This study investigated four novice secondary teachers' experience and perceptions of teacher education in relation to their current work experience in a high-stakes testing context. The novice teachers commonly indicated that their preparation, which had focused on content expertise, turned out to have little significance in schools, as they…

This article offers findings from a qualitative study of the development of novice, asset-oriented teacher educators in the U.S. who, over three years, engaged monthly in an informal learning space inspired by Freirean Culture Circles and Boalian Theatre of the Oppressed. The article outlines the dynamic knowledges, perspectives, and tools that…

There is growing international concern about the extent to which teachers are prepared to work with an increasingly diverse student (and community) population. To date, research into the relationship between teacher preparation and preparedness to teach diverse learners has not focused on teacher educators' understandings about teaching to/about…

Despite a growing body of knowledge about what content, processes and arrangements for learning may result in more effective initial teacher education, there remains a problem with the variability of outcomes from teacher education programmes. This paper reports on a multi-perspective exploration of what influences learning to teach in valued ways…

The study of recruitment practices for teacher educators (TEs) in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) universities reveals the academic category of TE constituted along three related trajectories: a professional expert (not required to research), a traditional academic (not required to hold a teaching qualification or teacher's practicing certificate), and…

Interviews conducted as part of the Work of Teacher Education (WoTE) project in Australia highlight emotional and ethical suffering embodied by teacher educators who find their research aspirations thwarted in the context of high-stakes research assessment exercises. We argue that government-run assessments, such as Excellence in Research for…

This study compared pre-service teachers' perceptions of their professional competencies at two campuses of a large regional teacher education university, where one campus provided students 22% more hours of professional placement in schools and related educational settings. Students who had experienced more hours in schools and such settings were…

This article draws from a qualitative study of seven beginning teachers' perceptions of diversity over a period of 6-18 months. The study found that while initial teacher training had broadened their understanding of diversity and its implication for teaching, it was established pedagogical practices in their schools that influenced the novices'…

The experiences of lesbian, gay, trans (The use of trans with an asterisk avoids the use of transsexual or transgender and promotes recognition of the inadequacy of such labels), bisexual and intersex (LGBTI) student teachers were recently investigated at a New Zealand faculty of education. Student teachers studying in early childhood education…

This paper reports on the results of a study in which the discourse within 75 professional development school (PDS)-related publications was examined to determine where the power, influence, and representation lies in PDS partnerships, as indicated by how those partnerships are described in writing. The results found that while university faculty…

Margaret Somerville has suggested that a new methodology of postmodern emergence might allow researchers to disrupt the taken-for-granted and provide fresh insight into familiar problems. One such familiar problem is the doubt and disillusion many early-career teachers experience, both during their teacher education and in their first years.…

In this discursive and wide-ranging paper I want to do two things: first, to interrogate the conditions that led to, and continue to wreak havoc as a result of, the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), and that underpin current policy approaches to teacher education in Australia and other western countries; and second, to move in the direction of…

This paper focuses on how understanding male gendered ways of experiencing the teaching profession might help us address the current shortage of male diversity in teaching. The study discusses the factors that may influence males to enter teaching and proposes the possibility of considering the participation of males in teaching as a way to…

Institutional mergers are among the range of government-driven reforms of teacher education and, by extension, the teaching force. Such reforms inevitably provide positive outcomes for some and challenges for others. In this paper the authors focus on the anticipations, experiences and reflections of a group of teacher educators during a period…

This article grapples with my endeavour to guide teacher education students to think critically about environmental issues and action. While students repeatedly claim my efforts helped them to think critically, my interviews with them about environmental issues and practices cause me to doubt their claims of burgeoning critical engagement. This…