Editorial

Abstract

In previous editorials I have raised the importance of understanding more about the complexity of teacher education. Much of the complexity comes from the involvement in teacher education of multiple participants (student teachers, teacher educators, teachers, school leaders and other key stakeholders) and their associated institutions. Collaboration between these participants continues to be recognised as both an opportunity and a challenge in teacher education. Social and cultural connections need to be developed and maintained in dynamic and responsive ways. To be successful collaboration between different participants in teacher education also requires structural changes to be made. The first five articles in this issue all explore approaches to collaboration in teacher education from different perspectives – institutional, programme and participant collaboration. This includes: university/school collaboration; university/national agency collaboration; initial teacher education/inservice programme collaboration; and collaboration between student teachers, newly qualified teachers and more experienced teachers. In the first article, Lavonen, Henning, Petersen, Loukomies and Myllyviita discuss the findings of a comparative study of student teachers in Finland and South Africa. The authors’ aimed to capture students’ views of how and what they had learned from practice in two university-affiliated primary schools. They found that students in the two programmes placed emphasis on different domains of teacher knowledge. The newly established teaching practice school in Johannesburg developed closer integration of university and school practicum experiences for students than the well-established school in Helsinki. Lavonen et al.’s comparative study stimulates reflection on ways that university-school partnerships can vary and how they can be further enhanced to improve students’ experiences during teaching practice. In the second article George and Maguire explore the expansion of different routes into teaching in England, particularly school-based and school-led teacher education programmes. They argue that the constantly changing initial teacher education policy landscape has blurred the roles and influence of the participating higher education institutions with that of the schools. They suggest that the shift towards more ‘learning on the job’ has recast the school/University partnership in a somewhat ambivalent relationship, sometimes creating tensions, which the trainee teachers have to navigate. It is the perceptions and experiences of the trainee teachers who enrol in these teacher education programmes that are the focus of George and Maguire’s article. In the third article, Tammets, Pata and Eisenschmidt also focus on school-based teacher education. The context of their study is the induction period in school. Tammets et al.’s research investigated how new teachers in Estonia developed their knowledge in what they called, ‘the extended professional community’. Their analysis showed that many new teachers felt that there was insufficient support from other EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF TEACHER EDUCATION 2019, VOL. 42, NO. 1, 1–3 https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2019.1551513