Over the last decade, the introduction of professional standards and competences in initial teacher education for secondary teachers in England, France and Germany has provided the cornerstone of education reform in all three countries. The precise number and specific content of a measurable set of skills for teachers have offered challenges for…

Proposals made by the European Commission in 2007 led to the Education Council adopting, for the first time, a European agenda for improving the quality of teaching and teacher education. This article reports on a small-scale longitudinal interview-based study with teachers in England, Norway and Germany demonstrating that while opportunities for…