See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303421722 Teacher education policies in Chile: From invitation to prescription Chapter · December 2014 DOI: 10.3138/9781442619999-024 CITATION 1 READS 1,014 3 authors: Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Mapa de progreso de las competencias evaluativas de los profesores y un instrumento para su evaluación View project Políticas de formación inicial docente: contextos procesos resultados. Centro de Políticas Comparadas de Educación. Universidad Diego Portales. View project Cristian Cox Universidad Diego Portales 94 PUBLICATIONS   1,729 CITATIONS    SEE PROFILE Lorena Meckes Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile 20 PUBLICATIONS   217 CITATIONS    SEE PROFILE Martín Bascopé Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile 30 PUBLICATIONS   492 CITATIONS    SEE PROFILE All content following this page was uploaded by Cristian Cox on 07 March 2018. 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An international analysis of policy and practice Edited by Bob Moon University Printing House, Cambridge cb2 8bs, United Kingdom Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. Information on this title: education.cambridge.org/ © Cambridge University Press 2016 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2015 Printed in the United Kingdom by Printondemand-worldwide, Peterborough A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Includes bibliographical references and index isbn 13-xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Information regarding prices, travel timetables, and other factual information given in this work is correct at the time of first printing but Cambridge University Press does not guarantee the accuracy of such information thereafter. CONTENTS Notes on contributors v Series Editors’ Preface xi Chapter 1 The issues and tensions around teacher education and training in the university Bob Moon 1 Chapter 2 Academic and practical: Research-based teacher education in Finland Hannele Niemi 19 Chapter 3 Norwegian teacher education: Development, steering and current trends Elaine Munthe and Magne Rogne 35 Chapter 4 Teachers for the twenty-first century: A transnational analysis of the role of the university in teacher education in the United Kingdom Vivienne Baumfield 57 Chapter 5 The role and place of training organisations, the state employer and university in initial teacher training in France (1990–2015) Guy Lapostolle 75 Chapter 6 Universities and the preparation of teachers in the Mediterranean: Cautionary tales from the global South Ronald G. Sultana 85 Chapter 7 The changing role of universities in US teacher education Ken Zeichner 107 Chapter 8 Cinderella faculties: The changing and unchanging nature of teacher education in Australian universities Tony Taylor 127 Chapter 9 Teacher education in universities: A case from India Shyam B. Menon and Rama Mathew 149 Chapter 10 The development of key normal universities in China: Challenges and transformations Yan Hanbing, Li Xiaoying and Xiao Yumin 169 Chapter 11 Teacher education in Chile: Trends in social and policy pressures for change and evolution of its organisational and knowledge bases Cristián Cox 187 Chapter 12 The missions and meanders of teacher education in South Africa Irma Eloff 213 Chapter 13 Teacher education in Uganda: Policy and practice Jessica Norah Aguti 231 Chapter 14 Building an agenda for the reform of teacher education and training within the University Bob Moon 251 Index 267 Acknowledgements 270 v Bob Moon is Emeritus Professor of Education at The Open University (UK). He taught in a range of secondary schools and was headteacher of two schools before being appointed to The Open University in 1988. He has published widely on curriculum, international education and teacher education. He has been advisor to many national governments and international organisa- tions, including the EU, DFID, OECD, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNRWA and the World Bank. In 2012, he was made a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences for his contribution to research in education. Hannele Niemi, PhD, is Professor of Education (1998–) at the Faculty of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki. She has been the Vice Rector for Academic Affairs (2003–9), the Dean of the Faculty of Education (2001–3) and the Head of the Department of Education (1998–2000) at the University of Helsinki. Niemi served as a Professor of Education in the Teacher Education Departments of Oulu, Turku and Tampere Universities in Finland (1987–98). She also has served as a Visiting Professor at Michigan State University (1989) and as a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University (2010, 2013 and 2015). Her main research interest areas are teachers’ professional development, quality of teacher education, moral education, and technology-based learning envi- ronments. She has published several articles and books on education in Finland and on Finnish teacher education. Elaine Munthe is Professor of Education and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Education at the University of Stavanger. For the past five years, she has chaired the panel assessing the 2010 teacher education reform in Norway. Her research is concerned with teachers’ classroom work, teachers’ professional NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS vi learning through collaborative studies, student teachers’ learning and teacher education. She has been a member, and is currently Chair, of a research pro- gramme at the Norwegian Research Council directed at increasing research and innovation in education. Magne Rogne is  Associate Professor in Norwegian at the University of Stavanger. For the past five years, he has been the leader of the secretariat for the panel assessing the 2010 teacher education reform in Norway. His fields of research include both teacher education and curriculum development. He has been a lecturer in Norwegian didactics in the four-year Initial Teacher Education programme and the one-year postgraduate programme.  Rogne has a PhD in Literacy Studies from the University of Stavanger. Vivienne Baumfield is Professor of Pedagogy, Policy and Innovation in the School of Education at the University of Glasgow. Her teaching and research focus on the role of inquiry and the relationship between theory and practice in professional learning. She is interested in the role of teacher educators in universities in the creation and translation of knowledge about teaching and learning. Baumfield belongs to the Curriculum, Assessment and Pedagogy Educational Research Group, which takes a transnational perspective on the development of policy for teacher education and its impact on practice in the four jurisdictions of the UK. Guy Lapostolle is Professor of Education Sciences at the University of Lorraine. He worked as Vice Director and Teacher Trainer at the IUFM (Institut universitaire de formation des maîtres) of Bourgogne until 2014. Since then, he has worked in the Department of Education Sciences at the University of Lorraine. He teaches political science, vocational training and education history. He leads his research in the team NEV (Normes et Valeurs) in the Lab LISEC (Laboratoire interuniversitaire des sciences de l’éducation et de la communication). His research concerns teacher training and edu- cation policies, particularly the way in which teacher trainers, teachers and headteachers accept and deal with political reforms. His current research fo- cuses on the political conditions needed to help headteachers and teachers innovate in the field of education. Ronald G. Sultana is Professor of Educational Sociology and Comparative Education at the University of Malta, where he directs the Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Educational Research (EMCER), and where he has recently chaired a teacher education reform committee. He has studied education in Malta, the UK and New Zealand, and was Fulbright Fellow at Stanford University. Notes on contributors vii Professor Sultana is the author or editor of 21 volumes, and has published over a hundred articles and chapters in refereed journals and books focusing mostly on teacher education, educational innovation and evaluation, and the links between education and work. His research has taken him to several countries in the Mediterranean region, Africa and Europe, and he has been an adviser to a number of agencies, including UNESCO, UNICEF, GIZ, the Commonwealth Secretariat, the European Union, and various Ministries of Education. Ken Zeichner, a former elementary teacher, is the Boeing Professor of Teacher Education at the University of Washington, Seattle. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Education, a Fellow in the American Educational Research Association (AERA), and a former Vice President of AERA. His re- cent publications include ‘The Struggle for the Soul of Teaching and Teacher Education’ (Journal of Education for Teaching, 2014), ‘Venture Philanthropy and Teacher Education Policy in the U.S.’ (Teachers College Record, 2015), ‘Democratizing Teacher Education’ (Journal of Teacher Education, 2015) and Teacher Education and the Struggle for Social Justice (Routledge, 2009). His current work focuses on teacher education policy and engaging local com- munities in teacher education. Tony Taylor, University of Technology Sydney, was a member of the Monash University Faculty of Education, 1990–2013, where he was Course Coordinator, Campus Coordinator, Associate Dean and Director of the Commonwealth government’s National Centre for History Education. His main research areas are history education and the politics of education. Between 2003 and 2011, he successfully gained, as principal Chief Investigator, two Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Grants and one ARC Linkage Grant. He was also co-investigator in a second Linkage Grant. He is currently Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at UTS. He holds various degrees including a PhD from the University of Cambridge. Rama Mathew is Professor in the Faculty of Education, University of Delhi, and a former Dean. Previously she taught at the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad, where she was involved in English- language education with a specific focus on language teacher education and assessment for more than 20 years. She has worked as Project Director of many national and international projects focusing on teacher development and language assessment. Her current research interests include teaching English to adult and young learners, continuing professional development, and proficiency assessment, including online assessment. Notes on contributors viii Shyam B. Menon is Vice Chancellor of the Ambedkar University Delhi, a public university of the social sciences and humanities, since its inception in 2008. He was Dean, Faculty of Education at the University of Delhi, and, prior to that, Director, School of Education, Indira Gandhi National Open University. He started his career as a teacher educator at the MS University of Baroda. He was at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, as a Fulbright Fellow. His work has mainly been in curriculum studies, higher education and teacher education. He edited the journal Perspectives in Education for several years. Yan Hanbing, East China Normal University, was awarded her PhD for edu- cational information technology in 2003. In 2008, she was a Visiting Scholar at The Open University in the UK for one year. As a Professor of the School of Open Learning and Education, her research and practice are mainly focused on quality assurance of online education, teacher training and IT-supported instruction. As the Vice-Dean of the school, she has directed several teacher- training programmes. To date, the school has trained more than 480  000 K-12 teachers; results show that teachers benefit greatly from the training programmes. From 2013, she has been an important expert of MOE for the National K-12 teachers’ ICT Application Competencies Improvement Project in China, which gave her an excellent opportunity to understand the whole framework and future direction of teacher education in China. Cristián Cox, Universidad Católica de Chile, is a Chilean sociologist who was awarded his PhD from the University of London. He is Professor at the Catholic University of Chile’s Faculty of Education, where he founded and led the Center for Research on Educational Policy and Practice (CEPPE, www.ceppe.cl). In the 1990s, he was a policy-maker at the Ministry of Education of Chile, responsible for a major reform of the country’s school curriculum. He has served as a consultant to OECD, UNESCO, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, and was Tinker Visiting Professor at Stanford University (2005). His main research interests are edu- cational policies, teacher education, curriculum and citizenship education. Irma Eloff is the Dean of Education at the University of Pretoria. She is the founder of the African Deans of Education Forum (ADEF). She is rated as a researcher by the National Research Foundation in South Africa and she has been named as one of the top three ‘Most Influential Women in Business and Government’ in the Education category. She is also a registered educa- tional psychologist and has served as the Head of Educational Psychology at UP, prior to her term as Dean. She is currently the Chair of the Education Notes on contributors ccox Resaltado ccox Nota adhesiva Cristián Cox, Universidad Diego Portales, is a Chilean sociologist who was awarded his PhD from the University of London. He is Professor at Universidad Diego Portales' Faculty of Education, where he leads the Centre for Comparative Policies in Education. Previously he was Dean of the Faculty of Education at the Catholic University of Chile. In the 1990s and early 2000s, he was a policy-maker at the Ministry of Education of Chile, responsible for a major reform of the county's school curriculum. He has served as a consultant to OECD, UNESCO, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, and was Tinker Visiting Professor at Stanford University (2005). He has published numerous works on educational policies, teacher education, and citizenship education. in the Chilean and Latin American contexts. ix Commission and Deputy-Chairperson of the Council of Die Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns. She is an ASSAf (Academy of Science of South Africa) member and a past President of the Education Association of South Africa (EASA). She has published more than 70 academic articles and book chapters, and over 50 Master’s and doctoral students in Education and Educational Psychology have completed their studies under her super- vision. She has co-authored the book Life Skills & Assets and she is co-editor of Keys to Educational Psychology. She obtained her PhD at the University of Stellenbosch. Dr Jessica Norah Aguti is an Associate Professor in the Department of Open and Distance Learning, Makerere University, but is currently away on secondment as an Education Specialist, Teacher Education, at the Commonwealth of Learning (COL). She joined the Department in 1990 and played a major role in the growth and development of distance education in Makerere and in Uganda more broadly. She has also played a part in leader- ship in Makerere at various levels, including being a Deputy Principal of the College of Education and Eternal Studies. She has vast experience, acquired over 30 years as a teacher and teacher educator, and has liberally shared this in a number of fora and through her publications. Notes on contributors xixi The manifold dimensions of the field of teacher education are increasingly attracting the attention of researchers, educators, classroom practitioners and policymakers, while awareness has also emerged of the blurred bound- aries between these categories of stakeholders in the discipline. One notable feature of contemporary theory, research and practice in this field is con- sensus on the value of exploring the diversity of international experience for understanding the dynamics of educational development and the desired outcomes of teaching and learning. A second salient feature has been the view that theory and policy development in this field need to be evidence- driven and attentive to diversity of experience. Our aim in this series is to give space to in-depth examination and critical discussion of educational de- velopment in context with a particular focus on the role of the teacher and of teacher education. While significant, disparate studies have appeared in relation to specific areas of enquiry and activity, the Cambridge Education Research Series provides a platform for contributing to international debate by publishing within one overarching series monographs and edited collec- tions by leading and emerging authors tackling innovative thinking, practice and research in education. The series consists of three strands of publication representing three fun- damental perspectives. The Teacher Education strand focuses on a range of issues and contexts and provides a re-examination of aspects of national and international teacher education systems or analysis of contextual examples of innovative practice in initial and continuing teacher education programmes in different national settings. The International Education Reform strand examines the global and country-specific moves to reform education and SERIES EDITORS’ PREFACE xii Series editors’ preface particularly teacher development, which is now widely acknowledged as cen- tral to educational systems development. Books published in the Language Education strand address the multilingual context of education in different national and international settings, critically examining among other phe- nomena the first, second and foreign language ambitions of different na- tional settings and innovative classroom pedagogies and language teacher education approaches that take account of linguistic diversity. We are very pleased to include XXXXXX in our series as part of the col- lection of books. Colleen McLaughlin and Michael Evans xii 1 1 The issues and tensions around teacher education and training in the university Bob Moon The purpose of this book is to explore the role that universities have in the education and training of teachers. Twelve case studies of contrasting na- tional and regional contexts provide the basis for an analysis of policies and practices in this strategically significant area of educational development. The perspective is global and seeks to establish common ground between different countries, irrespective of wealth or tradition. Teacher education and training has become contested territory, with com- plex pedagogic and ideological forces interacting with historical structures and ideas. Teacher education is a relative newcomer to the world of univer- sities. It does not have the historical lineage of medicine or law, and teacher preparation is a large-scale, mass, not elite, endeavour. Teachers make up one of the world’s biggest occupation groups. The UNESCO eAtlas of Teachers estimates that there are 29 million primary teachers, with many more needed to support expansion in the sector. The different structures of secondary edu- cation make numerical estimates more difficult, but we can see that an oc- cupation group in excess of 50 million requires significant provision to cover pre-service and ongoing professional education and training. It could be argued that universities are well placed to respond to the chal- lenge of scale that teacher preparation represents. The tertiary sector, in most parts of the world, is expanding fast. A few decades ago, a university education was unquestionably a select process. This is changing, with many countries now sending over half of young people onto some form of higher education, and a few sending an even higher proportion. The evidence sug- gests, as the case studies will demonstrate, that, for the most part, bringing 2 teacher education into the university has been, and is still, a problematic pro- cess. I want, in this opening chapter, to describe the issues and tensions asso- ciated with this, and to point to some general concerns that seem to occupy many countries, despite the very different contexts that they represent. I will return to this in the final chapter, where I will explore the extra dimension that the detailed case studies provide. I will then assess the extent to which an informed agenda can be developed that would identify points for reform and improvement relevant to all the major stakeholders. In an important sense, the history of teacher education is a success story. Over the past three centuries, and especially in the twentieth century, insti- tutions of teacher education, increasingly university-based, expanded in all parts of the world. Recognition of the importance of educating teachers has become a part of the policy agenda for most national governments. The need to ‘qualify’ teachers is now widely recognised and is an unquestioned assumption in most countries. Teachers are seen to have played an important role in the remarkable improvements in the range and quality of schooling in many countries, with South Korea, Singapore and the Shanghai region of China providing just three examples. Yet, despite this record, teacher education in the first decades of the twenty- first century has experienced unrelenting criticism. Arne Duncan, President Obama’s long-serving Secretary of Education, one of the leading critics, has said: By almost any standard, many if not most of the nation’s 1450 schools, colleges and departments of education are doing a mediocre job of preparing teachers for the realities of the 21st century classroom. And Time magazine, one of the journals reporting the speech, was equally forthright: It was a damning, but not unprecedented, assessment of teacher colleges, which have long been the stepchildren of the American university system and a fre- quent target of education reformers’ scorn over the past quarter-century. (Time 23 October 2009) In England, similar, perhaps even more strident, political attacks have char- acterised debate over the past two decades. In 1990, Conservative government proposals to give schools rather than universities the major say in teacher training were warmly supported in The Times (11 June): ‘Current teacher training courses lack rigour and are not up to university standards.’New regulations were put in place to require that four-fifths of all teacher-training Bob Moon 3 courses took place in schools, a move that was strongly supported by some right-wing think tanks. The response of the teacher education community to such political intervention (interference, some would say) was almost wholly negative. One leading academic journal of teacher education, published from the UK, headed an editorial ‘May Day? May Day!’ (Journal of Education for Teaching 1994, 20:2). The debate in England has rumbled on for more than 20 years. In 2013, the then minister argued strongly that ‘the best people to teach teachers are teachers’, rather than, as he saw it, the prejudiced community of education professors (reported in The Telegraph, 21 March). This assertion was made without reference to the strong evidence that courses were receiving increas- ingly strong approval from trainees and the headteachers who subsequently employed them (Furlong et al. 2006) – a trend that continues, despite recent research demonstrating the strengthening relationship between schools and universities working in partnership (Evans 2013). Concern about the quality of teacher education goes well beyond the devel- oped world. Successive UNESCO Global Reports monitoring the progress to secure a school place for every child by 2015 have called for the reform of a teacher education and training system perceived as outdated, insufficiently practical and failing to prepare teachers who, in developing countries, can be effective in the classroom (UNESCO 2004, 2014). The aim of this book is to reach beyond the rhetoric and political position- ing that can be associated with teacher education policy to examine in some detail the experience of 12 countries and geographical contexts spread across the globe. How widespread is the public and political unease about teacher education? How strong is the position of the university in different places and contexts? What strategies and practices underpin the work of university- based teacher educators in these different places? The 12 countries have been selected from across the globe. Over many years working in developed and developing parts of the world, I have been struck by the community of common interests that there are around the way teachers are prepared. There are, of course, many contextual differences. It is important to acknowledge and understand these. But universities have a unique place in all societies, and, increasingly, have been acquiring a major role in the process of teacher education. Schoolteachers, the focus of this book, represent one of the world’s biggest occupational groups, and the uni- versity task in teacher education represents a sizeable and logistical chal- lenge. I was fortunate that a distinguished panel of experts from such diverse geographical contexts accepted the invitation to contribute to this book. In The issues and tensions around teacher education and training in the university 4 that invitation, I suggested a number of issues they might consider in pre- paring their contributions. These included: •  the origins of the university role in relation to teacher education and training •  the evolution of the teacher education role of the university to present times •  the nature of any political and public debates about the quality of teacher education and training (identifying key stakeholder groups and the way they inter-relate) •  the research record about the effectiveness of the university role in teacher education and training •  contemporary trends, and possible future scenarios, in the structure and organisation of teacher education and training •  current research within the national context that might assist in any changes in teacher education and training •  reflections on the political and public confidence in the university role in teacher education and training (to include an analytical consideration of the forces underlying such confidence/lack of confidence). I did not want the varied contributions to be formulaic in necessarily respond- ing to each of these issues. One of the fascinating outcomes of this process is to observe how, given a common task, different emphases and pressing concerns emerge. The aim was to make this book valuable to everyone with a stake in the way universities prepare teachers. The different case studies and the accompanying analyses seek to provide a mirror that will allow anyone with an interest in this process to think about the ways their own policies and practices might develop. The question in the title of this book is set to highlight the uncertainties that exist in many countries. I believe that these concerns need addressing more robustly than has hitherto been the case. As I will go on to suggest, I share some of these uncertainties but, along with all the contributors to this book, my answer to the question in the title is yes, universities do have a role in teacher education and training. In some coun- tries, however, there are strong political pressures suggesting otherwise and the arguments underpinning this stance need understanding and response. This is one of the purposes of this book. In this first chapter, I want to look more closely at the dichotomy between the world of university-based teacher education and the public and political Bob Moon 5 scrutiny it has undergone in the past and is still undergoing. I want to sug- gest that we look beyond the politicisation of teacher education and examine the deeper social pressures that are often overlooked in the debates and con- troversies around teacher preparation and support. The teacher education community needs, I believe, to be responsive to these pressures and map out a reform strategy that takes account of social, political and professional un- ease. I will suggest the directions that this needs to take. In doing this, it is important to stress that I am not thinking of any one national system. There is now a strong global discourse around the educa- tion and training of teachers. There are many interesting, usually localised, examples of new and innovative practice that do address the issue of public confidence, and some of these I will refer to. My main concern is with sys- temic change and at scale. To achieve this, I think we need to rethink some of the ideas and assumptions that underpin present practice. I want to look at general concepts, and to do this I need to look first in more detail at what I have termed the ‘success story’ of teacher education and the problems that have arisen subsequently. Formal provision for educating teachers, in Europe, goes back some way. Jean Baptiste de la Salle established the first French école normale in Reims at the end of the seventeenth century (Johnson 1968), and the first German seminary for teachers was set up in Gotha in 1698 (Neather 1993). In England, the first teacher-training college was established in Southwark, London, in 1798. Nearly 40 years later, the first teacher-training ‘normal school’ in the USA was set up by Cyrus Peirce in Lexington (Provenso 2011). These institutions focused almost wholly on preparing teachers for the elementary or primary phases of schooling. As primary education expanded, becoming universal in most parts of Europe by the end of the nineteenth cen- tury, so the institutions of teacher education proliferated. These were single- purpose institutions with, in some countries, strong links to the church. By the early years of the twentieth century, such institutions were educating very large numbers of teachers for the rapidly newly created mass education systems. The origins of teacher education are, therefore, unlike professions such as medicine or law, outside the academy or university. This was to change through the twentieth century. What one commentator (Neave 1992) has termed the ‘universitisation’ of teacher education began to take hold. The incorporation of teacher training into the university sector proceeded at different rates from country to country. In the USA, the move took place primarily in the 1930s; in England, in the 1970s; in France, in the 1990s; and The issues and tensions around teacher education and training in the university 6 in South Africa, in the first decade of the present century. Other countries moved at varied timescales but, in most parts of the world today, teacher education is either provided by universities or validated by universities. As primary teacher education became incorporated, so the pressure to provide teacher education for secondary teachers increased and it became increas- ingly recognised that a subject degree was insufficient for entry into teaching. One, sometimes two, years of pedagogic preparation for pre-service courses quickly became the norm. The involvement of the university in teacher education has had important consequences. The increasing number of primary teachers educated to de- gree level contributed to the rising status of the primary sector. The univer- sities, for the most part, guarded closely an academic freedom and autonomy that, initially at least, protected teacher education from government inter- vention or regulation. Over the past 25 years, however, the role of the university and the practices of the university in teacher education and training have come under relent- less scrutiny. In England and the USA, the politicking around teacher educa- tion has been highly confrontational, but there are other examples. In France, the Sarkozy government in the first decade of this century set about abolishing the equivalent of university departments of education (the Institut Universitaire de Formation des Maîtres-IUFM) and moving teacher education into the subject departments of the universities (Lapostolle & Chevaillier 2011). A study for UNESCO found that the vast majority of European countries had introduced regulatory or legislative reform to im- prove the quality of teachers (Moon et al. 2003). In Australia, there have been numerous governmental and state reviews of teacher education. The Ramsey report for New South Wales (Ramsey 2000, 24) pressed the need ‘To align teacher education with the needs of our times: in too many current instances this seemed not to be the case’, and suggested that: The current way of conceptualizing teacher education reflects a traditional adher- ence to discipline areas, and precludes the involvement of multi skilled educators in the school environment […] the current paradigm for thinking about teacher preparation programs is outdated and has been over-taken by changes to work patterns and practices. The report looked at the position of teacher education within the university: Teacher education is less connected to the other disciplines in universities than it has ever been. In the very period when the university disciplines should have engaged with teacher education, they have distanced themselves from it as much Bob Moon 7 as teacher education has from them. Equally, teacher education in the State’s [New South Wales] universities does not generally operate within models that make strong connections with schools. (Ibid, 25) If we are to understand the situation of teacher education today, and if we are to set out proposals for repositioning and reform, then it is necessary to examine the origins of this sort of disquiet. How did a system of teacher education that had gone unchallenged for most of the twentieth century gain such critical political attention and, in some countries, acquire such notoriety? It is important to remember that criticism has come from across the political spectrum, Democrats as well as Republicans, Socialist as well as Conservative parties. The concern represents something more than party politics. I believe that the worry about teacher education is part of a wider social unease about the quality and effectiveness of schools generally. In Europe, North America and Australasia, and increasingly in developing countries, concern about achievement in schools is a major political issue. It is not only national achievement overall, as judged for example by international tables such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), but also the inequalities of achievement within countries that are creating un- ease. These doubts are expressed across the political spectrum. I think that the concern about teacher education is, in no small measure, a consequence of the progress made in education. Over the past 50 years, larger proportions of the populations than ever before, in most developed coun- tries, are achieving educational success. In the UK, over 40% of the popula- tion go on to higher education, compared to less than 10% in the middle of the previous century. In South Korea, the proportion of young people enter- ing university has just topped 80%. In France, the same proportion pass the secondary-school-leaving baccalaureate. These improvements have led to many more educated parents who, im- plicitly or explicitly, know the social and economic importance of education for their children. It is unsurprising, therefore, that a less deferential, more abrasive approach to the quality of schooling has come to characterise our social institutions. Parents are prepared to be critical of schools and teachers. Where politicians take up the standards issue, they are plugging into a deep source of parental worry. This is not confined to the richer nations. A report by The Nelson Mandela Foundation in South Africa, aptly titled ‘Emerging Voices’ (Nelson Mandela Foundation 2005) provides vivid testimony of the disquiet of parents about the quality of teachers. And on YouTube, you can The issues and tensions around teacher education and training in the university 8 watch demonstrations by parents and children about the quality of their teachers in places as far apart as India and Mexico. Is it any wonder that teacher education becomes a central feature in this broader picture? Political scrutiny and attacks on teacher education also reflect the am- biguous status of teacher education within the university. One perceptive commentator in England (Hencke 1978) has part of the explanation for this: Teacher training began in 1798 in Southwark, a slum district of London. That Southwark rather than Oxford or Cambridge was the home of teacher training explains many of the problems facing teacher educators today […] unlike the- ology, medicine or law it has no historic claim to a university tradition of aca- demic excellence or respectability. It has more in common with medieval craft guilds, whose apprenticeship system preceded modern technical education. I have already referred to Arne Duncan’s views on teacher education and training in the USA. Critiques in that country go back some way. The much- quoted report of the Holmes Group (1995) on Schools of Education in the USA presents a damning indictment of teacher educators who, in the un- successful quest for status and legitimacy in the academic community, be- came cut off from their central mission, the world of schools and the work of teachers. I think it is worth dwelling on the teacher educators’ ‘quest for legitimacy’ because I believe this to be one of the major fault lines of the present struc- ture of teacher education. As teacher education institutions became part of the universities, so the staff that made the transition had to adjust to new systems of status and reward. Research and scholarship had much higher visibility than in the teacher-training colleges or colleges of education that existed formerly. The ‘practical’ work of preparing teachers for the classroom sat uneasily with prevailing cultural norms of academic life. Although doc- tors, lawyers and architects embraced ‘the practical’, there was less of a per- ception that this was necessary in teaching. Given this context, teacher educator legitimacy was sought more easily in the social sciences, particularly sociology. The bourgeoning development of the sociology of education followed the influx of teacher educators into the universities. The forms of social sciences, to which many teacher educators were drawn, were not primarily focused on practical and professional work. While significant work was carried out on issues such as the social origins of the curriculum, the relationship of social stratification to schooling and the nature of disadvantage, teacher education began to acquire a reputation in schools for overly theoretical courses unrelated to the real world of teaching. Bob Moon 9 There are consequences from this. The quest for legitimacy has only been partially successful. Teacher education has remained the poor relation in many parts of higher education. The practice of teaching has struggled to gain legitimacy. In England, tutoring on the Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) does not always have the status it deserves, although universities have improved their standing with schools (Furlong et al. 1994. In the USA, most of the schools of education in the leading universities do no teacher preparation. It is unsurprising, therefore, that as many teacher educators move away from the ‘practical’, so they expose themselves to the criticism of being out of touch or too concerned with theory. The practical component of teacher education has repeatedly come under criticism for lacking articulation with other course components, and in many education courses across the world the practicum takes up only a small component of time. The gap between teacher educators and schools continues to be significant. In many countries, teacher educators (as the Australian review suggests) have failed to establish a support base either within the schools or within the wider university academic community. Into this vacuum, governments have been regulating and legislating independently of the teacher education community within the university. For the most part, these interventions have championed practical skills, competences and performance-orientated modes of teacher education and training. The universities, often outside this discourse, have been unable to establish an alternative capable of convincing political opinion. In some contexts, it is true, the teacher educator community has sought to mediate between the governmental and university perceptions of the teacher education curriculum. In England, for example, where the conflicts between government and teacher educators has been especially acute, some univer- sities sought to anticipate concern with a more practically focused approach to education and training. As a young headteacher in Oxford in the 1980s, I was involved in the school-based model developed by Harry Judge and col- leagues at the University Department of Education, the Oxford internship scheme, modelled, as the name implies, on approaches to medical education. Few universities followed this approach until required to do so by govern- ment regulation. And regulation in turn created an ideological battlefield between those advocating craft skills and competence (governments) and others (teacher educators) advocating a more rounded education embracing grounding in theory as well as practice. Let me, therefore, summarise this discussion: The issues and tensions around teacher education and training in the university 10 First, the universities have played a pivotal role in raising the status and ambitions of teacher education. This has been especially true for primary teachers and for secondary teachers who had previously been trained outside the university. In most countries, the university maintains a strong involve- ment in the teacher education process. Second, departments of education in universities have become increas- ingly isolated from schools. And the links between education and other dis- ciplines within the universities are weak. Third, the curriculum of teacher education has been strongly influenced by ideas and concepts from the social sciences, and this has laid university departments open to the criticism of being overly theoretical and lacking in engagement with the practice of teachers. Partially as a consequence, quite instrumental skills-based and competence/performance-orientated regu- latory frameworks have been prescribed by governments and government agencies. Fourth, teacher preparation has, in many countries, become embroiled in political and ideological debates that have created defensiveness in the teacher education academic community. Fifth, given the increasing levels of distrust between university-based teacher educators and governments, departments of education have become less influential in the policy and practice debates about school improvement and reform. You will find aspects of this summarising analysis in the case-study chap- ters that follow. I think there is sufficient breadth to bring out some general conclusions that will be of value to the policy community around teacher education, particularly those working in universities. In the final chapter of the book, I will begin the process of exploring the new directions that policy might follow. I have grouped the case studies with the European contributions together in Chapters 2–6, before extending the analysis to high-income countries such as the USA and Australia. The growth economies of India, China and Chile precede two case studies from sub-Saharan Africa. To provide an ini- tial orientation, each of the case studies is briefly summarised in the final section of this chapter. In Chapter 2, Academic and practical: Research-based teacher education in Finland, Hannele Niemi provides a brief overview of Finnish teacher edu- cation and its position in the Finnish higher education system, particularly in the university context. All primary- and secondary-school teacher edu- cation was moved to universities in early the 1970s, and, since 1979, teacher Bob Moon 11 qualifications have been awarded through MA degrees consisting of five-year university programmes. This chapter discusses how studies of content know- ledge and pedagogical methods for teaching content knowledge are inte- grated and how teaching practice is organised in university teacher-training schools and local-partner schools. Teacher education is research-based and research-informed, and all student teachers have authentic experiences per- taining to knowledge creation in their research studies. This chapter also describes tensions that have existed between different actors in university- based teacher education and how these have been resolved. Major pathways to successful solutions have been traversed through joint forums for discus- sion, strategic planning and joint research projects within universities, co- operation between universities, and cooperation with different stakeholders in society. An important condition for research-based teacher education is that teacher educators have high levels of practical expertise and a strong re- search orientation in their work. In Chapter  3,  Norwegian teacher education: Development, steering and current trends, Elaine Munthe and Magne Rogne present the historical de- velopment and the blurring of the two main tracks of teacher education in Norway – the consecutive at the universities, historically intended for work in upper secondary schools, and the concurrent model at the seminars and colleges, which was mainly intended for work in compulsory school years. The development of these two tracks is discussed in relation to legal, finan- cial, informative and controlling policy instruments. The first central de- velopment identified is ‘national versus global steering’. This development is addressed using a model depicting the influence of stakeholders, systems and processes. In the second half of the chapter, the authors identify other major discourses and tensions that have evolved in recent years. One tension is described as the ‘research turn’ and the ‘practice turn’ in teacher education, and a second tension is between ‘professional autonomy’ and ‘market man- agement’. Finally, they conclude by taking a closer look at ongoing structural changes (mergers) in higher education, and competence-based approaches to learning outcomes in elementary and secondary schools, and reflect on how these issues may influence future teacher education. In Chapter 4, Teachers for the twenty-first century: a transnational analysis of the role of the university in teacher education in the United Kingdom, Vivienne Baumfield argues that, although provision for the education of teachers is diverging, the contribution of universities continues to be recog- nised; views on what this is are shifting. It is the role of the academic teacher The issues and tensions around teacher education and training in the university 12 educator that is being questioned and the continuation of university-based teacher education programmes will depend on understanding their contri- bution to developing and sustaining viable school–university partnerships. Transnational study of the role of the university in teacher education in the four jurisdictions of the UK provides insight into the influence of inter- national trends in education policy discourse on the formation of teachers. As trajectories in national policy develop, the positioning of the university in teacher education is an indicator of different perspectives on what and how teachers should learn, with implications for the nature of teaching as a profession. In Chapter 5, The role and place of training organisations, the state em- ployer and university in initial teacher training in France (1990–2015), Guy Lapostolle gives a clearer idea of the developments in the role and place of training organisations (IUFMs – Insituts universitaires de formation des maîtres [University Institutes for Teacher Training] and ESPEs – Ecoles supérieures du professorat et de l’éducation [Higher Schools for Teaching and Education]), the state employer and universities in initial primary- and secondary-school teacher training in France from 1990 until the present day. The intention is to show that the role and place attributed to these institu- tions and the relationships between the institutions themselves have signifi- cant impacts not only on the development of training curricula, but also on the way student teachers adapt to these curricula. This chapter will shed light on the obstacles that hinder the effective use of such curricula by student teachers in training. In Chapter 6, Universities and the preparation of teachers in the Mediterranean: Cautionary tales from the global South, Ronald Sultana explores the role of universities in teacher education in Mediterranean coun- tries. ‘Partnership’ has been increasingly touted as the way forward in the initial and continued formation of teachers, with key partners being uni- versities and schools, as well as a range of other ‘stakeholders’, government included. The claims made in favour of ‘partnership’ are scrutinised through a series of critical reflections that take into account the political and ideo- logical contexts in which current notions of ‘partnership’ are embedded. It is argued that while ‘partnerships’ do have a place in the ‘discursive ecol- ogies’ that can be assembled together when considering teacher education, it is crucial to also acknowledge and confront the tensions that ‘partnering’ entails. Such tensions play themselves differently in the global North and South, and are particularly productive if we embrace an enhanced notion Bob Moon 13 of professionalism that sees education not as a technicist endeavour but as a socially reconstructive project. The implications of this critique for the coun- tries bordering on the southern Mediterranean are examined in relation to the role played by universities in preparing teachers as agents of educational and social reform. In Chapter 7, The changing role of universities in US teacher education, Ken Zeichner outlines the historical development of formal teacher educa- tion in the US since its beginning in the mid-nineteenth century. He dis- cusses the variety of reasons why alternative pathways into teaching in the US have emerged in recent years, and summarises the different criticisms that have been made by academics, policy-makers and the public about the largely public and university-based system in the country. The criticisms of university-based teacher education in the US are discussed in relation to the decline of government support for public universities. The chapter also summarises the main arguments made by both defenders and critics of the current system and examines what research evidence exists in support of the various arguments. It concludes with reflections about the future of US teacher education, which will be one either in which the university role has been eliminated or where new hybrid programmes involving universities be- come the dominant form of preparing teachers. The emergence of these new hybrid and democratic forms of teacher preparation and the huge role that private money has played in dismantling the university-dominated system are two factors in the US case that merit international attention. In Chapter 8, Cinderella faculties: The changing and unchanging nature of teacher education in Australian universities, Tony Taylor outlines, ana- lyses and discusses in general terms the previous and current status of edu- cation faculties in Australian universities. Using the Monash University and Australian Catholic University faculties as illustrative examples, he exam- ines the effects of radical late-1980s changes in Australia’s higher education system, which drew almost all teacher education providers into a unified national university system, creating both opportunities and challenges for restructured faculties of education. He argues that, despite these changes and the best intentions of many teacher educators, education faculties remain the poor relations of the Australian university system, its ‘Cinderella faculties’, with only modest levels of overall research productivity, issues in some fac- ulties with controversially low student entry levels, a consistent pattern of accusations that pre-service education in these faculties is losing touch with its schools constituency, and a steady barrage of professional and political The issues and tensions around teacher education and training in the university 14 criticism that too many graduating teachers are under-prepared for their careers. He concludes the chapter with a discussion of the context for, and conclusions of, the 2014 Australian Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group (TEMAG) inquiry and its 2015 report Action Now: Classroom Ready Teachers. In Chapter 9, Teacher education in universities: A case from India, Rama Mathew and Shyam B. Menon briefly trace the history of teacher educa- tion in India and provide an overview of the systems and institutions as they have evolved. The focus is on university departments of education and their roles, both scripted and enacted, in the initial preparation of school- teachers and teacher educators, as well as in in-service teacher education. In India, there are university departments of education that emerged out of secondary teacher ‘training’ colleges and there are others, particularly in the newly established universities, which focus entirely on Master’s and research programmes in education. In trying to understand the relatively marginal position of the departments of education in the university space, the chapter attempts to problematise the struggles they go through in negotiating their dual identity as a teacher education institution and a university department. The chapter will examine the complex trajectory of these institutions and will argue that their relationship with the school system is somewhat trou- bled. Examples will be drawn from the Faculty of Education of the University of Delhi, where the authors have been deans, and also from other institutions where relevant. In Chapter 10, Development under pressure and competition: Chinese normal universities’ role, challenges and changes, Yan Hanbing, Li Xiaoying and Xiao Yumin study the policies and initiatives adopted by China’s key normal universities to meet the challenges and transformations of teacher education reform. The chapter firstly presents the whole picture of the teacher education and training system in China, and then presents and analyses the policies and initiatives adopted by key normal universities. From the perspective of pre-service teacher education, the challenges are as follows: the opening-up of the normal education system, the policy of free teacher education, a comprehensive evaluation index on universities, and the debate of the necessity of keeping a balance between teacher education and academic research, and so on. To meet the challenges, the normal univer- sities are actively carrying out different initiatives to respond to the changes. From the perspective of in-service teacher education, it is urgent that normal universities improve the quality of faculty and their curriculum leadership Bob Moon 15 as well as the quality of distance service provided to schoolteachers, and the abilities of those guiding professional training. From the perspective of the integration of pre-service teacher education and in-service teacher training, normal universities see it both as a challenge and an opportunity for inquiry into the possibility of integration of human resources, innovation in training mechanisms and integrated applications of curriculum resources. In Chapter 11, Teacher education in Chile: Trends in social and policy pressures for change and evolution of its organisational and knowledge bases, Cristián Cox explores the long and recent history of the universities’ relationship with teacher education in Chile and the public debates and pol- icies that have defined the arena for the development of the sector since the mid-1990s. He appraises the research connected with the main issues, and its impact, or not, on the policy debates and strategies. In the third section of the chapter, the author stands back from the characterised evolution of the sector, and the policies attempting to reform it, and discusses the limits and possibilities of the social, policy-related and institutional forces at work. Chile’s case is an interesting one from the viewpoint of policies aimed at re- defining the status and quality of teacher education institutions, curricula and practices: indeed, government policies have attempted, since the mid- 1990s, to reform the sector in a context of contradictory market- and state- shaping forces, and weak results, which the chapter will discuss, bringing into the picture the university institutions and the academia of the faculties of education. In Chapter 12, The missions and meanders of teacher education in South Africa, Irma Eloff shares some of the key historical moments of teacher edu- cation in South Africa, ponders the current challenges, and shares some thoughts on the future role of universities in teacher education. Teacher edu- cation in South Africa has been intricately linked to the history of the coun- try. From the first antecedents within small Protestant missions, which were established in colonial South Africa, through the ravages of separate educa- tion systems under apartheid, to the trends within an emerging democracy, teacher education has always been on the receiving end of political turmoil. Often used as a vehicle for social transformation, teacher education in South Africa has proven to be highly adaptable to changing social agendas. While huge challenges such as the closure of teacher-training colleges, inadequate investment in language diversity and questions about the status of the pro- fession remain, teacher education at universities is typified by high levels of responsiveness to societal demands and a deep commitment to quality. The issues and tensions around teacher education and training in the university 16 In Chapter 13, Teacher education in Uganda: Policy and practice, Jessica Aguti discusses some of the education and political debates taking place in Uganda and identifies some of the initiatives that could form the nu- clei for the transformation of teacher education in the country and in the East African region in general. East Africa – comprising Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi – sits on 1.8 million square kilometres and has a population of 143.5 million (2013 est.) with 39 000 451 of this population (27.1%) aged 5–14 years, implying that the region has a huge burden of pro- viding schooling to a large proportion of the population. Over the years, the school system has grown tremendously, especially since Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Secondary Education (USE) were launched in the region. However, there is evidence to indicate that the expansion in the school system has led to compromises in the quality of education being provided. To cope with the growing demand, there have been various efforts to ensure effective and efficient teacher education; but there are still many challenges and gaps. In the final chapter of the book, Chapter 14: New directions for the reform of university-based teacher education, I summarise some of the most sig- nificant issues arising from the different case studies. I then seek to identify key directions for reform that would strengthen and legitimise the role of teacher education within the university. References Evans, M. (2013). Teacher Education and Pedagogy: Theory, Policy and Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Furlong, J., Barrett, E., Barton, L. & Miles, S. (1994). ‘Integration and Partnership in Initial Teacher Education – Dilemmas and Possibilities’. Research Papers in Education, 9:3, 281– 301.Furlong J., Campbell, A., Howson, J., Lewis, S. & McNamara, O. (2006). ‘Partnership in English Initial Teacher Education: Changing Times, Changing Definitions. Evidence from the Teacher Training Agency National Partnership Project’. Scottish Educational Review, 37:1, 32–45. Hencke, D. (1978). Colleges in Crisis; The Reorganisation of Teacher Training 1971–77. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Holmes Group (1995). Tomorrow’s Schools of Education: A Report of the Holmes Group. Lansing, MI: Holmes Group Inc. Johnson, J. (1968). A Brief History of Student Teaching, Creative Educational Materials. De Kalb, IL: Illinois University Press. Lapostolle, G. & Chevaillier, T. (2011). ‘Teacher Training in France in the Early 2010s’. Journal of Education for Teaching, 37:4, 451–9. Bob Moon 17 Moon, B., Vlasceanu, L. & Barrows, L.C., eds (2003). Institutional Approaches to Teacher Education within Higher Education in Europe: Current Models and New Developments. Bucharest: UNESCO. Moon, B. (2013). Teacher Education and the Challenge of Development. London: Routledge. Neather, E.J. (1993). ‘Teacher Education and the Role of the University: European Perspectives’. Research Papers in Education, 8:1, 33–46. Neave, G. (1992). The Teaching Nation. Prospects for Teachers in the European Community. Oxford: Pergamon. Nelson Mandela Foundation (2005). Emerging Voices. Johannesburg: Mandela Foundation. Provenso, E.F. (2011). ‘Teacher Preparation and Staffing in US Schools’. In F.W. English, ed. The SAGE Handbook of Educational Leadership. London: SAGE. Ramsey, G. (2000). Quality Matters: Revitalising Teaching: Critical Times, Critical Choices. Sydney: New South Wales Department of Education and Training. Times Educational Supplement (8 December 2010). ‘Gove Serves Notice on Teacher Training’. UNESCO (2004). The Quality Imperative, 2005 Global Monitoring Report. Paris: UNESCO. UNESCO (2014). Teaching and Learning: Achieving Quality for All, 2013–14 Global Monitoring Report. Paris: UNESCO. The issues and tensions around teacher education and training in the university 19 A BRIEF HISTORY OF FINNISH TEACHER EDUCATION: BECOMING A PART OF THE UNIVERSITIES The Finnish educational system has undergone deep and holistic changes since the late 1960s and early 1970s. The earlier parallel school system was based on an early selection of 10-year-old students (i.e. after fourth grade) into two routes: an academic route leading to universities and practical routes without access to higher education. This selection was often based on the children’s families’ socio-economic background. This was made worse because the academic schools frequently charged tuition fees. The big reform of Finland’s education system started in the 1960s and was carried out over ten years. The whole system moved to one common comprehensive school for all children, providing nine years of basic education totally free of charge. The teachers had to teach the whole age cohort without selection. The system put a strong emphasis on inclusiveness, special-needs education and the stu- dents’ holistic wellbeing. This big system reform had a remarkable consequence for teacher education (Niemi 2012a; Sahlberg 2015). In the process, many important decisions had to be made. All teacher education was moved from the earlier colleges or semi- nars to universities between 1971 and 1973. This was a big change, particularly to primary-school teacher education, which was also raised to the Master’s de- gree level (five-year programme). Class teachers/primary teachers had earlier received their pre-service teacher education in teacher-training seminars or colleges. The programmes varied from one to three years in length. The new university-based teacher education programmes started in 1979. 2 Academic and practical: Research-based teacher education in Finland Hannele Niemi 20 The secondary-school teachers had earlier studied their majors in univer- sities to at least Bachelor’s level – in many subjects they even had a Master’s degree – and after their degree they received a one-year practicum in a teacher-training school. After the changes had been introduced, all second- ary-school teachers were required to have a Master’s degree and the scope of their pedagogical studies widened. Pedagogical studies could be offered concurrently or consecutively. The aim was to unify different teacher categories and make all teachers familiar with the latest research in academic subject matter and pedagogy. Universities were seen as the most relevant place for teacher education be- cause they provided the highest-quality research environments.The change made teacher education a part of the academic community. Educational sci- ences became a discipline that provided Bachelor’s, Master’s and doctoral degrees. Teacher education degrees for primary teachers comprised a major in education with teaching practice and a minor in academic subjects, while secondary-school teachers had a major in an academic subject and a minor in educational sciences, which also included teaching practice. Teacher education (TE) reform was connected with the comprehensive- school model and it was also part of a big reform of university degrees that was started and completed in Finnish higher education in all universities in the 1970s. The Master’s degree became a main degree in almost all disci- plines. Teacher education and educational sciences were regarded as parts of this university degree reform. All degrees were at that time very strictly defined programmes and the Ministry of Education followed up teacher edu- cation degrees. The centralised system led to a high degree of uniformity throughout the country’s teacher education institutions. In the middle of the 1980s, a strong movement towards decentralisation was implemented in all of Finland’s public administration. This also concerned education and higher education, including teacher education. Teacher education departments now had more freedom to organise their own degrees and connect teacher educa- tion to their university’s profiles. However, they also had to produce teachers who had a Master’s degree qualification. The teacher education degrees have been updated in different phases, de- pending on changes in the educational system. One example of decentralisa- tion throughout Finnish society and higher education should be mentioned. When local providers were given more freedom to design their own curricula in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it also meant that the teachers needed to be capable of taking on this responsibility in the schools. Hannele Niemi 21 TEACHER EDUCATION AS A PART OF BOLOGNA-PROCESS DEGREES IN FINNISH UNIVERSITIES One of the recent TE reforms is linked with the European Bologna process. This reform was carried out from 2004 to 2006 in all Finnish universities (Jakku-Sihvonen & Niemi 2006). Teacher education was structured into Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, but the teacher qualification still required both degrees (Niemi & Jakku-Sihvonen 2006). The traditional distinction be- tween class teachers and subject teachers was retained, but the structures of the respective degree programmes allowed them to take very flexible routes to include both in the same programme or to permit a later qualification in either direction. In Finland, the Bologna process was implemented in educational sciences and teacher education very interactively, both at a national level and also in the universities (Jakku-Sihvonen & Niemi 2006). Nationally, all teacher education departments and other academic departments that had respon- sibilities in teacher education were invited to cooperate in making the draft recommendations for TE degrees. During that process, there were also many meetings and discussions with labour-market representatives about the teacher qualification. The common opinion was that teachers should have a Master’s degree. The project operated from 2004 to 2006 and was mindful of universities’ autonomy. However, teacher education departments wanted to create some common guidelines (Niemi & Jakku-Sihvonen 2006). These could work as recommendations for how to combine degrees and also pro- vide a basis for quality assurance. Consequently, the following main recom- mendations were agreed: The teacher education curriculum should include the following components: •  the latest scientific knowledge of subject matter and studies, and how to transfer this knowledge into pedagogical content knowledge •  a research-based knowledge of pedagogy and subject matters •  research-informed professional skills and the competences required to guide and support different learners •  an understanding of the social and cultural dimension of education, which allows teachers to respond to the needs of individual learners in an inclu- sive waystudies that open the student teachers’ awareness of the teachers’ roles as representatives of a moral profession and as public intellectuals in educational issues. Research-based teacher education 22 The teacher qualification requires 300 European Credit Transfer System credits (ECTS) (BA is 180 ECTS + MA is 120 ECTS). Portions of different kinds of studies can be summarised in the following way: •  Academic disciplines (approximately 30–40% from 300). Academic studies include a major or minors, depending on the qualification being sought. Class teachers have a major in educational sciences and minors in other disciplines. Secondary-school teachers have whatever disciplines are taught in schools or educational institutions. •  Research studies consist of methodological studies, a BA thesis, and an MA thesis (approx. 20% from 300). •  Pedagogical studies (min. 60 ECTS) are obligatory for all teachers, and should also include teaching practice (approx. 20% from 300). •  Communication, language and ICT studies are also obligatory (approx. 15–20% from 300). •  The preparation of a personal study plan was a new element in university studies in Finland. Its main function is to guide students to develop their own effective programmes and career plans, and to tutor them in achiev- ing their goals (approx. 2% from 300). •  Optional studies may cover a variety of different courses through which students seek to profile their studies and qualifications (depending on other choices). Finnish teacher education has aimed at the integration of practice and theory. The leading principle has been that teachers are educated to fill an autono- mous professional role. PRACTICE IN FINNISH TEACHER EDUCATION The teachers’ pedagogical studies include guided teaching practice (approx. 20 ECTS). The aim of guided practical studies is to support students in their efforts to acquire professional skills in researching, developing and evalu- ating teaching and learning processes. In addition, students should be able to reflect critically on their own practices and social skills in teaching and learning situations. During guided practical studies, the students should meet pupils and students from various social backgrounds and psychological Hannele Niemi 23 orientations, and they should have opportunities to teach them according to the curriculum. Teaching practice is integrated with all levels of teacher education time. It is supervised by university teachers, university training school teachers, or local school teachers, depending on the phase of practice (Jyrhämä 2006). All of the supervisors have special training to work as mentors and to support the student teachers’ reflective practice. Teaching practice is divided into different phases. The pedagogical studies begin with an orientation phase that allows the student teachers to observe and analyse students and schools from a teacher’s perspective, after being a student for most of their lives. The second phase is an intermediate practice during which the student teachers start to plan lessons and take on teachers’ responsibilities in the classroom, and which also allows them to gradually widen their professional work. The last phase is called advanced practicum, where the student teachers deepen and widen their competences. This can happen in local, affiliated schools or teacher-training schools. It is worth noting that teacher-training schools play an important role in the Finnish teacher education system. All of teacher education departments have teacher-training schools. These schools are parts of universities and specialise in supporting the student teachers’ professional development. They also have a commitment to de- velop teaching and learning by creating and applying new methods in learn- ing environments. Teacher-training schools implement a research-based approach to all parts of Finnish teacher education. The teacher-training school in the University of Jyväskylä describes its work as follows (University of Jyväskylä 2015): The Teacher Training School’s responsibilities also include research and devel- opment of the supervised teaching practice, learning and teaching. Teaching and teacher training are developed in a science-based manner: exploring and experi- menting. On the basis of their job description, the school’s teachers are developer- teachers, and the school is a developer-school; in particular, within the sphere of supervised teaching practice, which is one of its core functions […] The University of Jyväskylä Teacher Training School has its own publication series. The series includes reports and articles from research, experimental and development projects implemented in the school, mainly written in Finnish. Several University of Jyväskylä students also complete their theses at the Teacher Training School, and they are assessed by their respective departments. Students can apply for permission to undertake a thesis or other research from Research-based teacher education 24 the principal or the person coordinating the school’s research, experimental and development activities. RESEARCH-INFORMED AND RESEARCH-BASED TEACHER EDUCATION The research component is an essential part of Finnish teacher education programmes. (Jyrhämä et al. 2008; Jyrhämä & Maaranen 2012; Kansanen 2006; Niemi & Nevgi 2014; Niemi & Jakku-Sihvonen 2006). It makes up ap- proximately 20% of the whole of TE studies for both elementary (major in Education) and secondary-school teachers (major in an academic subject). Research-oriented studies include research methodological courses, research seminars, and writing both BA and MA theses. It can be asked why Finnish teacher education emphasises a research- based orientation. In international literature, there are often tensions related to the concept of research-based education and a confusion between several closely related concepts: research-based, research-informed, research-led, evidence-based and evidence-informed policy and practice (Biesta 2007; Boaz & Ashby 2003; Gerrish et al. 2007; Marston & Watts 2003; Ozga 2000; Pawson 2001, 2002; Sebba 2004). Many researchers warn that education is one of the most difficult fields for research and/or evidence-based policy and practice (e.g. Berliner 2002; Hammersley 2004; McCormick 2003; Ozga 2000). The major problem is of who has ownership of knowledge and knowledge creation. Is it coming from academic- or policy-level communities, outside practitioners’ work, or are teachers themselves knowledge creators in their own profession? Berliner (2002) and Ozga (2000) see that education is a contextual activity. It is very difficult to provide recommendations based only on experiments or data that have been collected outside the practitioner’s own field. Elliott (1991, 2001) has for a long time proposed action research as a tool for teachers’ profes- sional development and there is a rich literature on how action research and design-based research can work in schools (Borko 2004; Dick 2006; Issitt & Spence 2005; Ragland 2006). In Finnish teacher education, the concepts above are used complementa- rily. Research-based means that teacher education is grounded in continuous research-based inquiry in academic disciplines, including educational sci- ences, and this provides a basis for the improvement of the curriculum in teacher education. Teacher educators in university departments and teacher- training schools are seen as teachers and researchers. Teachers in schools may Hannele Niemi 25 also work as research-based professionals when they use scientific inquiry and methods in their work. Teachers can conduct action research projects or small case studies in classrooms or school communities. Research-informed and research-led concepts mean that knowledge from the scientific commu- nities or practitioners’ own inquiry-based communities is used in teaching and when selecting materials and methods for different learners. Teachers need knowledge about learners’ development, recent scientific results in sub- ject matters, and information about why some pupils learn and some don’t. Teachers need scientific literacy as well as their practice-based evidence in order to understand on what grounds they can build their work. Teacher education must lead student teachers to this kind of culture. Even though educational research cannot provide direct applications for teachers, there are many ways in which it can inform or lead teachers’ work. Design-based approaches in which practitioners and researchers work together in teachers’ in-service training provide many options for practitioners to create a basis for their own work. Prospective teachers must learn how knowledge is con- structed, and how they use different sources of evidence in their work. In Finnish teacher education, teachers are seen as experts who have re- sponsibility for developing their work in changing conditions. They also have to make decisions in classrooms and also at more strategic levels, e.g. devel- oping a local curriculum and supporting different learners by using special- needs resources. Evidence does not only grow from systematic research. It can also grow from observations and experiences of experts, policy-makers and practitioners in their own fields (e.g. Issitt & Spence 2005). Hammersley (2004) argues that although this evidence does not necessarily emerge from systematic investigation, it can still be important, and may even be more im- portant. When practitioners are informed through evidence, regardless of its origin (e.g. research or practitioners’ own observations), they have the right and obligation to assess its relevance. The users must judge what works when applying evidence to practice. There is always a specific context and they have to ask not only what works but for whom, under what circumstances, and so on. How to use research or evidence-based knowledge thus depends upon a mix of evidence and judgement. Overall, this is a dynamic process in which the teacher is also attuned to the effects and consequences, and uses this knowledge to loop back into the process. If teachers are expected to work as professionals who have freedom and autonomy to make decisions in changing contexts, then they must also be in a position to evaluate what works and what does not. This kind of capability starts already in pre-service teacher education. What do we know about teachers’ professional learning? 26 To meet the challenges that changes of knowledge and society bring to teacher education, we need the following three components of research- based orientation in teacher education: •  Teachers need a profound knowledge of the most recent advances in re- search for the subjects that they teach. In addition, they need to be familiar with the latest research on how something can be taught and learned. Interdisciplinary research on subject content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge provides the foundation for developing teaching meth- ods that can be adapted to suit different learners. •  Teacher education in itself should also be an object of study and research. This research should provide knowledge about the effectiveness and quality of teacher education implemented by various means and in different cul- tural contexts. •  The aim is that teachers should internalise a research-orientated attitude towards their work. This means that teachers learn to take an analytical and open-minded approach to their work, that they draw conclusions based on their observations and experiences, and that they develop their teaching and learning environments in a systematic way. Finnish teacher education’s journey to integrate research studies with other parts of teacher education programmes has been a long one. And there are still lessons to learn (Niemi & Nevgi 2014). There were difficulties when re- search studies were introduced in teacher education programmes in the 1980s. Now we have feedback that research studies are among of the best parts of elementary-school teacher education (e.g. Niemi & Kohonen 1995; Jyrhämä & Maaranen 2012; Niemi & Nevgi 2002, 2014). We also know that the quality of these studies matters, and that the topic of the thesis and its relevance to the teacher’s work are also important. Based on the findings of the current research on research studies in teacher education (Niemi & Nevgi 2014), we may conclude that through these stud- ies student teachers learn critical thinking, independent inquiry and many other skills that are necessary in knowledge creation. Student teachers re- gard these studies as important from the viewpoints of general scientific in- quiry, of the teaching profession and of their own professional development. This supports the paradigm that teachers’ own research processes are im- portant for their professional development. Niemi and Nevgi (2014) found that research studies consisting of theoretical bases of research work (e.g. reading and reviewing research literature, learning research methods, and Hannele Niemi 27 conducting authentic research projects linked with writing BA and MA theses) had an effect on student teachers’ professional development, particu- larly on their ethical commitment and conception of their own professional learning. Research studies also affected students’ ability to deal with learners’ differences and collaborate with different partners in educational questions, and even helped them in their everyday classroom teaching. Research studies in TE can prepare teachers for the role they are expected to fulfil when pro- moting twenty-first-century skills, while simultaneously bringing additional value to teachers’ professional duties in schools and classrooms. Professors in teacher education departments have a responsibility to guide students in the research-oriented aspects of their education. The main ob- ject of this guidance is not the completion of the Master’s thesis itself, but to actually further the processes by which students come to see themselves as actively studying and working subjects. In this aspect of the degree pro- gramme, the processes of active working and thinking are integrated in various complex, and sometimes unexpected, ways. The aim of the guiding process is to help students discover and tap their own intellectual resources and to make them better able to utilise the resources of the study group that the student is working with (Nummenmaa 2004, 117). But we also have findings (Niemi & Nevgi 2014) that research studies must be integrated with other parts of teacher education. Student teachers’ com- ments show that becoming a teacher who creates knowledge to improve a school is a holistic process and requires support from competent supervisors as well as a teacher education curriculum design that connects and integrates different studies with each other. We can see that research studies have a much stronger influence on student teachers’ professional competences if teacher education programmes provide active learning experiences (Niemi 2002; Niemi & Nevgi 2014). In many international discussions and conferences, it has been asked if the five-year Master’s degree explains students’ high learning outcomes in Finland. In light of the Finnish studies (e.g. Niemi & Nevgi 2014), it is not only a question of the length of teacher education. What is equally important is how the studies have been constructed and implemented. Active learn- ing experiences in teacher education reinforce the research studies’ positive effect on professional competences. Niemi and Nevgi (2014) also found that the role of a research supervisor is crucial as s/he must understand teachers’ professional development, make research studies pedagogically meaningful, and clarify the objectives and criteria of these studies. This supports findings from other countries as well (Cornelissen & Van der Berg 2014). Research-based teacher education 28 OVERCOMING TENSIONS TOWARDS THE FUTURE In its development, academic teacher education has faced several tensions. Some have been overcome while others remain a topic of debate. These ten- sions can be described in terms of cultural, academic and strategic aims. A transfer from the old teacher-training seminars to the universities in the 1970s was a considerable cultural change. Primary teacher education had its own traditions in seminars and small colleges. Teaching had previously fo- cused on practical issues, and it often had a normative nature. The seminars also had a strong commitment to educating teachers on the values of Finnish society and to providing teachers with an understanding of the high value of their cultural work in villages. Universities were seen as a cold environment that did not support the teachers’ professional development and that valued only objective knowledge. This view was reinforced by a strong positivistic paradigm in education at that time. In the universities, community-based events, such as Christmas or spring-term celebrations, did not unify students as they did in small seminars and colleges. It took time for the new teacher education departments in the universities to learn to combine the best parts of both the seminars and the universities. It also required that professors and teacher educators in teacher education departments and academic faculties started to see that student teachers needed support for their professional de- velopment, and not only for the academic content. When research paradigms opened towards qualitative and mixed-method approaches, research studies became more relevant for teachers. The constructivist and socio-constructiv- ist concepts of learning provided an important basis for teaching in teacher education. When the concept of reflection in teaching emerged internation- ally in the 1980s, it was adopted by Finnish teacher education. In the 1980s there were academic tensions within universities, especially in secondary-school teacher education. There were several contradictory aims and visions, in some cases even strong conflicts between academic dis- ciplines and education departments. A major reason for these tensions fo- cused on questions of how much pure academic knowledge the teachers need to understand and how deep an understanding of pedagogical studies they should have. From the viewpoint of academic disciplines, content knowledge was the most important aspect in the teachers’ work, while the educational faculties stressed the teachers’ capacity to interact with the students and to take care of learners. This polarity has slowly decreased during the past 20 years. This process has been helped because education faculties and academic disciplines have increasingly found consensus on the principle that teacher Hannele Niemi 29 education must equip teachers with both research-based knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge, and that they can be can be even integrated (Meisalo 2007, 174). There has also been growing interest in research on sub- ject pedagogy/didactics. Meisalo writes that: One indication of this is the organising of research symposia and conferences. There has been a long tradition of more than 100 years of meetings and confer- ences for practising teachers including aspects of in-service training. However, research-oriented conferences and the foundation of associations of researchers started only in the eighties. At the same time, departments of teacher education started publishing report series for applied educational research. They offered a forum for publication of research papers even by subject teacher educators. (Meisalo 2007, 174) Since 1987, there has been a tradition for researchers of different subject mat- ter pedagogy to have national annual seminars, which are mostly organised in Helsinki. These forums provide researchers who are interested in subject didactics with an opportunity to hold discussions and interact with other researchers and active teachers. SUMMARISING WHAT UNIVERSITY-BASED TEACHER EDUCATION MEANS When teacher education became part of universities, it had the same respon- sibilities as other disciplines. Teacher education must have a strong strategy for the future, and it should also have a clear position in the universities’ strategies. Teacher education should have its own faculties and its own deci- sion-making procedures. TE also became responsible for the quality of aca- demic degrees and research done in their departments (Niemi & Lavonen 2012). In the university community, disciplines are assessed using academic criteria, such as doctoral degrees, publications, and the quality of teaching and research. At the beginning of the reform period, these were lacking be- cause there were no typical indicators in teacher education. Gradually, they were set and they now work in such a way that society trusts teachers’ work in schools, and TE departments are now recognised parts of Finnish univer- sities and are included in their strategies. However, there is a constant com- petition for resources between the various faculties in Finnish universities. While public funding for universities is decreasing, each discipline must work hard to justify its existence. Teacher education must fulfil both aca- demic and professional criteria. To achieve high-quality outcomes, Finnish Research-based teacher education 30 teacher education has been systematically reviewed nationally and inter- nationally over the past 20 years (e.g. Buchberger et al. 1994; The Committee Report 1994; Jussila & Saari 1999; Ministry of Education and Culture 2007). There have also been many research projects and smaller studies that de- scribe the strengths and weaknesses of teacher education programmes (e.g. Niemi 1996; Niemi 2012a&b; Niemi & Jakku-Sihvonen 2006; Niemi & Jakku- Sihvonen 2011; Niemi & Kohonen 1995; Niemi & Kemmis 2002; Niemi & Nevgi 2014). Based on these evaluations we can see that typical features of Finnish teacher education include the student teachers’ strong commitment to the teaching profession and their awareness of the ethics of teaching. They have good skills in planning teaching and using different teaching methods. In addition, they are aware of their own teaching philosophy and their respon- sibilities. Student teachers also consider the research component of teacher education as valuable for their independent and critical thinking. According to evaluations and research, student teachers are extremely engaged in their studies. However, the skills needed for a wider interaction with different partners in school communities, parents and society more broadly should be improved. The majority of these skills can be learned when working in schools as teachers. However, the basics should be provided during pre-ser- vice. Urgent areas that should also be developed in Finnish teacher education include the induction and mentoring of new teachers in order to support their wider cooperation in society. Teacher education has been very successful in attracting talented, highly motivated high-school students to teacher education. Primary teacher edu- cation is among the most sought-after academic programmes in Finland’s universities. Over the past 20 years, teacher education departments have had excellent applicants. Selection is very competitive: class teacher programmes accept 5–10% of all high-quality applicants; in subject teacher education programmes, acceptance is 20–40%, depending on the subject matter; and in mathematics it has been between 20–25% (Kumpulainen 2014; Niemi & Jakku-Sihvonen 2011). Finnish teacher education has now been a part of the university system for over 40 years. During that time, there has been much debate about whether or not the universities are an appropriate context and partner for teacher training. In the early 1990s,