Debates about what constitutes quality in initial teacher education have
resulted in a series of quality conundrums that have to be unravelled by
teacher educators. Using the lens of scale and adopting a new approach
to understanding quality, this book draws upon empirical research into
five large-scale, high-quality university-based teacher education
providers in Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand and the US. The
resulting model of initial teacher education practice shows how
ideological concepts and accountability structures around teacher
education are in constant tension with operational realities. The book
explores how successful large-scale providers have reconciled those
tensions and conundrums to ensure their provision is consistently high
quality. The accounts also present a robust defence for university-based
teacher education.
The practice-based accounts of how tensions around quality and scale are
being reconciled reveal the competing discourses around teacher
professionalism, research and the role of the university in teacher
education. The analysis presented promises to change the way we view
high-quality teacher education across all providers and international
contexts, not just those of large scale.
This book will be of great interest to teacher educators, policymakers
and educational leaders.
