Despite a well-documented and significant increase in the population of children in UK schools who speak language(s) beyond English at home, the national Newly Qualified Teacher survey regularly reports that new teachers do not feel confident or prepared to work effectively with 'EAL children'. Whilst understanding the experiences and exploring…

Recent research emphasises significant interconnections between teacher educators' normative beliefs, their relations with student teachers and their teaching methods. In an attempt to better understand how teacher educators perceive of their work task, interviews were conducted with twelve Early Childhood teacher educators at a Swedish…

This qualitative study espouses an interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological framework to explore how mainstream experienced teachers (METs) and student teachers (STs) position themselves vis-à-vis inclusive education (IE). The theoretical framework emphasises that global changes in education require the placement of IE in the forefront of…

A holistic distribution of leadership, where the entire community is committed both to learning and the organisation's development, is considered an important factor in educational success. Initial teacher education should contribute towards building teachers' identities as leaders (teacher-leaders). Our research examines how teaching competences…

Teachers are expected to meet professional requirements concerning: (1) their role as a teacher, (2) capacity to teach and meet students' specific learning needs, (3) managing the classroom effectively, and (4) cooperating with other professionals within the school. Teachers build up competencies and experience challenges associated with these…

Drawing on the dual perspectives of teacher educators and student-teachers, this research explores the complex learning needs of pre-service school counselling teachers (SCTs) in China. Relying on data from in-depth interviews and relevant curriculum documents, the findings of the study demonstrate four critical needs of SCTs, namely, developing a…

In recent years Portugal has experienced a severe financial and economic crisis, with implications for all sectors of society, particularly education. Salary cuts, high rates of unemployment, high taxation and worsening career progression are just some ways in which the teaching profession has been affected. Recent policy changes have also…

Apprenticeship and professional development schools (PDSs) are two models for teacher education. The mentors that are the focus for this research completed their initial teacher training through one of these models and now mentor in PDSs. The paper reports on how the way in which they were trained as student teachers influenced their role…

Cooperating teachers' beliefs of effective supervision of student teachers may play an important role in mentoring practices. By systematically analysing metaphors unconsciously expressed in the discourse of cooperating teachers concerning supervision of student teachers, these beliefs could be made explicit. This study explored: (1) what…

This case study worked with 80 lecturers drawn from Israeli teachers' colleges who reported that they face relatively few discipline problems; most appeared to be related to low motivation and/or dishonest behaviour. They treated each case in an ad hoc way, responded mildly and avoided imposing sanctions. It is argued that the student teachers'…

The diversity and complexity of the post-modern era places new and important challenges on teacher education. The crucial role that personal dispositions have for professional learning needs to be better understood and acknowledged. Teacher training programmes need to focus more on objectives such as promoting conflict literacy, self-awareness,…

Considerable activity has occurred in the recent past regarding policy-making around Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in the school curriculum. Teaching about sustainable development involves complex and contested ethical and political issues. This case study research investigates how four student teachers taking part in a one-year…

The social class attainment gap in education is now attracting an increased level of concern. Despite the efforts of the British New Labour government to address the continuing underachievement of working class pupils in England, there has been little progress. This paper reports on one aspect of a wider research study carried out in an Initial…

Despite a considerable body of literature devoted to the "behaviour management" of pupils, there is little that actually considers the experience of beginning teachers in learning to cope with that behaviour. Here we consider the experience of student teachers and illustrate their attempts to form deeper understanding, connections between theory…

This paper describes the main gains resulting from student teachers' first contact with the teaching profession. The Inventory of Experiences and Perceptions at Teaching Practice (IEPTP) was used to assess the range of experiences of a sample of 224 student teachers on five dimensions of teaching practice: (1) learning and professional…