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This paper describes the aims, origins and principles of the Australian National Exceptional Teaching for Disadvantaged Schools programme and reflects on findings from its first eight years. As a well-established, mainstream university-based initial teacher-education programme designed to prepare social justice teachers for low socio-economic or high-poverty schools, NETDS has had significant impact on recruiting and retaining high-performing teachers in the schools that need them most. In this paper we discuss how it works, but also outline some of the complexities that arose in trying to design a teacher-education programme with equity at the centre and some of the changes we made along the way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues for the humanisation of research evidence through narrative as an urgent project in teacher education and development. Narrative has the potential to make a significant contribution to a critical re-definition of both evidence and innovation in teacher education. But this argument is not a call for a user-friendly (re)packaging of research evidence, so that 'what works' can be diffused throughout the profession. Globally, such efficiency and productivity approaches have merely sedimented established inequities and injustices. By humanising, the paper promotes a recognition that research evidence of value, is steeped in rich provenance, being both borne out of, and brought to bear in, complex and diverse contexts that are mediated by, and impact upon, the unpredictable yet meaningful activities of humans. It is argued that using evidence effectively is predicated on intelligent judgment and interpretation in and on action, processes that require moral deliberation as well as pedagogical and technical innovation. The central role of narrative in this endeavour is explored critically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the course of introducing a themed issue of the journal on "Innovation in Teacher Education', we lay out an argument for re-examining the meaning of innovation in the field, shifting it away from the dominance of the economistic and technological. Acknowledging its status as a 'buzzword', we distinguish between purposes for innovation and, in particular, between changes driven by arguments for social mobility and those driven by social justice and equity. Two imperatives for innovation underpinned by arguments for social justice and equity are identified: the concept of a 'teacher education debt', built on Ladson-Billings' more general notion of 'education debt'; and the humanization of learning, teaching and becoming a teacher as person-centred, relational practices. The final section of the article introduces each of the six papers in the context of the discussion in previous sections about these imperatives for change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an afterword of the "Journal of Education for Teaching." It states that the articles have identified several important issues for teacher education and training. Nationalism is the common topic of the articles examining teacher education innovation and what is latent in analyses of the trends. According to the author, it is important for papers in the journal to reflect upon the what are ontological realities for teaching, what perspectives can or should be developed as epistemological frames-of-reference of teaching and what methodology has to be worked internationally and interculturally.

This paper considers what has been learned from reviewing the full set of papers in this special issue. It considers some of the major factors that have impacted on education and subsequently teacher education in recent times, namely rapid technological change and increasing globalisation and movement from one country to others, and then focuses on how standards, for schools, for the people in them and for teacher education, have been used to drive improvement in many parts of the world. Key issues that have emerged from this special issue are, first, whether teaching is a craft or a profession, which has implications on how teacher educators view themselves, as practitioners or researchers. Second, what is notable in a number of countries in this issue is the lack of trust being shown by politicians and communities to both teachers and teacher educators. This concluding paper considers why this is so and how it might be changed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher education in Norway is nationally regulated and is currently undergoing extensive changes. This paper briefly outlines the various education routes for teachers and some of the ongoing work to improve teacher education, but concentrates mainly on the reform that has come the farthest: initial teacher education for grades 1-7 and grades 5-10. The background to this reform, the main changes made to teacher education through this reform and some of the challenges being dealt with are presented. Controversies abound in teacher education, and the one that is particularly brought to the forefront in this paper is the relationship between designing programmes that enable the development of skills and also enhance becoming a teacher: the character-forming significance of teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational reform represents a long-term focus of Australian governments. National policy documents have emphasised quality education for all and improved teacher quality for over 30 years. The gaps in achievement among various groups of learners represent a problem for an education system seeking to achieve national quality benchmarks, standardised levels of teacher quality and common outcome for all Australian learners. The national response to address this condition includes a set of initiatives to standardise teacher quality. This paper includes descriptions of selected national quality initiatives: the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL), the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) and Education Services Australia (ESA). Their inclusion provides the reader with an opportunity better to understand these initiatives. The paper concludes with a discussion of some potential scenarios resulting from the implementation of these quality initiatives in an effort to standardise the quality of teacher education across Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a rich repertoire of inventive and robust practices, and stated commitments to equity, social justice, and diversity, teacher education has continued to struggle to produce educators capable of enacting culturally sustaining pedagogies, and providing historically marginalized youth and communities with meaningful learning opportunities. This paper contends that ontological distance between educators and youth of colour, and the ways Eurocentric epistemologies exist as a colonial 'zero point' in teacher education praxis, are a core element of this existential crisis facing teacher educators. Drawing on decolonial theory and epistemologies of the global south, I suggest that teacher education is in need of epistemic innovation; radically revising our approaches to preparing educators by anchoring them in the epistemic and ontological perspectives of the global south, and in so doing, crafting pedagogical imaginaries through which we might disrupt the ways coloniality lives (often invisibly) in, and is reproduced by, our assumptions about best practices, ways of being, and measures of success. Such a decolonial approach to innovation in teacher education holds promise for ensuring our praxis, and the educators we prepare, are positioned to engage with a hyperdiverse world in humanizing ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Developing E‐learning for Teachers (DEfT) project, a collaborative venture between UK and Chinese universities, has produced e‐learning modules for master's level programmes for in‐service high school teachers in China. E‐learning offers Chinese teachers new and innovative forms of professional development and provides for transformative learning. The paper investigates teachers' online learning experiences and how e‐learning facilitates teacher transformation from three perspectives: the ‘learner‐centred perspective’, the ‘knowledge‐centred perspective’ and the ‘community‐centred perspective’. The paper concludes that e‐learning, while not without some caveats, is a feasible solution for the training needs of serving Chinese teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the changes and innovations brought in the teacher education and research articles on it presented in the issue. He focuses on the teacher education system in many different countries and research papers set on the issue from an international group of researchers to re-examine the notion of innovation in teacher education. He also gives thanks to the deputy and associate editors and publishers and wishes Professor Linda la Velle as next editor of the issue.

This paper provides an overview of how teacher education is currently structured in New Zealand. This overview is set in a historical, cultural, political and professional context with a brief examination of aspects of these influences on the structure. Two very recent policy documents are discussed to exemplify current directions in New Zealand teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews early childhood teacher education in the People's Republic of China in the past years and raises the issues about teacher's education in the future. With thinking about early childhood education reform in China, unevenness in development in different areas and regions, and disparity in resources and programming among teacher education programmes at different levels, teacher education is confronted with great challenges. New policies and teacher education programmes have to be concerned more ecologically with how to have improvements in the real context. The countermeasures and strategies to deal with the problems of early childhood teacher education are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational reformers in New Zealand and England have turned their attention towards network creation as a way of facilitating school improvement. The idea is that greater collaboration can drive school improvement through building professional learning communities, spreading best practice, and driving innovation in education. It is based on a triple helix model of innovation, which is a term principally used in economics to describe the formation of social relationships between individuals based on collaboration. The introduction of the ‘Extending High Standards in Schools’ reform in New Zealand, the Performance-based Research Fund and the incorporation of pre-service teacher education into the universities are designed to help create this kind of model of innovation through facilitating knowledge transfer. This paper offers a critical assessment of the Extending High Standards in Schools reform and related reforms, and argues that although network creation makes sense, the efficacy of the strategy is limited by factors that limit the flow of quality information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of developing effective learning strategies and motivational beliefs has been widely acknowledged as a way of meeting the demand to acquire lifelong learning capabilities for successful functioning as professionals in the ‘information age’. The study reported in this paper examined the learning orientations and strategies of prospective teachers as well as their assessment preferences and compared them with those of in‐service teachers. The Motivated Learning Strategies Questionnaire (MSLQ) and the Assessment Preferences Inventory (API) were used to test the hypothesis that in‐service teachers will exhibit a deeper approach to learning and assessment due to their constant engagement in meaningful learning experiences. The results confirmed the hypothesis and their implications for teacher education programmes were then discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on recent and innovative moves towards flexible learning in initial teacher education programmes in England and Wales, as part of the ‘widening participation’ agenda in higher education and in response to changes in teacher recruitment patterns. We take as our perspective our own experience as two course tutors in a higher education institution that introduced flexible routes into its secondary teacher education programme at the beginning of the academic year 2002/2003. Using the university's model for our case study, we have undertaken a small‐scale research project and reviewed the literature describing flexible learning discourses in higher education, to consider the extent to which concepts of flexibility are being translated into practice. In particular we highlight some implications for pedagogy and practice that have become apparent at this early stage in the development of flexible courses and which will have an impact upon their progress in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research in teacher education futures has identified two themes that require further study: the changing nature of knowledge and the changing capabilities of technologies. This article examines the intersection of these two themes and their implications for teacher education. The research employed futures methodologies based on scenario creation. With a focus on the above themes or dimensions, a panel of experts was interviewed to draw on its collective wisdom to explore alternative teacher education futures. Data from these interviews were analysed to stimulate the construction of four future teacher education scenarios. Feedback on the scenarios was obtained from teacher educators in Europe and Australia. The scenarios were then revised based on this feedback. The final scenarios are presented here as a way of provoking discussion among teacher educators about teacher education futures. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article provides an overview of the background and recent developments leading to the current reshaping of teacher education in Scotland, starting with the developments emanating in the past decade from the McCrone Report and finishing with the recent Donaldson Report, Teaching Scotland's Future. It documents the key features of the report and the impact that this will have on current teacher education provision in Scotland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including theory of cooperative learning, innovative projects and development in education and teacher education..

This report describes a teaching development grant (TDG) project that adopted a design-based research approach to enhance the language assessment literacy of preservice English teachers. In small groups, 92 preservice teachers engaged in test development projects, during which they developed tailor-made language tests for collaborating schools, implemented the tests, analysed responses, evaluated the tests, provided feedback to the schools, and wrote project reports. The assessment tasks they produced were annotated with detailed task features, categorised according to target skills, students and schools and stored in an online database open to incoming students and the world. 48 participants and users of the database evaluated their experience and the database via a questionnaire, which found a generally positive attitude towards the innovation but also several remaining issues to be addressed in the next iteration of the project. This project and the design-based research approach it adopted are applicable to preservice teacher training in other educational contexts as well as other areas of research interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Editorial. Asserts that the phenomenon of dissemination is the biggest bugbears that blight the lives of thinking innovators, especially teachers. How Satirists use exaggeration to sensitize fellow beings.

The article outlines a framework for studying and organizing infrastructure, social and material to advance consequential knowledge. To demonstrate the utility of the framework, three examples of innovation in teacher education are presented that involve re-mediating infrastructure to imagine equity-oriented teacher learning. The first case focuses on re-mediating social resources to create new pathways for knowledge and expertise to flow between a school and a university teacher education programme. The second case considers how re-mediating social and material resources, specifically who is involved in designing the goals of a teacher education programme, expanded conceptions of the valued outcomes of teacher preparation. The third case addresses the impact of an innovation that re-mediated technical and social resources to support teachers' professional judgment in classroom interactions. As teacher educators, we need to be open to shifting our purposes and our designs in response to changing institutional, political, and practical circumstances. This framework for organizing and re-mediating infrastructure provides a means of doing this work in principled and responsible ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What do teacher educators need to know and do in order to move from espousing to enacting social justice in their own teacher educating practice? This article addresses this question by examining scholarship that focuses on the preparation of preservice teachers for social justice. Using five knowledge domains for teaching (personal, contextual, pedagogical, sociological, social) as an analytic lens, the authors examined teacher education literature published between 2010 and 2016 in three international journals from Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. The study reveals that teacher educators in different contexts seem to highlight personal and contextual knowledge in their preparation of equity-minded preservice teachers and provides insight into how they conceptualise educational equity and social justice. The study illuminates what is likely in place in initial teacher education programmes, and what may be needed or missing if teacher educators are to prepare teachers for today's diverse classrooms. Abbreviation ITE: Initial Teacher Education ITE [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this design-based research project, teachers co-created and used a new learning design model, theIT-Pedagogical Think Tank Model for Teacher Teams. This continuous-competence-development method enabled teachers to collaborate and develop innovative-learning designs for students in a new hybrid synchronous video-mediated learning environment. The article presents the IT-Pedagogical Think Tank Model and investigates how this new community of practice was supported and cultivated in the educational institution. The study took place at VUC Storstrøm, Denmark, where teachers taught students attending a full-time, two-year, upper-secondary, general-education programme. The findings were that various platforms, tools and social frameworks supported the pedagogical innovative process and established the team as a professional community of practice in the organisation. The team’s identity was strengthened as it added value to the organisation by inviting other communities of practice from the organisation into collaborative competence-development processes. The team members acted as good examples of innovative learning designers and were able to heighten the level of sophistication in the community’s pedagogical discussions. The school administration’s provision of resources and support was found to be a key factor in successful implementation of the new team meetings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study explores how experimenting with Complex Instruction can broaden teachers’ perspectives and develop understanding of the classroom as a complex social and cultural system. It critically presents and interweaves data collected during ethnographic research, which was carried out with a group of in-service teachers, plus four workshops which involved pre-service teachers. Complex Instruction often provides teachers with an unusual experience, which may causedis-orientation.It is precisely this uncertainty that moves teachers to investigate their own beliefs and dispositions towards teaching and learning, as well as imagining new scenarios for their classes and for themselves as educators. This state of uncertainty strengthens the ability to raise questions about their own practice and makes them more aware of the responsibility of their role in developing a more equal participation in class. The article argues how Complex Instruction can promote a process ofreflexivity-in-actionand therefore challenge teachers’ professional identity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For more than 20 years the People's Republic of China has engaged in a significant transformation of its economy and social institutions, including its education system. This article provides a general picture of what changes have taken place in Chinese teacher education at a time of rapid transition from central control to devolved and distributed management and decision making, along with the country's shift from a planned economy to a socialist market one. Two major topics of this work focus on how institutions of higher and teacher education respond to the challenges of the changing environment, and on the major trends, priorities and direction of recent education reform. Embedded in the discussion are issues such as the merger and amalgamation of institutions, teachers' professional development under the auspices of market and knowledge economy, educational information, internationalisation and others, and their effects on Chinese teacher education both in the short and the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher education in the United Kingdom, especially in England, has changed considerably over the past 20 years or so. The main purpose of this article is to analyse the direction and nature of these changes, using primary English work as a focus. The article uses snapshots of the provision in three institutions, each at a different time point, as the basis for the development of a number of themes describing the nature of the changes. It goes on to tackle the major question of whether or not such changes can be described as progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-cultural teaching and research in Canada and Japan is reported. Ethnographic narrative methods were used to examine Japan's teacher acculturation. Canada's teachers are largely required to work in isolation, to learn their practice through trial and error. There is little provision for mentorship and insufficient time to reflect. In contrast, Japan's teachers have opportunities for reflection, collegiality and collaboration. Moreover, effective induction practices have evolved gradually, becoming a tacit part of teaching culture. Japan's teacher acculturation is characterized by significant teacher relationships; leadership and guidance; and further cultivated through professional development. However, undeveloped pre-service programmes, one-way, ‘top–down’ pedagogical exchanges, and ineffective mentors are contentious issues, hampering teacher education reforms. Nevertheless, Japanese induction practices challenge us to ameliorate teacher education to focus more on the needs of beginning teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]