisation of the teaching profession, the professional fatigue and burnout, the precarious working conditions at the beginning of the career and the lack of career prospects (CNE 2019b). Research has shown that Portuguese teachers negatively depict their working conditions and how these conditions have deteriorated over time including the lowering of the economic and social status and lack of career prospects; an increase of the workload and bureaucracy; an accentuation of criticism of teachers, greater control over their work, and a negative image of teaching and teachers in the media (Flores 2014a, 2020a). As such, the need to increase the level of attractiveness and the urgency in recruiting more entrants are two key features of the teaching profession with implications for teacher education which has witnessed a decrease in student teachers’ candidates over the last decade. A recent report from the National Council for Education described a reduction of about 50% in the number of teaching candidates from 2011/2012 to 2017/2018 due to the lack of attractiveness of the teaching profession (2019b). Thus, if a teacher surplus and high unemployment rate of new teachers marked the Portuguese context some years ago (those who obtained a teaching degree had to look for jobs in other sectors), the reality has changed and the future of the teaching profession is now very challenging.

Teacher Education and the Policy Context: The Recognition of the Continuum? Teacher education in Portugal has evolved greatly over the last decades. This can be seen in research and policy development. Yet, this picture does also includes critical elements and even drawbacks. The need to recruit, to professionalise and to educate many teachers, as a result of mass education, amongst other features, led to the creation of the so-called “new universities” (an example of which is the university where I work) in the 1970s with the aim to invest in teacher education. Whilst the details of such a process are beyond the scope of this chapter, it is important to note that an integrated model of teacher education was adopted in detriment to the sequential model which was implemented in the so-called “classic” universities. The integrated model implied that the content knowledge component and educational studies are concurrent from the very beginning of the programme whereas the sequential is a two-step model in which educational studies were taught after three years devoted to subject knowledge.

144

M. A. Flores

Another key moment in the development of teacher education in Portugal is associated with the publication of the Decree-Law nº344/89 as a result of the Fundamental Law of Education (LBSE 1986). This decree-law stipulates the legal framework for teacher education in which “a flexible and dynamic structure” is adopted in order to make possible the articulation of existing models. An important feature of this legislative text points to the relevance of the continuum of initial, induction and inservice education. In fact, the publication of the Decree-Law n.º249/92 establishes the legal framework for inservice teacher education which has become compulsory for all practicing teachers for career progress purposes. However, and unfortunately, the induction period, identified in the legal framework in 1989 and later in the Teacher Career Statute, in 1990, was never a political priority although research has demonstrated its relevance in the Portuguese context (Cardoso and Ferreira 2008; Flores 1997, 2000; Flores and Ferreira 2009). A probationary year was put into place, for the first time, in 2009/2010, within a “Programme for Supervision, Support and Monitoring of the Probationary Year”, after the publication of the new Teacher Career Statute (2007), but with a different scope and purpose (Roldão et al. 2012a, b). However, up until now, no formal induction programmes have been implemented despite the recognition of their need in a report by the National Council for Education (CNE 2016). To understand teacher education policy in Portugal one must look at the publication of the Decree-law nº 240/2001, 30th August, which stipulates the “general performance profile” for teachers for all sectors of teaching. This profile constitutes a key reference for organising teacher education programmes and includes four dimensions: (i) professional, social and ethical; (ii) development of teaching and learning; (iii) participation in the school life and liaising with the community; and (iv) professional development within a lifelong perspective. The implementation of the Bologna process in Europe was another key moment in teacher education in Portugal since it implied the restructuring of all teacher education programmes.

The Bologna Process and the Restructuring of Initial Teacher Education Programmes The most recent changes in both structure and content of ITE programmes in Portugal were instigated by the Bologna process and involved the design of the master’s degree in teaching according to the Decree-Law No. 43/2007, published after the DecreeLaw 74/2006, which stipulates the organisation of study cycles in higher education in general. The adoption of a consecutive model implied a two-stage process which included a first three-year degree (Licenciatura) on a specific subject (e.g. Mathematics, History) followed by a master’s degree in teaching (usually a two-year degree), combining subject-based with educational and pedagogical components, including

11 Educating Teachers in the Post-Bologna Context in Portugal: Lessons Learned …

145

practicum. In the case of pre-school and primary school, student teachers complete a first degree in Basic Education followed by a Master degree in Teaching. Before 2007, two types of undergraduate programmes were in place: five-year integrated undergraduate programmes (the case of my institution) in which content knowledge and educational courses were developed simultaneously from the very beginning of the programme culminating with a one-year-long practicum in schools, and sequential programmes where students study in a teacher education programme for one or two years, after completing three years of subject-related education. The replacement of the former integrated five-year-long undergraduate teaching degree, as was the case of my institution, by a consecutive model was not without controversy as it represented a drawback because ITE was to be condensed in a 2-year degree. Thus, it is understandable that discussions around how to better organise the new ITE curriculum in accordance to the new legal framework were intense. Making decisions about goals, profiles, contents and strategies for ITE, amongst others, within a competency-oriented and student-centred approach proclaimed by the Bologna process implied necessarily discussions about the nature of teaching as a profession and the kinds of teachers to be educated (Flores 2011; Vieira et al. 2019). Since initial teacher education is situated at the second cycle level (Master degree), the research component1 was tacitly assumed by institutions and encouraged by external assessments (Flores et al. 2016). Indeed, the research dimension was explicitly identified as a compulsory component of the initial teacher education curriculum in the Decree-Law No. 43/2007, but with no specific credits allocated for it. It aimed at ‘enabling prospective teachers to adopt a research stance in their professional performance in specific contexts, on the basis of an understanding and critical analysis of relevant educational research’ (Decree-Law No. 43/2007). The new Decree-Law issued in 2014 (Decree-Law No. 79/2014) no longer stipulates research as a compulsory component of the curriculum of ITE, but it has been argued as a key element in the practicum experience in most institutions, even though it may assume a variety of formats. In addition, the rationale for replacing the first legal framework (Decree-Law 43/2007) by the new one (Decree-Law No. 79/2014) resided in the need to enhance teacher education “particularly in the subject knowledge and didactics”. The case of Finland is used for justifying the need to “reinforce the qualification of teachers, namely in the subject knowledge, didactics and initiation to professional practice” (Decree-Law No. 79/2014) through an increase of the duration of the master’s degree and the weight of each of the components of the curriculum. As such, the new legal framework represents a drawback as far as the development of an inquiry-based approach is concerned. Under the new legal framework ITE curriculum includes the following components: subject knowledge; general education (e.g. curriculum and assessment, school as an educational organisation); specific didactics; professional practice; and the cultural, social and ethical dimension. This last component receives no specific credits and it is to be developed within the context 1

For a more detailed discussion on the ITE curriculum and the research component, see Flores (2018), Flores et al. (2016) and Vieira et al. (2019).

146

M. A. Flores

of the other components of the programme. The components with more credits are specific didactics and professional practice. The legal framework currently in place also emphasises the “key importance of ITE” and the need for ITE to be “demanding, particularly as far as the content knowledge and didactic knowledge is concerned” since “the preparation of teachers needs to be done in a rigorous manner in such a way that it values the teacher’s role” (see Preamble of the same Decree-Law). Based on the national legal framework, institutions organise their ITE programmes following a consecutive model. It is therefore important to reflect on the experience of the new ITE programmes over the last 13 years under the new structure as a result of the Bologna process (the first programmes were implemented in 2007/2008).

Lessons Learned and Remaining Challenges The process of restructuring all ITE programmes as a result of the Bologna process and its implementation entailed a number of challenges but also opportunities related to professional learning spaces and to the role of the various stakeholders. The Bologna process represented an external (emphasis added) imposition changing all programmes (in both structure and content). It entailed at the same time new and old challenges and problems related not only to the timing and process of change itself but also to issues associated with the adoption of the new structure (consecutive model). The link between theory and practice and the fragmentation of the curriculum components, the place of the practicum and the role of research have been identified (see, Flores 2011, 2018; Flores et al. 2016; Vieira et al. 2019). These are related, amongst other factors, to the separation between the first degree focusing on content knowledge and the second degree—master’s level—focusing on knowledge acquisition about curriculum, pedagogy, specific didactics, etc., and on learning about professional practice, including practicum. Important lessons were learned but challenges remain which I summarise next.

The Adoption of a Research Stance is Positive But Also Controversial One positive, and in a way innovative, feature of the new model of ITE—which was implemented for the first time in 2007/2008—was the inclusion of an inquirybased approach, particularly in the practicum. The view that teachers are professionals and should make informed decisions within an inquiry-based orientation to teaching was at the forefront of the restructuring process. My institution’s internal regulations of ITE addressed this by clearly pointing to the integration of research into teaching as a key strategy to educate reflective practitioners, and to enhance the transformative potential of the practicum experience (Vieira et al. 2019). This

11 Educating Teachers in the Post-Bologna Context in Portugal: Lessons Learned …

147

integration would promote a critical understanding and intervention in pedagogical contexts and the development of a research culture. A three-dimensional professional profile of teachers-to-be is advocated including the conceptual dimension (the theoretical framework of professional practice), the strategic dimension (the methodological framework of professional practice), and the axiological dimension (the values of professional practice including the ethical and political values that underpin educational action) (Flores 2018; Vieira et al. 2019). In practical terms, student teachers are supposed to design, implement and evaluate a “pedagogical intervention” project aimed at combining teaching and research under the supervision of university supervisors and the cooperating teachers at school. The design and development of the pedagogical project draw upon a set of principles that include a humanistic and democratic view of schooling, the adequacy of interventions to the contexts of practice and their educational value in regard to teacher and learner experience, the use of data collection to support the understanding and renewal of pedagogy, and the enhancement of professional development based on reflectivity, self-direction, collaboration, creativity, and innovation (cf. internal regulations). In addition, student teachers develop a reflective portfolio in which they document their professional learning throughout the practicum experience and write a final report in which they describe the design, implementation and evaluation of their pedagogical project by mobilising and analysing data collected in schools. Research based on the analysis of practicum reports has shown that this inquirybased approach to practicum has potential for developing professional learning, reflective practice and informed pedagogical decisions within a humanistic and democratic orientation (Vieira et al. 2019). Students were able to mobilise and articulate, implicitly or explicitly, various types of professional knowledge in their practicum reports, namely contextual knowledge, educational knowledge, content knowledge and research knowledge, and demonstrate the articulation of pedagogical and research purposes in practicum by mobilising a diversity of data collection methods and assessment modes (Vieira et al. 2019). Although declarative research knowledge (knowledge about research) was less evident in students’ practicum reports, procedural research knowledge was welldeveloped (Vieira et al. 2019, original emphasis) even if different ways of doing research may be identified. The co-existence of different ways of articulating research and teaching are associated with diverse views of teacher education and the role of research in practice along with different conceptions of research among teacher educators/supervisors. A new practicum seminar developed by programme directors supported project design and provided more explicit training in pedagogical inquiry (Vieira et al. 2019). The integration of a research component in ITE curriculum, and particularly in practicum, has its advocates and critics. How is research understood in ITE? What does it mean to be research literate? What does an inquiry-based approach to teaching entail? These were, and still are, questions where consensus is not achieved among teacher educators, researchers and other stakeholders. Some critics stress that a research dimension is not feasible nor relevant in ITE. Some adopt a more positivist approach and others discuss the potential of more interpretive and critical

148

M. A. Flores

approaches to research. Vieira et al. (2019) point to different views regarding the nature of projects in practicum from the part of programme directors and supervisors associated with “potential ambiguities regarding the teaching-research nexus and the type of research most suitable in the practicum” (p. 52). There are, therefore, variations, and even controversies, concerning an inquiryapproach to teacher education. An inquiry-approach is far from representing a common approach; it entails tensions and challenges regarding visions of teacher education, as well as (mis)matches between curriculum rhetoric and implementation (Flores et al. 2016). As the same authors assert, inquiry demands time and the (condensed) two-year master degree represented, paradoxically, the valorisation of professional practice and less time spent in schools with the risk of making practicum more academic and less profession-oriented. A broad and inclusive approach to research in teaching and teacher education (BERA-RSA 2014) is needed in order to equip student teachers with the required knowledge and competences for inquirybased teaching which implies that student teachers are both consumers and producers of research.

An Inquiry-Based Approach to Teacher Education Entails More Expansive and Sophisticated Roles for Supervisors and Mentors If student teachers are to become research literate, they are required to have relevant experiences of professional learning both in course work and field work. The articulation of ITE curriculum components (including the practicum component) requires more attention if an inquiry-approach to teaching is to be developed more effectively. In addition, more expansive and sophisticated approaches to mentoring are needed. The new practicum model, within the master’s degree, was challenging as cooperating teachers are not always familiar with the philosophy and rationale of the post-Bologna ITE model. To address this concern a non-complusory professional development course is offered to cooperating teachers at the beginning of every academic year. The course is directed by university teachers/supervisors with the aim to familiarise cooperating teachers with the inquiry-based approach to practicum and to engage in collaborative projects. The need for supervisors and cooperating teachers to “reshape traditional roles and to become partners of pedagogical inquiry and renewal” (Flores et al. 2016, p. 112) is, nevertheless, challenging. Whilst supervision and mentoring are crucial for a productive professional learning experience, the time and conditions for its implementation are not always adequate. Implementation challenges the cooperating teachers who now work in different conditions as their teaching workload is not lessened when they accept to collaborate with higher education institutions in teacher education. As for the university supervisors, they face continuing challenges in relation to the supervisory time allocated for them.

11 Educating Teachers in the Post-Bologna Context in Portugal: Lessons Learned …

149

A recent study of the 10 years of the implementation of the new practicum model (Vieira, Silva, and Vilaça 2020; Vieira, Flores, and Almeida 2020) concluded that supervisors, cooperating teachers and student teachers’ perceptions (perceived quality) are, in general, aligned with the model’s rationale (intended quality). This finding reveals that the strategies to enhance the potential of the model have been positive, although there is room for improvement. The practicum model seems to develop inquiry competences, multifaceted professional knowledge, and a transformative vision of education but gaps between intentions and outcomes still exist. Vieira, Silva, and Vilaça (2020) found that, although university supervisors and cooperating teachers are sceptical regarding the development of research competences, almost all reports analysed reveal a research stance based on pedagogical conceptions oriented towards a humanistic and democratic perspective. The same authors stress the relevance of an action-research approach which needs a more collective reflection among teacher educators and a more explicit planning of the research cycles. These findings corroborate earlier empirical work which found that classroom inquiry represented an increase of student teachers’ workload and an expansion of supervision roles and that some cooperating teachers showed concerns about their ability to meet the requirements and demands of an inquiry-based approach (Vieira et al. 2019). Developing an inquiry-based approach to teacher education requires both cooperating teachers and university supervisors to position themselves in an inquiry stance to better understand and to investigate their own practice (Loughran 2007; Zeichner 2007).

The Collaborative Dimension of Professional Learning Needs to Be Enhanced The inclusion of an inquiry-based approach in teacher education, particularly in the practicum, is relevant but also subject to different interpretations. Whilst there were challenges and limitations in the implementation of the new model, evidence has shown the potential of the practicum in developing a research stance and in promoting a critical and inquiry attitude from the part of the student teachers towards their professional practice (Flores et al. 2016; Vieira et al. 2019; Vieira, Flores, and Almeida 2020; Vieira, Silva, and Vilaça 2020). However, providing student teachers with opportunities for relevant professional learning in order to develop knowledge, competences and attitudes to make informed decisions about their practice remains a key issue. One crucial aspect that deserves further consideration relates to the provision of more opportunities for collaboration, not only between higher education institutions and schools, but also between supervisors and cooperating teachers as well as among student teachers. Student teachers are asked to do their own (individual) research-based “pedagogical intervention” project drawing upon their own interests and expectations but also on the needs of the context of practice. Thus,

150

M. A. Flores

the collaborative dimension of teaching and professional learning may be undermined in some cases as, understandably, student teachers may be more focused on developing their own individual projects and reports which are to be discussed in a public examination. As such, it would be important to reinforce the collaborative dimension of professional learning in the practicum context through more explicit and expansive strategies. The collective action and the design and implementation of wider (research-based) projects within ITE, and particularly within the development of practicum learning communities between schools and universities (White and Forgasz 2016), may contribute to foster this collaborative dimension. It is also important to address the possible effects of the pedagogical inquiry-based projects on student teachers’ practice and professional development as well as on the schools in which they do their practicum.

Engaging in Joint Work to Develop a Scholarship of Teacher Education Is Both Rewarding and Challenging The process of restructuring ITE programmes is always challenging as it implies changing the status quo. It entails dealing with power relations and institutional factors and altering (or not) established processes and practices. The new configuration of ITE programmes as a result of the Bologna process was no exception. The description of the discussions and debates around the process of changing all teacher education programmes is beyond the scope of this chapter. However, it is important to state that negotiations regarding the different ITE components and their relative weight in the curriculum plans were marked by tensions, disagreements but also necessarily shared decisions. As Vieira et al. (2019) highlight, achieving consensus on the [ITE programme] proposals to be sent for external assessment and accreditation demanded a collective effort under time pressure, within a rather individualistic work culture. Institutional micropolitics was a key variable in the process of change as it seems to “undervalue practice-oriented courses and treat pedagogical supervision as a minor and/or easy activity, which is reflected in decisions that frustrate supervisors and undermine innovation, like assigning them 30 min a week per student or undervaluing the supervision of practicum reports in institutional assessments” (Vieira et al. 2019, p. 52). In order to develop a scholarship of teacher education, a Study Group on Initial Teacher Education (including this author) was initiated in 2012 as an informal network of teacher educators. The purpose was to share and investigate our own practices as teacher educators and to discuss and improve teacher education through a diversity of strategies including self-studies, content-analysis of practicum reports, focus group with different stakeholders, etc. In late 2013, the Group’s activities were integrated into a formal Group for Studies and Innovation of Pedagogy that was created as a response to the Dean of the Institute of Education, the aim of which was to promote innovation on pedagogical practices within the Institute. This experience

11 Educating Teachers in the Post-Bologna Context in Portugal: Lessons Learned …

151

represented, in a way, the institutionalisation of an existing informal and dynamic group of university teachers, most of them teacher educators, to reflect upon, investigate and improve the programmes in place, including ITE. Formal and financial support was provided for the Group to undertake its activities, which also included Seminars and Conferences. However, in 2016, the Group was extinguished along with other Study Groups as they were no longer seen as a priority. It still exists informally, but the lack of institutional support weakened its status and reduced its activity significantly. Nevertheless, internal studies on ITE continued to be carried out by some of the teacher educators involved, building on the Group’s previous activities. Overall, the informal group of teacher educators working together to share their practices and reflect upon the ITE model was a rewarding experience in terms of professional development and co-construction of knowledge in and on teacher education, even though its activities were not formally supported and only a small number of teacher educators participated (around 20). The formalisation of a study group devoted to the innovation of pedagogy, including in teacher education, was seen as an opportunity to expand the possibilities for the development of innovative and relevant projects related to pedagogy. The ending of the formal Group was disappointing and discouraging, but demonstrated the relevance and the need for a scholarship of teacher education: “A scholarship of teacher education may go against the grain, but it is needed to support and enhance change. Our experience shows that it can open up spaces for dialogue and reflection about what really matters to committed teacher educators – sharing professional concerns and aspirations, reshaping their knowledge and identity, and understanding how they can best help prospective teachers grow as reflective practitioners in the service of transformative education in schools.” (Vieira et al. 2019, p. 53).

The Ethical, Social and Cultural Dimension of Teaching Needs Further Attention There is no doubt that content knowledge and pedagogy as well as general education (e.g. curriculum knowledge, the school as an organisation, psychology, etc.) are key components of ITE curriculum. However, the complexity of the teaching profession requires professionals who also are agents of change and who possess a view of teaching that goes beyond its technical dimension. Teaching is about “an intellectual, cultural, and contextual activity that requires skilful decisions about how to convey subject matter, apply pedagogical skills, develop human relationships, and both generate and utilise knowledge” (Cochran-Smith 2004, p. 298). It is also about values, judgments and beliefs. The new model of ITE, in the post-Bologna context, does include an ethical, social and cultural dimension, however, it needs to be strengthened. Becoming a teacher implies a process of making sense of experiences, contexts of professional learning and ethical and political values. As such, ITE needs to focus necessarily on what student teachers need to know and be able

152

M. A. Flores

to do, but also must consider how they feel and think (and why). Issues such as commitment, values and judgment, which are frequently omitted or made optional, professional and ethical competences in light of teaching as a moral enterprise (Tirri 2014) need to be included (Maguire 2014). Thus, the ethical, social, cultural and political dimension of teaching and of ITE warrants further attention if ITE is to be seen as a space of transformation.

Explicit Pedagogies for Identity Development in ITE Are Crucial in the Process of Learning to Teach The condensed two-year master’s degree of Teaching had implications for the articulation of the ITE components (due to the separation between content knowledge and educational studies) and for dealing with the paradox of the valorisation of professional practice along with less time spent in schools. These challenges remain and ask for strategies to make the most of current model. An issue deserving further consideration relates to the enactment of explicit pedagogies for the development of teacher identity in ITE. The process of becoming a teacher is complex, dynamic and requires time and reflection. The condensed two-year model which has replaced the five-year degree entailed challenges in this regard. Russell and Flores (2021) stress the importance of the pedagogy of teacher education (and of making it more transparent) as how student teachers are taught matters as they are always thinking about how they themselves will teach. As such, teacher identity development in the context of ITE is key to the process of learning to teach. Beijaard (2019, p. 3) discusses it as an identity making process and he stresses that “learning or developing a teacher identity is imbued with and fuelled by many aspects that are primarily personal, such as one’s own biography, aspirations, learning history, and beliefs about education” including “the hopes, dreams, and ideals that students bring with them to teacher education”. Issues of pedagogical voice and productive learning in teacher education (Russell and Martin 2014) have been identified in the literature. The focus on the student teachers (rather than on the curriculum), on the interaction among student teachers, on inquiry based-work, and on modeling of teacher educators practice are further identified (Korthagen et al. 2006). For instance, Friesen and Besley (2013) question how teacher education programmes operate in order to shape and challenge the potentially idyllic student–teacher identity beliefs and they argue that “initial teacher education programmes have the potential to facilitate or interfere with identity development at both personal and social level” (p. 31). This is in line with other researchers who acknowledge the potential of developing pedagogies that are supportive of professional learning of how to become a teacher by, for instance, challenging beliefs and experiences (Flores 2014b, 2020b; Beauchamp and Thomas 2009; Schepens et al. 2009). Identity is influenced by conceptions and expectations about what a teacher should be able to know and do (Beijaard et al. 2004) and therefore teacher education

11 Educating Teachers in the Post-Bologna Context in Portugal: Lessons Learned …

153

programmes seem to be the “ideal starting point for instilling not only an awareness of the need to develop an identity, but also a strong sense of the ongoing shifts that will occur in that identity” (Beauchamp and Thomas 2009, p. 186). Thus, ITE has a role to play in such process of identity development through explicit pedagogies to enhance its potential in terms of professional learning focusing on how student teachers know, develop, feel and think as future teachers.

Conclusions This chapter set out to provide an overview of ITE in the post-Bologna context in Portugal, drawing on my experience as a teacher educator and on research on the ITE model adopted in my institution. It aimed to illustrate some lessons learned and remaining challenges that need further attention. The knowledge and reflection accumulated since 2007 has revealed positive, and in some ways innovative, features, particularly the inquiry-based approach. While promising there is room for improvement. Issues such as the development of a scholarship of teacher education, the collaborative dimension of professional learning, the ethical, social and cultural dimension, stronger connections between course and field work, and the need to develop more explicit pedagogies for identity development in ITE are examples of aspects that need further development. These challenges are associated with the curriculum of ITE, in its form and content, but also with the role of both student teachers and teacher educators as well as with the institutional decisions and pedagogical responses to an external imposed initiative as is the case of the Bologna process. The analysis of the policy and politics of teacher education in the post-Bologna context requires further consideration. ITE has not received attention from the part of policy makers in face of current scenarios related to the ageing of the teaching workforce and to the teacher recruitment problem. Induction is not a political priority either; it remains to be the missing link in the continuum. It would be an important asset to socialise beginning teachers into the profession in the present context by integrating and recognising the contribution of experienced teachers in such transition process. Scrutinising the relevance and potential of both ITE and Induction drawing on existing research and positive experiences will contribute to improve the quality of the programmes, particularly when projects such as Teach for Portugal, in line with other international contexts, are already in place. Issues such as teacher deskilling and teacher deprofessionalisation are real threats to what constitutes overall a positive evolution of ITE development in Portugal over the last decades. In other words, the expansion of more pragmatic, short and on the job training models such as Teach for Portugal would entail the revalorisation of more technical and instrumental approaches to teaching within a rather managerial (Sachs 2016) and organisational professionalism (Evetts 2009) in detriment to a view of teaching as a highly qualified profession based on an inquiry approach. Not investing in teacher education in such challenging times would represent a drawback on the qualification of

154

M. A. Flores

Portuguese teachers and a possible loss or lack of valorisation of relevant knowledge and experience in ITE accumulated over the last decades. Added to this are the challenges posed by the closure of colleges and universities as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This unprecedented situation has led to a diversity of institutional and pedagogical responses in terms of professional learning offered to student teachers (Flores and Gago 2020). Such scenario entailed a reduced time for teacher and student interaction in schools and to tensions in the practicum experience as a ‘real practice’ versus ‘an ideal(ised) practice’ (Flores and Gago 2020). This implied, on the one hand, lost opportunities for practising teaching but, on the other hand, increasing time for reading, reflection and writing. Thus, it becomes crucial to explore further the effects of the virtualisation of teacher education, and in particular the practicum, not only in terms of its instrumental perspective but also in its pedagogical, political and ethical dimensions, namely regarding issues of power and control over learning. It remains to be seen to what extent teacher education during and post COVID-19 pandemic operates. Does it mean the maintenance of the status quo or does it represent an opportunity to challenge established practices? Immediate and rapid responses may lead to more instrumental approaches situated within a logic of acceptance and compliance with external rules and regulations (Flores and Gago 2020). Such responses may contribute to understandings of teachers as mere doers or implementers who do ‘what works’ rather than activist and committed professionals whose practice and pedagogical actions are research-informed (la Velle and Flores 2018). In this context, learning to teach may be understood within an accumulative logic or within a transformative approach (Flores and Gago 2020) and an innovative stance often perceived to be lacking (Ellis et al. 2020). It is, therefore, important to reconceptualise teacher education in light of the new scenarios for professional learning, in particular the partnerships with schools, the co-construction of professional knowledge and the role of student teachers within the teaching profession. It becomes essential to work towards more sustainable educational responses within a view of teacher education as a space of transformation and innovation in face of current and future challenges. A key element resides on the recognition of teaching and as complex and dynamic process which requires a sophisticated and systemic understanding of its multifaceted dimensions. An inquiry-based approach may contribute to overcome a technical and sometimes over simplistic view of teaching, empowering student teachers to develop personal professional knowledge (Bullock 2016; Loughran and Menter 2019). Such an approach may also enhance the potential of new spaces for teaching and learning to teach and for reinventing established practices in teacher education.

11 Educating Teachers in the Post-Bologna Context in Portugal: Lessons Learned …

155

References Beauchamp, C., & Thomas, L. (2009). Preparing prospective teachers for a context of change: Reconsidering the role of teacher education in the development of identity. Cambridge Journal of Education, 39(2), 175–189. Beijaard, D. (2019). Teacher learning as identity learning: Models, practices, and topics. Teachers and Teaching Theory and Practice, 25(1), 1–6. Beijaard, D., Meijer, P. C., & Verloop, N. (2004). Reconsidering research on teachers’ professional identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20, 107–128. Bullock, S. M. (2016). Teacher candidates as researchers. In. J. Loughran & M. L. Hamilton (Eds.), International Handbook of Teacher Education (pp. 379–403). Dordrecht: Springer Press. BERA-RSA (2014). Research and the teaching profession: Building the capacity for a selfimproving education system. Final report of the BERA-RSA inquiry into the role of research in teacher education. London. Cardoso, N., & Ferreira, F.I. (2008). Perspectives and Expectations Regarding the Support of Novice Teachers: current situation and changes in Portugal. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. New York, March. CNE. (2019). Estudos de seleção e recrutamento do pessoal docente da educação pré-escolar e ensinos básico e secundário. CNE. CNE. (2019). Recomendação sobre Qualificação e valorização de educadores professores dos ensinos básico e secundário. CNE. CNE. (2016). Relatório Técnico: Formação inicial de educadores e professores e acesso à profissão. CNE. Cochran-Smith, M. (2004). Editorial. The problem of teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 55(4), 295–299. Darling-Hammond, L. (2017). Teacher education around the world: What can we learn from international practice? European Journal of Teacher Education, 40(3), 291–309. Ellis, V., Steadman, S., & Mao, Q. (2020). ‘Come to a screeching halt’: Can change in teacher education during the COVID-19 pandemic be seen as innovation? European Journal of Teacher Education, 43(4), 559–572. European Commission (2013). Supporting teacher competence development for better learning outcomes. European Commission Education and Training UE. Flores, M. A. (2020). Surviving, being resilient and resisting: Teachers’ experiences in adverse times. Cambridge Journal of Education, 50(2), 219–240. Flores, M. A. (2020). Feeling like a Student but Thinking like a Teacher: A Study of the Development of Professional Identity in Initial Teacher Education. Journal of Education for Teaching, 46(2), 145–158. Flores, M. A. (2018). Linking teaching and research in initial teacher education: Knowledge mobilisation and research-informed practice. Journal of Education for Teaching, 44(5), 621–636. Flores, M. A. (2016). Teacher Education Curriculum. In. J. Loughran & M. L. Hamilton (Eds.), International Handbook of Teacher Education, (pp. 187–230). Dordrecht: Springer Press. Flores, M. A. (Ed.). (2014a). Profissionalismo e liderança dos professores. Santo Tirso: De Facto Editores. Flores, M. A. (2014). Developing teacher identity in pre-service education: Experiences and practices from Portugal. In C. Craig & L. Orland-Barak (Eds.), International teacher education: Promising pedagogies, part A, (Advances in research on teaching) (pp. 353–379). Emerald Publishers. Flores, M. A. (2011). Curriculum of initial teacher education in Portugal: New contexts, old problems. Journal of Education for Teaching, 37(4), 461–470. Flores, M. A. (2000). A Indução no Ensino: Desafios e Constrangimentos. Lisboa: Ministério da Educação/IIE.

156

M. A. Flores

Flores, M. A. (1997). Dissertação de mestrado “Problemas e necessidades de apoio/ formação dos professores principiantes. Um estudo exploratório”, no âmbito do Mestrado em Educação, na especialidade de Desenvolvimento Curricular. Universidade do Minho. Flores, M. A., & Ferreira, F. I. (2009). The Induction and Mentoring of New Teachers in Portugal: Contradictions, needs and opportunities. Research in Comparative and International Education, 4(1), 63–73. Flores, M. A., Vieira, F., Silva, J. L., & Almeida, J. (2016). Integrating research into the practicum: Inquiring into inquiry-based professional development in post-Bologna Initial Teacher Education in Portugal. In M. A. Flores & T. Al-Barwani (Eds.), Redefining Teacher Education for the post-2015 Era: Global Challenges and Best Practice (pp. 109–124). Nova Science Publisher. Flores, M. A., & Gago, M. (2020). Teacher education in times of COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal: National, institutional and pedagogical responses. Journal of Education for Teaching, 46(4), 507–516. Friesen, M. A., & Besley, S. C. (2013). Teacher identity development in the first year of teacher education: A developmental and social psychological perspective. Teaching and Teacher Education, 36, 23–32. Korthagen, F., Loughran, J., & Russell, T. (2006). Developing fundamental principles for teacher education programs and practices. Teaching and Teacher Education, 22, 1020–1041. la Velle, L., & Flores, M. A. (2018). Perspectives on evidence-based knowledge for teachers: Acquisition, mobilisation and utilisation. Journal of Education for Teaching, 44(5), 524–538. Livingston, K., & Flores, M. A. (2017). Trends in teacher education: A review of papers published in the European journal of teacher education over 40 years. European Journal of Teacher Education, 40(5), 551–560. Loughran, J. (2007). Researching teacher education practices: Responding to the challenges, demands, and expectations of self-study. Journal of Teacher Education, 58(1), 12–20. Loughran, J., & Menter, I. (2019). The essence of being a teacher educator and why it matters. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 47(3), 216–229. Maguire, M. (2014). Reforming teacher education in England: ‘an economy of discourses of truth.’ Journal of Education Policy, 29(6), 774–784. Marcelo, C. (1994). Formación del profesorado para el cambio educativo. PPU. Mayer, D. (2014). Forty years of teacher education in Australia: 1974–2014. Journal of Education for Teaching, 40(5), 461–473. Menter, I., & Hulme, M. (2011). Teacher education reform in Scotland: National and global influences. Journal of Education for Teaching, 37(4), 387–397. OECD. (2019). TALIS 2018 Results (Volume I): Teachers and School Leaders as Lifelong Learners. TALIS, OECD Publishing,. https://doi.org/10.1787/1d0bc92a-en Roldão, M. C., Reis, P., & Costa, N. (2012a). Da incoerência burocrática à eficácia de um dispositivo de supervisão/formação. Estudo do desenvolvimento profissional numa situação de indução. Ensaio: aval. pol. públ. Educ., 20(76), 435–458. Roldão, M. C., Reis, P., & Costa, N. (2012b). Balanço do programa de supervisão, apoio, acompanhamento e avaliação ao período probatório em Portugal – dos eixos de intervenção a uma visão prospetiva. Ensaio: aval. pol. públ. Educ., 20(76), 547–554. Russell, T. & Flores, M. A. (2021) Developing as teacher educators. In A. Swennen & E. White (Eds)., Being a Teacher Educator. Research-Informed Methods for Improving Practice (pp. 43– 55). London: Routledge. Russell, T., & Martin, A. (2014). A importância da voz pedagógica e da aprendizagem produtiva nos programas de formação inicial de professores. In M. A. Flores (Ed.), Formação e desenvolvimento Profissional de Professores. Contributos internacionais (pp. 17–39). Coimbra: Edições Almedina. Sachs, J. (2016). Teacher professionalism: Why are we still talking about it? Teachers and Teaching Theory and Practice, 22(4), 413–425. Schepens, A., Aelterman, A., & Vlerick, P. (2009). Student teachers’ professional identity formation: Between being born as a teacher and becoming one. Educational Studies, 35(4), 361–378.

11 Educating Teachers in the Post-Bologna Context in Portugal: Lessons Learned …

157

Tatto, M. T., & Pippin, J. (2017). The quest for quality and the rise of accountability systems in teacher education. In D. J. Clandinin & J. Husu (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook on Teacher Education (pp. 68–89). Sage. Tirri, K. (2014). The last 40 years in Finnish teacher education. Journal of Education for Teaching, 40(5), 600–609. Townsend, T. (2011). Searching high and searching low, searching east and searching west: Looking for trust in teacher education. Journal of Education for Teaching, 37(4), 483–499. Vieira, F., Flores, M. A., Silva, J. L., & Almeida, J. (2019). Understanding and enhancing change in post-Bologna pre-service teacher education: lessons from experience and research in Portugal. In T. Al Barwani, M. A. Flores, & D. Imig, (Eds.), Leading Change in Teacher Education. Lessons from Countries and Education Leaders Around the Globe, (pp.41–57), Milton Park: Routledge. Vieira, F., Flores, M. A., & Almeida, M. J. (2020). Avaliando o modelo de estágio dos Mestrados em Ensino da Universidade do Minho: entre a qualidade desejada e a qualidade percebida. Instrumento: Rev. Est. e Pesq. em Educação, 22 (2), 231–247. Vieira, F., Silva, J. L., & Vilaça, M. T. M. (2020). Formação de professores baseada na investigação pedagógica: Um estudo sobre o estágio nos mestrados em ensino. Educação Em Perspectiva, 11, 1–17. White, S., & Forgasz, R. (2016). The practicum: The place of experience? In. J. Loughran & M. L. Hamilton (Eds.), International Handbook of Teacher Education (pp. 231–266). Dordrecht: Springer Press. Zeichner, K. (2007). Accumulating knowledge across self-studies in teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 58(1), 36–46.

Maria Assunção Flores is associate professor with qualification at the University of Minho, Portugal. She received her Ph.D. at the University of Nottingham, UK, in 2002. Her research interests include teacher professionalism and identity, teacher education and professional development, curriculum, assessment, and higher education. She has published extensively both nationally and internationally. She served as Chair of the International Study Association on Teachers and Teaching between 2013 and 2019. Currently, she is co-editor of the European Journal of Teacher Education.

Chapter 12

Measuring Quality in Initial Teacher Education in Scotland: A Context-Specific Endeavour Aileen Kennedy , Paul Adams , and Mark Carver

Abstract This chapter outlines how measures of quality were devised to suit the national context of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in Scotland, where influences include an ITE system led by universities, a distinct policy context, and a national vision for teaching as a profession. Developing a quality framework therefore involved engaging with context to ‘Scotify’ commonly held measures of ITE quality, balancing a desire for international comparisons and the need for meaningful, localised insight. We share two examples of such adapted measures. First is a language proficiency self-evaluation question suited to Scotland’s identity as European while still being a mostly monolingual English-speaking country. Second is a career intention measure as an alternative to retention figures which responds to the changing contemporary education profession in Scotland. The chapter ends by highlighting how the work to add national nuance to international measures has benefited the policy and educational research landscape in Scotland, informing new directions for debate and building capacity for new research collaborations.

Introduction In this chapter, we outline the genesis, development, and findings to date from ‘Measuring Quality in Initial Teacher Education’ (MQuITE): a Scottish collaborative research project. We believe the MQuITE project to be unique in its attempt to collaboratively develop, and subsequently deploy, a framework for identifying aspects of ITE quality at a national, rather than programme or institutional level.

A. Kennedy (B) · P. Adams · M. Carver University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK e-mail: [email protected] P. Adams e-mail: [email protected] M. Carver e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 D. Mayer (ed.), Teacher Education Policy and Research, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3775-9_12

159

160

A. Kennedy et al.

First, we establish the national context, providing a brief history of ITE in Scotland, including critical analysis of recent developments which have seen a growing diversity in ITE provision following a very long period of relative conservatism and homogeneity. We explore how quality is conceptualised in ITE, offering a heuristic which supports our understanding. Next, we explain the MQuITE framework, providing a rationale for its development that draws on Appadurai’s (1996) concept of ‘vernacular globalisation’ in seeking to understand and explain the intertwined influences of both the global meta-narrative and the local historical, cultural, and social context in Scotland. We then go on to offer examples of findings from the data so far which show how the framework balances international comparisons and local context, feeding into the public narrative on ITE in Scotland. The chapter concludes with a commentary on the impact of the MQuITE project to date.

The MQuITE Project MQuITE is a six-year, Scottish Government-funded project involving all 11 initial teacher education (ITE) providers in Scotland, together with the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS). It is framed around two research questions: 1. 2.

How can quality in ITE be measured in a Scottish, context-appropriate way? What does this measuring tell us about aspects of quality in different ITE routes in Scotland?

The project emerged from recognition that, while teacher education is considered a key factor in enhancing the quality of schooling, there existed very limited means of truly understanding what ‘quality’ ITE looks like in our own national context, along with a lack of data which could be readily compared with other countries. The collaborative nature of the project ensured both a product acceptable to key stakeholders and a process whereby such actors could use discussions and emerging findings to improve their ongoing provision. Results and reception to date demonstrate its clear nationwide focus for serious intellectual discussion on ITE quality which was lacking prior to the project. The project began with a literature review (Rauschenberger et al. 2017) which formed the basis of discussions to develop the MQuITE framework (discussed in detail later in the chapter). Accordingly, empirical work began and was designed over five years thus enabling a longitudinal study of 2018 and 2019 ITE graduates from Scottish programmes. School-based teacher mentors and university-based teacher educators were also surveyed at the outset for their views on a range of ITE matters. At the time of writing, we are nearing the end of year 4 of the 6-year project. We have amassed significant datasets which enable us to speak with authority on some of the pressing issues facing ITE in Scotland and beyond. Herein, we share some of the unique features of Scottish ITE while also taking an outward-looking perspective that allows comparison with global ITE matters, thereby contributing to cumulative knowledge in the field.

12 Measuring Quality in Initial Teacher Education in Scotland …

161

ITE in Scotland: A Brief History Before providing an overview of ITE in Scotland, it is important to note that Scotland, although part of the United Kingdom (UK) since 1707, has had separate education legislation since 1885. Further, since 1999, education has been a devolved function of the Scottish Parliament. In a country of 5.5 million people, this enables the policy community to interact more readily than might be the case in a larger jurisdiction with fewer powers. However, geopolitical positions are not the only influences on the workings of the Scottish policy community. A long-term commitment to equality and meritocracy underpins Scottish social policy more generally; McCrone and Keating (2007, 18) characterise Scottish politics as ‘social democracy’, while Cairney and McGarvey (2013) note that public sector spending in Scotland accounts for a much greater proportion of expenditure and employment, etc., than it does across the rest of the UK. A combination of structural, geographical, cultural and historical factors contribute to what Cairney and McGarvey (2013, 154) term the ‘Scottish policy style’, characterised by dialogue, consultation, and involvement of a range of stakeholder groups; what might be referred to as ‘network governance’. Such observations about Scottish governance reflect how general education policy, and teacher education policy specifically, are ‘done’ in Scotland (Kennedy and Doherty 2012). However, while dialogue and consultation may appear to be a positive feature of governance, studies such as Beck (2016) and Humes (2020a) point to possibly more insidious and potentially negative impacts of working in this way such as a tendency towards ‘contrived consensus’. Education in Scotland has a long academic tradition, with Scottish ITE being entirely university-based since the late 1980s. All ITE programmes are accredited by the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS), entitling graduates to provisional GTCS registration. The majority of stakeholders in Scottish education hold dear to the idea that teacher education (emphatically not ‘training’) is both an intellectual and a practical pursuit, with complexities that must be acknowledged and honoured. Indeed, in 2017, when the idea of a school-based, ‘Teach First’ type route was mooted, university schools of education that offer teacher education, through the auspices of the Scottish Council of Deans of Education (SCDE), commissioned ‘The role and contribution of higher education in contemporary teacher education’ (Menter 2017). This report concluded that. Scottish teacher education has many facets that may be acclaimed and that in looking ahead it is crucial to maintain the significant involvement of universities in all provision. This in order to ensure that teachers in Scotland are equipped to face the challenges of the twentyfirst century and to play their part in the continuing development of civic culture and in challenging educational disadvantage. (Menter 2017, 2)

Here, Menter clearly did not simply endorse the status quo per se but rather argued that evidence clearly suggests that the continuing involvement of universities in ITE is imperative for the innovation and improvement necessary to ensure that teachers

162

A. Kennedy et al.

are sufficiently well prepared to meet the challenges of contemporary society, in particular the challenge of widespread educational disadvantage for particular groups of children and young people. Importantly, not only do all teachers in Scotland have to be degree qualified and registered with the GTCS, they may also only teach ‘in their field’, that is they are only allowed to teach in the subject/sector in which they hold GTCS registration. Following graduation from ITE, and confirmation of provisional GTCS registration, newly qualified teachers then go on to complete an induction period where they work towards full GTCS registration. Most qualifying teachers are entitled to a place on the Teacher Induction Scheme, which provides them with a one-year full-time teaching post with a reduced timetable, a dedicated mentor (‘supporter’) and a programme of professional development organised by the local authority education department (see Shanks 2020). Clearly, Scottish ITE is tightly regulated and based on practices that have long been considered as central to the maintenance of high standards. This ‘long and proud tradition’ has, though, arguably led to an element of conservatism. Humes (1986) in part attributed this to the existence of a ‘leadership class’ in Scottish education which discouraged innovation, risk-taking and was, in some regards, anti-intellectual. In his most recent work, he appears to still believe this is the case today; he argues there is ‘a serious deficit in the quality of thinking at the top’, and that ‘Too many of those in senior positions are ineffective time-servers, compliant functionaries or political opportunists’ (Humes 2020b). The history of teacher education in Scotland, up until very recently, could be seen to reflect such conservatism and homogeneity (Hulme and Menter 2013; MacDonald and Rae 2018), however, the publication of ‘Teaching Scotland’s Future’ (Donaldson 2010), also referred to as ‘The Donaldson Report’, saw significant change in primary undergraduate programmes, with recommendation 11 (of 50) stating: In line with emerging developments across Scotland’s universities, the traditional BEd degree should be phased out and replaced with degrees which combine in-depth academic study in areas beyond education with professional studies and development. These new degrees should involve staff and departments beyond those in schools of education. (Donaldson 2010, 88)

Whether this was a move to divest ITE of its conservatism or whether it was a move designed to position primary ITE as an intellectually demanding experience was never clear. However, this recommendation resulted in one of the biggest sectorwide changes in ITE in recent times. Responses saw the shape of undergraduate provision diversifying much more than had previously been the case, in terms of both how education components relate to wider university components, and through the various models of school-based practicum adopted (MacDonald and Rae 2018). These changes were followed quickly by increasing public scrutiny of ITE, evident in the report of the Scottish Parliament Education and Skills Committee’s inquiry into teacher workforce planning (Scottish Parliament 2017). Around the same time, the Scottish Government raised concerns about teacher education which were driven primarily, but not exclusively, by recruitment concerns in some subjects and some

12 Measuring Quality in Initial Teacher Education in Scotland …

163

geographical areas. This led to an invitation from the Cabinet Minister for Education to all ITE providers to propose a series of ‘new and innovative’ routes which would help to address a range of concerns, including: a quick resolution to the recruitment crisis quickly; recruiting and retaining a more diverse and representative teacher workforce; and addressing longer-term cultural and structural changes in teacher education. Resulting programmes increased diversity both in the range and structure of ITE routes available. Although all new routes still require teachers to have graduate status, some routes now offer full Masters qualifications (Kennedy 2018), while others seek to get new teachers into the profession more quickly in order to support recruitment concerns. Some of these new routes are captured and analysed in Shanks’ (2020) edited volume ‘Teacher preparation in Scotland’. This period of rapid change, accompanied by significant investment of resources, was not, however, accompanied by any strategy to research the impact of such changes. While there were no specific plans to investigate the impact of these developments, it is important to understand that ITE was already subject to a range of quality assurance mechanisms, across both university and professional spaces. In the university space, mechanisms include compliance with the UK-wide Quality Assurance Agency requirements, involving the use of external examining systems. In the professional space, ITE programmes are subject to GTCS accreditation against the Standard for Full Registration (GTCS 2012) and, more recently are required to share progress against a new self-evaluation framework developed by Education Scotland and the Scottish Council of Deans of Education. However, in order to take cognisance of, but also to go beyond statutory quality assurance systems, the MQuITE project was proposed—an endeavour that would not only seek to identify quality in ITE generally but which would involve all eleven ITE providers in the process, thereby including a significant capacity-building element. An important underpinning part of the project was the conceptualisation of ‘quality’ and it is to this we now turn.

Conceptualising ‘Measuring Quality’ in ITE As ITE in Scotland is university-based, it draws upon many existing quality and evaluation frameworks. However, this brings challenges: since the 1980s, higher education globally has often been judged in terms of the vagaries of the Evaluative State (Neave 1998), bringing with it attempts to systematise the higher education experience for both staff and students. Such definition of the place, form, and purpose of higher education carries significant central surveillance tactics and output measures that provide challenges to long-held ideas of the university as a place for intellectual and social development and personal growth. Locating ITE thus orients the preparation of teachers in similar terms: ITE programmes often speak to both the emancipatory (the development of teachers committed to social justice through the development of the self) and the provision of labour and research for economic growth (Bleiklie 1998). Importantly, and problematically, these two ITE aims are framed as harmonious when, in practice, they often conflict.

164

A. Kennedy et al.

Wrapped up here are political (and Political) beliefs that improving teaching rests on a marrying of policy and practice through the provision of ‘what works’ and ‘best practice’ (Adams 2008), often defined by centrally defined targets and diktat. For teacher preparation, this is often couched in terms of student teachers being ‘classroom ready’ at the end of their ‘education’ or ‘training’ so they might ‘hit the ground running’. Despite a common emphasis on ITE being ‘fit for purpose’, the purpose of ITE here is rarely made explicit. Hence, there often exist a plethora of mechanisms to ensure ‘quality’: inspections by external agencies; audits of hours assigned to studying ‘key skills’ such as literacy; and over-simplistic proxies of ITE programme or individual teacher quality such as pupil test scores. At the heart of such oft-competing mechanisms lies a common desire to ensure both the suitability and sustainability of ITE in terms of knowledge and skills. In some respects, Scotland wrestles with such matters. However, it is notable that a shift to self-assessment as the core for ITE regulation and monitoring, with its emphasis on partnership processes provides some challenge to overly bureaucratic, simplistic and audit style mechanisms. With the above in mind, the MQuITE project sought to develop a contextually relevant way of both understanding and identifying ‘quality’ across ITE. Importantly, what is sought is a way of describing quality coterminous with teacher education across the professional lifespan. To address these considerations, we define quality across three dimensions (Adams and McLennan 2020): 1.

2.

Identifying teaching: the underpinning philosophies, judgements, and ways in which individuals are accorded access to the profession. Here the ‘right’ individuals are conferred with student–teacher status through mechanisms that seek to admit. Often this extends into some form of ‘induction’ period and may even continue throughout a teacher’s career through the provision of ‘standards’ or ‘competencies’ that determine ongoing membership of the profession. It is important here, though, to recognise that such measures are exigencies that appropriate certain Big-D/Discourses (Gee 2012); political, cultural, and social matters that determine what teaching ‘is about’. In many instances, such exigencies are accepted by teachers and student teachers alike. Occasionally, though, there are those who challenge the contradiction inherent in teaching; the way we are subject to both continuity and change, possibilities, and constraints (Dall’Alba 2009). Doing teaching: teaching is a social act. To be a teacher is to be in the world with others and act on the world for others. Little-d/discourse, or ‘…stretches of language which “hang together” so as to make sense to some community of people, such as a contribution to a conversation or a story’ (Gee 2012, 112) is central to teachers’ work. As we note elsewhere: Through interactions with children, young people, other students, colleagues, the student– teacher acts on and in her environment; she invites others into her world and is permitted entry into the world of others. By doing, the student teacher engages in the world and on the world in order to gain entry into an aspect of the world (the profession). (Adams and McLennan 2020, 7).

12 Measuring Quality in Initial Teacher Education in Scotland …

165

Part of such work revolves around categorisation: how teachers define themselves and are defined. However, such categorisation involves an understanding and positioning of oneself not only in terms of being, for example, a ‘maths teacher’ but also in terms of being a ‘notmaths teacher’. This involves the definition of ‘pedagogy for maths’ as much as it does the defining of acceptable behaviour, noise levels, etc. that in many instances are the ways in which teachers are judged by others. In effect, doing is governed by much more than a simple interpretation of the observable against pre-existing categorisations as judgement for such categorisation is itself subject to varying interpretations and exigencies.

3.

Knowing teaching: the above two aspects take us into the realms of the contextual. What these define are the ways in which the local plays a role in determining quality. As we note, Such matters imbue with often fleeting meaning; certain knowledge forms construct pedagogical and educational notions. In effect, though, what is resonant and redolent ‘here’, may not be so ‘there’. (Adams and McLennan 2020, 7). This presents challenges for teachers both new and experienced for it seemingly challenges how theory can ever be deployed in the classroom. Indeed, Roth (2002) notes how beginning teachers often bemoan the quantity of theory in their ITE. What often ensues then are overly simplistic attempts to both minimise the role for theory in ITE and education, broadly speaking, while at the same time seeking to bolster the deployment of specific methodological forms of research.

What is important to note are the ways in which ‘a teacher’ comes to understand their world through available lenses: in effect, they construct theoretical positions informed by personally and/or locally held ways of understanding teaching. Such praxis offers positions to be taken-up, resisted or amended (Harré 2004). Through such positioning, teachers come to understand the world in that moment, at that time. They learn to engage in responses that fit with the here-and-now. This is an issue that rests on the relationship between student and context; the creation of local theoretical positions, through praxis, that enable the student to orient her work meaningfully; but this requires the conjoining of personally held understandings and social, cultural, political manifestations. Hence theory-making is inextricably tied to practice; it is praxis lived. Such positions might well call for ITE to occur in schools alone, however: ● the generation of local praxis alone can close professional experience; ● theories about, for example, class-control, have roots in matters other than just, presentation, voice, etc., for they are part of the web of theory expressed through discussions about poverty, ethnicity, gender, etc.; ● education provision that is based solely on praxis has the potential to be mere whimsy or ideology. For example, It may well be that race-theory ideas are not ‘held in the moment’, but what these form are ways of living with meaning and intent: they call for reflection in/on praxis; consideration of the ways in which locally formed praxis is expressive of wider educative moments. They are not before or after praxis, they are with theory: they garnish personal construction. (Adams and McLennan 2020).

166

A. Kennedy et al.

Identifying ‘quality’ in ITE is necessarily complex, permeating national, institution, programme, and individual levels. The MQuITE team had the challenge of developing a framework able to bridge competing ideologies to provide practical utility in terms of shaping the empirical phase of the project.

The MQuITE Framework Building from this multi-layered conceptualisation of ITE quality, the MQuITE framework prioritised an overall ‘health check’ of ITE which would take into account the values and structures upon which Scottish education is based. The framework correspondingly conceptualises teacher education, and in particular new teacher graduates, as part of a wider social system. It is therefore not intended as a toolkit for auditing individual programmes or judging the effectiveness of individual teachers or teacher educators. Our approach, we believe, is more likely to result in ongoing processes of learning and enhancement than would be offered by performative, individualised accountability mechanisms. It was, therefore, deemed inappropriate to simply lift processes from performative frameworks. Specifically, MQuITE rejected ‘value-added models’ (VAM), despite their popularity in many states in the US. VAM approaches to measuring quality rely on a rationalist economic model and support an epistemological belief that ultimately, individual teacher input directly leads to pupil output, and thus ‘added-value’, i.e. pupil learning, can be controlled for and measured statistically (Amrein-Beardsley and Holloway 2019). The idea that such measurements of a new teacher’s practice could then directly indicate the quality, or otherwise, of their ITE programme is not something that fits epistemologically with our beliefs about teaching, teacher learning and educational processes. The starting point for the framework was the MQuITE literature review (Rauschenberger et al. 2017). Each member of the project team engaged with this thematic review, summarising how they felt this could inform development of the MQuITE framework. Following intensive team discussion and debate, we settled on developing and expanding Feuer et al.’s (2013) categorisation. A process of contextualising, or ‘Scotifying’ each of the categories ensued, engaging in what Appadurai (1996) calls ‘vernacular globalisation’. For example, when considering Feuer et al.’s (2013) category of ‘faculty qualifications’, we noted the wider concept of ‘teacher educator’ deployed across Scotland which encompasses both university and school-based colleagues involved in the support and development of student teachers. We also considered specific learning teacher educators had undertaken, rather than simply their qualifications. There were very many similar examples where we changed the original categories to align more clearly with the Scottish context. Feuer et al. (2013) identified 6 categories: 1. 2.

Admissions and recruitment criteria Quality and substance of instruction

12 Measuring Quality in Initial Teacher Education in Scotland …

3. 4. 5. 6.

167

Quality of student teaching experience Faculty qualifications Effectiveness in preparing new teachers who are employable in the field Success in preparing high-quality teachers

Our project team Scotified these to fit our context. In the process, we also identified two categories that were not present in Feuer et al.’s analysis, namely: partnership and institutional context. The resultant framework comprised eight categories: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Partnership Admissions, recruitment, and retention Programme design Practicum/fieldwork Teacher educators Initial destinations Post-registration Institutional context

For each of these 8 categories, we then identified related specific dimensions to investigate empirically, matching each of these dimensions to one of 7 data collection tools. The full framework can be found on the project website at www.mquite.scot. At the time of writing we are on our third (of five) years of data collection, using the framework to guide, but not stifle, our data collection plans. One of the exciting things about having a dynamic and adaptable framework is that we are able to take into account issues that arise during the life of the project. For example, the 2020 data capture added a question to our annual cohort survey about responding to sudden changes in light of the Covid-19 context. Similarly, the addition of other questions have enabled analysis focused more explicitly on issues of race education and anti-discrimination in light of the national drive to diversify the teaching profession (Scottish Government 2018) and the global Black Lives Matters movement, all the while contextualised within the broader narrative of social justice that is already well-established in Scottish ITE.

Some ‘Scotified’ Measures of Quality in ITE In this section, we give examples of how the exploration of national priorities is being addressed through data collection and analysis, which also enables international comparisons. In these examples, our approach was to first look to the OECD’s Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) (OECD 2018), keeping comparisons open where possible and adding nuance where needed. As well as enabling some international comparisons that may be of interest to Scotland, this also serves to remedy Scotland’s lack of representation in OECD datasets, whose ‘United Kingdom’ sample only comprises schools and teachers from England. These examples are intended to show how the framework may operate as MQuITE

168

A. Kennedy et al.

becomes established across Scotland’s ITE, balancing national interests and current ways of researching ITE in Scotland with measures enabling greater international comparison.

Foreign Language Preparedness Much of Europe committed to the Barcelona Agreement in 2002, establishing a common framework for assessing language competency, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), and enabling international comparisons through the European Survey on Language Competences (ESLC; European Commission 2016) by testing students and asking their opinions about foreign language learning. The Barcelona Agreement went beyond promoting greater foreign language learning, aiming for cross-curricular applications and plurilingual classrooms which normalise the use of “at least two foreign languages from a very early age” (Barcelona European Council 2002, 19). However, this policy emphasis on learning languages from an early age is only measured in ESLC at the end of secondary education, meaning that measurement is only of higher levels of proficiency. Nevertheless, this data suggests that progress is going well (an average of 42% of students achieve independent user level in a second language, 25% for a third language). It is also almost universally the case that the second language of choice is English (the exceptions are Belgium and England, who both adopt French as the most common second language). While ESLC includes England in its sample, it is difficult to translate foreign language policies to English-speaking countries since there are strong cultural and economic factors surrounding English as a world language. Adopting ESLC measures into MQuITE may therefore simply show what is already known to be a low level of foreign language learning in much the same way as is presented for England, where only 10% of students achieve independent learner status in a foreign language—far below the 42% European average, and the lowest of the 16 ESLC countries. Looking at Scottish exam entries suggests that we might find a similar result in Scotland, since fewer than 15% of learners enter a foreign language exam in Scotland (which have around an 80% pass rate, for around a 12% proficiency rate). As an alternative measure, MQuITE directly asks teachers about their own proficiency, specifically if they can “communicate beyond beginner level” in any additional languages. This reflects how Scotland came late to the Barcelona Agreement, passing its equivalent “1 + 2” policy ten years later (Scottish Government 2012). Such changes will not have been fully experienced by those now starting ITE programmes, making it appropriate to consider progress in teacher language proficiency even when below independent user standard. The MQuITE measure also reflects a different context in that Scotland is an English-speaking country, which may limit the economic imperative to develop higher levels of other-language proficiency or devote substantial curricular time to a foreign language (Caplan 2012; Saiz and Zoido 2005). Consequently, this may allow teachers to offer an appropriate level

12 Measuring Quality in Initial Teacher Education in Scotland …

169

of language exposure even if their own proficiency is only slightly ahead of that of their learners (Little 2011). Using this ‘beginner level’ measure across the 3 years of MQuITE, we see that around a third of teachers can offer at least some additional language. While the sample revealed 31 different languages offered, students are only likely to have reliable access to French, Spanish, German, or Gaelic. This gives an insight into the sustainability of the 1 + 2 policy, an important measure as it was intended to require no additional funding by 2020. In short, the MQuITE measure shows that teachers are only able to reliably offer a narrow range of languages to students as they progress through school, but conversely, that policy goals of cultural and linguistic diversity may be more readily achievable. The annual data capture of newly graduating teachers in MQuITE is also a convenient proxy of efforts to increase language proficiency in schools. The proportion of teachers offering an additional language has increased in each of the 3 years of MQuITE (23% in 2018, 25% in 2019, 29% in 2020), which may show the gradual ‘feeding-in’ of students who started to be offered greater access to foreign languages from 2012 as they worked their way through schools and into ITE. As an additional measure, MQuITE also asks teachers how prepared they feel in different subject areas, including additional languages. This compares against the TALIS norm of asking about areas of teacher efficacy, such as the ability to assess, differentiate, or manage behaviour. Asking about subject provision reflects current discussions around Scotland’s new curriculum and the extent to which subject knowledge and subject-specific pedagogy should be prominent in ITE. Again, the ability to look at one cohort across several years as well as two cohorts of graduates enables some analysis of change over time that could not otherwise be made. The headline finding is concerning, with languages the area in which teachers feel least prepared. On a five-point scale from 1 (not at all prepared) to 5 (very well prepared), 2018 graduates gave a mean score of just 2.86, with 16% reporting not feeling at all prepared. In the 2019 graduate cohort, this worsened slightly to a mean of 2.59, although there was a slight reduction in those feeling not at all prepared (12%). As those graduates took on their first teaching roles, we find that the 2018 graduates lost even more confidence—a mean of 2.63, with 21% not at all prepared. After another year of teaching, the mean has recovered slightly to 2.88 with 19% not at all prepared. In contrast, the 2019 graduates saw an improvement to a mean of 3.17 with only 6% feeling not at all prepared. These comparisons, while at an early stage of data collection and analysis, suggest that cohorts of new teachers may differ from each other as the increase in language learning in schools starts to feed into ITE. The data also suggests that language proficiency may continue to improve in the early stages of a teaching career rather than being entirely reliant upon language learning during school or ITE years. However, the experience here may be highly variable. As MQuITE continues to collect data as more students become teachers, the proportion of teachers feeling able to communicate beyond beginner level should start to reflect the substantial increase in foreign language exam entries in Scotland (a 58% increase since 2011, though much of this is due to exam reform which increased entries in all subjects by 51%). This may

170

A. Kennedy et al.

require reconsidering the measure of proficiency and what level of language teachers require and may even make the ESLC ‘independent user’ measure more appropriate, enabling greater comparisons across Europe.

Career Intention Measuring teacher retention is fraught with difficulties, with no one method suitable for the range of decisions that can be made based on retention data. The approach of MQuITE is novel in that it moves away from the hard data of what teachers are doing at snapshot data capture points and instead adapts questions from TALIS to ask about a range of options that teachers feel might be open or attractive to them over the next 5 years. To explain the advantages of this approach, this section first details some of the limitations in how retention is currently measured and compared and then outlines some of the findings from our ‘softer’ data. The MQuITE approach was heavily inspired by Weldon’s (2018) damning critique of retention statistics in Australia in which he traces citations of retention figures typically putting attrition around 50% through various Australian and British publications. In his work, he identifies circular references, poorly defined concepts, and unfounded estimates that become established through repeated citation. Further, we believe that simply counting the proportion of teachers employed in state schools in Scotland is over-simplistic. When combined with the flaws noted by Weldon (2018), we argue that there is significant scope to improve the measure through greater nuance. Such a position is easier to argue for, at the expense of international comparisons, when retention data from other countries is likely to be similarly flawed and often uses the same citations discredited by Weldon. Part of the issue is the mixing together of teacher supply and attrition data in analyses. In a report for the OECD, McKenzie and Santiago (2005) helpfully explained how teacher supply was about shortages in key areas and high attrition among early career teachers rather than being a problem, simply, of generally having enough teachers. Analysis of teacher vacancies showed this to be true of England and Wales: the actual number of teachers exceeded demand despite subject and location shortages (See et al. 2004). This finding is supported by a similar analysis in Scotland (Hulme and Menter 2014). Thus, the issue of teacher supply encompasses both a supply of teachers who schools want to hire and teachers who want to work in those schools. This is supported by a study of teachers in England which found that more than half of teachers leaving state schools actually stayed in the education sector, most commonly “teaching in private schools, becoming teaching assistants and taking up a non-teaching role in school” (Lynch et al. 2016, 4). Counting these teachers as no longer retained in the profession therefore reflects a too-narrow concept of the teaching profession as being limited to class teachers. In addition to being technically difficult to measure, retention and attrition are politically sensitive. In her review of teacher retention in England, McDowall (2013) shows how this can lead to a confusing array of percentages and accompanying

12 Measuring Quality in Initial Teacher Education in Scotland …

171

claims or inferences. For instance, England’s Teach First claims a “uniquely high” programme completion rate of 95% as a measure of “completion and retention during training”. However, the same report also specifies 42% “long-term retention”, 54% who “remain teaching in the UK [although this actually just means England and Wales]”, 57% “still in teaching 5 years after training”, and 68% who “remain employed in education” (Parliament UK 2012). Beyond issues around what the retention figure might be, it is also questionable how useful such measures are since they assume that staying in a classroom teaching role reflects positive ITE or career experiences. Two US studies illustrate the problem well: Manning (2016, 2) suggests that “staying in post might ultimately be a ‘non-choice’” for many teachers for personal or financial reasons, while Kelly and Northrop (2015, 648) find that more highly qualified graduates have “an 85% greater likelihood of leaving the profession than less selective graduates in the first three years of teaching”. This is supported by Lynch et al. (2016) finding that far more teachers think about leaving the profession than actually do, hinting at a potentially hidden crisis of teacher dissatisfaction not reflected in current attrition estimates. As a simple measure, we asked teachers to select from a range of possibilities for where they saw themselves in five years’ time. These included measures that would relate to traditional retention measures of teaching in a state-funded school in Scotland, but also included a wider range of possibilities such as working in other sectors, other countries, education-related professions, or returning to advanced-level study (see Table 12.1, below). Comparing with traditional retention estimates of around 50% across the first five years, we found that only 71.9% of our 2018 and 2019 graduates thought they would still be teaching in a classroom in Scotland in five years, and that this reduces slightly after each additional year of teaching. Indeed, a positive sample bias—those leaving teaching are not kept in the sample for subsequent years—could mean this is an optimistic picture. These figures are broadly similar to the standard retention rates calculated from teacher workforce data, suggesting that there is helpful comparability in our question. Perhaps more importantly, though, the data suggest that attrition may not be a sudden dramatic life event but is something that teachers anticipate several years ahead. It is therefore helpful to consider what else teachers think they might be doing. Perhaps most striking is the expectation that teachers’ careers may take them abroad—23% consider this a possibility upon graduation, though this soon reduces after the first year teaching in Scotland. Teachers are also open to a range of possibilities that clearly have value to an education profession even though these are not teaching roles, perhaps therefore unfairly blaming ITE or the teaching profession for ‘wasting’ these teachers. The more nuanced data also shows potential for success in meeting national aspirations for teachers to increasingly take on leadership roles in their early careers (over 30% of early career teachers seeing this as a possibility). There may also be some cause for concern in the sharp reduction in teachers considering further study, particular to doctoral level. By looking at whether teachers see these as possibilities, rather than just looking at the numbers of teachers who do go on to do these things, we are able to offer a broader

172

A. Kennedy et al.

Table 12.1 Teachers’ career intentions Intention

On graduation

End of induction year

End of 2nd year

Class/subject teacher in Scotland

71.9%

67.4%

62.5%

Middle leader

34.9%

32.9%

36.9%

School leader/Headteacher

4.2%

1.9%

1.2%

Not teaching at all

6.5%

8.8%

9.5%

Teaching outwith Scotland

22.9%

17.6%

15.5%

Working in further or higher education

6.7%

7.5%

7.1%

Working in education but not teaching

11.3%

11.6%

11.3%

Studying for, or having achieved, a 32.2% Masters degree in education

24.1%

23.2%

Studying for, or having achieved, a 4.3% doctorate in education, e.g. PhD or EdD

2.8%

3.0%

Studying for, or having achieved a Masters or Doctorate in a non-education-related field

3.3%

1.9%

2.4%

Other

3.4%

5.0%

3.0%

Sample size

645

319

168

view of how teachers view their careers, which we argue may be more helpful for policy planning. In particular, planning for flexibility in teacher supply as birth and immigration rates vary may usefully engage with the broader idea of an education profession and the range of experiences that teachers may engage with beyond the traditional classroom teacher role. If this can lead to more nuanced policy approaches to teacher supply than simply leveraging the distribution of ITE places, then there may be positive impact on other factors such as teacher under- or un-employment.

No ‘Final’ Report: The ongoing impact of MQuITE The collaborative nature of MQuITE has been crucial in building research and development capacity across the 11 university schools of education, as well as creating a forum for the discussion of ITE policy and practice. MQuITE was established not just to work within the national policy context, but to help shape that context. Although currently only in year 4 of 6, its impact has already been felt in terms of providing valuable empirical data and conceptual ideas that refute some of the negative assumptions laid at the feet of ITE. For example, when in 2017 the Scottish Parliament Education and Skills Committee highlighted concerns over graduating teachers’ capacity to teach numeracy (an area of responsibility of all teachers under

12 Measuring Quality in Initial Teacher Education in Scotland …

173

the Curriculum for Excellence policy), MQuITE was soon able to share empirical evidence that pointed to graduating teachers and their mentors being least concerned about competence in this area. The project team’s close working with policymakers through, for example, regular reporting to the national Strategic Board for Teacher Education (www.gov.scot/groups/strategic-board-for-teacher-education/) means that empirical findings can be readily embedded into discussions at national level. A more recent development for MQuITE has been to seek, wherever possible, to locate our own national findings within broader international contexts such as that discussed above relating to foreign language competence and career intentions. This has helped ITE stakeholders to access a wider perspective on local/national developments. The existence of the MQuITE project has also helped to shape developments in national ITE quality assurance mechanisms. For example, following the report of the Scottish Parliament Education and Skills Committee’s inquiry into the teacher workforce in 2017, the Scottish Government was charged with ensuring the development of a new national evaluation of ITE. What originally started looking like another inspection style audit has ended up being run as an annual national conference where ITE providers and other stakeholders get together to look at progress and challenges relating to particular themes identified as priorities against an ITE self-evaluation document that the universities themselves use, rather than have imposed upon them. In 2019, the national theme was numeracy, and in 2020 the theme was diversity and wellbeing. This national approach to evaluation is suggestive of a mature system in which trust forms a major role, and which is underpinned by a collaborative desire to enhance ITE provision nationally. While the above discussion points to the many positive aspects of the MQuITE project and its impact on the system, it should also be acknowledged that the project cannot provide a definitive statement on the health of ITE. The more we uncover, the more there is to explore, and the project team has identified many aspects worthy of deeper investigation. We are also regularly in receipt of suggestions from stakeholders about aspects they consider worthy of more in-depth focus. The scope of the project is not big enough to incorporate all suggestions, but the framework does provide a common springboard to align spin-off projects. For instance, a Masters student at the University of Edinburgh is currently exploring MQuITE data on the experiences of physical education teachers across Scotland supplementing this with additional primary data collection. Similarly, a doctoral student at the University of Strathclyde is using MQuITE mentoring data and will supplement this with her own primary data collection. Further, two members of the project team (at the University of Strathclyde and the University of Aberdeen) have won funding through the British Educational Research Association to explore how new teachers are dealing with Covid-related changes to their practice. The project does not see a final report as the pinnacle of its impact; rather, MQuITE has shaped itself very much as a research and development project, capable of expanding beyond its initial brief. We believe this to be a unique project internationally and is, perhaps, a result of the ‘Scottish policy style’ outlined above. We are all fortunate to work within a system where stakeholders and policy makers work in partnership, taking into account contextual factors, towards ends that benefit us all.

174

A. Kennedy et al.

References Adams, P. (2008). Considering “best practice”: The social construction of teacher activity and pupil learning as performance. Cambridge Journal of Education, 38, 375–392. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 03057640802299635 Adams, P., & McLennan, C. (2020). Towards initial teacher education quality: Epistemological considerations. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 1–12. Taylor & Francis. Amrein-Beardsley, A., & Holloway, J. (2019). Value-added models for teacher evaluation and accountability: Commonsense assumptions. Educational Policy (Vol. 33, pp. 516–542). SAGE Publications Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA. Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of globalization. University of Minnesota Press. Barcelona European Council. (2002). Presidency conclusions. 10/1/11 REV 1. Beck, A. D. (2016). Policy processes, professionalism and partnership: An exploration of the implementation of’Teaching Scotland’s Future’. University of Glasgow. Bleiklie, I. (1998). Justifying the Evaluative State: New Public Management Ideals in Higher Education. Journal of Public Affairs Education, 4, 87–100. https://doi.org/10.1080/15236803.1998.120 22016 Cairney, Paul, and Neil McGarvey. 2013. Scottish politics. Macmillan International Higher Education. Caplan, B. (2012). The Numbers Speak: Foreign language requirements are a waste of time and money. The Library of Economics and Liberty. Dall’Alba, G. (2009). Learning professional ways of being: Ambiguities of becoming. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 41, 34–45. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-5812.2008.00475.x Donaldson, G. (2010). Teaching Scotland’s Future. Report of a review of teacher education in Scotland. Education. Edinburgh: Scottish Government. European Commission. 2016. First European Survey on Language Competences: Final Report. Feuer, M. J., Floden, R. E., Chudowsky, N., & Ahn, J. (2013). Evaluation of teacher preparation programs: Purposes, methods, and policy options. National Academy of Education. Gee, J. P. (2012). Discourse Versus discourse. The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Major Reference Works. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal0332. GTCS. (2012). The Standards for Registration: Mandatory requirements for Registration with the General Teaching Council for Scotland. Harré, R. (2004). Positioning theory. Hulme, M., & Menter, I. (2013). The evolution of teacher education and the Scottish universities. In T. Bryce, W. Humes, D. Gillies, & A. Kennedy (Eds.), Scottish education, (4th ed., pp. 905–914). Edinburgh University Press. Hulme, M., & Menter, I. (2014). New professionalism in austere times: The employment experiences of early career teachers in Scotland. Teachers and Teaching 20. Taylor & Francis, 672–687. https:// doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2014.885707. Humes, W. (1986). The leadership class in Scottish education. Edinburgh: John Donald. Humes, W. (2020). Re-Shaping the policy landscape in Scottish Education, 2016–20: The limitations of structural reform. Scottish Educational Review, 52, 1–22. Humes, W. (2020b). Two attainment gaps in Scottish education. Sceptical Scot. Kelly, S., & Northrop, L. (2015). Early career outcomes for the “Best and the Brightest”: Selectivity, satisfaction, and attrition in the beginning teacher longitudinal survey. American Educational Research Journal, 52, 624–656. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831215587352 Kennedy, A. (2018). Developing a new ITE programme: a story of compliant and disruptive narratives across different cultural spaces. European Journal of Teacher Education 41. Routledge: 638–653. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2018.1529753. Kennedy, A., & Doherty, R. (2012). Professionalism and partnership: Panaceas for teacher education in Scotland? Journal of Education Policy, 27, 835–848. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2012. 682609

12 Measuring Quality in Initial Teacher Education in Scotland …

175

Little, D. (2011). The common european framework of reference for languages: A research agenda. Language Teaching, 44, 381–393. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444811000097 Lynch, S., Worth, J., Bamford, S., & Wespieser, K. (2016). Engaging teachers: NFER analysis of teacher retention. Slough: National Foundation for Educational Research. MacDonald, A, & Rae, A. (2018). Initial teacher education in Scotland. In T. Bryce, W. Humes, D. Gillies, & A. Kennedy (Eds.), Scottish education (5th ed., pp. 836–846). Edinburgh University Press. Manning, A. (2016). Urban Science Teachers: Exploring how their views and experiences can influence decisions to remain in post or not. King’s College. McCrone, D., & Keating, K. (2007). Social democracy and Scotland. In M. Keating (pp. 17–38). Scottish social democracy: Progressive ideas for public policy. Peter Lang. McDowall, S. (2013). An investigation into which forms of early teacher learning are most effective with respect to retention, motivation, commitment and job satisfaction for new entrants to the school teaching profession. University of Birmingham. McKenzie, P., & Santiago, P. (2005). Teachers matter: Attracting, developing and retaining effective teachers. OECD. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264018044-sum-sv Menter, I. (2017). The role and contribution of higher education in contemporary teacher education. Scottish Council of Deans of Education. Retrieved October 10, 2018, from http://www.scde.ac. uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Report-Ian-Menter-2017-05-25.pdf. Neave, G. (1998). The evaluative state reconsidered. European Journal of Education, 33, 265–284. OECD. (2018). TALIS teacher questionnaire. Parliament UK. (2012). Education committee: Further written evidence submitted by Teach First. Rauschenberger, E., Adams, A., & Kennedy, A. (2017). Measuring quality in initial teacher education: A literature review. Edinburgh: Scottish Council of Deans of Education. Roth, W-M. (2002). Being and becoming in the classroom. Greenwood Publishing Group. Saiz, A., & Zoido, E. (2005). Listening to what the world says: Bilingualism and earnings in the United States. Review of Economics and Statistics, 87, 523–538. https://doi.org/10.1162/003465 3054638256 Scottish Government. (2012). Language learning in Scotland: A 1+2 Approach. Edinburgh. Scottish Government. (2018). Teaching in a diverse Scotland: Increasing and retaining minority ethnic teachers. Scottish Parliament. (2017). Teacher workforce planning. See, B. H., Gorard, S., & White, P. (2004). Teacher demand: crisis what crisis? Cambridge Journal of Education 34. Taylor & Francis: 103–123. Shanks, R. (Ed.). (2020). Teacher preparation in Scotland. Emerald Group Publishing. Weldon, P. (2018). Early career teacher attrition in Australia: Evidence, definition, classification and measurement. Australian Journal of Education, 62, 61–78. https://doi.org/10.1177/000494 4117752478

Aileen Kennedy is Professor of Practice in Teacher Education at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, where she is also Director of Teacher Education. Her work focuses on teacher learning and teacher education for social justice, and she is committed to developing approaches in which activist teachers can grow and flourish. She is Managing Editor of Professional Development in Education, and Co-Principal Investigator of the Scottish Government-funded ‘Measuring Quality in Initial Teacher Education’ project. Paul Adams is Senior Lecturer, Curriculum and Pedagogy Policy at the University of Strathclyde. Prior to his current post he taught and researched at the University of Hull and Newman College of Higher Education (now Newman University). His research and teaching interests lie primarily at the inter-section of policy, pedagogy and teacher education (broadly speaking in all cases). He is on the board of Education 3–13 and regularly reviews for a number of peer reviewed journals.

176

A. Kennedy et al.

He is currently Co-Principal Investigator on the Scottish Government-funded ‘Measuring Quality in Initial Teacher Education’ project. Mark Carver is a Research Associate at the University of Strathclyde, where he is research assistant on the Measuring Quality in Initial Teacher Education project. He is also an associate lecturer in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages at the University of St Andrews, with teaching and research specializing in assessment and feedback.

Chapter 13

Teacher Education in the United States of America: An Overview of the Policies, Pathways, Issues and Relevant Research Maria Teresa Tatto

Abstract Reforms affecting teacher education have occurred rapidly in the U.S. beginning in the 1990s when policymakers became concerned about U.S. global competitiveness due to pupils’ low scores in international achievement tests. Several official policies have emerged over the years in response to quality concerns. Quality is understood in various ways: in terms of programs’ performance against accreditation criteria and in terms of the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that teachers are expected to have and how these are reflected on their teaching practice, but also as simply represented by pupils’ tests results which are assumed to have a direct correlation with teacher preparation and performance. In this chapter, I review pivotal policies that have influenced teacher education in the last 10 years. After an abridged overview of the system of teacher education in the U.S., I conclude with a review of the major issues affecting the field and discussing implications for future research.

Background The United States of America (U.S.) system of education is highly decentralized with the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (1791) granting general authority to the states for the administration and control over public education. The Federal Government has traditionally not played a role in the governance of education institutions at any level. Until 2009 more than 50 million students in K-12 and over 17 million in colleges and universities including those in teacher education were educated in a decentralized system with no national framework laws or curricula. While since 2009 the federal government has attempted to exert more control over public education, the 1.3 trillion-dollar U.S. national education budget (2016–2017) is mostly contributed by state and local governments with federal funding accounting for about 200 million highlighting local over federal governance power. As of 2013 most K-12 children (87%) attended state-funded public schools, 10% attended some M. T. Tatto (B) Arizona State University, Arizona, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 D. Mayer (ed.), Teacher Education Policy and Research, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3775-9_13

177

178

M. T. Tatto

kind of private school, and 3% were homeschooled (Snyder et al. 2019). Education is compulsory at the elementary, secondary and high school levels. Concerning teachers, according to the National Center for Education Statistics in the 2017–2018 school years, there were over three million full time and parttime traditional public school teachers, over 200,000 public charter school teachers and over 500,000 private school teachers teaching in about 98,000 schools. Close to 60% of teachers in public schools had a postbaccalaureate degree in comparison to those teaching in private (48%) and charter schools (46%). The average salary for full-time public-school teachers has decreased over the past decades (59,100 in 2017–18 versus 59,700 in 1999–2000). As of 2011–12, the average class size in public elementary schools was 21 pupils and about 27 for public secondary schools. Concerning teacher preparation, as of 2012–13 close to 500,000 individuals were enrolled in over 25,000 teacher preparation programs (70% traditional programs in institutions of higher education (IHE), 20% alternative in IHE, and 10% alternative in non-IHE). Ninety per cent of students were enrolled in traditional teacher preparation programs, 5% in alternative routes based at IHEs, and close to 6% in alternative routes not based at institutions of higher education (IHE). Of those, more than 190,000 completed their programs. Close to 75% are female and white, failing to represent the wide diversity of the student body. In 2012–13 the five states that reported the greatest number of teacher preparation program completers were Texas (11%), New York (9%), California (6%), Pennsylvania (5%), and Illinois (4%) (U.S. Department of Education 2016).

Policy Initiatives and Their Impact on U.S. Teacher Education A detailed account of policy changes affecting teacher education in the U.S. can be found in Tatto and Clark (2019); Tatto et al. (2018); and Youngs and Grogan (2013). In this chapter, the focus is on pivotal policies that have affected teacher education in the past 10 years. These are in chronological order including the NBPTS, CCSS, the NCLB and the ESSA, and the provisions of Title II of the Higher Education Act.

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards When we think about policy we usually refer to mandates from official bodies. Before discussing those in this chapter it is important to highlight initiatives that emerged in the 1990s from within the profession and that continue to be relevant to this day. One of the most important efforts is that of the NBPTS which sought to professionalize teaching by developing standards on what teachers should know and be able to do backed up by performance-based assessments in which teachers have to demonstrate

13 Teacher Education in the United States of America …

179

excellence to become certified. The updated standards are referred to as the Five Core Propositions: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Teachers are committed to students and their learning Teachers know the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to students Teachers are responsible for managing and monitoring student learning Teachers think systematically about their practices and learn from experience Teachers are members of learning communities.

The NBPTS envisions a professional career continuum for teaching from initial education to early career to becoming a board-certified professional teacher opening possibilities for teacher and school leadership. The certification process, however, is cumbersome taking from 1–3 years and while is touted as the highest certification that a teacher can earn, nationwide only three per cent (or about 91,000 teachers) are board-certified. Most are concentrated in a few states including California, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Washington. The NBPTS has had a moderate influence on teacher education which was more marked during the mid-1980s and 1990s when a prominent group of deans in leading schools of education under the umbrella name of the Holmes Group pioneered innovative changes in teacher education programs’ course work and clinical experiences to occur in the so-called Professional Development Schools, as well as changes in overall degree and certification requirements transforming programs in ways that continue to this day (Youngs and Grogan 2013, p. 250).

Common Core State Standards Over the past ten years, several key official initiatives have changed the landscape of teacher education in the U.S. One was the creation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) an initiative launched in 2009 by state leaders from 48 out of 50 states with important leadership from the Council of Chief State School Officers and governors, and which effectively reformed and to a degree attempted to centralize the K-12 system of assessment and curriculum in several core subjects with special emphasis on English Language Arts and Literacy (including literacy in history, social studies, science and technical texts), and Mathematics Standards.1 The introduction of the CCSS facilitated alignment with graduation requirements, assessment and more generally accountability systems. While standards had existed in the U.S. before CCSS, the difference was the universal scope of the standards which came to challenge the decentralized character of the system of education prevalent in the U.S. until then. The stated aim of the standards was to [P]rovide clear and consistent learning goals to help prepare students for college, career, and life. The standards clearly demonstrate what students are expected to 1

A parallel effort was the creation of the k-12 science content standards https://www.nextgensc ience.org/.

180

M. T. Tatto

learn at each grade level so that every parent and teacher can understand and support their learning.’ http://www.corestandards.org/read-the-standards/. While the standards were controversial, they were adopted in most of the states in the nation and influenced not only the school curriculum but also teacher preparation. Currently, several states are attempting to revise their curriculum standards yet it would be difficult to affirm that there has been a strong departure from the CCSS. The introduction of the CCSS was facilitated by previous legislation known as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) (2002–2015) which increased federal control over all aspects of education.

The No Child Left Behind Act The so-called ‘No Child Left Behind’ Act of 2001 (P.L. 107–110) was signed into law in 2002 under the administration of G.W. Bush. The law reauthorized the ‘Elementary and Secondary Education Act’ (ESEA) which dates back to 1965. The argument that generated bi-partisan support for the law was based on the notion that every child should have access to high-quality education and particularly children from underserved populations. Quality education was defined as improved learning (as measured by scores on standardized tests), which was to be facilitated by access to high-quality curricular content, highly qualified teachers, and public accountability. The introduction of public accountability resulted in an unprecedented increase in testing and collection of administrative data. Test results became the main tool for informing the public and especially parents of the quality of education their children were receiving so that they could make ‘informed choices’ such as opting for charter or private schools. Struggling schools were in many cases further disadvantaged as schools showing low student scores in tests were asked to provide extra help for those students or lose financial support. NCLB came under attack because it was implemented without proof of its effectiveness, was severely underfunded, and was seen as an overt attempt at undermining public schools (Ravitch 2007). The NCLB strategy revolved around the notion of value-added or the idea that several factors such as the curriculum, and teaching quality among others can be seen as contributing to a desirable outcome in this case pupils learning as measured by standardized tests.2 To comply with accountability demands repeated administration of standardized tests over time became the core indicator of school and teaching quality. NCLB produced excessive testing, teaching, and learning to the test and discouraged highly qualified individuals from becoming teachers especially those who had the qualifications to engage in other better-paying professions. NCLB

2

Value Added Models or VAMs represent an econometric approximation to evaluate teacher effectiveness on pupil achievement. Their use while widely accepted in some U.S. states is generally seen as controversial in other states and have raised important concerns among educators (AERA, 2015; Amrein-Beardsley et al. 2016; Harris 2018).

13 Teacher Education in the United States of America …

181

was further criticized for its narrow focus on curriculum and testing leaving aside other important factors that influence learning such as poor facilities, class size, and the socio-economic and emotional situation of families and children. The federal government through NCLB increased regulation at all levels of the system. As concerns the teaching profession, NCLB supported the creation of a system to evaluate teachers and their schools using value-added models. In addition, NCLB redefined what it meant to be a ‘highly qualified teacher’ as essentially having a bachelor’s degree in the subject to be taught, and state certification; this redefinition omitted competence in pedagogy and experience in schools and was seen as a direct attack to traditional teacher education programs as it encouraged the proliferation of non-IHE alternative pathways onto teaching. NCLB represented the first direct attempt at introducing regulations to systems of teacher education and preparation by the federal government.

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act On December 10, 2015, President Obama reauthorized the ‘Elementary and Secondary Education Act’ (ESEA) putting an end to the NCLB Act. The new law named the ‘Every Student Succeeds Act’ (ESSA) is a national law that seeks to provide equitable access to education for all students and in contrast with the heavily centralized tendency of NCLB, the ESSA delegates to the states the definition of what is meant to be an effective teacher. As a consequence, some states stopped using the results of standardized tests in teacher and school evaluations. Nevertheless, some states have continued the VAMs practice of teacher evaluation which has more recently allowed analysts to use VAMs to evaluate teacher education programs (e.g., Noell et al. 2018) allowing non-education actors in what is de facto the evaluation of teacher education.

An Attempt at Federal Regulation of Teacher Education Providers Early in 2015 under the Obama administration, the then secretary of education Arne Duncan announced a federal regulatory plan for teacher education and preparation programs (including alternative modalities). While the regulations were to be implemented at the local level, this plan was an open attempt at creating a regulatory system of teacher education controlled at the federal level. The regulations called providers to collect yearly data to document the success of their graduates according to their acquired knowledge and satisfaction, their employment outcomes in their first three-years after graduation, and on the achievement of their pupils as measured by standardized achievement tests (U.S. Department of Education, n. d.) The plan

182

M. T. Tatto

was possible given the work that had been done since the implementation of the NCLB and followed the same value-added logic. There was an important push to create a single accreditation organism the Council for the Accreditation of Education Preparation (CAEP) which would bring together the efforts of the traditional National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC) an initiative that gained support from the teacher education community (including the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Educators [AACTE]). The CAEP revised and updated the standards that had been used by NCATE and TEAC (see Table 1). CAEP sought to align these standards with a revised set of curriculum guidelines to teacher education programs product of an earlier effort which emerged quietly in the 1990s under the Clinton administration: the revised Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium standards (InTASC). The 2013 InTASC Model Core Teaching Standards and Learning Progressions for Teachers 1.0 outline “what teachers should know and be able to do to ensure every PK-12 student reaches the goal of being ready to enter college or the workforce in today’s world.” While the regulatory plan developed by the administration had a one-on-one correspondence with the proposed regulations (see Tatto et al. 2016, p.7) and had some Table 1 CAEP (2013) Standards Standard 1: Content and Pedagogical Knowledge: “The provider ensures that candidates develop a deep understanding of the critical concepts and principles of their discipline and, by completion, are able to use discipline-specific practices flexibly to advance the learning of all students toward attainment of college- and career-readiness standards.” Standard 2: Clinical Partnerships and Practice: “The provider ensures that effective partnerships and high-quality clinical practise are central to preparation so that candidates develop the knowledge, skills, and professional dispositions necessary to demonstrate a positive impact on all P-12 students’ learning and development.” Standard 3: Candidate Quality, Recruitment, and Selectivity: “The provider demonstrates that the quality of candidates is a continuing and purposeful part of its responsibility from recruitment, at admission, through the progression of courses and clinical experiences, and to decisions that completers are prepared to teach effectively and are recommended for certification. The provider demonstrates that the development of candidate quality is the goal of educator preparation in all phases of the program. This process is ultimately determined by a program’s meeting of Standard 4.” Standard 4: Program Impact: “The provider demonstrates the impact of its completers on P-12 student learning and development, classroom instruction, and schools, and the satisfaction of its completers with the relevance and effectiveness of their preparation.” Standard 5: Provider Quality Assurance and Continuous Improvement: “The provider maintains a quality assurance system comprised of valid data from multiple measures, including evidence of candidates’ and completers’ positive impact on P-12 student learning and development. The provider supports continuous improvement that is sustained and evidence-based, and that evaluates the effectiveness of its completers. The provider uses the results of inquiry and data collection to establish priorities, enhance program elements and capacity, and test innovations to improve completers’ impact on P-12 student learning and development.” Source Tatto et al. (2016)

13 Teacher Education in the United States of America …

183

positive aspects (importantly it called for regulation of the until then unregulated alternative routes), it met with resistance from educators, not only because of the intrusion that this mandate represented into what had been traditionally a decentralized operation governed by the profession, but mostly because it was, for the most part, an unfunded mandate which demanded an extraordinary and unprecedented effort in data collection for providers. An additional concern was the emphasis on teacher evaluations using as a major outcome results from standardized pupil tests. Changes to the regulations included allowing the states to decide how to evaluate their schools and their teachers and therefore the outcomes of teacher education. The federal regulations were rescinded by the U.S. Congress in January 2016 as the Trump administration took over. Nevertheless, suggestions on how to measure the outcomes of teacher education based on teachers’ learning emerged from ongoing efforts by educators such as the performance assessment called edTPA and have persisted to this day. The edTPA assesses teacher candidates according to three tasks: Planning, Instruction, and Assessment. This requires that teachers submit a 15–20-min video of their teaching), and a portfolio of materials during their clinical experience including lesson plans and analysis of whether students are learning. The costs of the assessment which is administered in collaboration with Pearson (300 USD), and its complexity not only in submitting the assessment but also in interpreting the results and providing feedback to test takers have resulted in uneven adoption with only 919 educator preparation programs across 41 states and the District of Columbia using it within their program (Connecticut General Assembly 2020).

The Teacher Education Report Card: Title II of the Higher Education Act While the role of the federal government in the regulation of teacher education was diminished in early 2016, Title II of the Higher Education Act of 1965 as amended in 2008 requires states to report annually on key elements of their teacher preparation programs and requirements for initial teacher credentialing, for kindergarten through 12th grade. In 2013, new requirements were added, including a count of the traditional and alternative route teacher preparation programs, and indicators of quality assurance used by all programs. Title II falls under the ESSA umbrella. Title II Part A designates funding specifically for recruiting, preparing and supporting teachers. The Title II reports have resulted in a comprehensive database. While data continues to be collected, the latest official report was written under the administration of President Obama (U.S Department of Education 2016) and includes information on (a) demographics, (b) enrolment and graduation rates, (c) the types of programs that provide preparation, (d) the standards and policies that guide program development and evaluation, (e) requirements and assessment criteria for initial teacher

184

M. T. Tatto

credentialing, (f) whether future teachers took and passed state assessments, and (g) the number of credentials awarded by programs. While lacking much-needed specificity concerning the subject knowledge that teachers acquire as a result of teacher preparation, the database collected under Title II (U.S. Department of Education 2017) reveals important persistent issues for the U.S. system of teacher education. First, programs vary on the approaches they use to regulate future teachers’ quality. For instance, variability exists in the subject requirements for entry into and exit from programs, and in the degree to which programs have appropriate mechanisms to assess formatively how well future teachers are learning the knowledge and skills needed to be successful school teachers in their subjects. Second, much variability exists around the kinds of summative assessments of knowledge and skills that teachers must pass to obtain a credential. Data on how well novice teachers perform once in schools are not included in these reports. Although most programs report providing future teachers with opportunities both to learn to teach pupils who are culturally diverse, disadvantaged, differentlyabled, or who are learning English as a second language and to integrate technology into curricula and instruction, it is unclear how programs are assessing these important outcomes especially as these outcomes interact with the teaching of different subjects. Deficits in these areas have become highly visible during the COVID-19 pandemic. In sum, it is unclear how programs evaluate their performance, or how they use such data to enact program improvements. In terms of quality assurance at the state level, most programs receive a passing grade, with very few programs considered as low performers. Whereas the state reports provide important information about the state of teacher education in general, the degree of variability and the lack of common indicators of program performance makes it impossible to know as a nation what and how well future teachers have learned, whether they are indeed prepared to teach an increasingly complex curriculum to traditionally disadvantaged pupils, and for all the yearly effort that this reporting consumes, it is unclear how it supports program improvement.

The System of Teacher Education in the U.S. Initial teacher preparation in the U.S. occurs in the so-called traditional, and alternative programs based in institutions of higher education (IHE), or alternative programs not based in IHE. Programs prepare teachers in the following subject areas: elementary education, special education, early childhood education, English/language arts, mathematics, the sciences, English as a second language and social studies (U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education 2016). Common requirements to enter a traditional teacher education program in IHE include a minimum grade point average, a transcript of previous studies and a minimum number of courses in the IHE. At the end of their preparation teachers receive an initial teaching credential according to the standards set by the states as to what teachers need to know and be able to do to be effective teachers. Most

13 Teacher Education in the United States of America …

185

states have in place multiple-stage licensure systems setting up requirements that must be met after earning an initial license and entering teaching including passing a state performance assessment, completing a minimum number of semester hours of course work, or earning a master’s degree (Youngs and Grogan 2013, p. 269). The U.S. follows a market-based approach to recruitment and compensation, and while districts across the country may compete for teachers some states require state-specific teacher certification to teach. While U.S. schools are organized into primary schools (including kindergarten), middle schools and high schools, primary school teachers prepared as non-subject specialists may end up teaching in middle schools. All high school teachers are subject specialists and some also end up teaching in middle schools. In contrast with the formalized structure of initial teacher preparation, teacher professional and career development is more informal and highly varied in terms of the programs offered, their length and their quality. A key unresolved issue in the U.S. is the lack of complementarity between the initial preparation, the period of induction, and support in the early years of teaching.

Higher Education Based Teacher Preparation Initial teacher education for primary and secondary teachers is offered for the most part in universities or institutions of higher education (IHE) in both consecutive and concurrent modalities in what is known as traditional (70%) and alternative programs (20%). About 10% are alternative programs not based in IHE these are described below. Altogether there are about 2,137 program providers offering over 25,000 programs with a high concentration in the east and middle parts of the country.3 Traditional programs are typically four-year undergraduate programs that attract young people who aspire to become teachers. In concurrent programs students typically follow the university curriculum and during their third year begin to receive instruction on pedagogy and on the pedagogy of the specific content of the subjects they will teach. There are also five-year programs that seek to provide additional preparation in subject pedagogy and research skills in university and school-based partnerships.

3 The data reported here comes from the last comprehensive Title II Report on Teacher Quality issued

by the U.S. Secretary of Education in 2016 which contains data from AY 2013–2014 collected in all 50 states in the country plus the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands (U.S. Department of Education, 2016). While data continues to be collected, no such reports have been issued since the Trump Administration took office and appointed Betsy DeVos as secretary of education. The new Biden administration has appointed Miguel Cardona, a qualified educator as secretary of education and there is much hope for progress in the field. The information from the 2016 report is used in this chapter after a review of the latest data (2017–2018) follows similar trends (Title II Report 2019, 2020).

186

M. T. Tatto

All initial teacher education programs include clinical experiences, that is, short periods of field experiences in schools and longer periods on what is known as clinical practice (typically 100 h of supervised clinical experience before they engage in about 600 h of student teaching or the internship). Some of these experiences can occur early in their preparation to becoming a teacher or during the last year of the program. The actual length and quality of these experiences are highly varied as the U.S has no national requirements concerning the practicum and field experiences for teachers (Youngs and Grogan 2013, p. 264).

Alternative Routes These programs often attract students who may be seeking to change careers and already hold a bachelor’s degree in a specific subject area. While these individuals may be older than those preparing in traditional routes, an exception is candidates from programs such as Teacher for America which attract young individuals who are considered highly qualified in their subjects to spend a few years teaching before moving on to leadership positions in or out of the education field. Since individuals in alternative routes already hold a bachelor’s degree, emphasis is placed on pedagogy. For those individuals in alternative routes within an IHE, the requirements concerning clinical experience are the same. Individuals in alternative programs not in IHE typically teach while also enrolled in their program.

Other Pathways As a result of the NCLB legislation and the G.W. Bush administration support of the notion that highly qualified teachers only needed to demonstrate strong subject knowledge and a passing grade in a licensure exam, the administration created the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (ABCTE) in 2001. ABCTE is a non-profit organization that was established by the U.S. Department of Education with support from a five-million-dollar federal grant. ABCTE was designed to allow candidates to bypass teacher preparation programs in IHE. According to the ABCTE website to earn a certification ‘students must meet the following requirements: (a) hold a Bachelor’s degree from a nationally or regionally accredited college or university; (b) pass a criminal background check; (c) achieve a passing score on the Professional Teaching Knowledge (PKT) exam, and (d) achieve a passing score on a subject area exam. Currently, the program’s cost is 1900 USD. Individual states have additional requirements to obtain ABCTE certification (see for instance Ari zona). Two more recent pathways are the so-called The New Teacher Project (TNTP) and the Urban Teacher Residency United (UTR) designed to attract teachers to underresourced or high-need schools and preparing while on the job.

13 Teacher Education in the United States of America …

187

Teacher Professional and Career Development The professional development of teachers has been considered a priority area in the U.S. for many years (Kennedy 2016; Smith and Ingersoll 2004) and continues to receive considerable attention and federal funding (1.5 billion in federal funding under Title II, Part A to state education agencies, local education agencies, and state agencies for higher education among others). These funds are expected to impact student learning by improving the quality of teachers and principals. Despite guidance from the federal government and examples of solid induction programs such as the Teacher PLUS program in Illinois (p. 11), and professional development programs such as the ABQ-NBCT a project of the Albuquerque Public Schools (ABQ), and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) (p. 14), the decentralized nature of the system serves to create isolated efforts that while maybe successful tend to be short-lived and non-cumulative (Garcia and Weiss 2019).

Current Issues in Teacher Education in the U.S. In the U.S., and globally over the last ten years, the preparation of teachers has received a great deal of attention, resulting in policies designed to drive innovation but also regulation. The dominant education discourse in the U.S. evolves around the aspirational goal of providing equitable access to quality education across all education levels. The introduction of market forces in education which were powerfully unleashed under the G.W. Bush administration has made these goals difficult to achieve and has introduced important contradictions in the system. Notwithstanding the ‘access,’ ‘equity,’ and ‘accountability’ discourse that surrounded NCLB, the fundamental sources of low academic performance such as underfunding, poverty and racism persisted and have been exacerbated over the past five years. Critics argue that NCLB was a carefully developed plan to move toward privatization and increased control of public education including IHE (Ravitch 2007). Schools, teaching and teacher education were thus placed at the centre of education policy. Educators’ responses to calls for accountability were mixed, there was however general agreement and growing concern that the system as a whole needed to address equitable access to quality education for all children and families. In short, while attempts by the federal government to gain more control of education received some resistance there is general support to the idea of system improvement as long as the impetus begins with and is controlled by the states. In this section, I review current issues in teacher education in the U.S. These include challenges represented by. ● Response to regulations asking programs to demonstrate that they are accountable to the U.S. public including demonstrating that graduates have acquired the needed knowledge and skills to be effective teachers for all children

188

M. T. Tatto

● Growing alternative pathways to becoming a teacher, the continuous attacks against traditional forms of teacher education, and the fragmentation of the field ● Reductions in the numbers of individuals that aspire to become a teacher and the increased rates of teachers that leave the profession within the first five years of teaching—this recruitment and retention issue is especially serious in the STEM areas ● Disjointed nature of teacher preparation, induction and development which results in the production of teachers with low knowledge levels ● Production of knowledge in, for and about the profession including the diverse sources of evidence that are used to make decisions at the macro, meso and micro levels of the system.

Accountability In the U.S., teacher education providers and programs have responded with increased quality assurance measures and compliance with accreditation guidelines. The Title II law or what is known as the teacher education report card is an effort that continues to this day. While programs are required to report yearly to the state and the states to the Department of Education, an important question is whether these efforts have resulted in program improvement and, crucially, in better-prepared teachers. An important assumption guiding accountability is that compliance with standards will result in more quality across the board. While most states report general compliance with standards, more specific questions regarding subject fields and grade levels reveal a more nuanced picture (see Table 2). There is great unevenness in the degree to which all states prepare teachers according to subject standards, and while more uniformity can be seen across the grades in English Language Arts, mathematics, science, social studies and technology it is difficult to know how each program enacts these standards, and how they evaluate successes and failure and use these insights for continuous program improvement.

Professional Fragmentation of The Field The continuous attacks against traditional forms of teacher education and the growing emergence of alternative pathways to becoming a teacher threaten fragmentation in teacher education. But in contrast with deleterious effects in countries such as England, the decentralized nature of governance in the U.S. and of teacher education has protected the field from extreme fragmentation (Tatto and Clark 2019). While enrollment in teacher preparation in traditional programs in IHE has decreased, a significant proportion of future teachers are still prepared via this important pathway. This is in part because while alternative routes continue to emerge, there is scarce evidence that these pathways produce teachers of equal or higher quality than those

13 Teacher Education in the United States of America …

189

Table 2 Number of states that set teaching standards for teacher preparation in specific fields, by field and grade level: 2014 Field

2014 Grade level All levels

Early childhood

K-3

4–6

Middle grades

Secondary grades

Across all fields*

50

43

40

40

44

46

Arts

42

20

27

27

27

27

Bilingual education, ESL

41

19

26

26

28

27

Civics and government

11

8

14

17

26

31

Economics

10

4

11

15

25

32

English or language arts

28

25

32

32

40

43

Foreign languages

36

15

27

27

28

31

Geography

14

10

20

21

27

31

History

16

11

21

21

31

35

Mathematics

26

26

32

32

41

44

Science

24

24

30

32

41

43

Social studies

22

21

29

31

40

43

Special education

49

35

33

33

33

34

Technology in 36 teaching

21

25

24

30

31

6

8

13

31

41

Career and technical education

11

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education (2015). Higher Education Act Title II Reporting System Note The 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, and the Virgin Islands submitted a state Title II report in 2014. *States that reported having teacher standards at all levels and across all fields have a broad set of k–12 teaching standards that apply to all levels and fields. A state that reported having teacher standards at all levels and across all fields does not necessarily have subject-specific or grade-level-specific teacher standards in each field and grade level

undergoing traditional preparation or that these individuals remain longer in the profession (Thomas et al. 2021). Traditional teacher education in IHE continues to be under increased federal scrutiny, nevertheless, educator groups within states are finding ways of collaborating and leveraging Title II of ESSA to ‘elevate’ the teaching profession (Johnson 2018).

190

M. T. Tatto

The weakening of teacher preparation in universities is symbiotic with the fragmentation of the teaching profession as expressed by teachers❜ membership in the two teacher unions in the U.S., namely, the National Education Association or NEA (1.7 million teacher members) and the American Federation of Teachers or AFT (550,000 teacher members) with states playing a key role (at present, only 39 states allow collective bargaining). Teachers who end up teaching in charter schools and similar, usually receive lower pay and work under more challenging working conditions than those who work in public schools.

Recruitment and Retention Over the last ten years, there has been a dramatic change in the number of individuals seeking to become teachers at the same time that a large number of teachers leave the profession (Partelow 2019). According to Ingersoll et al. (2018) in a study comparing trends from 1987–88 to 2015–2016 schools are hiring teachers in higher proportions than in years past (due to smaller classes, and an increase in teachers who are specialists in mathematics, science, special education, reading, English as a Second language and bilingual) with the teaching force now being women (76% and predicted to reach 80% in a space of few years). Retiring teachers are being replaced by younger teachers with mixed results because many of these teachers (44%) leave within five years of entering the profession with minority teachers the most likely to leave. The highest teacher turnover occurs in high poverty, high minority, urban and rural schools. This leads to another problematic trend: the modal teacher in schools have three years of experience in contrast with 15 years at the end of the 1980s. Difficulties with recruiting and retaining teachers have to do with lack of effective induction (e.g., mentoring), low salaries, poor work conditions, and adverse conditions in schools including increased testing and compliance with a prescribed curriculum which limits teacher autonomy to address the learning needs of their pupils.

Disjointed Nature of Teacher Preparation, Induction and Development Teacher education provision in the U.S. is highly variable. Research has found that there is much variability in the opportunities to learn that are provided to future teachers within their programs and also across programs even in subject areas that have worked hard for years to develop standards such as mathematics (see Tatto and Bankov 2018), such variability is reflected in the levels of teachers’ knowledge of their subject and pedagogy (see Tatto 2018a, b). While limited to mathematics, large scale research has shown that many U.S. teachers do not exit programs with adequate

13 Teacher Education in the United States of America …

191

knowledge for teaching—this is especially the case among primary teachers. This however is not necessarily a problem of teacher education programs’ design but rather of programs’ relaxed admission criteria concerning subject knowledge, especially in mathematics, science, and technology. Early career teachers at the elementary and middle school levels are challenged not only by the lack of subject knowledge required to teach an increasingly complex curriculum but also by the cultural and academic diversity of their pupils (Tatto et al. 2020). The realization of the limited knowledge that early career teachers have when they enter the profession, and how this may contribute to poor adjustment to teaching, is not new in the U.S. Induction efforts have been ongoing for years as a way to support (and retain) early career teachers. Research studies point to the importance of subject mentors in collective induction activities such as planning and collaboration with other teachers, and in moderating teacher turnover (Garcia and Weiss 2019; Smith and Ingersoll 2004). Teacher professional and career development (TPD) has been high on the U.S. Department of Education agenda, and educators alike. Wei, Darling-Hammond, and Adamson back in 2010 (p. v-vi) examined national trends in professional development in the U.S. from 2000–2008, finding that while more teachers had access to professional development on the subjects they teach, they were limited in other areas such as reading instruction, technology use, teaching English Language Learners and special education students, and when TPD occurred it was in the form of short-term workshops—which are generally considered as less effective. Opportunities to work collaboratively with other teachers was also reduced. This report set the agenda for the following 10 years. In a report published in 2017 Darling-Hammond, Hyler, and Gardner (p. v-vi) outline the characteristics of effective professional development as focused on content, active learning, collaboration, modelling effective practice, coaching and expert support, offering feedback for reflection and providing sufficient time for sustained learning, practice and reflection. This call for ‘collaborative and job-embedded’ professional development represents an opportunity for the profession to influence policy. In the end, the most important aspect in the continuum of professional preparation for teaching is the need for coherence in an incoherent system without jeopardizing the protections that are afforded by a decentralized system of governance. As a report from the U.S. National Academies (2018, p. 54) notes, in the U.S. ‘[T]there is little coordination among the avenues for professional learning, coordination becomes the responsibility of teacher leaders to “manage this chaotic environment” and help other teachers learn what instruments they need to make changes in their instruction […] high rates of teacher turnover, especially in high-needs schools, mean that many schools may lack experienced teacher leaders […] common planning time is not particularly effective […] unless there is an expert leader to shape the discussion.’ In sum, the consensus is that the ‘U.S. education system struggles with coherence.’

192

M. T. Tatto

Production of Knowledge in, for, and About the Profession Over the last ten years, the production of knowledge in teacher education has seen a dramatic shift. From the research that was produced by educationists to inform policy and practice to econometric reports that use administrative data and take an evaluative stance toward teacher education. While multidisciplinarity has been welcomed in education since Dewey’s time, the challenge that the field of teacher education is confronting is that programs are being evaluated by non-educationists according to administrative data using as the outcome of effective teacher education pupil scores in standardized achievement tests—this is the very approach that was proposed by Arne Duncan in 2016 and that was rejected by the profession. While the federal government agreed to allow the states to decide how to evaluate teachers and teacher education programs analysts are de facto engaged in such VAM analysis publishing them as authoritative policy ‘research.’ Valuable research efforts from educators continue to inform policy and practice but even this research is continuously criticized by non-educationists. Educators have issued urgent calls to develop the capacity of teacher education programs to engage in evaluation research and to prepare future teachers to engage in research as in the example from Finland (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2018). The teaching profession in the U.S. must retake not only the production of authoritative knowledge but also the capacity to self-monitor and influence policy and practice.

References AERA (American Education Research Association). (2015). AERA statement on the use of valueadded models in the evaluation of educators and educator preparation programs. Educational Researcher, 44(8), 448–452. Amrein-Beardsley, A., Pivovarova, M., & Geiger, T. J. (2016). Value-added models: What the experts say. Kappan, 98(2), 35–40. Connecticut General Assembly (2020). Working Group to Study Issues Relating to the Implementation of the Pre-Service Assessment, edTPA, as Adopted by the Connecticut State Board of Education, December 7, 2016. Final Report. https://www.cga.ct.gov/ed/tfs/20191107_edTPA/ edTPA%20Final%20Report/edTPA%20Final%20Report%20.pdf Darling-Hammond, L., Hyler, M. E., Gardner, M. (2017). Effective Teacher Professional Development. Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute. This report can be found online at https://learni ngpolicyinstitute.org/product/teacher-prof-dev. Garcia, E. & Weiss, E. (2019). The role of early career supports, continuous professional development, and learning communities in the teacher shortage. https://www.epi.org/publication/tea cher-shortage-professional-development-and-learning-communities/ Harris, K. R. (2018). Educational psychology: A future retrospective. Journal of Educational Psychology, 110, 163–173. Ingersoll, R. M., Merrill, E., Stuckey, D., & Collins, G. (2018). Seven Trends: The Transformation of the Teaching Force. CPRE Research Reports. Retrieved from https://repository.upenn.edu/cpre_r esearchreports/108

13 Teacher Education in the United States of America …

193

Johnson, S. (2018). These States Are Leveraging Title II of ESSA to Modernize and Elevate the Teaching Profession. Center for American Progress. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/ education-k-12/reports/2018/02/05/445891/states-leveraging-title-ii-essa-modernize-elevate-tea ching-profession/ Kennedy, M. (2016). How Does Professional Development Improve Teaching? Review of Educational Research, 86(4), 945–980. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654315626800 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2018). Supporting Mathematics Teachers in the United States and Finland: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/24904. https://www.nap.edu/read/24904/cha pter/8#54 Noell, G. H., Burns, J. M., & Gansle, K. A. (2018). Linking student achievement to teacher preparation: Emergent challenges in implementing value-added assessment. Journal of Teacher Education, 70(2), 128–138. Partelow, L. (2019). What to Make of Declining Enrollment in Teacher Preparation Programs. Center for American Progress. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-k-12/reports/ 2019/12/03/477311/make-declining-enrollment-teacher-preparation-programs/ Ravitch, D. (2007). Challenges to teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 58(4), 269–273. Smith, T. M., & Ingersoll, R. M. (2004). What Are the Effects of Induction and Mentoring on Beginning Teacher Turnover? American Educational Research Journal, 41(3), 681–714. https:// doi.org/10.3102/00028312041003681 Snyder, T.D., de Brey, C., & Dillow, S.A. (2019). Digest of Education Statistics 2017. National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences 2018–070, U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC. https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2018/2018070.pdf Tatto, M. T., Burn, K., Menter, I., Mutton, T., & Thompson, I. (2018). Learning to Teach in England and the United States: The evolution of policy and practice. Routledge. Tatto, M.T. & Clark, C.M. (2019). Institutional Transformations, Knowledge and Research Traditions in the USA (pp. 233 - 256). In M.T. Tatto and I. Menter (Eds.). Knowledge, Policy and Practice in Learning to Teach: A Cross-National Study. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Tatto, M. T., Savage, C., Liao, W., Marshall, S. L., Goldblatt, P., Contreras, L. M. (2016). The emergence of high-stakes accountability policies in teacher preparation: An examination of the U.S. Department of Education’s proposed regulations. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 24(21). http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.24.2322 Tatto, M.T. & Bankov, K. (2018). The intended, implemented and achieved curriculum of mathematics teacher education in the United States (pp. 69–133). In M.T. Tatto, M. Rodriguez, W. Smith, M. Reckase, & K. Bankov (Eds.), Exploring the mathematics education of teachers using TEDS-M Data. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Tatto, M.T. (2018a). The mathematical education of primary teachers (pp. 205–256). In M.T. Tatto, M. Rodriguez, W. Smith, M. Reckase, & K. Bankov (Eds.). Exploring the Mathematics Education of Teachers using TEDS-M Data. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Tatto, M.T. (2018b). The mathematical education of secondary teachers (pp. 409–450). In M.T. Tatto, M. Rodriguez, W. Smith, M. Reckase, & K. Bankov (Eds.). Exploring the Mathematics Education of Teachers using TEDS-M Data. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Tatto, M. T., Rodriguez, M., Reckase, M., Smith, W., Bankov, K., & Pippin, J. (2020). The First Five Years of Teaching Mathematics (FIRSTMATH): Concepts, Methods and Strategies for Comparative International Research. Springer. Title II Report 2019 (2020). National Teacher Preparation Data. https://title2.ed.gov/Public/Sec Report.aspx Thomas, M., Rauschenberger, E., & Crawford-Garrett, K. (2021). Examining Teach for All. Routledge. U.S. Department of Education (n. d.). Improving Teacher Preparation: Building on Innovation. U.S. Department of Education http://www.ed.gov/teacherprep

194

M. T. Tatto

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education (2016). Preparing and Credentialing the Nation’s Teachers: The Secretary’s 10th Report on Teacher Quality, Washington, D.C. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education, Preparing and Credentialing the Nation’s Teachers: The Secretary’s 10th Report on Teacher Quality, Washington, D.C., 2016. This report is available on the Department’s website: http://www2.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/ teachprep/index.html or at https://title2.ed.gov. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education. (2015). Higher Education Act Title II reporting system. Wei, R. C., Darling-Hammond, L., and Adamson, F. (2010). Professional development in the United States: Trends and challenges. Dallas, TX. National Staff Development Council. https://edpolicy.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/publications/professional-developmentunited-states-trends-and-challenges.pdf Youngs, P. & Grogan, E. (2013). The United States of America. In Schwille, J. Ingvarson, L. & Holdgreve-Resendez, R. (Eds.) TEDS-M Encyclopedia: A guide to teacher education context, structure and quality assurance in 17 countries (p. 255–272). International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement.

Maria Teresa Tatto is a Professor in the Division of Educational Leadership and Innovation at Arizona State University, and the Southwest Borderlands Professor of Comparative Education at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. Previously she was a Professor of Education at Michigan State University. She is a former president of the Comparative and International Education Society, an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Education at the University of Oxford, England, and a Fellow in the American Educational Research Association. Dr. Tatto studies the effects of educational policy on school and teacher education systems

Chapter 14

A Research Informed Approach to Initial Teacher Education in Wales: Intentions, Examples and Reflections Alma Harris, Michelle Jones, John Furlong, Jeremy Griffiths, and Cecilia Hannigan-Davies Abstract This chapter explores the impetus for, and implications from, a radical overhaul of initial teacher education in Wales. The chapter outlines the chronology of reform and the resulting, significant changes to programmes of initial teacher preparation. The chapter outlines how a research-informed approach has redefined the contours of initial teacher education generally and has raised expectations of teachers using research to shape their practice, specifically. Examples from three initial teacher education partnerships highlight the centrality of a research informed design and each example illustrates how clinical practice is used as a model of delivery. The chapter contends that a research informed approach to initial teacher education in Wales has not only raised the quality of provision but also brought the prospect of a research-informed profession that much closer.

A. Harris (B) · M. Jones Swansea University, Wales, UK e-mail: [email protected] M. Jones e-mail: [email protected] J. Furlong University of Oxford, Oxford, UK e-mail: [email protected] J. Griffiths Bangor University, Wales, UK e-mail: [email protected] C. Hannigan-Davies Cardiff- Metropolitan University, Wales, UK e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 D. Mayer (ed.), Teacher Education Policy and Research, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3775-9_14

195

196

A. Harris et al.

Introduction. Teacher education is increasingly viewed as a key contributor to the improved performance of education systems (Mayer and Mills 2020; Menter 2019). Globally, policymakers view teacher education as an important catalyst for system change and improvement. As a result, there has been considerable international debate about different models of teacher education and the nature of the professional knowledge required to meet the contemporary needs of schools and school systems (Tatto and Menter 2019). With pervasive teacher shortages in some countries and related concerns about teacher recruitment, there has been a renewed focus upon the quality of initial preparation of teachers (Zarra and Zarra 2019). Attention to the preparation of teachers has been accompanied by an international discourse around educational equity and opportunity. Within this debate, the teaching profession is viewed as pivotal in building the capacity for social justice and social cohesion (OECD 2017). It has been suggested that achieving a shift towards more equitable education is heavily dependent upon the careful selection, preparation, and development of teachers within education systems (Harris and Jones 2020). While it is widely accepted that socio-economic and contextual factors directly influence student attainment and achievement, the quality of teachers and the quality of teaching remains the single best ‘within-school predictor’ of student learning and achievement (Hattie 2008).

Research Informed Practice There is now a significant evidence base (e.g., Schleicher 2012; BERA 2014) that reinforces how the most effective programmes of Initial Teacher Education provide rigorous, systematic, practical experience combined with opportunities for research engagement and systematic reflection. It has also been proposed that developing as a reflective practitioner will necessitate developing the skills of enquiring into practice and being research informed (Cordingley 2015). A recent review of the evidence on engaging teachers with research noted the need for a ‘workforce that is research literate, research active, and reflective in their practice; drawing on the best available evidence to inform their practice’ (Tripney et al. 2018: 3). In summary, there is a strong empirical base to suggest that teachers and teacher educators need to engage with research throughout their careers to be effective practitioners. This type of research-informed practice is integral to the current model of initial teacher education in Wales. Essentially, such an integration means not merely extending the time that beginning teachers spend in school but also focusing on the processes by which professional knowledge is created, for example, by equipping beginning teachers to act as researchers and adopting a problem-solving orientation to practice (Mutton et al. 2018). This does not imply that teachers need to ‘be’

14 A Research Informed Approach to Initial Teacher Education …

197

researchers rather that they need to be able to engage with research in the development of their own professional practice. There are growing numbers of ITE programmes that are based upon a researchinformed model, most notably the clinical practice provision at the University of Glasgow (Conroy et al. 2013) and the University of Oxford (Burn and Mutton 2015; Furlong 2015). Such trail-blazing work has informed the reform of initial teacher education in Wales, opening real possibilities for a research-informed approach drawing upon a clinical practice model. While such an approach is not without its challenges or potential pitfalls, engagement with research, as the Glasgow and Oxford programmes show, can inform and enhance teachers’ instructional practice. A clinical practice approach to teacher education has already proved fruitful in other countries, particularly where it is system-wide and deeply embedded (Conroy et al. 2013; McLean Davies 2015). Providing beginning teachers with the ongoing support to build their research-informed judgement and to refine their application of research knowledge, it has been argued and is critical in their initial preparation (Mayer and Reid 2016). Darling-Hammond and Bransford (2005) highlight the characteristics of the ‘research-informed reflective practitioner’ and argue that. ‘teachers need to do more than simply implement particular techniques; they need to be able to think pedagogically, reason through dilemmas, investigate problems, and analyze student learning to develop appropriate curriculum for a diverse group of learners.’ (392).

In Wales, the movement towards a ‘research informed’ approach is now a fundamental part of many of the new partnerships that define the new landscape of initial teacher education. Consequently, this chapter explores the significant reform of initial teacher education in Wales and highlights how the initial preparation of teachers has radically altered. The chapter is in three parts. Part one outlines the context for the reform of initial teacher education in Wales and the stages in policy development that changed the nature, content, and approach to initial teacher education, nationally. Part two outlines how a research informed approach has been adopted within programmes of initial teacher education and, how a clinical practice model is operating within initial teacher education provision in Wales. The final part of this chapter reflects upon the importance of research and enquiry within initial preparation programmes and suggests that it should be an essential component of teachers’ career long professional development and learning.

Policy Context Within Wales, the reform of initial teacher education has played a central role in system reform and Improvement. Education in Wales: Our National Mission (Welsh Government 2017b), reinforces the importance of ‘developing a high-quality education profession’. It also underlines the importance of developing a highly skilled education workforce through outstanding initial teacher education (ITE) as well as

198

A. Harris et al.

investing in career-long professional learning. This key policy reflects an aspiration that the teaching profession in Wales should be “research-engaged, well informed and learning from excellence” (Welsh Government 2017b:11). The reform of initial teacher education has in Welsh education has been accompanied by significant curriculum changes that are now a dominant part of the reform landscape (Donaldson 2015). This major curriculum shift stipulates that teachers need to be innovative, creative, adaptable, and flexible, not only in their own learning but also in the teaching and learning of others. The implications of this new curriculum for newly qualified teachers in Wales are very clear. It is expected that they will be engaged in supporting, developing and building new curricular and pedagogical knowledge required to teach specific subjects and to make a meaningful contribution across the six Areas of Learning and Experience (AoLE) that are the fabric of the new Welsh curriculum. The chronology of the changes to initial teacher education in Wales, within a dramatically shifting policy context, is outlined next. In September 2012, the Welsh Minister for Education and Skills announced a review of the quality and consistency of Initial Teacher Training in Wales, with the prime purpose of raising standards in Welsh Schools. The review was conducted by Professor Ralph Tabberer who, in his report (Tabberer 2013), concluded: ‘The current quality of ITT in Wales is adequate and no better. This judgement does not solely come from the findings of Estyn, this assessment is largely shared by providers, officials, and leading stakeholders’ (Tabberer 2013, p. 36).

Similar views had already been expressed by the Chief Inspector of Estyn (the education and training inspectorate for Wales) who stated: ‘We have not been recruiting enough trainee teachers with the best qualifications and we need more consistency in the quality of what is provided for them in initial teacher education and training in order to give them the best start to their teaching career’ (Estyn 2013, p. 41).

To add to this sharp criticism, in 2014, the OECD noted that further improvements in teacher education were required. They argued that there was an urgent the need to attract and increase the quality of new entrants to the teaching profession and to raise the standard of provision on offer to make it more attractive to prospective candidates (OECD 2014). Tabberer recommended the appointment of an expert Adviser to the Welsh Government, a post to which John Furlong was appointed in 2014. Drawing explicitly on over 30 years of research, (e.g., Furlong 2013; Furlong et al. 1988, 2000). Furlong’s subsequent report, Teaching Tomorrow’s Teachers (Furlong 2015) highlighted the weaknesses of the existing model of teacher education in Wales and proposed an alternative, research-based vision based on partnership and collaboration. Furlong’s seminal report recommended a complete overhaul of the Welsh ITE system with the establishment of a new accreditation system, new partnerships between HEIs and schools for the provision of ITE courses and programmes; a changed approach to the inspection of ITE and a significant strengthening of and investment in educational research in Wales to underpin ITE provision. In 2015, these recommendations were adopted in full by the then Welsh Minister of Education, Huw Lewis who said.

14 A Research Informed Approach to Initial Teacher Education …

199

‘Teaching Tomorrow’s Teachers set out a series of options for transforming initial teacher training in Wales. The steps I am setting out…will ensure that those recommendations are translated into tangible action on the ground and result in first class newly qualified practitioners of the future’ (Lewis 2015).

In 2016, the Welsh Government established a ‘task and finish group’ with Furlong as its chair to draw up a new accreditation system for ITE. Drawing directly on his previous research, the new Accreditation Criteria characterised effective professional learning as being based on the bringing together of a number of different forms of educational knowledge; it insisted that in the future all initial teacher education programmes ‘should be based on learning that is both rigorously practical and intellectually challenging at the same time’ (Welsh Government 2017a). The aim of the new Criteria was to set out how that should be achieved in practice. Following formal consultation, the Criteria were published in 2017; new legislation then made them mandatory and established a Teacher Education Accreditation Board (TEAB) within the Education Workforce Council (EWC), Wales. Furlong was appointed the first chair of the TEAB. During the 2017/8, all HEIs and their partnership schools, that wished to offer ITE in the future, were required to apply to the TEAB, setting out in considerable detail how their revised courses would meet the new criteria. Following scrutiny, including on-site visits and interviews with staff, the Board conditionally accredited four of the six Welsh University-School partnerships applying in that year. In 2019, the Board re-visited partnerships to ensure that they complied with the conditions that had been set, undertook a further evaluation of bids from the two partnerships that had not been successful in the first round, and accepted their application to become accredited. In all, the new TEAB accredited 11 programmes, launched in September 2019, from 6 ITE Partnerships; a further two commenced a year later. In total, the Partnerships involve over 80 lead schools from across Wales and hundreds of other schools working in networks with their lead partner schools. To comply with the new accreditation criteria, schools needed access to the resources and training necessary to ensure that taking part in ITE could become one of their ‘core’ responsibilities. At the same time, HEIs were required to assume a leading role in making available knowledge that is not always available in schools: research, theory, good practice across Wales and internationally. To deliver this research-informed support, HEIs had to establish appropriate staffing structures, staff development policies and a ‘scholarly culture’ amongst all ‘front line’ ITE staff. ‘Teaching Tomorrow’s Teachers’ also recommended that Estyn’s inspection frameworks should be reviewed to ensure they supported the new ITE vision and the new partnerships. In Spring 2019, Estyn published new guidance for the inspection of ITE which integrates the requirements of the Criteria for Accreditation and those of the Professional Standards for Teaching and Leadership (Welsh Government 2017b) into the common framework. In all inspection areas, the guidance reflects the Criteria for accreditation, often using the language and vision of the Criteria to support key concepts. As a result, the model of ITE in Wales is now predicated upon a strong partnership model of delivery that.

200

A. Harris et al.

‘develops strong links between theory and practice, in a way that helps students to understand and explore the interconnectedness of educational theories and classroom practices’ (Furlong 2015:8).

The current approach to initial teacher education in Wales is both expansive and inclusive; it is ‘one that gives teachers the skills, knowledge and dispositions to lead the changes that are needed’ (Furlong 2015:38). The ‘Professional Standards for Teaching and Leadership’ further reinforce that teachers in Wales should demonstrate professional knowledge, skills and understanding and show how reflection and openness to challenge can inform their ‘professional learning to progressively develop pedagogy’ (Welsh Government 2018b;9). Initial teacher education in Wales is now centrally premised upon the integration between theory and practice. It places a strong emphasis upon research literacy and research informed teaching. The new programmes of initial teacher education in Wales support teachers’ early professional learning through engagement with research and research-informed teaching, primarily but not exclusively through a clinical practice approach. The next section outlines three partnership examples of how research-informed teaching works in practice.

Research Informed Teacher Education in Wales Against a backdrop of significant shifts within the teacher education landscape internationally, there has also been a growing swell of interest in programmes of initial teacher education (ITE) that provide opportunities for beginning teachers to engage in ‘research-informed clinical practice’ (Burn and Mutton 2015). In their work, Darling-Hammond and Bransford (2005:392) argue that. ‘teacher education programs that have coherent visions of teaching and learning, and integrate related strategies across courses and field placements, have a greater impact on the initial conceptions and practices of prospective teachers than those that remain a collection of relatively disconnected courses’.

The new wave of ITE provision in Wales aims to create successive generations of teachers who are active users of research, who can engage in a meaningful process of enquiry, who can formulate and implement appropriate pedagogical approaches and who can critically reflect on the process and the outcomes of their engagement with research evidence. As noted already, building research capacity and developing research literacy within the teaching profession in Wales is currently a central part of initial teacher education provision. Success, however, will be evaluated by the way in which teachers are prepared for their research- informed role and how well they are supported in this throughout their career. What follows, therefore, are short examples from three different ITE partnerships in Wales that illustrate and illuminate how a research-informed approach works within initial teacher education. Clearly, with the introduction of any new approach there are inherent challenges and difficulties with the implementation of

14 A Research Informed Approach to Initial Teacher Education …

201

a research-informed approach. These challenges and difficulties are fully acknowledged, but in the narratives that follow the main aim is to outline the ways in which three different partnerships are embedding a ‘research-informed’ approach to initial teacher education in Wales. The examples come from two ITE partnerships in South Wales (The Cardiff Partnership for Initial Teacher Education and the Swansea University Schools Partnership) and one in North Wales (CaBan). All three ITE partnerships have adopted a ‘clinical practice’ approach to fulfil the expectations that student teachers will be research-informed and research literate. Within education, a clinical practice approach places a clear focus on teacher enquiry, where teachers are equipped to undertake their own research and to evaluate the research of others in direct relation to the classroom situations that they encounter. The Cardiff Partnership for Initial Teacher Education was launched in September 2019. This comprises Cardiff Metropolitan University and its associated schools, working in collaboration with University of Oxford, Cardiff University, Central South Consortium (CSC), Education Achievement Service (EAS), Education through Regional Working (ERW), and City of Cardiff Council. The Cardiff Partnership operates to ensure that student teachers not only achieve but also seek to surpass the professional standards for qualified teacher status (QTS) through high-quality professional education that is rigorously practical and intellectually challenging. Within this partnership, placements for Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes are referred to as clinical practice. Clinical practice is a core element and integral part of all ITE programmes in the Cardiff Partnership, enabling student teachers to develop their practical teaching skills as well as testing and developing their own personal theories of teaching and learning. The clinical practice approach has been designed jointly with Lead Partnership Schools/Alliances (LPS/A) and draws upon the research-informed clinical practice principles outlined by Burn and Mutton (2013). In LPS/A schools, the focus is on school-led training, pedagogical knowledge, and the setting of school-based research briefs, along with clinical practice. By contrast, the focus in Clinical Practice (CP) schools is more on the implementation of evidence-based pedagogical strategies and evaluating the impact of these strategies on learners. On the one-year postgraduate certificate of education (PGCE) programme, student teachers experience placements in two settings: one in an LPS/A school and one in a CP school. These are referred to as Clinical Practice 1 (CP1) and Clinical Practice 2 (CP2). While on clinical practice, student teachers need to take responsibility for innovation, to draw on and evaluate research evidence, to improve practice and, ultimately, to work collaboratively to achieve all of this. These professional expectations are inherent in all aspects of the partnership’s ITE programmes, in both the University and school contexts. In essence, within the Cardiff Partnership model, clinical practice combines several different activities, all of which contribute to student teachers’ professional development. In broad terms, these are independent teaching, team teaching, research and enquiry, LPS/A school-led training and planning, preparation, and assessment time. Enrichment days are also included; these take place at the end of the academic

202

A. Harris et al.

year and allow students to engage with and explore avenues that they are interested in but have not managed to incorporate in their programme schedule. Student teachers vary in the speed at which they make initial progress, and there is room for some flexibility in the early stages of clinical practice as student teachers adapt to a new professional context; they are supported in this by school mentors, research champions, university subject tutors and University based personal tutors. Central to the PGCE programmes has been the 15 School-led training days (SLT days), distributed across the academic year, where groups of up to 30 student teachers are based in a single school. SLT days focus on the 12 Pedagogic Principles identified by Donaldson (2015) and are led by primary and secondary schools in south-east Wales that are deemed to be excellent in terms of education and professional development. The success of the clinical practice model relies heavily on the collegiate relationships and sense of collective accountability that exists throughout the Partnership’s various stakeholders. These factors have proved crucial in working successfully through the COVID 19 crisis. The next example comes from the Swansea University Schools Partnership (SUSP). Established in 2020, SUSP has deliberately developed an ITE programme that embodies a research-informed approach with a clinical practice orientation. The SUSP research-informed model enables student teachers to develop the capacity to diagnose instructional problems quickly, to critically evaluate the available evidence, and to draw on a wide repertoire of proven instructional strategies to identify the most appropriate solution. Within the SUSP PGCE programme, there is an emphasis on teacher enquiry along with ‘reflection on and in action’ as building blocks in developing critical awareness and self-evaluation as part of their professional learning journey (Schön 2010:3). The central aim of the SUSP programme is to develop high-calibre, researchinformed, reflective entrants into the teaching profession and, in so doing, to contribute to building the capacity for school and system improvement in Wales. Through structured enquiries into curriculum, pedagogy and assessment, student teachers on the SUSP programme engage with contemporary research evidence and are supported to develop their own research literacy. From day one, SUSP student teachers are engaged in enquiry orientated practice as part of their assessed work and are supported to refine their research literacy skills in order to learn to evaluate different forms of evidence in keeping with a clinical practice approach. One important and distinctive feature of the SUSP programme is the engagement of University subject-specific academic advisers to work directly with schools and students. Student teachers have access to subject experts in schools and at the University to deepen subject knowledge and to develop effective pedagogic practices. Student teachers have opportunities to engage with their subject academic advisers on a one to one basis, as part of dedicated subject seminars and through master classes delivered in schools. There are also opportunities for all student teachers to engage with University research teams to access cutting edge research within their respective subject areas. The final example comes from North Wales, the CaBan partnership, which commenced in 2019, serves six local authority areas of the region. This partnership

14 A Research Informed Approach to Initial Teacher Education …

203

involved a partnership between Bangor University and the University of Chester (just across the border in England) with the prime aim of enhancing the academic knowledge and expertise of both universities working collaboratively on ITE. The partnership also includes the North Wales Regional School Improvement Service— GwE, strong schools from across the region, and the Research Institute—CIEREI. As a result of this exclusivity in the north of Wales, the partnership worked very closely together and equally contributed to the co-construction of the programme design and delivery methodology. The CaBan partnership was clear that a fundamental element in the success of the adoption of the new Welsh accredited initial teacher education (ITE) programme (Welsh Government 2018), was the concept of the “clinical practice” model, and the shared role of schools in developing confident, competent and committed newly qualified teachers. Hence the CaBan programme is underpinned by the notion of enquiry-based professional learning (Cordingley 2015; Darling-Hammond 2017) and classroom-based practitioner enquiry (Cochran-Smith and Lytle 2009; Campbell and Groundwater Smith 2009). The Partnership subscribes to a vision of tomorrow’s teachers who are ‘scholars of pedagogy’ and continually engaged with research evidence (Furlong 2015). To realise its vision, the role of the mentor had to be re-conceptualised within the CaBan programme. Mentoring within CaBan is now seen as a two-way process that develops a reflective approach to learning through collaboration, dialogue, observation, critical reflection and enquiry (CaBan 2020). These key features of excellent mentoring have been identified as fundamental drivers for student teachers’ learning, leading to professional autonomy and identity (Harrison et al. 2005). CaBan mentors are versed in dialogic models of feedback which enable student teachers to learn through deliberation on their teaching (Jones et al. 2018) and which allow mentors to understand the student teacher’s perceptions in order to support them better. In line with Furlong (2015), CaBan programmes promote a questioning approach where student teachers are encouraged and supported (by their mentors and tutors) to critique current practices and experiment with new ones. The principal models of professional learning employed during mentoring in CaBan are quality teaching rounds (Gore and Bowe 2015), lesson study (Lewis 2000) and professional enquiry (Cochran-Smith and Lytle 2009; Campbell and Groundwater Smith 2010). These three approaches have been shown to be highly effective approaches to teacher enquiry. For example, teaching rounds are an effective mode of professional learning (Gore et al. 2015), enabling beginning teachers to observe expert practice through evidence-informed critical lenses such as the instructional core (City et al. 2009) and develop their awareness of their emerging teacher identity (Mockler 2011). The CaBan vision encompasses a broad view of evidence-based professional learning, which seeks to bring about an understanding of teaching as a moral and intellectual undertaking and not merely a set of technical skills to be mastered (Ponte 2010). The insights gained from focused classroom enquiry therefore are designed to equip student teachers to translate research into practice and to adopt a problemsolving orientation (Burn and Mutton 2015; Darling-Hammond 2017). Through the process of enquiry, it is anticipated that student teachers will ‘interpret and make sense

204

A. Harris et al.

of the specific needs of particular students, to formulate and implement particular pedagogical actions and to evaluate the outcomes’ (p. 218). The CaBan partnership believes that learning to teach does not end after ITE (Berliner 2004; Darling-Hammond 2017: Welsh Government 2017). There is a need for novice teachers to continue their research-informed practice beyond their initial preparation and to respond to new developments as well as developing new pedagogical practices. The CaBan partnership supports career-long professional learning and teacher led-research, building on successful initial teacher education, which will be essential in Wales not only to meet the demands of a new curriculum but also to rise to the teaching challenges in a post-COVID era.

Coda As the three ITE partnership examples clearly illuminate, enhancing research capacity, and developing research literacy within the teaching profession is now the raison d’etre of initial teacher education provision in Wales. As highlighted throughout this chapter, a research-informed approach to initial teacher education is not without its challenges, yet all three partnerships are fully committed to developing teachers who, from the very start of their career, are research informed and can draw upon evidence to inform their practice. How teachers are prepared for their role and how well they are supported throughout their career will be the real, longer term, practical test of the effectiveness of this research-informed approach. Furlong (2015:8) notes that. ‘to be of the highest quality, initial teacher education needs its universities to provide strong, research led courses; it needs a school system that is willing to take responsibility and provide leadership in key parts of all programmes; and it needs to ensure that both university and school components are carefully integrated with each other’.

The ITE programmes highlighted in this chapter are focused on developing a research-informed culture in schools through creating a new brand of teacher who is research literate and research active. There are critics of this approach, however, and some who argue that adopting a research orientation to teaching is totally unrealistic. For example, Wiliam (2019)1 has argued that teaching is unlikely to ever be a research-based profession. ‘Classrooms are just too complicated for research ever to tell teachers what to do. Teachers need to know about research, to be sure, so that they can make smarter decisions about where to invest their time, but teachers, and school leaders need to become critical consumers of research – using research evidence where it is available and relevant, but also recognising that there are many things teachers need to make decisions about where there is no research evidence, and also realising that sometimes the research that is available may not be applicable in a particular context’.

1

https://www.tes.com/news/dylan-wiliam-teaching-not-research-based-profession.

14 A Research Informed Approach to Initial Teacher Education …

205

This argument is persuasive, underlining the complexity and the challenges of engaging all teachers, particularly novice teachers, in research. The core purpose of ITE provision in Wales, however, is not to convert teachers into researchers but like other professions to equip them to use research widely and wisely to inform their practice. More than four decades ago, Lawrence Stenhouse2 (1978) suggested that research was ‘systematic enquiry made public’ and that teacher enquiry or research was as legitimate and important as any other. Since that time, a lot of energy and effort has been placed to ensure that teachers and teaching are enquiry-based, and research informed. The success and impact of these approaches have been variable, however, as different versions, models and interpretations of teacher enquiry or inquiry have crowded this landscape, often confusing teachers and leading them down fruitless enquiry avenues (Harris and Jones 2020). Consequently, establishing a clear model of research-informed practice within initial teacher education is fundamental to firstly, tackling differences in the interpretation and practice of research and enquiry within the profession and, secondly, addressing the variability in outcomes and impact that stem from this activity. It is hoped that by establishing a cornerstone of research-informed excellence within initial teacher education in Wales, that a consolidated approach to teacher research and enquiry, within the profession as a whole, will follow. Where research informed practice is embedded in initial and continuing professional learning, there is evidence of effectiveness, impact, and improvement (Mayer et al. 2017). On reflection, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that initial teacher education in Wales is on the right course through taking a research-informed approach to preparing future teachers. Despite the complexities and challenges of a researchinformed approach to initial teacher education, the empirical evidence shows firstly, it can work in practice and secondly, a research-informed approach can produce thoughtful, reflective and research literate teachers. The work of the many ITE partnerships in Wales may be in their initial stages but the potential of a research-informed approach remain powerful and in time, possibly transformational.

References BERA: RSA (2014). The role of research in teacher education: Reviewing the evidence. Interim report. London: BERA; https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-andarticles/reports/therole-of-research-in-teacher-education-reviewing-the-evidence/ Berliner, D. (2004). Describing the behavior and documenting the accomplishments of expert teachers. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 24(3), 200–212. Burn, K., Hagger, H., & Mutton, T. (2015). Beginning Teachers’ Learning: Making experience count. Critical Publishing. Burn, K., & Mutton, T. (2015). A review of ‘research-informed clinical practice’ in initial teacher education. Oxford Review of Education, 41(2), 217–233. 2

https://www.uea.ac.uk/documents/4059364/4994243/Stenhouse-1978-Applying+Research+to+ education.pdf/24ec7b40-ac56-46d2-8f8f-2bb7b4c53ac4.

206

A. Harris et al.

CaBan. (2020). Mentor Handbook. Available at: https://caban.ac.uk/dogfennau-documents/H1% 20Mentor%20Handbook.pdf (accessed 25 October 2020). Campbell, A., & Groundwater-Smith, S. (Eds.). (2010). Connecting inquiry and professional learning in education: International perspectives and practical solutions. Routledge. City, E. A., Elmore, R., Fiarman, S., & Teitel, L. (2009). Instructional rounds in education: A network approach to improving teaching and learning. Harvard Education Press. Cochran-Smith and Lytle. (2009). Inquiry as Stance: Practitioner Research for the Next Generation. Teachers College Press. Cordingley, P. (2015). The contribution of research to teachers’ professional learning and development. Oxford Review of Education, 41(2), 234–252. Conroy, J., Hulme, M., & Menter, I. (2013). Developing a ‘clinical’ model for teacher education. Journal of Education for Teaching, 39(5), 557–573. Darling-Hammond, L., & Bransford, J. (Eds.). (2007). Preparing teachers for a changing world: What teachers should learn and be able to do. San Francisco, John Wiley & Sons. Darling-Hammond, L. (2017). Teacher Education around the world: What can we learn from international practice? European Journal of Teacher Education, 40(3), 291–309. Donaldson, G. (2016). A systematic approach to curriculum reform in Wales. Cylchgrawn Addysg Cymru/wales Journal of Education, 18(1), 7–20. Estyn (2013), Annual Report of HM Chief Inspector of Education and Training in Wales 2013– 14.Cardiff: Estyn Estyn (2019), Inspecting Schools that are Lead Schools in an Initial Teacher Education Partnership, Cardiff: Estyn https://www.estyn.gov.wales/system/files/2020-07/Supplementary%2520gu idance%2520for%2520inspecting%2520lead%2520schools_0.pdf Furlong, J., Hirst, P. H., Pocklington, K., & Miles, S. (1988). Initial Teacher Training and the Role of the School. Open University Press. Furlong, J., Barton, L., Miles, S., Whiting, C., & Whitty, G. (2000). Teacher Education in Transition: Re-forming teacher professionalism? Open University Press. Furlong, J., Hagger, H., Butcher, C., & Howson, J. (2006). Review of Initial Teacher Training Provision in Wales; A report to the Welsh Assembly Government (the Furlong Report). University of Oxford Department of Education. Furlong, J., & Maynard, T. (2012). Mentoring student teachers: The growth of professional knowledge. Routledge. Furlong, J. (2013). Education and anatomy of a discipline: Rescuing the university project. Routledge. Furlong, J. (2015). Teaching Tomorrow’s Teachers; Options for the future of initial teacher education in Wales. Cardiff: Welsh Assembly Government Furlong, J. (2016). Initial Teacher Education in Wales–a Rationale for Reform. Cylchgrawn Addysg Cymru/wales Journal of Education, 18(1), 45–63. Gore, M., & Bowe, J. (2015). Interrupting attrition? Re-shaping the transition from perspective to inservice teaching through quality teaching rounds. International Journal of Educational Research, 73, 77–88. Hagger, H., & McIntyre, D. (2018). Mentors in Schools (1996): Developing the Profession of Teaching. Routledge. Harris, A., & Jones, M. S. (2019). System Recall: Leading for Equity and Excellence in Education. Corwin Press. Hattie, J. (2008) Visible learning. A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. London: Routledge. Jones, L., Tones, S., & Foulkes, G. (2018). Mentoring associate teachers in initial teacher education: The value of dialogue feedback. International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, 7(2), 127–138. Kools, M., & Stoll, L. (2016). What Makes a School a Learning Organisation? A Guide for Policy Makers. OECD.

14 A Research Informed Approach to Initial Teacher Education …

207

Lewis, H. (2015) ] Huw Lewis, Wales Education Minister (2015), Times Higher Education https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/welsh-government-sets-out-radical-planstran sform-teacher-training Lewis, C. (2000). Lesson study: The core of Japanese professional development. In Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Mayer, D and Reid, J (2016) “Professionalising teacher education: Evolution of a changing knowledge and policy landscape”, In: ML Hamilton, J Loughran (eds.) International Handbook of Teacher Education. Springer. DOI: http://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0366-0 Mayer, D., Dixon, M., Kline, J., Kostogriz, A., Moss, J., Rowan, L., Walker-Gibbs, B., & White, S. (2017). Studying the Effectiveness of Teacher Education Early Career Teachers in Diverse Settings. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3929-4 Mayer, D., & Mills, M. (2020). Professionalism and teacher education in Australia and England. European Journal of Teacher Education, 1–17. McLean Davies, L., Dickson, B., Rickards, F., Dinham, S., Conroy, J., & Davis, R. (2015). Teaching as a clinical profession: Translational practices in initial teacher education–an international perspective. Journal of Education for Teaching, 41(5), 514–528. Menter, I. (2019). The interaction of global and national influences. Knowledge, policy and practice in teacher education: A cross-national study. London, England: Bloomsbury. Mutton, T., Burn, K., Hagger, H., & Thirlwall, K. (2018). Teacher Education Partnerships - policy and practice. Critical Publishing. OECD. (2014). Improving Schools in Wales; An OECD perspective. OECD. OECD (2017), “Do new teachers feel prepared for teaching?” Teaching in Focus, No. 17, OECD Publishing, Paris, http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1787/980bf07d-en. Ponte, P. (2010). ‘Post Graduate programmes as platforms: coming together and doing research for a common moral purpose’. In: A. Campbell and S. Groundwater-Smith, (2010) (eds). Connecting inquiry and professional learning in education: International perspectives and practical solutions. London: Routledge, 68–82. Schleicher, A. (2012), Ed., Preparing Teachers and Developing School Leaders for the 21st Century: Lessons from around the World, OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1787/978 9264xxxxxx-en Schon, D. A. (2010). Educating the reflective practitioner: Toward a new design for teaching and learning in the professions. Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 50(2), 448–451. Tabberer, R. (2013) A Review of Initial Teacher Training in Wales. Cardiff: Welsh Government Tripney, J., Gough, D., Sharples, J., Lester, S. and Bristow, D. (2018). Promoting teacher engagement with research evidence. Wales Centre for Public Policy Welsh Government (2017a), Criteria for the Accreditation of initial teacher education programmes in Wales, February 2018. https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2018-09/criteria-forthe-accreditation-of-initial-teacher-education-programmes-in-wales.pdf Welsh Government (2017b), Professional Standards for Teaching and Leadership https://hwb.gov. wales/professional-development/professional-standards/ Zarra, E. J., & Zarra, E. (2019). The Age of Teacher Shortages: Reasons. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Alma Harris has held Professorial posts at the University of Warwick, University College London, the University of Malaya, the University of Bath, and Swansea University. She is internationally known for her research and writing on educational leadership, education policy, teacher education, and school improvement. Dr Harris has been an international adviser to the First Minister and Deputy First Minister of Scotland since 2016. She is past president of the ‘International Congress of School Effectiveness and Improvement’.

208

A. Harris et al.

Michelle Jones is Head of Swansea University School of Education and Associate Professor of Leadership and Professional Learning. She is internationally known for her work on professional learning, professional learning communities, teacher education and leadership. Most recently, Dr Jones has been assisting the Welsh Government as Chair of the Professional Learning Accreditation Group for Wales. She is the Academic Lead for the new National MA Education (Wales) which will be launched in September 2021. John Furlong OBE is an Emeritus Professor and former Director of the Department of Education at the University of Oxford. His research interests focus on initial teacher education (ITE), educational research policy and the links between the two. He has published extensively on different aspects of teacher education policy and practice. In 2014 he was appointed as adviser to the Welsh Government on Initial Teacher Education; in 2017 he was the first Chair of the Education Council for Wales’ ITE Accreditation Board. Jeremy Griffiths is Executive Director of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) at Bangor University. He has 35 years’ experience within the education sector, in schools, local authorities and Universities. He is an Associate of the National Academy for Education Leadership and a chartered fellow of the Chartered Management Institute. He has been involved in developing the strategy for “Schools as learning organisations”, the “National professional standards for teaching and leadership”, and the development of a new National Curriculum for Wales, 2022. Cecilia Hannigan-Davies was born in Ireland and has been an academic for over thirty years. She is Deputy Dean of the Cardiff School of Education and Social Policy at Cardiff Metropolitan University. Cecilia holds a BEd from St Patrick’s College, Dublin, an MSc Computer Science from Queen’s University, Belfast, and a DPhil Computer Science from Ulster University. Cecilia has published in international journals and conference proceedings on the subject of technology enhanced learning.

Chapter 15

Teacher Education Policy: Future Research, Teaching in Contexts of Super-Diversity and Early Career Teaching Diane Mayer , A. Lin Goodwin , and Nicole Mockler Abstract This book represents the first collective work of the Global Teacher Education Consortium (GTEC) with chapters authored by leading teacher education researchers from Australia, Belgium, Canada, England, Finland, Hong Kong SAR, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Scotland, the USA and Wales. Globally, teacher education is being positioning as a policy problem requiring national solutions and large-scale reforms. In this context, GTEC aims to investigate the impact of those teacher education policies within and across countries, as well as the connections and disconnections between the policies and teacher education research. In this volume, the authors provide analyses of the current policy contexts and teacher education research in each of the 13 nations. This concluding chapter provides an overview and analysis of the issues, opportunities and challenges across the nations and considers future possibilities and opportunities for teacher education research; equity and preparing teachers for work within contexts of super-diversity; and early career teaching.

Introduction In this book, leading teacher education researchers from Australia, Belgium, Canada, England, Finland, Hong Kong SAR, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Scotland, the USA and Wales have examined teacher education policy and research in each of their jurisdictions. This volume is the first body of work by the D. Mayer (B) University of Oxford, Oxford, UK e-mail: [email protected] A. L. Goodwin The University of Hong Kong, Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong e-mail: [email protected] N. Mockler University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 D. Mayer (ed.), Teacher Education Policy and Research, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3775-9_15

209

210

D. Mayer et al.

Global Teacher Education Consortium (GTEC) which was formed in 2019 to explore teacher education policy and research within and across the nations. In many parts of the world, teacher education is being framed as a policy problem and national solutions involving large-scale reforms have been developed to ‘fix the problem’ (Cochran-Smith et al. 2018; Furlong 2013; Furlong et al. 2009). This often involves more complex and tighter systems of accountability and regulation, as well as standards and standardisation. Within this regulated context and amidst claims that there is little evidence of the effectiveness of teacher education, governments and funding bodies are framing desired teacher education research in ways that are narrow in purpose and prescriptive in approach. For example, teacher education researchers are being encouraged to investigate the impact and effectiveness of teacher education programmes in line with government priorities and associated research funding opportunities that name preferred indicators of effectiveness. These often include such indicators as graduating teacher employment rates, attrition and retention of new teachers, and levels of student achievement claimed to be directly attributable to teacher quality. GTEC argues that a more comprehensive approach to understanding the consequences of various teacher education policies and the related practices is needed and that these should focus on their impact across the education system including: teachers and teaching; teacher educators; schools and their communities: school students and their learning; and education systems as a whole. We argue that this positioning of teacher education as, and within, a complex system (Cochran-Smith et al. 2014) will enable a more nuanced understanding of the impact of the policies as they frame and reframe teacher education and ultimately influence the teaching profession. Such a research agenda on an international scale will enable both comprehensive analysis of the impact of the various teacher education policies and also inform future policies and practices. The chapters in this volume represent the starting point for this work by presenting analyses of teacher education policy and related research in Australia, Belgium, Canada, England, Finland, Hong Kong SAR, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Scotland, the USA and Wales. This concluding chapter provides an overview of the issues, opportunities and challenges across the nations and considers future policy and research possibilities and opportunities for teacher education research; equity and preparing teachers for work within contexts of super-diversity; and early career teaching.

Teacher Education Policy Across the 13 Nations There are remarkable similarities in teacher education policy in each of the 13 nations and, while most nations have a history of intense political interest in reforming teacher education, there are many instances of strong and influential leadership by teacher educators through their research, agency and partnerships, and practices. The issues, opportunities and challenges evident across the nations are briefly summarised and

15 Teacher Education Policy: Future Research, Teaching in Contexts …

211

discussed below. Teacher education is in the spotlight and the policies are constructing the teaching professional as well as teacher education professionalism.

Teacher Education is in the Spotlight Global discourses about teacher education are evident in many policies, sometimes presented as local solutions (e.g., Ell, in this volume). A deficit discourse is evident positioning teacher education as ‘a problem which needs to be fixed’. It is informed by concern for economic competitiveness fuelled by the international assessments as well as selected research (sometimes better characterised as commissioned evaluations) and public and media portrayals which undervalue and question the value of teacher education. Ongoing government commissioned reviews also add to this discourse and present their recommendations as needing urgent attention to fix the problem (e.g., Simpson et al., in this volume). This sets the scene for government intervention involving large scale reform usually involving increased accountability, standards and performance management (Sachs 2016) in a context of neoliberal reform (Ball 2016). Many of the policies are dominated by discourses of accountability that suggest a need for more and tighter mechanisms aiming for a ‘a higher bar’ (Cochran-Smith et al. 2018). Sometimes, the policies have resulted in a very confused policy landscape with contradictory and entangled policy messages (e.g., Mutton et al., in this volume). For example, on the one hand, claims for more regulation and tighter accountability are offered as the solution to the perceived problem of teacher education. On the other hand, actual and projected teacher shortages due to attrition of early career teachers as well as fewer people deciding to enter the profession form the basis of policies that essentially bypass the tighter regulation and accountability, such as, for example, the alternative routes that provide a ‘fast track’ into the profession. There are also examples of the complexity associated with teacher education policy and implementation in contexts dominated by political uncertainties (e.g., Tang and Cheng, and Clarke and McFlynn, in this volume).

Constructing the Teaching Professional The policies and reforms are often associated with a normative discourse of what it means to be a teacher as well as a performative discourse involving narrow measures of teaching quality. For example, Vanassche (in this volume) suggests that current teacher education policy in Flanders (Belgium) has constructed a particular discourse of teacher professionalism where professionalism is a quality acquired, possessed and performed by individual teachers; professionalism is knowing and performing ‘what works’; and professionalism can be mapped and checked. The normative discourse about what it means to be and become a teacher is often informed by technicist

212

D. Mayer et al.

and what works approaches, and oversimplification of the work of teachers (e.g., Vanassche, in this volume; Meijer, in this volume). Professional standards are not always informed by the relevant research but more often constructed to align with ideological policy formulations. Where research is involved in describing what it is that new teachers should know and be able to do, ‘what works’ framings of educational research (Biesta 2007) are used. In these ways, the work of teachers is being deintellectualised (see also Phelan in this volume). The teaching professional is being constructed as part of a performative discourse. A teaching performance assessment is required for all graduating teachers in Australia and the USA based on being able to demonstrate the graduating teacher standards, usually in their final school experience (practicum) (see Simpson et al., in this volume). All of this raises questions about teacher professionalism and agency and their ability to address specific learning needs of students in contexts of superdiversity. In some contexts, an inquiry or research component as part of masters’ level study is required (e.g., Toom and Husu, in this volume). There are certainly wider calls for teachers to be research literate in order to judge the value of publicly available research for their teaching, and also to be researchers themselves in order to investigate and improve their classroom practices (e.g. British Educational Research Association 2014). Both of these approaches frame a professionalism that involves informed professional judgement and teaching decisions designed to enhance student learning. However, there is not wide-spread evidence of this emphasis in the policies analysed in the chapters in this volume. Harris et al., in this volume, argue that in Wales, a research informed approach to initial teacher education has not only raised the quality of provision but also brought the prospect of a research-informed profession that much closer.

Constructing Teacher Education Professionalism There are examples of the vital roles teacher educators play in responding to and attempting to influence political intervention, and leading change (e.g., Simpson et al., Phelan and Morris, and, Ell, in this volume), as well as them working closely with governments and education systems to effect change (e.g., Harris et al., in this volume). However, increasing regulation and accountability is challenging the academic autonomy of teacher educators and highlights a lack of trust in teacher educators to take responsibility for the quality of their teacher education programmes. In some nations, high quality teacher education is determined to be that which is closer to practice (the so-called ‘practice turn’ (Zeichner 2012) where, at its extreme, teacher education is school-led or totally conducted in schools (e.g. Mutton et al., in this volume) and issues of ‘location’ dominate polarised and polarising policy debates. In others, a ‘university turn’ involving inquiry and masters’ level study is evident (e.g., Toom and Husu, and Kennedy et al., in this volume) and various forms of inquiry and research (e.g., Flores, in this volume). Meijer (in this volume) argues the importance of investing in high quality teacher education programmes rather than

15 Teacher Education Policy: Future Research, Teaching in Contexts …

213

focussing policy attention on ways in which people can become teachers quickly and easily, which at best is a short-term solution. Particularly relevant at this time, Clarke and McFlynn (in this volume) problematise potential legacies of expedient modifications of practice in teacher education during the COVID pandemic. So, the chapters in this volume illuminate how teacher education has a history of political scrutiny and continues to be very much in the policy spotlight. More and tighter accountability is often seen as the answer to the problem of teacher education and many of the chapters highlight the ways in which teacher education has been captured by instrumentalism and a pervasive view that its main purpose is to serve the needs of the economy (e.g., Phelan and Morris, in this volume). The policies and reforms are often associated with a normative discourse of what it means to be a teacher as well as a performative discourse involving narrow measures of teaching quality and teacher education quality. However, there are certainly attempts to build new teachers’ research literacy and informed professional decision-making capabilities in ways that position the teacher as knowledgeable professional able to support the learning of each and every student. There is also evidence of teacher educators informing the policy debates and framing the teacher education professional. Drawing on the chapters and this summary, we now consider future possibilities and opportunities for teacher education research; equity and preparing teachers for work within contexts of super-diversity; and early career teaching.

Future Possibilities and Opportunities for Teacher Education Research; Equity and Preparing Teachers for Work Within Contexts of Super-Diversity; and Early Career Teaching Teacher Education Research Reviews of teacher education research have often concluded that it is underdeveloped, small scale, undertheorized, and somewhat parochial (e.g. Menter et al. 2010; Sleeter 2014). Subsequently, claims about the lack of evidence of teacher education effectiveness morph into assumptions that therefore it must be ineffective. Some argue that teacher education research is regularly misused and misconstrued (e.g. Zeichner and Conklin 2017) in order to manufacture a narrative of failure in order to provide a rationale for tighter accountability and significant reform agendas in teacher education (e.g. Cochran-Smith et al. 2018). In the main, as the chapters in this volume demonstrate, teacher education research seems to occur parallel to teacher education policy, rarely informing policy and even more rarely being incorporated into teacher education accountability mechanisms (e.g., Meijer, this volume). Much of the research given attention falls into ‘what works’ framings of educational research (Biesta 2007). However, in the current policy context, there are at least two key dimensions that need further interrogation in terms of future research. The first is related to the call

214

D. Mayer et al.

for evidence of effectiveness of teacher education which is often contained in policy documents and related accountability mechanisms. This would seem to suggest an appropriate focus for future research that might have the possibility of also meeting accountability requirements. However, examination of the relevant literature and analysis of the discourses informing teacher education policy have suggested that much closer examination of how effectiveness is understood and framed is needed by both teacher educators and policymakers before this might be possible (e.g. Mayer et al. 2017). Moreover, as Helgetun and Menter (2020) remind us, in the current policy ‘evidence era’, evidence is often constructed ideologically for political purposes. This can mean privileging particular types of research both in topic, method and purpose. Much of what has characterised policy thinking to date comes from thinking of teacher education as a complicated system, one in which teacher education can be taken apart and the component pieces examined in order to understand and change them with the expectation that this will improve the whole system (of teacher education) and its functioning. However, teacher education is more like a complex system and ‘if a complex system is taken apart, key aspects of how the system works and what makes it work in the first place are lost since unexpected consequences arise as a result of the dynamic interaction of parts’ (Cochran-Smith et al. 2014, p.107). When teacher education is thought of as part of complex system, and as part of the wider education system, multiple parts and interactions are acknowledged, but more importantly the whole is acknowledged to be more than the sum of its parts. The role that teacher education plays in the education system can be underestimated when it is seen as a ‘supplier’ of new teachers rather than as an integral part of the wider education system (Ell et al. 2019). The multiple ways in which university-based teacher education impacts on the education system needs to be considered so that teacher education is positioned as more than just a source of newly qualified teachers. Ell et al. (2019) draw on complexity theory to suggest a nuanced way to conceptualise the impact of teacher education that acknowledges the integrated nature of the education system and the way in which all stakeholders work together to improve student learning (see also, Ell, in this volume). This provides opportunities to investigate how, and with what effect, teacher education and teacher educators interact with: teachers and principals; other teacher education institutions; schools and their communities; policy actors and regulatory processes and policy; as well as, the body of educational research. In this way, evidence of the effectiveness of teacher education would involve investigations within and across these agents and elements as they interact with teacher education. Evidence would entail investigating the impact and influence of the teacher education programme and teacher educators on teachers and their teaching in schools, on principals and other school leaders and their leadership in schools, as well as school communities. Such a framing would also provide opportunities to explore evidence in terms of the interrelatedness of teacher educators’ practice and research with policy as well as research and associated bodies of knowledge. Moreover, this would open up new research agendas for teacher educators such that more wholistic evaluations of teacher education work could be framed, including for example more valid understandings of effective partnerships in teacher education.

15 Teacher Education Policy: Future Research, Teaching in Contexts …

215

The ubiquitous evidence discourse in current policy is determining what data and information will be accepted as evidence of teacher education effectiveness. However, the assumed linear connections driving regulation and accountability mechanisms and dictating what counts as evidence are not valid. If teacher education is conceptualised as part of the wider education system, more valid interpretations of evidence are possible that enable useful connections between teacher education policy and research.

Equity and Preparing Teachers for Work Within Contexts of Super-Diversity Undoubtedly, quality teachers feature prominently in global aspirations towards “world class” education systems (Ell, and Phelan and Morris, in this volume), given broad agreement that quality education depends on quality teachers (Akiba and LeTendre 2018; Asia Society 2016; European Commission 2018; OECD 2019). International focus on initial teacher education is understandable given the intense interest in recruiting and preparing the best candidates who can meet quality standards and be classroom ready (Simpson et al., in this volume). But what constitutes quality in a rapidly globalising world milieu (Tang and Cheng, and Vanassche, in this volume), where racism is “a pervasive international issue” (Ell, in this volume)? What does it mean to prepare quality teachers for equity work within contexts characterised by super-diversity (Vertovec 2007) among students but not teachers, by widespread economic injustice, and by ever persistent gaps, both in terms of achievement and opportunities to learn, experienced by vast numbers of culturally and linguistically diverse students? All of the chapters in this volume wrestle with questions of teacher quality in their specific contexts, alongside evolving conceptualisations of teacher professionalism. Each delves into what teachers should know and be able to do. They acknowledge prevailing social inequities, many of which have been long enduring—and long ignored, calling for “preparing teachers for an increasingly diverse society” (Vanassche, in this volume) and “embedded concern for social justice” (Simpson et al., in this volume), because teachers must now “address…pupils…with increasingly diverse (socio-economic and cultural) backgrounds as well as increasing numbers of those with special needs” (Meijer, in this volume). Teaching is a moral enterprise (Flores, in this volume), because teachers have “a duty of care for people, living things and the environment” (Tang and Cheng, in this volume), and are “pivotal in building the capacity for social justice and social cohesion” (Harris et al., in this volume). Teachers are indeed assigned grave responsibility for addressing (educational) inequity, made more visible by the COVID pandemic, and heightened state-sanctioned violence against, especially, African American citizens in the U.S.

216

D. Mayer et al.

What the global community has witnessed this past year are the extremely dire consequences of a deeply divided and unequal society, and where long standing discriminatory practices and uneven health care distribution have resulted in people of colour succumbing to the virus at rates disproportionate to their numbers, low wage workers forced to the brink of survival without safety nets, and young learners (particularly students of colour and those with disabilities) falling behind in a virtual learning environment for lack of internet access and appropriate pedagogical supports. These massive social inequities are not the fault of teachers, nor should teachers be held solely responsible for their amelioration. Yet it is teachers who interact daily with the most vulnerable in society, children and young people, all the time and especially during this time. However, there is much evidence that teachers are not ready for their role in supporting the learning of vulnerable students. In its recent Teaching and Learning International Study (TALIS), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD 2019) found that 260,000 teachers across 48 countries/economies expressed the need for more preparation for “teaching in multicultural/multilingual settings and teaching students with special needs” (p. 14). Numerous studies and reports have echoed the critical need to prepare teachers ready to capably and equitably educate multiply diverse students (Cochran-Smith et al. 2016; Moore and Slee 2020; OECD 2010; Public Policy and Management Institute 2017). There is ample documentation of the failure of schools and society to ensure that learners characterized as diverse have equal access to quality teachers (Carter and Darling-Hammond 2016; OECD 2018; Goodwin 2020). Teacher quality, teacher professionalism and teacher education reform, must all point towards the interruption of racism (and other isms), social engineering for the benefit of the privileged, and continuous oppression and exploitation of the poor and disenfranchised. A critical question for all teacher educators is: what are the quality indicators for teachers well-prepared to advocate for those children and their families who experience “marginalization, denigration, segregation, and denial of competence” (Liu and Ball 2019, p. 71)? Equity should be the DNA of teacher preparation, at the very heart of the work that teachers do, but can it be, and what might that mean in terms of teacher knowledge, skill and dispositions? New Zealand and Scotland offer two cases of teacher education deliberately centred on equity and social justice. In New Zealand, acknowledgement of “the impacts of colonisation and racism on the education system and inequity in society” has led to numerous changes, including in teacher preparation. In this context, “quality teachers can uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi, enact culturally sustaining pedagogies and are not racist” (Ell). This is not to suggest that other aspects of quality teaching, for example, good classroom management or strong content knowledge are excluded, but rather that “of all the indicators of ‘teacher quality’ that could have been selected as priorities, te reo M¯aori (M¯aori language) and tikanga M¯aori (M¯aori ways of doing things) are centred” (Ell, in this volume). Scotland offers an example where inquiry and questions regarding quality teachers “were adapted to enable analysis focused more explicitly on issues of race education and anti-discrimination in light of the national drive to diversify the teaching profession…and the global Black Lives Matters movement, all the while contextualised within the broader narrative

15 Teacher Education Policy: Future Research, Teaching in Contexts …

217

of social justice that is already well-established in Scottish ITE” (Kennedy et al., in this volume). Both chapters also speak to the dilemma presented by “the intertwined influences of both the global meta-narrative and the local historical, cultural, and social context” (Kennedy et al., in this volume) and how, despite all efforts, “many elements of global discourses about initial teacher education” make their way into local policies, “disguised by being presented as solutions to local problems” (Ell, in this volume). Thus, contemporary global discourse around quality education, much of which forwards a neoliberal agenda that equates quality teachers/schooling with economic health, creates tensions in preparing teachers in a world environment that is increasingly focused on markets and monetization (Clark and McFlynn, and Mutton, Burn, Thompson, and Childs, in this volume); teacher education is progressively becoming more politicised, regulated, and standardized (Flores, in this volume). Alarmingly, equity becomes co-opted as “both education and equity are addressed …through the discourse of economics” (Phelan and Morris, in this volume). Additionally, international benchmarking assessments, such as PISA, urge policy making towards ‘what works,’ further promoting teaching as technical and instrumental. Teacher educators find themselves in the unfortunate position of defending learning to teach as complex, intellectual and nuanced work, professional work that requires specialized preparation informed by research, theory and the wisdom of practice (Mutton et al., in this volume). Research is seen as an avenue for illuminating the work of educators for quality education given “a strong empirical base to suggest that teachers and teacher educators need to engage with research throughout their careers to be effective practitioners” (Harris et al., in this volume). Increasingly, “teacher professionalism concerns the application of a research-informed body of knowledge to solve problems” (Vanassche, in this volume), fuelling an embrace of research often reflected in teaching standards. In Northern Ireland for instance, “teachers are tasked to act inter alia as researchers and change agents” (Clark and McFlynn, in this volume); similarly, Wales is “equipping beginning teachers to act as researchers” (Harris et al., in this volume), while Hong Kong considers research “an important competence for teachers” (Tang and Cheng, in this volume). But “urgent calls to develop the capacity of teacher education programs…to prepare future teachers to engage in research” (Tatto, in this volume) aside, “the integration of a research component in ITE curriculum…has its advocates and critics” (Flores, in this volume). Moreover, “valuable research efforts from educators” are increasingly “continuously criticized by non-educationists” (Tatto, in this volume), who then turn “research” into a “failure narrative” of teacher education, “a potent concoction of contested empirical assertions, unsubstantiated normative claims, name-calling and hyperbole” (Cochran-Smith et al. 2018, p. 21). Thus, the move towards evidence-based teacher education should be accompanied by a critical assessment of “evidence.” Evidence of what, generated by whom, and for what purpose? What should be the balance between preparing research literate teachers who are discerning consumers of evidence, and teachers who (also) create knowledge by delving into important questions about practice and the meaning/fulness of outcomes? And what about evidence that seems to be privileged

218

D. Mayer et al.

versus that which is seemingly downplayed? As stated earlier, we have much proof that learners defined as “diverse” typically experience substandard educations. There is equally robust research illuminating equitable and emancipatory pedagogies that have been shown to interrupt impoverished schooling practices and outcomes for marginalized and minoritized youth (cf. Aronson and Laughter 2016; Carter and Darling-Hammond 2016; Faltis and Valdés 2016). Yet new teachers continue to exit teacher preparation programs indicating preferences to work with children similar to themselves, holding deficit perspectives of students different from them, and inadequately ready to teach all children equally well (Cochran-Smith et al. 2016; Carter and Darling-Hammond 2016; Faltis and Valdés 2016; Goodwin 2020). In a world where schools are “fraught with dehumanizing and racialized beliefs about students of Color” (Kohli 2019, p. 39), teacher education has a moral duty to centre the preparation of teachers for contexts of superdiversity with a laser-focus on equity. We have the research that can inform this work; we have the capacity to further this research. It is up to us to reclaim what counts in teacher education. But we can only centre teacher education on equity if we as teacher educators are fully centred on equity.

Early Career Teaching In relation to early career teaching, the chapters in this volume point to two key assumptions underpinning reforms to initial teacher education globally that teacher educators need to question. The first is that ‘classroom readiness’ is the aim and destination of initial teacher education: in other words, that early career teachers emerge from their initial teacher education fully formed in the image of the professional teacher. The second is that issues of retention and attrition of early career teachers, linked to widespread concerns around teacher shortages in different national contexts, are a consequence of a lack of preparedness on the part of early career teachers rather than other post-initial teacher education factors.

Classroom Readiness is Not the Destination The fixation on ‘classroom readiness’, expressed as such in the Australian context but reflected also in moves elsewhere toward school-based teacher education (such as ‘School Direct’ in the United Kingdom) and alternative certification programs (such as those globally available under the ‘Teach for All’ banner) is a relatively recent phenomenon, which has gained momentum over the past decade. Just over 20 years ago, the report of an Australian Senate inquiry into the status of the teaching profession explicitly argued against what has since become the conventional wisdom of classroom readiness, noting.

15 Teacher Education Policy: Future Research, Teaching in Contexts …

219

It is generally acknowledged by all those involved – university educators, practising teachers, education departments and beginning teachers themselves – that no pre-service training can fully prepare new teachers to perform at their full capacity from their first day at work. This is not a reflection on the quality of new teachers nor on the standard of pre-service training. It is a recognition of the complexity of teaching and of the large number of variables (such as type of school, socio-economic and cultural background of students, school ‘ethos’, extent of support from colleagues and principal etc.) affecting a teacher’s performance. (Commonwealth of Australia 1998, p. 204).

The report went on to argue for the importance of substantial induction processes that would contribute to the formation of early career teachers within their new professional contexts, a point to which we will return below. Classroom readiness as a destination is problematic for two primary reasons. First, as highlighted in the quotation above, the notion that beginning teachers should be ‘ready’ from day one, regardless of the context in which they find themselves placed, misunderstands the complexity of teaching, assuming, rather, that both school contexts and teachers’ practice can and should be standardised. Classroom readiness in this sense implies that the knowledge, skills and dispositions required for early career teachers to perform ‘teacher quality’ is finite, quantifiable and measurable. Thus, as Simpson, Cotton and Gore have suggested in this volume, the ‘classroom ready’ teacher is evaluated on the attainment of these measurable attributes (which consequently come to constitute ‘what counts’) rather than on other more ephemeral aspects of practice such as creativity or pedagogical risk-taking. Second, this construction of classroom readiness plays on a false dichotomy of theory and practice in initial teacher education, which rests on a common sense understanding of teaching practice grounded in what Lortie (1975, p. 62) referred to as the ‘apprenticeship of observation’. However, the extent to which early career teachers might be understood as ‘classroom ready’ relies less on the ‘practical’ nature of their initial teacher education and more on how well they are set up in their initial teacher education to navigate the complex practice architectures (Kemmis and Grootenboer 2008) of teachers’ work. These include the cultural-discursive, material-economic and social-political arrangements found in their nested sites of practice—from those that characterise their national or jurisdictional settings to those that originate at the local school level. They include the policy settings within which beginning teachers work along with the local conditions found in their schools. Again, this requires a focus in initial teacher education beyond the immediate and instrumental to the relational dimensions of practice. Further, the capacity to understand and successfully navigate the practice architectures of teaching as a beginning teacher relies on an understanding of one’s teaching context, and the particular ways in which practices, comprised of bundled ‘sayings’, ‘doings’ and ‘relatings’, are shaped by those architectures in context.

220

D. Mayer et al.

The discourse of ‘classroom readiness’ connotes an instrumentalist approach to initial teacher education which many of the chapters in this volume seek to problematise. Kennedy, Adams and Carver, for example, highlight the ways in instrumentalist approaches marginalise the broader emancipatory aims of initial teacher education and teaching practice itself, an observation resonant with Phelan and Morris’ argument about a rising appetite for instrumentalism in the Canadian context.

Early Career Attrition and ‘Preparedness’ Issues related to attrition and retention of early career teachers are common across many national contexts (see, for example, Perryman and Calvert 2020; Rajendran et al. 2020), often exacerbated by projected or actual shortages of teachers. In many jurisdictions, solutions to the linked policy problems of teacher attrition and teacher shortage have been posed in the form of reform of initial teacher education, casting the problem as one of the appropriate preparedness (or lack thereof) of early career teachers. However, there is little if any research to suggest that attrition in the early years of teaching is linked to lack of preparation, despite the pervasiveness of this assumption. As Meijer argues in this volume, teacher attrition is a product of factors other than teacher preparedness—among them teachers’ conditions of employment, work and professional learning. Similar to that of classroom readiness, the assumption that lack of adequate preparation is responsible for early career teacher attrition relies on a conceptualisation of ‘good teaching’ as a quantifiable, measurable commodity that can be ‘rolled out’ and ‘scaled up’ to all prospective members of the profession. Again, it fails to recognise the critical importance of contextual factors in learning to teach well, and the role that good early career induction plays in beginning teachers being ‘stirred into’ (Kemmis et al. 2014, p. 59ff) practice within their local context. Once again, this constitutes not a gap between theory and practice, or initial teacher education and the practicalities of being a teacher, but rather points to the importance of understanding teacher professional learning as a continuum stretching from initial teacher education into and beyond early career teaching. As Tang and Cheng note in this volume, learning to teach is an iterative process that ‘occurs across multiple spaces in messy and recursive ways’ (Mayer et al. 2017, p. 129). The linked premises of classroom readiness as a destination for initial teacher education and teacher attrition as a consequence of poor-quality initial teacher education highlight the utility of instrumentalist views of teachers’ work in shaping solutions to real or imagined policy problems. As highlighted in this volume by Vanassche in the Flemish context, by Phelan and Morris in the Canadian context, by Mutton, Burn, Thompson and Childs in the English context, and by Meijer in the Dutch context, instrumentalism is pursued with enthusiasm around the world. Rejecting these premises or assumptions requires teacher educators to take an ever-critical eye to policy solutions that employ instrumentalist views of teachers’ work and learning

15 Teacher Education Policy: Future Research, Teaching in Contexts …

221

in favour of a richer, context-aware appreciation of practice, both as it is positioned within initial teacher education and as it plays out for early career teachers.

Conclusion We urge teacher educators to challenge current reforms that deprofessionalise both teachers’ work and teacher educators’ work. Rather than abandoning the notion of accountability (Cochran-Smith et al. 2018), we must engage in constructing a more professionalised accountability framework through our research and practice. We must actively engage through our research with the claims of a lack of evidence of the effectiveness of teacher education by interrogating policy notions of quality and effectiveness, as well as the assumed linear connections driving what counts as evidence in a policy context. We argue for thinking of teacher education as a complex system and as part of the wider education system, such that evidence would entail investigating the impact and influence of the teacher education programme and teacher educators on teachers and their teaching in schools, on principals and other school leaders and their leadership in schools, as well as school communities. We have the research that can inform this work; we have the capacity to further this research. It is up to us to reclaim what counts in teacher education. Moreover, in this research and activist work, we must challenge two key assumptions underpinning reforms to teacher education—that our main purpose is to prepare ‘classroom ready’ teachers and that issues of retention and attrition of early career teachers are evidence of a problem with teacher education. We suggest that framing our teacher education research and practice in these ways will secure mutually informing benefits and alignments between teacher education policy and research.

References Akiba, M., & LeTendre, G. K. (Eds.). (2018). The International Handbook of Teacher Quality and Policy. Routledge. Aronson, B., & Laughter, J. (2016). The theory and practice of culturally relevant education: A synthesis of research across content areas. Review of Educational Research, 86(1), 163–206. Asia Society. (2016). Teachers’ professional learning and growth: Creating the conditions to achieve quality teaching for excellent learning outcomes. Author. Ball, S. J. (2016). Neoliberal education? Confronting the slouching beast. Policy Futures in Education, 14(8), 1046–1059. Biesta, G. (2007). Why ‘what works’ won’t work: Evidence-based practice and the democratic deficit in educational research. Educational Theory, 57(1), 1–22. British Educational Research Association. (2014). Research and the Teaching Profession: Building the capacity for a self-improving education system. Final Report of the BERA-RSA Inquiry into the Role of Research in Teacher Education. London: BERA. Carter, P., & Darling-Hammond, L. (2016). Teaching diverse learners. In D. Gitomer & C.A. Bell (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Teaching (5th Ed.), (pp. 593–638).

222

D. Mayer et al.

Cochran-Smith, M., Carney, M. C., Keefe, E. S., Burton, S., Chang, W.-C., Fernandez, M. B., & Baker, M. (2018). Reclaiming accountability in teacher education. Teachers College Press. Cochran-Smith, M., Villegas, A.M., Abrams, L.W., Chávez-Moreno, L.C., Mills, T., & Stern, R. (2016). Research on teacher preparation: Charting the landscape of a sprawling field. In D. Gitomer & C.A. Bell (Eds.), Handbook of research on teaching (5th Ed.), (pp. 439–548). Cochran-Smith, M., Ell, F., Ludlow, L., Grudnoff, L., & Aitken, G. (2014). The challenge and promise of complexity theory for teacher education research. Teachers College Record, 116(5), 1–38. Commonwealth of Australia. (1998). A Class Act: Inquiry into the Status of the Teaching Profession. Retrieved from Canberra: Ell, F., Simpson, A., Mayer, D., McLean Davies, L., Clinton, J., & Dawson, G. (2019). Conceptualising the impact of initial teacher education. The Australian Educational Researcher, 46(1), 177–200. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-018-0294-7 Commission, E. (2018). Boosting teacher quality: Pathways to effective policies. Publications Office of the European Union. Faltis, C. J., & Valdés, G. (2016). Preparing teachers for teaching in and advocating for linguistically diverse classrooms. In D. Gitomer & C.A. Bell (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Teaching (5th Ed.), (pp. 549–592). Furlong, J. (2013). Globalisation, Neoliberalism, and the Reform of Teacher Education in England. The Educational Forum, 77(1), 28–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131725.2013.739017 Furlong, J., Cochran-Smith, M., & Brennan, M. (Eds.). (2009). Policy and politics in teacher education: International perspectives. Routledge Taylor & Francis. Goodwin, A. L. (2020 online). Learning to teach diverse learners: teachers and teacher preparation in the U.S. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. Oxford University Press. doi: https:// doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.913 Kemmis, S., & Grootenboer, P. (2008). Situating praxis in practice: Practice architectures and the cultural, social and material conditions for practice. In S. Kemmis & T. Smith (Eds.), Enabling Praxis: Challenges for Education (pp. 37–62). Rotterdam: Sense. Kemmis, S., Wilkinson, J., Edwards-Groves, C., Hardy, I., Grootenboer, P., & Bristol, L. (2014). Changing practices, changing education. Springer. Kohli, R. (2019). Lessons for teacher education: The role of critical professional development in teacher of color retention. Journal of Teacher Education, 70(1), 39–50. Liu, K., & Ball, A. (2019). Critical reflection and generativity: Toward a framework for transformative teacher education for diverse learners. Review of Research in Education, 43(1), 68–105. Lortie, D. (1975). Schoolteacher: A sociological study. University of Chicago Press. Mayer, D., Cotton, W., & Simpson, A. (2017). Teacher education in Australia: Evidence of effectiveness. In J. Lampert (Ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of critical perspectives on teacher education. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Mayer, D., Dixon, M., Kline, J., Kostogriz, A., Moss, J., Rowan, L., & White, S. (2017). Studying the effectiveness of teacher education. Springer. Menter, I., Hulme, M., Elliot, D., & Lewin, J. (2010). Literature review on teacher education in the twenty-first century. Edinburgh, Scotland: Education Analytical Services, Schools Research, Scottish Government. Moore, M., & Slee, R. (2020). Disability studies, inclusive education and exclusion. In N. Watson & S. Vehmas (Eds.), Routledge handbook of disability studies (2nd ed., pp. 265–280). Routledge. OECD. (2019). TALIS 2018 results (Volume I): Teachers and school leaders as lifelong learners. TALIS, OECD Publishing, Paris,. https://doi.org/10.1787/1d0bc92a-en OECD. (2018). Equity in education: Breaking down barriers to social mobility. PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris,. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264073234-en OECD. (2010). Educating teachers for diversity: Meeting the challenge. OECD Publishing. https:// doi.org/10.1787/9789264079731-en

15 Teacher Education Policy: Future Research, Teaching in Contexts …

223

Perryman, J., & Calvert, G. (2020). What motivates people to teach, and why do they leave? Accountability, performativity and teacher retention. British Journal of Educational Studies, 68(1), 3–23. Policy, P., & Institute, M. (2017). Preparing teachers for diversity: The role of initial teacher education. European Commission. Rajendran, N., Watt, H. M. G., & Richardson, P. W. (2020). Teacher burnout and turnover intent. The Australian Educational Researcher, 1–24. Sleeter, C. (2014). Towards teacher education research that informs policy. Educational Researcher, 43(3), 146–153. Vertovec, S. (2007). Super-diversity and its implications. Ethnic and Racial Studies (Vol. 30 No. 6, pp. 1024–1054). Zeichner, K. (2012). The turn once again toward practice-based teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 63(5), 376–382. Zeichner , K., & Conklin, H. (2017). Beyond knowledge ventriloquism and echo chambers: Raising the quality of the debate in teacher education. Teachers College Record, 119(4).

Diane Mayer is Professor of Teacher Education at the University of Oxford and Professorial Fellow of Harris Manchester College. Diane’s research and scholarship focuses on teacher education and early career teaching, examining issues associated with the policy and practice of teachers’ work and teacher education. A. Lin Goodwin is Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). Prior to joining HKU in 2017, she was Vice Dean at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York, and the Evenden Foundation Chair of Education. Professor Goodwin’s research focuses on teacher/teacher educator beliefs, identities and development; equitable education for immigrant and minoritized youth; international comparative analyses teacher education practice and policy; and the experiences of Asian/Asian American teachers and students in U.S. schools. Nicole Mockler is Associate Professor of Education at the Sydney School of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. She is a former teacher and school leader, and her research and writing primarily focuses on teacher professional identity and learning and education policy and politics. She is co-author or editor of 14 books, and is currently Editor in Chief of The Australian Educational Researcher.