Papers presented at the 39th Annual Conference of the Indian Association of Teacher Educators, held at Allahabad during 10-11 February 2006.

This book explores how educators are proactively working to reclaim teacher professionalism by engaging in exemplary practice and promoting quality education for all. It examines voices in contemporary Australian teacher education and how professionalism can contribute to achieving the multiplicity of purposes in education. The work of contemporary teachers and teacher educators, and perceptions about this work, have changed significantly. In recent times, governments have identified key issues linked to the quality of teachers, as presented in multiple inquiries, creating shifts in public policy and increasing regulation. Educators must work towards improving public and policy maker perceptions of teaching as a profession. Teacher educators make an important contribution in engaging in ongoing scholarship and debate that examine research and practice and speak back to managerial discourses on professionalism. It is through this work that educators shape and re-shape understanding of what it means to be a professional.

Significant changes in the policy and social context of teaching over the last 30 years have had substantial implications for teacher professionalism. This collection of work by leading international scholars in the field makes a unique contribution to understanding both how these changes are impacting on teaching and how teachers might change their practice for the better.

This book demonstrates that policy, professionalism, and pedagogy are integral to the development of the best teachers that our students deserve. The empirical quantitative and qualitative studies and narratives presented in this volume demonstrate that strong analyses are needed to drive decisions on policy and practice.

This book provides a wide-ranging review of the current state of teacher education, with contributions by an international group of teacher educators. It focuses on issues confronting teacher educators today and in the coming decade, including the impact of globalization on the profession of teaching, and the need for teacher education to adapt to changing accountability requirements, and establish a set of minimum standards that qualify a person to teach.

Teacher education is experiencing a period of dramatic and arguably irrevocable change within a wider context of turbulence in the English education system. With contributions from a range of teacher educators and academics in the field, Teacher Education in Challenging Times presents sustainable, robust, and informed responses to the challenges posed by the current unrest in the education sector. This book considers the nature of teacher professionalism, the nurturing of truly collaborative partnerships between universities, schools and other agencies, and developments in practice with tangible impact for children and young people. Drawing on important research and illustrations of policy and practice from England and other countries, chapters present a series of counter-cultural ideas, principles and practices that respond to pressing challenges facing educators in a range of contexts. Positive and forward-looking, this book offers a robust defence of the present need for high-quality teacher education in challenging times. This book is a timely contribution to an international debate about the future of teacher educators and should be of key interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of teacher education, philosophy and sociology of education, policy and politics of education, and pedagogy. It will also appeal to a range of practitioners, including trainers, local authority officers, professional groups, educational service providers, and educational and school improvement consultants.

Teachers from further and higher education are rarely considered together. This book explores the differences and similarities that exist between these groups. It provides an up-to-date account of developments and brings together arguments and debates about both groups of teachers to challenge some strongly held beliefs. Focusing on aspects of teachers' professionalism, Jocelyn Robson considers what 'professionalism' may mean and ways in which 'professionalism' has been studied. She goes on to consider: professional standards, training and qualifications professional identities and communities opportunities and strategies for professional development and renewal key debates in the literature and the most significant policy developments the main challenges currently facing the teaching profession in further and higher education.

The papers in this collection analyse the professionalism of teachers in Estonia and neighbouring countries from several perspectives. Data from the OECD TALIS survey have been used to study the transformation of the teaching profession in recent years. As Estonia is bicultural, one paper deals with the transition to Estonian as the language of instruction in Russian-medium schools. Teacher professionalism is related to communication skills and this is also explored. It is generally accepted that teachers' beliefs guide them in their daily work, and so three papers deal with the professional self and self-efficacy beliefs among teachers. In addition, an adaptation of the Teacher Efficacy Scale to the Estonian context is presented. The professional experience of young teachers is analysed and a comparison of the school practicum in teacher training in the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland is explored. Finally, the stress that teachers experience has been studied along with the preferred strategies for coping.

This book presents some highlights from the deliberations of the 2003 conference of the International Study Association on Teachers and Teaching (ISATT). Part 1 presents the five keynote addresses of the conference, while Parts 2 through 4 present selected papers related to each of three sub-themes: knowledge construction and learning to teach, perspectives on teachers’ personal and professional lives, and teachers’ workplace as context for learning. The chapters in this book provide an array of approaches to understanding the process of teacher learning within the current context of the changing workplace environment. They also provide an important international perspective on the complex issues revolving around the international educational reform movement. Basically, they show how teachers’ workplace (inside and outside schools) are more than ever subject to continuous change and that, subsequently, standards for teaching must be flexible to these changing conditions. This asks for a redefinition of teacher professionalism in which the role of context in teacher learning is emphasized as well as the improvement of the quality of teacher thinking and learning. Related to the ever-changing context of teaching, a dynamic approach to teaching and teacher learning is required, in which identity development is crucial. Researchers have an important role to play in revealing and explaining how teachers can build their professional identity, through self-awareness and reflection, in the ever-changing educational contexts throughout the world.

This edited book provides a critical re-reading of the concept of teacher education, in addition to a re-thinking of the sole focus on Initial Teacher Education (ITE), with implications for education policy, theory, and practice. This book presents new investigations that explore the concept of teacher education from ITE to retirement and how this is being enacted within the various distinct European and international education contexts. It demonstrates teaching and teacher education as a deeply contested field within European education and within the different national contexts of Europe. Contributions in this book expose teacher education as a continuum of teacher learning that is set off from the beginning of the teachers’ own schooling and continues throughout their entire teaching career. The chapters deal with various issues, namely teacher induction and mentoring; teacher agency; teachers as researchers; the role of the head teacher; schools as learning communities; and distinct ITE practices. It is intended for postgraduate students and researchers with an interest in teaching and teacher education, educational policies and politics, and educational philosophy, as well as practitioners.