considerations of students’life circumstances, for example, poverty, various forms
of discrimination, such as institutional racism, and the resourcing of schools. We of
course do not want to claim that such factors abrogate teachers’and schools’
responsibilities to cater to the needs ofallstudents. Thus, we would argue that the
issues are more complex than simply reforming teacher education and that without
broader redistributive and social equity policies any gains from improving teacher
education will be limited.
That said, we do have suggestions for teacher education. Many of these contrast
with those outlined in the TEMAG report,Action now: Classroom ready teachers.
We are of the view that if teacher education is to play a role in improving the
quality of practice in schools and of the education system generally, we need
programmes that develop the capacities of graduate teachers to recognise and
develop responses to the factors that extend beyond the classroom context. Here we
draw heavily on BERA and RSA ( 2014 ) report on teacher education,Research and
the Teaching Profession, to argue that teachers need to be research literate and that
this consideration has to be central to any reforms in teacher education.
43.2.1 Research and the Teaching Profession: Building
the Capacity for a Self-improving Education System
The BERA and RSA ( 2014 ) report in the UK, Research and the Teaching
Profession: Building the capacity for a self-improving education system, was the
product of a national inquiry into the place of research in teacher education. The
inquiry collected evidence in the form of seven academic papers, 32 submissions
from a variety of sources in domains such as teacher education, schools and policy,
consultations with keyfigures in thefield of teacher education, and feedback from a
reference group and‘Special Advisors’. In the Foreword to the report, John
Furlong, the Chair of the steering group, stated of the inquiry:‘Our organisations
have come together to consider what contribution research can make to the
development of teachers’ professional identity and practice, to the quality of
teaching, to the broader project of school improvement and transformation, and
critically, to the outcomes for learners: children, young people and adults, espe-
cially those for whom the education system does not currently‘deliver’(p. 3). The
findings of this report offer much to systems that are concerned with ensuring that
they meet the needs of all the students in their schools, especially marginalised
students, that want to keep improving and responding to new social and cultural
demands, which see education as more than an economic driver and that value the
work of teachers.
The report concluded that research contributes to teacher education in four ways:
the content of teacher education programmes being grounded in research-based
knowledge and scholarship across a range of disciplines; research on teacher
education being used to inform the structure of teacher education programmes;
ensuring teachers and teacher educators are‘discerning consumers of research’; and
640 M. Mills and M. Goos