and contexts are central to learning, as is the development of personal and communal
awareness and a shared, public and critical language about teaching teachers.
But in addition to strengthening the necessary focus and specificity of profes-
sional learning tailored to individual, institutional and national needs, Info-TED
also aims to generate awareness of the learning potential of analyzing the differ-
ences and commonalities in practices (for teaching and research) in the many policy
and institutional contexts for teacher education across Europe. We are particularly
interested in the reciprocal benefits of working in nationalandinternational con-
texts since as Stevenson ( 2015 : 758) states:
Recognising what is similar, and what is different, as well as to what extent and in what
ways, professional learning policy and practice travel across borders becomes increasingly
important given the way global pressures drive national, regional and local experiences.
None of these are simple processes. Globalisation may tend to homogeneity, but the
centrality of local experience remains critical.Info-TED then brings together teacher educators across Europe to exchange
practices, ideas and visions, developing our senses of the collective identities which
bind us as a professional group, within supportive and collaborative learning
communities. Our plans are to develop an electronic learning platform and a teacher
educator academy will enable us to create the structures and contents for these
pan-European learning opportunities in ways which are systematic, sustainable,
inclusive and open to all teacher educators across Europe. The group is also taking
clear stands in the debates on teacher educators’professional learning within our
own nations and across Europe, continuing to voice our communal messages to
educational policy makers and other stakeholders. The long term aims here, as ever,
are to achieve higher quality and more holistic learning for teacher educators, as
part of achieving improved learning opportunities for student teachers and for the
schools and children they will go on to serve across Europe. And, although the
work has a distinct European focus, we hope that the on-going work of the group
has clear relevance for teacher educators across the rest of the world, who may be
aiming to collaborate across national groups to achieve excellence in the provision
of professional learning opportunities and to make their communal voices heard.
References
Boyd, P., Harris, K., & Murray, J. (2011).Becoming a teacher educator(2nd ed.). Bristol: The
Higher Education Academy/ESCalate.
Cochran-Smith, M. (2003). Learning and unlearning: The education of teacher educators.
Teaching and Teacher Education, 19 (1), 5–28.
Darling-Hammond, L., & Lieberman, A. (Eds.). (2012).Teacher education around the world.
London: Routledge.
Davey, R. (2013).The professional identity of teacher educators: Career on the cusp?London:
Routledge.
Dengerink, J., Kools, Q., & Lunenberg, M. (2015). What and how teacher educators prefer to
learn.Journal of Education for Teaching, 41(1), 78–96.
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