Teacher Education and Its Discontents

This unique collection of essays from researchers and teacher educators from around the world presents innovative approaches to education theory, critical policy analyses, de-colonializing reformulations of teacher education and a “standard of dissensus” for teacher education.

This first volume from the International Teacher Education Research Collective (ITERC) illustrates common themes and problems in the politics of education, in particular, standardization, marketization, governance and policy in education, with both country-specific cases and generally formulated theoretical discussions. The book has three primary aims: to illustrate and critique the ethical, epistemological and political discourses shaping teacher education; to identify and unravel the entanglements of politics, knowledge and ethics in teacher education in a range of international settings; and to revitalize teacher education by proposing and exploring alternative modes of thought and practice. The volume contributes to further reflection and in-depth discussion in education, to the formulation of new areas for educational research and to critical resistance to hegemonic discourses of education.

Making an important contribution to contemporary education discourse, this book is a useful guide for education researchers and theorists, teacher educators and postgraduate and higher degree research students in education.

Gunnlaugur Magnússon is Associate Professor at Uppsala University and was, at the time of writing, Associate Professor II at University of Oslo. His research and publications have primarily revolved around inclusive education, marketization, educational professions, education politics and policy, teacher education and the pedagogy of higher education.

Anne M. Phelan is Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy at the University of British Columbia and Honorary Professor at the Education University of Hong Kong. Her research focuses on teachers’ intellectual and political freedom and the creation of teacher education programs and policies that support that end.

Stephen Heimans writes and teaches about education policy, leadership and enactment. He has expertise in education research methodology and schooling in underserved communities. He is interested in enacting radical equality as proposed by Jacques Rancière’s thinking and the philosophy of science of Isabelle Stengers, especially experimental constructivism.

Ruth Unsworth is Senior Lecturer of Initial Teacher Education at York St John University. Her research interests and publications center around actor-network theory, psychoanalytic theory and ethnographic explorations of the relationship between global education policy and teachers’ classroom practices.