Knowledge and the Study of Education: An International Exploration

In the English-speaking world, university schools of education are usually heavily involved in the professional preparation of teachers. Yet, in England and the USA in particular, the role of universities in teacher education has increasingly seemed under threat as alternative providers of training have come on the scene, often with the overt encouragement of governments. This book, which is based on a project that explored how the study of education is configured in different countries, makes visible the different knowledge traditions that inform university teaching and research in education around the world. The extent to which these are related to the training of teachers is shown to vary historically and comparatively.

The book consists of a substantial introduction by the editors, which identifies 12 major knowledge traditions in the study of education, and classifies these as academic knowledge traditions (such as sciences de l'education), practical knowledge traditions (like that practised in normal colleges) and integrated knowledge traditions (including the currently fashionable concept of research-informed clinical practice). This introduction is followed by contributions on the nature of education as a field of study in six countries - Australia, China, France, Germany, Latvia and the USA - authored by established experts from each of those jurisdictions. There are also chapters that provide useful conceptual frameworks for understanding the dimensions on which the various traditions in the study of education differ, as well as those that compare the nature of education along specific dimensions in different countries. The book concludes with a discussion, in the light of these contributions, of future prospects for the field of education. The book will appeal to students, teachers and researchers in education, and is intended to encourage less parochial thinking about the nature of education as a field of international study.

CONTENTS
Geoff Whitty & John Furlong. Preface
Part 1. INTRODUCTION
John Furlong & Geoff Whitty. Knowledge Traditions in the Study of Education
Part 2. STUDIES FROM SIX JURISDICTIONS
Regis Malet. From Science to Sciences de l'Education in France: past and present in the construction of a discipline
Jurgen Schriewer. Between the Philosophy of Self-cultivation and Empirical Research: educational studies in Germany
Irena Zogla. Pedagogija and Educational Sciences: competing traditions in the study of education in Latvia
Susan Groundwater-Smith & Nicole Mockler. The Study of Education in Australia: shifting knowledge interests
Wen Wen & Xie Weihe. The Development and Characteristics of Educational Studies in China
Lynn Paine. Framing Education: cautionary tales from the USA of the relationship between education studies and teacher education
Part 3. CONCEPTUALISING AND REALIZING EDUCATION AS A FIELD OF STUDY
Jim Hordern. Bernstein's Sociology of Knowledge and Education(al) Studies
Gary McCulloch. Education: an applied multidisciplinary field? The English Experience
Dina Kuhlee & Christopher Winch. Teachers' Knowledge in England and Germany: the conceptual background
Maria Teresa Tatto & Jim Hordern. The Configuration of Teacher Education as a Professional Field of Practice: a comparative study of mathematics education
Part 4. AFTERWORD
David F. Labaree. Futures of the Field of Education
Notes on Contributors