practitioner knowledge (Cochran-Smith 2008). Menter et al. (2010) in their
exhaustive literature review found that“it is rare tofind studies which establish
causal links between curricular change, teacher education and improvements in
educational standards”,“The evidence on linkages between enhanced profession-
alism and pupil outcomes was found to be limited, contradictory and somewhat
inconclusive”and research“is rarely cumulative, long-term or large-scale”. Many
of the changes to teacher education are contentious and yet are occurring in rapid
succession. These policies and movements have important consequences for edu-
cation, teacher quality and the future of the teaching profession. At the same time,
the policies and initiatives that support these changes seem to be based more on
ideology, business interests and tradition than on research and empiricalfindings.
There is a general need for a state-of-the-art Companion that assembles and assesses
the extant research available on teacher education and make clear guidelines on
future directions.
There are at present only a small number of handbooks or companions on
teacher education research and they are now dated. There is theHandbook of
Research on Teacher Educationthat wasfirst published in 1990 and now in the
third edition. TheInternational Handbook of Research on Teachers and Teaching
(Springer) Saha, Lawrence J., Dworkin, Anthony Gary (Eds.) was published in
- This collection has the potential to address an important need and gap in the
market in a Companion that will be of value for teachers, teacher educators, poli-
cymakers and politicians.
References
Brisard, E., Menter, I. & Smith, I. (2005).Models of partnership in initial teacher education.
Edinburgh: General Teaching Council for Scotland.
Childs, A. & Menter, I. (2013). Teacher Education in 21st Century England. A Case Study In
Neoliberal Public Policy,Revista Española de Educación Comparada, 22,93–116.
Conroy, J., Hulme, M. & Menter, I. (2013). Developing a‘clinical’model for teacher education.
Journal of Education for Teaching, 39(5), 557–573.
Darling-Hammond, L. & Lieberman, A. (Eds.). (2012).Teacher education around the world:
Changing policies and practices.London, Routledge.
Department for Education. (2010).The importance of teaching schools white paper.https://www.
gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/175429/CM-7980.pdf
Department for Education. (2011).Training our next generation of outstanding teachers:
Implementation plan. https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/DFE-
00083-2011.pdf
Donaldson, G. (2011)Teaching Scotland’s future, report of a review of teacher education in
Scotland. Edinburgh: Scottish Government. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/
337626/0110852.pdf
Greenberg, J., McKee, A. & Walsh, K. (2013).Teacher prep review: A review of the nation’s
teaching preparation programs(Revised December 2013), Nation Council on Teacher
Quality.
330 Part IV: Global Education Reform and Teacher Education