Rethinking and Redesigning Teacher Education

Teacher education and teachers are in most countries round the world under heavy criticism for not delivering what governments, many politicians and policy analysts and many sections of public life feel they should be delivering. And teacher education is at large on the defensive when confronted with this increasing criticism. In this presentation I will try to analyse this phenomenon and also try to sketch a preliminary strategy to cope with the criticism and introduce some basic principles that could be included in our search for rethinking and redesigning teacher education in the 21st century. I would like to emphasize that I only consider my contribution to day as a humble effort to address highly complex and complicated issues and further emphasize that everyone seriously engaged in education reform, educational change and teacher education have much to do before we can embark on coherent and well-founded approaches to shaping future teacher education and professional development.

My presentation will address three major themes, which I believe are critical to an analysis of teacher education under the prevailing conditions of most Western countries – and of most other countries, in fact – and which are important to reflect thoroughly upon when entering discourses on the future education and training of teachers.

Theme one will discuss the relationship between policy, change and teacher education.

The second will address what we could call the loss of philosophical and epistemological certainty – in general, and in relation to the knowledge-base for teacher education in particular.

Theme three will discuss the paradoxes of uncertainty and what implications we may draw from this when designing teacher education.