Teacher Quality Driven by Equity and Social Justice: Arguments for an Alternative Values-Centred Vision of Teacher Education

Teacher Quality remains an issue of enduring policy interest and the focus of considerable debate and activity within the teacher education community across Europe. Indeed, ensuring quality in teacher education has become a fundamental European Commission concern in the context of establishing the European Education Area by 2025 and a constant focus of research among teacher educators. Over the past decade in particular, and using comparative data drawn from international studies, arguments have been made to justify what has been described as the 'practice turn' (Reid, 2011) characterised by the re-emergence of simplified craft models of teaching, where 'trainees' learn in an apprenticeship model in the school, leading in turn to binary debates between proponents of school-based or university-based teacher education. Additionally, it has become common for education to be viewed as an engine for economic growth, facilitating a nation to compete against global competitors - with all the econometric baggage and policy expectation this engenders. This has led to attempts to solve key policy problems of teacher education through manipulating and defining how and where teachers should be prepared (e.g. in training schools rather than in universities or colleges) and through determining what exactly their preparation should focus on (e.g. practical classroom teaching skills rather than educational principles situated in sociology, psychology, history or philosophy of education), while seeking to ensure compliance and consistency through ever tighter regulation and accountability. There is, we suggest, another and more equitable way to meet this deep-seated challenge. This chapter explores that proposition in a deliberative manner and uses examples and instances from ongoing and recent research in various Europe contexts and beyond to elaborate on our claim and to argue for the value of a teacher education that places equity and social justice at the heart of its mission.