A Companion to Research in Teacher Education

should be seeking to maximise the opportunities for all concerned to be engaged in
professional development, not focusing entirely on the beginning teachers but
thinking about staff at all levels both in the schools and the universities.
Elsewhere (Menter 2015 ) one of us has sought to identify‘enduring themes’in
teacher education and these are certainly all relevant in the discussions that ensure
in this book:

• The relationship between theory and practice


• The nature of professional knowledge


• The sites of professional learning


• The pedagogical contributions of the school and of the university


• Curriculum and assessment within teacher education


• The extended continuum of professional learning
  In this introduction, we have referred to all of these in some way or other and
  you mayfind all of them, picked up elsewhere in this volume, in different ways and
  in different contexts.
  And we would add to this list a concern with the relationships between research,
  policy and practice in teacher education. Ensuring that each informs the other is
  critical to the development of a healthy, constructive and productive approach to
  teacher education and it is here that we hope this volume can make a significant
  contribution.

1.1.5 The Structure ofa Companion to Research

in Teacher Education

As editors of this project we have been delighted at the range of contributions we
have been able to gather together. They come from many parts of the world where
teacher education is being researched and they cover a wide range of important
topics. The studies reported also draw on a wonderful diversity of research
methods.
We have grouped the submissions around some of the important themes in
teacher education and have offered a brief introduction to each of the sect.

1. Becoming a Teacher: Teacher Education and Professionalism


2. Initial Teacher Education


3. Teacher Education, Partnerships and Collaboration


4. Global Education Reform and Teacher Education


5. Teacher Education as a public good


6. Research, institutional evaluation and evidence-based research


7. Pedagogy in action.

1 A Companion to Research in Teacher Education 13