Bloomsbury Academic The Promise and Practice of University Teacher Education: Insights from Aotearoa New Zealand (Reinventing Teacher Education)

The Promise and Practice of University-Based Teacher Education centers on the theme of university-based teacher education reform and its connections with broader global political issues and investigates the changing nature of initial teacher education (ITE) as it was absorbed into universities in the New Zealand context. The New Zealand government, like many across the world, is seeking improvement in education system performance, with a particular interest in meeting the needs of those traditionally disadvantaged through education. As a result, over the last 20 years, most ITE has been relocated into universities and teacher qualifications have been raised. Not immune to international discourses about the criticality of the teacher workforce to system performance, New Zealand provides a bounded yet connected case of ITE development and reform, which this book showcases. The authors look at recent research carried out in the UK, Australia and Canada to consider how ITE and the academic category of teacher educator is constructed, maintained and practiced within the institution of the university. They highlight the similarities and differences seen around the world, and provide an opportunity to better understand how student teachers within ITE respond to and engage with teacher educators work in the service of their own learning.