44.3 Three European Case Studies
44.3.1 The Netherlands
As described above, in the Netherlands a strong focus on the professional devel-
opment of teacher educators was initiated by VELON in 2002, and has continued to
this day. Indeed, the VELON model exerted a powerful influence on the EC work
of 2010–2013 and on thefinal report. It is not surprising then tofind that the report
has had some influences on professional learning provision in the country, although
national policy changes in schooling and HE have also been powerful influences.
The VELON definition of teacher educators has long been an inclusive one, with
school-based teacher educators joining the registration and recognition procedures
soon after their initiation. In 2012, the professional standard framework was revised
and an explicit connection between the framework and the knowledge domains,
described earlier, was established. In the same year a professional learning pro-
gramme for teacher educators started—and has now been carried outfive times—in
which the registration procedures are incorporated. In the modules of this pro-
gramme, several aspects of a teacher educators’work are analysed, practically as
well as theoretically, with HE-based and school-based teacher educators learning
and working together (Lunenberg et al. 2014 ).
Participating in these and other professional development activities was then
initiated, led and owned mainly by VELON members, creating a powerful, com-
munal and intra-professional initiative for those teacher educators who chose to be
involved it. This situation, however, is changing. In 2013, the Dutch Ministry of
Education presented a report entitled‘Teachers’Agenda 2013–2020: The Teacher
Makes the Difference’. The report accorded with the European Commission report
of 2013 in viewing improvement in the quality of teacher educators as one of the
key ways to further improve teacher education. Some main themes in this report
are: the continuation of the quality development of teacher education; further
development of the co-operation between HEIs and schools; and increasing the
number of teachers with a masters degree. In this context, VELON has been asked
to further develop its registration procedure, in co-operation with national com-
missions for teacher education institutions. The aim is that, in 2017, all teacher
educators, working in teacher education, wherever they work, will go through the
registration procedure; being accredited in this way will then offer all teacher
educators professional development and this, in turn, will improve quality.
The Associations of Universities and Universities of Applied Science support
this initiative,financed by the Ministry of Education. The new registration proce-
dure has only just been presented and includes a variety of routes, with HEIs offered
the opportunity to organize most of the registration process themselves. This offers
also the possibility to combine the registration process with the procedure for the
Basic Qualification for Teachers in Higher Education (Basiskwalificatie Onderwijs
(BKO); comparable to the English Higher Education Academy [HEA] Professional
Standards Framework). It will be interesting to follow this development, because
656 J. Murray et al.